From the WSJ

[delcecchi]

We made the big time....

In St. Louis County, Minn., hunters are building increasingly elaborate deer hunting stands on public lands.

GNESEN TOWNSHIP, Minn.—Driving down a dirt road recently, Jason Meyer spotted a parking area neatly cut into some scrub brush. He pulled in and followed a manicured path snaking thousands of feet into the woods.

His hike ended at an increasingly familiar sight: A wooden platform nearly 15 feet tall, topped by a hut with plywood walls and a pitched roof. The structure was new, ready for the opening of deer-hunting season this month.

"We're seeing this all over now," said Mr. Meyer, area land manager for St. Louis County, an orange hunting cap on his head. "I bet you it's going to have windows, given time."

The tower is part of an unwanted building boom deep in the woods here. Foresters for St. Louis County, who oversee a vast swath of aspen and spruce stretching from Duluth to the Canadian border, are finding bigger and more elaborate deer stands on public lands. The structures—free-standing or built into trees—give hunters a cleaner shot at a buck, while hiding them and providing protection from the cold.

Deer stands have been growing increasingly cushy and elaborate on private lands in recent years—sometimes featuring heat, satellite television, carpet and decks. But hunters are also getting bolder on public lands, officials say, hauling plywood, windows, insulation and easy chairs, often on the back of their ATVs.

These mortgage-free country cabins are a problem for public land managers across the Upper Midwest, from the county-controlled timber tracts here to Ottawa National Forest in Michigan and Chequamegon-Nicolet National Forest in Wisconsin.

Deer stands are a long-standing tradition in the region, but St. Louis County officials say they have gone too far there. They are developing rules to curb construction and warning hunters of a coming crack down. Other public lands in the region, including federal forests and state lands, already have rules on the books, with some banning permanent structures and handing out fines for them.

"Permanent stands are a claim of ownership. It has just gotten more and more extreme," said Kristian Jankofsky, an avid hunter and outdoors instructor in Angora, Minn.

The 37-year-old has permanent stands on his own land, but hunts on public lands with a portable perch—a seat that can be temporarily attached to a tree—that he carries on his back.

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When he is out hunting, Mr. Jankofsky says he has stumbled upon tree stands with narrow alleys cut through the forest with a chain saw to provide a clearer shot. He said he has started looking on Google Maps for asterisk-shaped clearings in the woods, which can indicate a permanent stand, so he can avoid the areas.

In St. Louis County and elsewhere, the trees on public land are government property, sold to logging companies for harvesting. Nails and screws can kill the trees and make them dangerous to cut down, forestry officials say. Foresters have also found areas cleared of trees and planted in clover to attract deer. Once abandoned, large deer stands create a mess, with pressure-treated lumber, Plexiglas and shingles littering the forest.

"There are some pretty good eyesores out there," said Curt Cogan, forestry enforcement coordinator for the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources.

Last spring, an angry hunter came into the office of Joshua Stevenson, land commissioner of Cass County in Central Minnesota, to report a theft—a deer stand he had constructed on county land. The stand had taken some work to assemble and used several hundred dollars worth of lumber, Mr. Stevenson said. Then it was gone, although it likely took four or five men to move it.

Mr. Stevenson says he told the man you can't have something stolen if you have abandoned it in the woods. "That's part of the deal when you're hunting public land," he said.

More recently, Mr. Stevenson has been fielding phone calls from Larry Ruikka. The 64-year-old county resident estimates there are at least 15 tree stands on a tract of public timberland near his house. He says he has confronted some hunters who camp and hunt there during deer season and was told to mind his own business.

Mr. Ruikka says the stands are killing trees and keeping him from getting a chance to hunt the land. "Every year they bring in more boards," he said.

In Michigan, conservation officers have set up cameras to catch hunters who have built deer stands. They also have staked them out during hunting season to see who shows up, said Gary Hagler, chief of the law-enforcement division for the Michigan Department of Natural Resources.

Michigan requires that hunters put their names and addresses on stands and can ticket those who don't. But for government officials in many parts of the region, the approach tends to be more about education than enforcement. Many are hunters themselves and know they need average Joes out killing deer to keep the population in check.

"I have to have deer hunters," said Bob Krepps, land commissioner in St. Louis County. "But I don't have to have deer condos on stilts."

Mr. Krepps, who hunts on foot rather than from a deer stand, says he will propose new rules in the coming months to outlaw elaborate deer stands. Until then, his staff is talking to hunters about the planned crackdown and posting notices on structures they find on the 900,000 acres of forest land the county manages.

On a recent afternoon, Mr. Meyer's SUV bumped along a logging road as he followed up on a complaint. About a mile from the main road, he found a newly built tower poking out from a marshy area that had started to freeze over.

The squat structure smelled of fresh lumber. A price tag from a home-improvement store was still on one of the windows. Inside was a wingback chair with wheels fastened to its feet so the hunter could move around while holding a rifle. Each window had a string and pulley system for easy opening to take a shot.

Mr. Meyer left behind a notice about the county taking a harder look at deer stands. He handwrote an additional warning not to cut the surrounding spruce trees, which the county had planted.

"To do this much work, you'd think it has to be a pretty good spot," he said.

A version of this article appeared November 13, 2012, on page A1 in the U.S. edition of The Wall Street Journal, with the headline: In the Midwest, Hunt Is On for Elaborate Deer Stands.

[TylerS]

Gas + lighter = problem solved.

[B. Amish]

jeez. you go through all that work of buying, hauling in the lumber, building stairs, windows... and then you use OSB for the walls??

[jay83196]

Lol

[skee0025]

Gas + lighter = problem solved.

+1

[goblueM]

Gas + lighter = problem solved.

Yep, I think it would solve the problem of unemployment for local wildland firefighters

[Cheetah]

Whoever thought it would be a good idea to put that "stand" on public land deserves a huge fine plus paying the cost of having it removed...

[Getanet]

That stand does seem a tiny bit excessive. Just out of curiosity Del, when you say "we made the big time" are you referring to MN hunters, or was someone from your hunting party included in the article?

[delcecchi]

That stand does seem a tiny bit excessive. Just out of curiosity Del, when you say "we made the big time" are you referring to MN hunters, or was someone from your hunting party included in the article?

Minnesota hunters, and particularly St. Louis county where I spend time in the summer. Even quoted a guy from Angora.

Not often Minnesota gets on the front page of the Journal (even below the fold).

I haven't hunted in years, so it wasn't me. Thought you guys would find it of interest. I thought the line, from some official when the guy reported his fancy stand had been stolen about taking something "abandoned in the woods" was sort of funny.

[TylerS]

Yep, I think it would solve the problem of unemployment for local wildland firefighters

Good point! Two birds with one stone!!! I like the way you think

[Sota2Florida]

The Brainerd Dispatch had a similar story this summer. They said one stand was 18X20! I've seen a few like the one in the WSJ article but 18x20? I wish they had a pic of that.

[Double D]

I think what it boils down to is if hunters don't want to be policed on this issue, they had better police themselves.

DD