Gruntr,

The only problem I see with your statement about leasing is that folks who lease land tend to post it, so some folks in the area are still going to view it as losing access to land that they hunted in the past. I'm not saying that people don't have the right to lease land (just as people have the right to work as outfitters), just that the way that some of them act will sometimes be viewed as being in the ballpark with outfitters.

By the way, what part of southern Illinois are you in. I'm from Richland County.