John (NJBowman), I believe that property is actually in Cumberland County, near Cedarville. It' s called the Glades Preserve. If there is another one in Salem, I don' t know about it. In fact, I' m quite familiar with the Natural Lands Trust, and don' t know of any preserve of that size in Salem County.

Duck, I understand your concern about crowding, but I strongly disagree with your position that no one should be allowed to put up hang-on stands on public land. If you see one in a place you want to hunt, you have a couple of choices. You can either steer clear and give the guy some room, or you can set up on top of him and hunt that same spot. If he doesn' t come into the stand, you have no problem. If he does, and you choose to set on or in his stand, you may have a confrontation. I would think that you would want to avoid a confrontation, and you are the one in the position of instigating or avoiding one if you arrive at the spot after you know someone is hunting there. Now, the guy may just turn and leave if he sees you there, or, if he is a less cordial fellow, he may jump on you for setting up in or on top of his stand. Whether you think he has the right to be upset with you or not doesn' t matter, one sure way to avoid the problem in the first place is to give him some elbow room.

Our public lands already get a substantial amount of disturbance. Having everyone who hunts there be required to drag stands in and set them up (and take them down) each day would just make it that much harder to see deer in the daylight.
Personally, I don' t like to set up near other hunters for many reasons. Not only is it the considerate thing to do, but I don' t know how often the spot gets hunted, how careful the hunter is about scent control, or how careful he is regarding shot selection (don' t want to be mistaken for a deer in the predawn darkness). There is usually another spot not far away where no one is currently hunting, that can be just as good, if not better than the one where the stand is hanging.

A few other choices you have are to either find private land (a very tough thing to do in that area), or, if it' s that frustrating for you, don' t hunt in NJ. I' m not trying to be a wise guy, but Pa, and Md offer good hunting too. You don' t HAVE TO hunt NJ.

Have a good spring.