Outfitters leasing

[Hillwalker]

Well now it's happened to me. A nice piece of ground I have been bowhunting for several years has been snatched up by the big some big Outfitter in Western Iowa. I haven't found out yet who it is yet. I have been a very decent and respectful hunter. Not driving in the fields or taking in others and even sent the landowner gratituates like Dinner certificates. I found out last night that he has been offered a "good amount of money" for the lease. It kind of made me fell like giving up the sport but if we all did that it would not help the Sport. I do have other land to hunt but having your sweet spot taken away kind of hurts. I am just wondering if anyone else has had this problem in the Loess Hills area? or anywhere else. Kind of takes the wind out of your sails!

 

[flatlander]

I can feel for you Hillwalker.Allthough i've never had it happen to me. I think their will a lot of people feeling like you do in the future. It does seem this the way the sport is going. It all about the $$. I quess we can't blame them for making a living! The landowners, not the big outfitters. The landowners are our friends and neighbors for the most part. That,s why we are lucky to be living in Iowa, you still have other places to hunt,and will find more.
I'm about as western Iowa as you can--Monona county, 11/2 miles from the mighty Mo.I hunt up in Woodbury around the Little Sioux. Where is your hunting ground?
I got a couple of ideas on who the outfitter maybe!
I'll do some checking!

 

[xpin]

Reading what has happened to you is sad and only the beginning for most of us...Iowa will be a "pay to hunt" state in the near future...especially in the high potential areas for harvesting a large whitetail. The nextime we all consider buying that next new and exciting deer video in the supercenter..remember, we are just adding to more purchasing profits of big money and huge leased farms and ranches in Iowa...thus creating more appeal and advertisement for these things to happen.

 

[Hillwalker]

I hunt near the Pisgah area and think I know who it could be. I quess it does't really matter, I wish there was something we could do about it. I heard that these Outfitters don't have to pay taxes on there profits but I am not sure on that. This is a sport we all look foreward to every year and it is getting more expensive with just equipment itself let alone trying to lease ground to hunt on. Even the State ground is surrounded with Vehicles during the Rut. Oh well, Maybe we will get a few more good years out of the sport. But its hard to explain this to my 11 year old son who will bow hunt this year for the first time.

 

[Admin]

PS, my last comment is in no way intended to offend my deer hunting friends in the "hills". There are some nice animals in them, it just takes alot of scouting and years of understanding the terrain that your in to make it happen ever year.

Well, I am off scouting myself, have a great weekend.

TLH

 

[sam shepherd]

I can imagine that you are pretty cheesed about the situation. I would be also. If we all go quietly in the night ,we will all go. To the outfitters it is just business, to us it is a passion.Do what you can legally do to discourage this theft of our hunting grounds.

 

[hunt iowa]

Theft is taking something that does not belong to you. If you don't own it it isn't theft if dsomeone else values it more than you do.

 

[trper]

Originally posted by hunt iowa:
Theft is taking something that does not belong to you. If you don't own it it isn't theft if dsomeone else values it more than you do.

I seem to recall some years ago that farmers were upset that banks were calling in loans and stealing (theft) from them what they had inherited and worked so hard for all their lives. Remember all the farms sales and the broken lives. I guess they never really owned the land before the banks took it. I think you comment is a overeaction to the true meaning of what sam shepard is trying to say. He feels like the rest of us do that even though its legal it just does not seem right. Money and greed change things for the worse. Why else would so many hunters feel so strongly about the issues of leased hunting. And boy are there some issues. Just another perspective while still respecting yours.

 

[nodriver]

why doesn't the state lease land rather than buy it. neb, ks, s.d., n.d. all have walk in programs with hundreds of thousands of acres available.

 

[nodriver]

alot of the farmers are basically going broke and why shouldn.t they charge for hunting on their land. i cannot understand why anyone thinks they have the right to hunt on someone else's property for free. land can still be leased very cheaply in iowa and so i say beat the outfitter to it and lease your favorite piece of land. as a land owner myself, i think that many farmers lease their hunting rights so that they do not have to deal with requests to hunt and as a way of dealing with the huge amount of trespassing that occurs during the shotgun season and all the related recklessness that goes along with it. the iowa dnr basically does next to nothing in terms of obtaining land for the public to hunt - purchasing it is expensive and then it must be maintained and policed - much better to rent it. the outfitters are running a big gamble that they can snag one of the handful of non residents who are lucky enough to draw a tag, get him to pay the absurd 300 dollar license fee for one deer and then charge him 2500 dollars to sit in a tree for a week, and unless the situation changes soon regarding non resident tags i would expect most of these so called outfitters to pack it it after a year or two.

 

[Iowa1]

I've had this happen to me and I think I understand all three sides; the side of the hunter who lost the ground, the perspective of the farmer, and the side of the outfitter. I have hunted and trapped that area (Pisgah, Soldier, etc.) It is World Class stuff for big bucks or Cooney wouldn't be there.

I see the side of the outfitter who has the opportunity to make money doing something he loves, and the farmers aren't exactly rolling in dough so those lease fees can be a Godsend at times.

Here's where I see a very serious problem. I believe I am an outdoorsman today because, as a kid, I had the opportunity to walk out the back door with a bow or a .22 and knock around in the woods. Where are our kids going to hunt if all the land is leased? We have a very rich culture of being able to knock on a farmer's door and get permission to hunt, trap and fish. When those days are gone, we will have lost our most valuable tool against those who would try to stop us from doing what we love: The recruitment of new hunters.

When the day comes that only wealthy people can hunt and the masses do not care about hunting, we will not have enough votes to protect it from those who would take it away. That will be a sad day indeed.

I hate to disagree with you Bill (hunt iowa) but I truly believe that this is the beginning of the end of hunting in this great state as we know it. It probably won't happen in your lifetime and maybe not in mine. But I have four boys who will probably not enjoy the hunting freedoms that I have enjoyed, and that hurts me deeply.

 

[arkmo]

What would qualify a person as "rich"? If a person pays anything at all to hunt a certain place, is that hunter rich? If you bust your tail working overtime to get enough cash together to pay for tags and then have to hide it from your wife

, does that make you rich? If you know you need x amount of dollars to hunt land that is leased and sacrifice throughout an entire year to afford it, are you rich? If you tell your son to mow three extra lawns a month so he can pay for his tags, is he rich? Wow, got on a rich roll.

 

[Admin]

Iowa1,

I like your thinking!

Remember the song "Signs, Signs, Everywhere Signs"...

 

[Admin]

Wow, we got a flame going on this topic!

I guess if you had to pick a "Sign", I like this one better.

 

[Chipguy]

Nodriver, I know that the quick dollar to the farmer comes in handy, but the farmer is losing serval dollars to the deer causing crop damage. The farmer limiting the hunters on his land is not going to help him control the numbers of deer on the property. The trophy hunter that comes in and pays the $$$$ for hunting rights on his land isn't going to just take a doe to help in keeping the deer herd in control. I will be getting a doe tag as well as trying to take a nice buck, and try to balance the deer herd. I know that the farmer has had serval issues with hunters not respecting THERE land.

just my 2 cents, and I am bummed that hillwalker has lost the right to hunt on his favorite hunting grounds.


Doug