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Hunter overcrowding and the privatization of access

most of the boys WMA's were not purchased by the state. But purchased by places like foothills land conservation and groups like these then turned over to the TWRA. We need more land to be purchased no matter what. As long as hikers and birdwatchers and hunters can utilize the same piece of property I'm ok with them also sharing it. Cause we stand a better chance of land being purchased for all 3 groups as opposed to just 1. Donate to land conservation group TN. Look up the pieces of land they have purchased if you don't believe me.
 
Buy small farms folks...it is not all about protecting some gorge that nobody is going to build a road or factory on top.
 
Antler Daddy said:
Overpriced or not...these are properties that TWRA or that dang foundation should be buying. Why do hunters not have the option of buying a "conservation stamp" or something when buying their license??? Only 5000 hunters adding on a $20 "buy land stamp" would be $100k a year. They give the option of rounding up for hunters for the hungry. They won't be feeding any hungry when all the land is gone.

Nothing is being done...that is the worst part. It's criminal. Wildlife commission is worse than Congress. Prove me wrong.
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And that's only 5000 hunters, there's a lot more in TN. And I'd have to guess most of us would be ready and willing to pay more than $20 extra IF, and that's a big if, we knew for certain that it would directly open up significant amounts of access for us to hunt. I know I certainly would.

These giant tracts of land at < $2k an acre sound great and all but the issue is they are giant. So even at a low price per acre it is way out of reach for most people. So what eventually will happen is they'll get bought up by developers and never again be habitat for wildlife.
 
www.crossville-chronicle.com

1,740 acres added to Catoosa

The Tennessee Wildlife Resources Agency and The Conservation Fund have added 1,740 acres to the Catoosa Wildlife Management Area on the Cumberland Plateau in Cumberland County.
www.crossville-chronicle.com www.crossville-chronicle.com

I did not see a price tag, but I assume this is the Catoosa property. It comes with stables and some cabins so they can sink more money into maintenance. I like Catoosa and have hunted many times, but it is a chore to hunt. I promised two years ago that I would not go back....kids don't even want to go on the juvy hunt there in mid-Oct. Last time we went, it was 90 degrees.

Castoosa already has 80,000 acres. How about buying some land in middle TN? And...it is unlikely that I will ever step foot on it. I already hunt somewhere else. I just believe and know in my heart that more should be done to acquire land.



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Antler Daddy said:
www.crossville-chronicle.com

1,740 acres added to Catoosa

The Tennessee Wildlife Resources Agency and The Conservation Fund have added 1,740 acres to the Catoosa Wildlife Management Area on the Cumberland Plateau in Cumberland County.
www.crossville-chronicle.com www.crossville-chronicle.com

I did not see a price tag, but I assume this is the Catoosa property. It comes with stables and some cabins so they can sink more money into maintenance. I like Catoosa and have hunted many times, but it is a chore to hunt. I promised two years ago that I would not go back....kids don't even want to go on the juvy hunt there in mid-Oct. Last time we went, it was 90 degrees.

Castoosa already has 80,000 acres. How about buying some land in middle TN? And...it is unlikely that I will ever step foot on it. I already hunt somewhere else. I just believe and know in my heart that more should be done to acquire land.



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Are you a TN resident?
 
I don't have a problem paying more for a license, especially, if the extra fee is earmarked to create more access. I do have an issue with a non-resident saying I should pay more so TWRA can buy more land so they can come hunt it.
 
Buzzard Breath said:
I don't have a problem paying more for a license, especially, if the extra fee is earmarked to create more access. I do have an issue with a non-resident saying I should pay more so TWRA can buy more land so they can come hunt it.
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But the nonresidents are already paying 3-4x more for a license than residents?

I get what you are saying... the simple solution would be to charge an extra $20 per year WMA permit for residents to hunt public land and an extra $100 per year WMA fee for nonresidents to hunt public land... with the specification that those fees are designated solely for the acquisition of additional public lands.

