Hunter Landowner Relations
From a few years back but still true!!! Please take time to read.
I am a farmer/rancher and landowner. I am also a hunter, angler, and
recreationist. Each of these terms describe me but I am the sum total
of all. I have never charged anyone a dime for access to my property.
I take on as many hunters as I can but sometimes have to limit the
numbers so as not to be overrun. After 40 years on the land, I have
retired. Over that time, I have watched the “landscape” deteriorate from
“hunt where you want but be respectful” to one of tightly controlled –
or no- access. I believe that there is more to be said, and said
candidly from the perspectives of both landowners and
hunters/recreationists.
The root of the issue seems to be from a
growing disconnect between rural landowners and urban recreationists.
We’re all busy. We are much more mobile and don’t have the same level
and type of contact with close friends and neighbors as we did in the
past. I remember fondly all the times our family went to stay the
weekend with our country cousins. Brandings, livestock and chores,
machinery and driving, real fresh eggs, milk and cream and maybe
hand-cranked ice cream Great wholesome food from gardens and
barnyards. We kids kept busy all weekend while our folks visited and
played cards. We developed an understanding of each other’s lives and
real, close relationships came from that.
The level and kinds of
interaction today has declined due to many factors. Livestock handling
and machinery have become increasingly high tech and expensive. Kids
aren’t welcome to play here. Farms having combinations of geese,
turkeys, chickens, milk cows, beef, sheep, pigs, and cattle are rare.
In addition, there are so many additional “extra-curricular” activities
and sports that we didn’t have. Parents pass each other coming and
going, often dividing kid’s interests and commitments between them.
Social time is at these events. Golf, tennis, soccer, swimming, etc.
have been added to football basketball and track. Computer games and
fast-thumbing on smart phones occupies the attention of so many folks.
Yet, a major touchstone of Montana’s heritage is shared resources such
as wildlife. Montanans love to hunt and fish and recreate. It is
family time. Wild game is a regular feature on the menus of many homes.
People move here from out of state and work for less money than they
could get in big cities for those reasons. Many of us who were born
here made conscious decisions to stay here even if it meant making less
money. The quality- and quantity of life- was worth the trade.
The
personal relationship building of the past seems to receive less
emphasis. Liability issues and OSHA make free help from outside folks
much riskier and far less desirable. Relationships are much harder to
build at a distance. Getting Western Montana townsfolk and Eastern
Montana producers together happens on fewer occasions.
Something
that many people who are not rural producers don’t understand is that
Private Property Rights are paramount to landowners. Management
decisions and the responsibility for the results of those decisions made
on private property largely rest with the owners. Their livelihoods
survive or not, based on these decisions. There too, are those
landowners who consider the public lands they lease for farming or
grazing to be essentially their own personal property. Many of these
folks fail to recognize that they are only paying leases for grazing
and/or farming. Those leases do not allow limiting access to the
public. Also, as a result, many lessees are inclined to deny public
access across their private property to access these public lands.
One thing that has struck me is that there seems to be little focus on
what I call Public Property Rights. There are those who deny that the
public owns all wildlife, and that each and every one of us shares in
the ownership of our public lands. For some Americans and Montanans,
public lands are the only ownership they will ever have. As a result,
they love their public lands, and with good reason.
Why are
landowners often at odds with recreationists? I see many contributing
factors, attributed to both “sides.” Some recreationists show what I
perceive is an arrogance about private lands. Folks forget that the
landowner owes them nothing; trespass or access is a privilege not a
right. Garbage dumping, littering, thoughtless tearing up of roads,
willful unethical behavior, ignoring game laws, property damage and
vandalism, unauthorized driving – the list goes on and on. When these
activities regularly occur, it’s hard for a landowner to want to be
generous. Additionally, many recreationists are not good about turning
in illegal activities. They assume it’s not their problem or simply
don’t want to be bothered. We need to step up and be accountable. “If
you see something, say something” is the right way to help and show
appreciation for the privileges you are accorded on private land.
The story of the hunter or angler encountering a landowner who treats
them unfairly and poorly is as old as the hills. Upon asking permission
to hunt on a rancher’s land, are lectured about how bad all
recreationists are, getting a solid chewing for other’s inexcusable
indiscretions. The recreationist gets an earful about how tough the
landowner has it, and is personally blamed for the state’s wildlife
agency’s missteps or contentious policies. Add to that the increasing
lack of public access to private lands where there is so much pent up
demand that landowners get inundated. Very early morning visits and
calls and those late at nite to landowners who do welcome the public
become overwhelming, coupled with long hunting seasons. As a result,
good, reliable folks are denied access without having a chance to prove
themselves.
