Bummin Out

[J Rookie K]

Well I just got the horrible news. Our early season spot is off limits. I have been hunting the opener there for 7 years, and my partner abuot 22. Now this year the owners are selling the place. It was a pain to hunt, but we got a ton of shootin every year. We have 1 more spot that is also private, but the shootin aint as good, and a couple of parties hunt it also. Man I need to hit the lottery, and buy my own land. Time to stop dreaming, and face reality. The sad thing is that our land [public] is not being managed right, and there is way too much building going on. Where are we headed? Sportsmen need to unite and elect officials that will help our cause. We need to teach our kids to hunt/fish, and respect the GREAT Outdoors. Well thanks for listeningand GOOD SHOOTIN. J Rookie K.

[Finlander]

Yup, it seems they are building 5 bedroom houses right next to premo hunting spots then the next thing you know they are complaining about all the shooting going on at sunrise. Lets see, lets buy a house next to an airport then complain about jet noise!
There ought to be a law where wildlife won't lose there happy home to developers!
Where's PETA when that happens!

[Riverratpete]

I posted a note in one of the other sites also about the same thing. I hunted French lake in Dayton for years and we used to get real good shooting out there - no more. Too many houses in the area, Rogers/Albertville area building up too much. I have found in the past few years the best hunting is as far away from the metro you can get. The reality is that the 7 county metro area is no longer the nice rural area it was even 10 years ago. In the immortal words of the "Eagles" "If you call something paradise, kiss it goodbye".

[fishface5]

They need to make crp land open to public hunting. If they get pub. funding, they should open it up to pub. use! That would help spread out the pressure grealy, and help keep the birds from piling up on a few private slews that never get hunted.

[Guest]

THe last time I checked with a CO he told me that it is part of the CRP contract to allow hunters access...

------------------
Chells

[Guest]

As far as I know, it is encouraged to allow access, not mandatory.

[Guest]

Tom you are correct, It is NOT required. I have a friend who has a lot of CRP and limits hunting to a few people, he has had too many hunters who cannot listen to simple requests (close the fence up, dont drive in the wet area, no 4-wheelers in mud ...)99% are from metro area so he just says no you cant hunt.

[BLACKJACK]

Allowing hunter access is NOT part of the CRP contract. I know that doesn't seem fair but look at all the grassland and trees that are available for pheasants and ducks to nest - 30 million plus acres nationwide. Beat on some doors and get permission to hunt that land, don't 'assume' its open to everyone and [PoorWordUsage] off a farmer when he catches you tresspassing. Once farmers have a bad experience with hunters, they look at all hunters with a jundiced eye. I've had more than one farmer say "I used to let in hunters but", then they relate their bad experence.

[jlm]

That is correct, traditional CRP is not open to public hunting. However, some areas that are improved habitat are open but most people never know of these areas. Some spots get federal/state/county funding to make wetland improvement or they re-establish an old wetland that was drained. In many instances, there is a stipulation that if they get this money, it has to be open to public hunting. I am not sure how a guy would go about finding these spots though...maybe from the county soil conservation offices? Anyone have ideas?

[Mark Christianson]

jlm
I have to disagree with you.
We currently have a wetland restoration in progress, and it is being 100% funded by the US Fish/Wildlife Service. (Yep, zero money out of our pockets).
We also have FSA(Farm Service Agency) going through approvals for CRP.
We had a Wooodland Stewardship analysis done on the property that was contracted by the MN DNR, and just received the results.
We were clearly told that if we do this restoration, CRP, etc..., we have ABSOLUTELY NO OBLIGATION to open it up to the public.

I suppose there is a possibility that some sort of public/government funding may require legal public access, but I VERY highly doubt it.

[This message has been edited by biglakeba$$ (edited 08-21-2003).]

[jlm]

Just to be on the safe side, you better read your contracts very close! Sometimes you are getting money from one agency who got the money from another agency who requires public access. If you have no obligations to the public, thats great. However, I am certain that some programs require this obligation because I was looking in to using state/county monies to build ponds and wetlands but they required that it was open to the public for a specified amount of time. That turned me off from the idea. CRP does not fall into this catagory however, so that is always safe. Anyway, my point of the whole post was that there are lots of pieces of land that a guy could hunt but nobody knows about them. Another quick issue for you guys is this. If you restore a wetland or build holding ponds, you better be careful where the water comes from because if you are getting it from a ditch or other souce of water that is on public land, people can legally navigate (in a boat)into your wetlands to hunt. Also, it is considered public water so spinning wing decoys are not allowed and other public water laws are in effect. I found this out the hard way while hunting private land! A public ditch flowed into the slough and the CO let me know that! The laws are very ambiguous and can really be a pain.

[Mark Christianson]

VERY interesting.... Hmmmmmm
Ambiguity reigns supreme again.

That spinning wing decoy situation strikes me especially. Boy, our big slough darn near goes to the road right of way.
That whole public water thing sure is confusing.
I'd be very interested to know what funding justifies public access. But as you stated earlier in a post, how in the world does someone even find out.
Everything I have been told by the MN DNR, USFWS, and FSA is that we don't have to let people in. But fine print can jab a guy too.

I totally agree with you on the point that there is tons of land that can be accessed, that people don't know about. Heck, the standard DNR maps for public hunting areas, probably barely scratches the surface on what is truly available.
I sure am glad the family farm is still in the family after almost 100 years!

[jlm]

Ya, there are a lot of spots out there that a guy thinks are off limits because they are wrongfully posted (some maliciously I might ad) or we just don't think of checking into it. The are school properties, church lands, county gravel pits, unidentified state land, plots owned by radio stations and tv stations where they have their towers, railroad lands, electric company lands, private lands that are publically funded (some anyway), and many more. I would suggest that a plot book is to be referenced at a very minimum. That will give you some ideas on where to start. Then the state land maps, county land maps, federal land maps, and get a list of public funded private lands open to the public (I don't know where to get that though). I suspect a guy could get ahold of the soil and water conservation people to get a list of publically funded private land. You could then cross reference it to the plot book. Just a thought. Anyway, be creative and get the big one!

[fishface5]

This is why Minnesota hunters "went" to N. Dak. To do thier waterfowling. No hassels, Pub. land and lots of ducks. No hassels. Now there are a few hassels. Now what? Canada? It is time to turn this state around. #1 educate hunters on ethics, like respecting others property, and put more peer presure on skybusters and spot encroachers poachers etc. With things like gamefair, and all these special club events radio and tv sport shows we should be able to educate hunters better. Less emphasis on the long shooting bismouth, or tungstun, and more on getting them in close! Just don't shoot till they are in there...Probably not in my lifetime.

[loc9fisher]

don't feel to bummed out fella's.... im an avid waterfowler and in july i got shipped down to arizona for pretty much the entire season. luckly i have a friend who's getting married during goose opener and im taking a few days to go to no. dak. this is a really depressing season for me since i'll be stuck in the desert for the whole season. i really hate this place but you gotta go where the work is.

good luck to all this season and be safe.

loc9