On a recent drive to one of my "secret spots" I was met with posted signs claiming "so and so
hunting club" had leased the land. I have remained in close contact with the landowner over
the years and this was certainly news to me. Upon driving to his home to get the scoop he
had no idea who had put up those posted signs and I was allowed to hunt there. Of course,
people are going to do things like this if they know a landowner has a passive personality
and the fact he let them get away with it leads to an uncomfortable hunting situation. But that
is another story for another time. What I did find discouraging was when he informed
me that if Steuben County ever goes to a rifle season he will DEFINATELY be leasing his land. I love
hunting this property. It is big, a long walk to get in, and I see lots of game. Will the last
time I went in there be the last time for good?
Clearly Mr. Governor's idea of rifle hunting has back-fired. It did not influence anyone to buy a
New York hunting license and it may actually do more to hurt license sales. The real issue facing hunters
is access to hunting land. I hear people say it all the time, "there ain't the hunters there used to be."
This is true and I agree but anywhere I can hunt there is usually a car parked there on Saturday.
People will hunt if they have a place to hunt. Without one they just stop going or hunt less as they get
tired of seeing the same piece of real estate day in/day out.
What the State should be doing is working on opening up more public access areas
for hunting and working with landowners to keep their private lands open for hunting. At least it
seems that way. The truth is the State has done this for years and has actually lost tens of thousands
of public access properties to leasing. Twenty years ago there were thousands of acres of
property in New York that was in co-ops that has been taken out of those co-ops for literally
"big buck" leasing. Depending on where you live you may or may not know that.
I looked in to the public access situation in New York
as well as other States. I also spoke with a few people at the DEC and some other individuals
on the Federal level to see what, if anything, can be done. There are programs out there that
do make some difference and hunters should support them. However, don't expect a lot or
to turn the tide.
If you want a detailed description on what I am about to discuss then you can read it here -
Supporting Public Access for Hunting
in New York. For now I will give you the Readers Digest version.
New York has the Habitat & Access Stamp Funding Program
which uses funds from the sale of the stamp to work with
landowners in making their lands accessible to the public. The stamp only costs $5.00 and the State provides
$100,000.00 to public access projects each year.
In 2004 the State funded 14 projects.
The good & the bad news. Aside from the stamp fund opening up more lands to the public it is
not bound exclusively to hunting. Of the 14 projects funded last year, all of them went to fishing related
projects. It also does very little to benefit a private landowner since
it does not pay the landowner a per acre fee for their land. On top of that it is a reimbursement program
meaning the landowner must pay for the project first and then they get their money back from the State.
It is not geared for individual private landowners. Rather, municipalities and corporations.
There is legislation in Congress right now named the
Voluntary Public Access and Habitat Incentive Program,
also known as the "Open Fields" bill. It has not passed in two attempts but has a tremendous
amount of support and will be presented to Congress again in the future. The bill calls for the Federal
Government to provide funding to States that already have public access programs. While this additional
revenue would be nice to help open up more places to hunt it also has its limitations. If passed, the
bill would not require States to use the funding to expand public lands. They could use the funding to
improve existing public access lands including CRP and State Forests. There is no guarantee
the funding would be used to persuade private landowners to keep lands open to hunting while paying them for
doing that. The State would have to take the initiative to create such a program with the funding.
Several States, such as Kansas, have popular public access programs that are successful.
Click Here to See Kansas Walk-In Hunting Program.
Their program pays the landowner a per acre fee for having it in the Walk-In program.
Kansas has accumulated over ONE MILLION acres of private property in the last decade and
opened it up to hunters. The landowner does not get the great big check that they would if they leased it
but they do get some financial compensation and, maybe more importantly, assistance from the State
of Kansas in managing their land and patrolling it.
This brings me back to the landowner I spoke with who will lease his property if Steuben County
accepts a rifle season. He simply does not want people walking around his property with rifles.
If he was approached about
such a program he would likely join it as he has told me several times in the past he does not want
to lease his land. So have many other Steuben County farmers. However, pressure is mounting.
People are getting herded together like Elk in winter grounds out West and there is more and
more financial temptation each year as more and more people stop to inquire about leasing his land.
These landowners get stuck in the middle of all of it and the State is virtually non-existent
in helping them sort it out. As hunting land dwindles the hunting community gets
more and more desperate which causes many problems the landowner must deal with such as
hunter confrontations or waking up one day and finding someone else has posted your land.
All this does is push them more in the "leasing" direction.
The reality is that most of New York will soon be leased and there is nothing we can
do about it. Even if New York had a program similar to Kansas it probably wouldn't work. Much of the
land in the Kansas Walk-In program is fields as pheasant hunting out there is huge. That land
is likely not as valuable as a deciduous hillside with 10 different quality food sources and
plenty of places to hang tree stands. On top of that the State would never be able to afford a
public access program that would pay a landowner enough money to compete with lease outfits.
The land in New York is too valuable.
What we can do is support what is there right now and perhaps use it as a jumping off point to have
a better program one day. Something is better than nothing.
If you would like more information about what you can do to support public access in New York
then you can learn more here -
Supporting Public Access for Hunting in New York.
What are your thoughts on Public Access and Public Access Programs in New York?
Post your comments below.
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Rob Taylor, Founder, EmpireHunting.com
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