Along with these issues, add private land outfitters to
the mix. They are profit driven, and frankly, offer an alternative to
landowners in the form of good payments and responsibility to handle all
recreation on the place. Since outfitters usually demand exclusive
access for their clients, the public is completely left out of the
equation. Some outfitters claim to “manage” these places to maximize
bucks and bulls but in reality is simply restricting access and as a
result putting more and more wild critters on the ground. “Managing”
for trophy wildlife by restricting access can be done by anyone; it is
not wildlife management. Managing overall game populations and their
distribution across the landscape is the charge of FWP in Montana. But
there seems to be no responsibility taken by these outfitters to
“manage” (i.e.- encourage and engage in the hunting of) all critters in
the herd, particularly those pesky, “valueless” antlerless critters who
are protected by limited access and hunting during the regular seasons,
Wildlife numbers expand, often exponentially, with the result of
over-objective herds, moving onto the neighboring properties (often
ones that do allow public hunting), reeking havoc on someone else’s
property. Late season, antlerless-only seasons then are demanded to
solve the “problem” without affecting outfitted, antlered buck or bull
clientele. There seems to be no consideration to run seasons
concurrently to avoid brucellosis, chronic wasting disease, and other
maladies that result from unnatural concentrations of wildlife.
Concurrent seasons could disperse animals on the landscape while at the
same time, offer public hunters a chance to harvest on private and
public lands accessible to them. Shoulder seasons (hunting season that
would begin and/or end after the 5-week General Rifle Season) were
recently pushed as a means to deal with these problems. But they have
performance criteria that require buy-in by landowners and outfitters,
which has been pretty limited except with a few notable exceptions. The
problems created for the private landowners through exclusive hunting
on their properties keeps going to the legislature for resolution. The
Fish and Wildlife Commission is the place where such decisions need to
be made. They have the time, access to resources, information and
expertise to consider the best way to move. Making wildlife management
policy decisions in the partisan arena only serves to slap bandaids on
problems and utilizes the most convenient and politically expedient
solutions. We’ve seen the can kicked down the road too many times.
Nonetheless, I expect to see the outfitters to continue to try to
legislate their way out of their responsibility for the problem.
Farmers and ranchers were the original conservationists. Landowners are
a fiercely independent lot and often that tenacity has paid off.
Farmers and ranchers are coming off the best financial decade ever and
they deserve it. There have been some real tough times for producers
with little or no return on their investments. Often, government help
was the only way we survived. Yes, government help with crop price
deficiencies and disaster aid kept many farmers and ranchers on the
land. Subsidized crop insurance makes risk management affordable to
producers. In addition, the services of government agencies like the
Farm Service Agency, Natural Resource Conservation Service and Dept.
Natural Resources and Conservation provide help with land management
decisions, loans, and improvements like water and grazing systems,
fencing, trees, CRP, wildlife improvements, and many others. But are
these entitlements? Maybe to some, but they are paid for by all the tax
paying residents of our country, “The Public.”
Leases on state and
federal public lands for farming and grazing are a huge, necessary part
of many producers’ operations. Generally, these leases are made far
below “market”- what would be charged by a private landowner. In the
case of federal leases, they are so low as to be ridiculous. Yet, these
allowances have kept many an outfit in Montana in operation. Once
again, who pays for the costs of these agencies who often manage at a
big loss? “The Public.”
My intention is not to single out anyone.
Keeping agricultural operations viable not only contributes to the
economy but more often than not, has been of great benefit to wildlife,
fisheries and public recreation in general. But I think it’s important
to point to the fact there is legitimate and crucial financial
interaction and relationship between producers and the public. Yes,
those same town folks who you go to church with, basketball games,
funerals, weddings, and benefits. The same folks who own the hotels,
restaurants, gas stations, stores, bars, etc. The families your kids go
to school with. Property taxes paid by landowners are a major
component of the sustenance of our towns and counties. We need to
recognize that it is a two-way street.
I believe it’s high time to
realize we are all in this together and no one is getting out alive.
Landowners, producers, and their city cousins all contribute to
something called community, this thing we call “The Last Best Place”.
FWP manages wildlife in trust for all of us. We all have legitimate and
equal stakes in how it is managed and maintained into the future.
Landowners as well as recreationists must realize we all rely upon one
another, and, in fact, need each other. Tolerance and cooperation are
the main components of our collective successful future. We all need to
take responsibility for our actions!
Solutions: Sportsmen, take
the FWP Hunter Landowner Stewardship course online. Report lawbreakers,
“if you see something, say something.” Treat access to private lands
as a privilege. Use “Fair Chase” and “Hunter Ethics” as your guide.
Landowners, know what the “Public Trust Doctrine” and the “North
American Model of Wildlife Conservation” are. Remember your leased
public lands are a privilege not a right. Share the resources your
property can offer with your less fortunate urban cousins. Keep track
of bad eggs and habitual offenders and let them pay the price for
indiscretions, while allowing others to prove themselves. Have enough
tolerance for the Public to harvest excess critters within the regular
season.
Outfitters: Yes you are a business but, since you harvest
Public Trust resources, treat it as a privilege. Look at more than
just money in your pocket. Have some compassion for the critters. Work
with sportsmen to allow harvest on leased lands during the regular
seasons. Take responsibility for problems you create. When you run to
the legislature to bypass public process, expect to pay the price of bad
relationships with the Public. Public Land Outfitters, if you don’t
want to pay the price for bad relationships caused by Private Land
Outfitters, speak up for integrity! You have always shared the
resources and have taken a shared role in management decisions. You
have worked with sportsmen on a variety of issues. Be cautious who you
allow to represent you.
It takes a community of all of us to find success.
Joe Perry
