Access to public vs private land for hunting? Beginning of the end?

[Buck Buster]

Buck Buster, if there is food such as acorns on the sidehills, there will as a rule be deer found there also. Otherwise they will be found where ever the food source is.
The lack of hunters has had a large impact on glassing the side hills in recent years. By and large traditional type hunters in PA tend to get to the location they choose early, then just sit for a few hours. When they get up and start moving about is as a rule when deer move off the easier hunted flat areas on the tops and down over onto the sidehills. Without hunters in the woods that dosent happen, and the deer will just lay there till they are ready to get up and move. So we need to have both food on the sidehills and hunter pressure in the woods to make it work well.
The food situation can change in given areas year to year, so that can create problems for those who always hunt from just one good location, every day, year after year. There is little doubt that those old school methods of long range hunting are no longer working as well in PA. And there is also no doubt that many of us are no longer in the physical condition to do much about it. But those who are, and who will, are still doing very well.

Well yobuck I think we are saying about the same thing maybe in different slightly different ways ! The deer have always pulled for the steep sides across from Camp Kline ! They come back up and down into Thombs run at night to feed on the PRIVATE farm fields then once the season opens and the hunting pressure starts may it be several hunters moving around or crews chasing the end results are scared deer and they pull for places that they seldom are bothered and the steep side are just one of them, another is close to houses in safety zones and in unharvested corn fields or the thickest stuff you can find, We had a small crew in flintlock season one year and hunted the Browns run burn off area . We had some deer moving and even seen some going back through the drive maybe 15 yards away, but there was no way you could shoot, they were just a blur going, and you could possibly hit the guy beside you if you did get a shot off ! Agreed deer need feed but they don't always need it where they take refuge, they travel to it at night ! I have seen many years that you couldn't find an acorn and that is when they really hit the farm fields and also logged off areas for browse ! We agree that things aren't what they used to be and that some areas do have more deer than others, but in the areas that you and I mentioned I feel even the ones that have some deer the numbers are not even close to what they once were ! Take care Yobuck ! Wish I was in Florida or could hibernate until trout season is near !

 

[Ckgworks]

Washington Timber companys are charging Trespass fees now as well......Hopefully It will Change soon. It is private property, and I support their right to do as they please, BUT it's one or the other; charge Trespass fee's or get a tax break for allowing public access, not both!
It's really to bad that the NFS isn't helping support wildlife by logging areas of the National Forest.......Many of the areas around here are turning into dead zone Old Growth with little feed, hence many hunters are pushed towards private ground. I spoke to a Forest Service gal up in the woods last year, and she proudly told me that their plan was to revert "this entire area to Old Growth" SO yes I see hunting around here slowly changing to a hunting club style as seen in Europe.....maybe not in my life time, but sooner or later!

 

[Deleted member 107796]

Washington Timber companys are charging Trespass fees now as well......Hopefully It will Change soon. It is private property, and I support their right to do as they please, BUT it's one or the other; charge Trespass fee's or get a tax break for allowing public access, not both!
It's really to bad that the NFS isn't helping support wildlife by logging areas of the National Forest.......Many of the areas around here are turning into dead zone Old Growth with little feed, hence many hunters are pushed towards private ground. I spoke to a Forest Service gal up in the woods last year, and she proudly told me that their plan was to revert "this entire area to Old Growth" SO yes I see hunting around here slowly changing to a hunting club style as seen in Europe.....maybe not in my life time, but sooner or later!

As Europe goes, Finland is one country that respects the right of everyman to hunt, fish or most any outdoor activity, even up to private lands, with the responsibility to own up to the land as it were your own, much like the original charter of the NFS here. Somebody put it most accurately, that you cannot compare the US to any other country as we seem to view the US as the land of opportunity vs the land of responsibility. Just pay some dollars, or not, and it's all about me and mine. Sucks, IMO.

 

[Buck Buster]

Washington Timber companys are charging Trespass fees now as well......Hopefully It will Change soon. It is private property, and I support their right to do as they please, BUT it's one or the other; charge Trespass fee's or get a tax break for allowing public access, not both!
It's really to bad that the NFS isn't helping support wildlife by logging areas of the National Forest.......Many of the areas around here are turning into dead zone Old Growth with little feed, hence many hunters are pushed towards private ground. I spoke to a Forest Service gal up in the woods last year, and she proudly told me that their plan was to revert "this entire area to Old Growth" SO yes I see hunting around here slowly changing to a hunting club style as seen in Europe.....maybe not in my life time, but sooner or later!

The only thing an old forest provides in PA is a mast crop and they can not be counted on every year, acorns are some years plentiful and other years you can't find a one ! But a select cut forest is what I think is the best, leave some trees for mast crops and the new openings in the forest will start regenerating and providing browse that they can eat all winter should there be no acorns or other mast crops .

 

[scott63]

In far Northern Ca, it used to be a sportsmans paradise, but over the last 40 years the ever tightening regulations/restrictions have had significant impact. Then just last year Roseburg Forest Products sold all of their Ca holdings(270 square miles) to an Austrailian company. Their land in my area comprised of 44k acres or 68 square miles. The Roseburg land was open to the public and I've hunted that land for forty years. I've hunted it with my grandpa, my dad, my wife and both my kids. I'd planned on hunting it with my grandsons/daughters. But the new company has closed all access of any type. No hunting/fishing/hiking/horseback riding. Sierra Pacific usually closes their land during the height of the fire season but re-opens it after the weather changes. But how long till a change of ownership with them and a potential change of rules? There is still public lands in Ca to hunt to be sure, but it gets more crowded all the time, and when other areas close, that shifts more hunters to those lands. Because of this I agreed to pay to hunt a small ranch and will also look to hunt out of state each year until I'm too old to hunt.

 

[Buck Buster]

In far Northern Ca, it used to be a sportsmans paradise, but over the last 40 years the ever tightening regulations/restrictions have had significant impact. Then just last year Roseburg Forest Products sold all of their Ca holdings(270 square miles) to an Austrailian company. Their land in my area comprised of 44k acres or 68 square miles. The Roseburg land was open to the public and I've hunted that land for forty years. I've hunted it with my grandpa, my dad, my wife and both my kids. I'd planned on hunting it with my grandsons/daughters. But the new company has closed all access of any type. No hunting/fishing/hiking/horseback riding. Sierra Pacific usually closes their land during the height of the fire season but re-opens it after the weather changes. But how long till a change of ownership with them and a potential change of rules? There is still public lands in Ca to hunt to be sure, but it gets more crowded all the time, and when other areas close, that shifts more hunters to those lands. Because of this I agreed to pay to hunt a small ranch and will also look to hunt out of state each year until I'm too old to hunt.

That is a lot of land, I don't know off hand what the largest single piece of land is in PA, I don't think it is near that acreage ! But a lot of land is bought and then posted in PA. The PA Game Commission does have land willed to them and they also buy some and it becomes public hunting lands, they call it Game lands ! Then there is also State forest lands bought and maintained through tax dollars, it is also open to public hunting, but much of it has a low population of deer due to long seasons and too many tags being issued !

 

[Barrelnut]

Hope the Aussies don't make it to Oregon. Roseburg has land up here too. Crazy how this country will sell any piece of dirt between the Pacific and Atlantic to any foreign interest, friend or foe.
Most countries have laws against this! New Zealand is tightening up on land sales to foreigners, especially Americans. This is because of lots of affluent Americans buying ranches down there for their doomsday getaway. Guess the best parts of Montana, Idaho and Wyoming have been taken already.
You cannot be a country if you don't own the DIRT under your feet!