Would you lease land for hunting?

NO! I would leave my land open to hunting unless there presented a serious enough problem that I had to close it and limit access.

We all know that eventually we will all be faced with this situation. I was reading where North Dakota has a program called PLOTS - Private Lands Open to Sportsmen. The state pays landowners to leave their land open to hunting.

There used to be virtually no private land available to hunt on in N. Dakota. It was all leased out to guide services and hunting clubs. To offer up more competition, PLOTS was begun and now they have around 855,000 acres of private land open to hunting.

A problem arose from this. This land was closed to out of state hunters because the money used to buy up leases (this is in essence what it is they are doing) was resident license fees and tax payer dollars.

A new program has evolved called Community Match Program. Community groups, like chamber of commerce, city councils, wildlife groups, can raise money and contribute to the coffers. This way communities can designate lands, through working with local landowners, open to hunting and if they choose, can open it to non-resident hunters.

The reason this happened was there were some towns complaining about all the hunting revenue they were losing by shutting out the out of state hunter.

These are all interesting and creative ways of keeping land open, which in some states is at a crisis level.

There's more on this story at this link

http://mainehuntingtoday.com/bbb/?p=356

 

Probably not! I'm not one of those guys who makes a lot of "disposable income" so I would not be able to afford something like that.
If it came down to it, I would manage the property I live on to attract critters to it. Some may consider this baiting but I would NOT hunt over/near any food source other than natural foods such as oaks & beech trees.

On the other hand, I would consider leasing some/most of my acreage out to non-resident deer hunters to offset the taxes I will be paying. Why non-residents? Because they do have the "disposable income" needed to lease land and make trips to uncongested places like Maine.

 

Thats about the only way to find places here in NC to hunt. I'm in a couple of diffrent leases otherwise I'd be out of luck. One of my leases is on the border of some public hunting ground but the public ground is only open 3 days a week to hunting. Unlike Maine where many of the timber companies land is open to public hunting or you pay a small fee at the gate here its all leases. Of course the cost of a lease depends on where it is and what can be hunted on. Right now myself and a another guy are looking for a 100-200 A farm land in central NC with turkey deer and geese for about $7-$9 an A so far no luck. The sad fact is you don't want to have to get to the point you have to lease but I suspect it will be a fact of life everywhere soon.
It adds a lot of aspects to the hunt that most folks never think about, like you lease some land with your buddies work to improve it add food plots etc. Then maybe you kill a nice buck on it or people start seeing nice deer on your land. All of a sudden your priced out of the game because someone comes along and offers the landowner 2 to 3 times what you are paying. Its a part of the hunt I never thought about prior to moving here.

 

I do lease land in Kansas and wouldn't have it any other way. To be honest and this is unfortunate, but I don't trust the other hunters on public land. I have been in situations, especially duck hunting when I got "sprayed" and certainly was not all that happy about it. Also, there have been to many times when I've spent numerous hours in tree stands and have had numerous hunters keep wallking by and their dogs as well. It just got really frustrating so I decided to lease. One of the best decision I ever made. It may cost a little but I feel as though the benefit out weighs the cost.

 

I would never offer a cent to hunt on someone elses land. My family currently holds 6 large parcels of land that is open to the public. This is the way Maine should be as it always was. More and more Non-Residence are offering to pay for land use to keep the hunting privileges to themselves. In my eyes this is just greed. Makes you wonder if they are afraid of a little competition or their skills are not up to par.
IMHO--- this is half the problem with Maine now. People are moving in and bringing their big city ways with them.
John
OLD STATE MOTTO- Maine-the way life should be.
NEW STATE MOTTO- Welcome To Maine-- Now Go Home..
HEHE--- just joking

 

I wonder when the New State Motto will be put on our signs as you enter the state... :lol:

 

I am hoping to sign a contract soon with the state so I can produce their new sign. Also going to offer to make signs for MadJack when he runs for government office here in Maine.

 

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