ORIGINAL: snip

I'm a outfitter in South Dakota and I want to tell you about the other side of the story. It does sound different than what you are running into but here goes. I am a seventh generation rancher and the majority of our income is from cattle and horses. We have wild mule deer, Whitetail deer, antelope, turkey, and some upland game on the ranch so why not take advantage of that and outfit? I do not go around leasing up every ranch I can but I do have arrangements with some local ranchers to hunt there place on a per animal bases and the land owner is welcome to have whoever he wants hunt the land that they own as well. This arrangement seems to be working very well and the other ranchers are very pleased with the extra income that they might get from the wildlife just like I am. I do take limited number of buck hunters but if some average Joe knocks on my door and wants to get some does for the freezer I never turn them down and actually take my time to go show them good locations for a opportunity. Plain and simple what I'm trying to say it is not all Outfitters are bad and taking up all of the land like you are generalizing them to do. As a matter of fact all of my antelope hunters have filled and gone home so I have contacted the local Game Warden and told him if he runs into anybody having trouble finding antelope to give me a call and so far this year I have helped several people out and they are more than thankful for my offer. We are not all bad when it comes to outfitters.