What's frustrating as heck for me is having to buy Nonresident licenses at the tune of $300 per pop for my 3 kids to be able to hunt their OWN land in TN that we pay TN taxes on. It wasn't a problem when they were under 16, as a juvie NR license was cheap... but now that all 3 are 16 or older, it's so expensive that I make sure to stagger the 365d license to overlap hunting trips between years... so I only have to buy them a license every other year.
 
My two pennies is based on experiences from living in two states. In northern VA where I grew up, you could not hunt and still really cannot hunt with a firearm. However there are large tracks that railroad companies own, and we used to run all through those woods (legal or not), everyone did. Land like that should be open to hunting. I know there is worry some idiot will wonder onto the tracks and get hurt, but a waiver a liability should mean just that. You sign it, you waive liability.

We have to have places like that in TN, and the state (TWRA) should approach those companies and see if they could broker a deal where people pay ~$20 and get a permit.

Also a quick glance at your county tax map will reveal properties that the state or county own... HOW? who paid for them and with what money? where they taken for legal or tax reasons? no matter the answers to those questions, they should be open to use by residents of that county or state. I know this idea would be harder to make happen.
 
Bone Collector said:
My two pennies is based on experiences from living in two states. In northern VA where I grew up, you could not hunt and still really cannot hunt with a firearm. However there are large tracks that railroad companies own, and we used to run all through those woods (legal or not), everyone did. Land like that should be open to hunting. I know there is worry some idiot will wonder onto the tracks and get hurt, but a waiver a liability should mean just that. You sign it, you waive liability.

We have to have places like that in TN, and the state (TWRA) should approach those companies and see if they could broker a deal where people pay ~$20 and get a permit.

Also a quick glance at your county tax map will reveal properties that the state or county own... HOW? who paid for them and with what money? where they taken for legal or tax reasons? no matter the answers to those questions, they should be open to use by residents of that county or state. I know this idea would be harder to make happen.
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That's how most of western middle Tennessee's timber company land used to be before they discovered leasing. Now that ground goes for $8+ per acre... but at least there's hunting access.
 
MickThompson said:
That's how most of western middle Tennessee's timber company land used to be before they discovered leasing. Now that ground goes for $8+ per acre... but at least there's hunting access.
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Yeah. We used to lease ground from westvaco in Stewart County across from lbl. In the beginning they did both permit hunting for public and leases on other properties. Lasted a few years and then they sold out. It was the best of both worlds for everyone. If I remember correctly they only allowed so many permits per tract on the public part so you didn't have everyone on top of each other.
 
Livin2hunt said:
Yeah. We used to lease ground from westvaco in Stewart County across from lbl. In the beginning they did both permit hunting for public and leases on other properties. Lasted a few years and then they sold out. It was the best of both worlds for everyone. If I remember correctly they only allowed so many permits per tract on the public part so you didn't have everyone on top of each other.
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Pretty sure Williamette was a free for all but that was a little before my time
 
MidTennFisher said:
I've discussed this a lot lately. Why are Southeastern people so bad about litter? I drive through the National Forests here and see, and not limited to:

couches
mattresses
old appliances
beer cans
styrofoam fast food boxes
plastic bags
tampons
oil filters
batteries

While walking through the woods or fishing a lake it's beer/soda cans, bags, dip cans, trail tape, bottles, fishing line, discarded lures, ripped clothing, literally anything they didn't want to take out.

When we went out to Colorado last Summer we hiked on some busy trails and I fished some lakes with plenty of people around, not one speck of trash. Not even a piece of fishing line or a single cigarette butt.

I've made the comment that it was so clean that if it weren't for seeing other humans, I'd think I was the first person to discover those woods or lakes. With how disgusting Southeastern people, of course not all of us, seem to be I can't blame private land owners one bit for not wanting to allow access. I probably wouldn't allow it either.
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I hunted a lot of places in North Carolina and I didn't see the kind of trash I see here. I don't think it's the entire southeast.

Just driving down the road you can see trash. I'm guessing some of that is people hauling trash to the dump and it blows out. But I don't know for sure. It is very hard to understand how so many people think it's ok to throw trash all over the place.
 
Dennis said:
I hunted a lot of places in North Carolina and I didn't see the kind of trash I see here. I don't think it's the entire southeast.

Just driving down the road you can see trash. I'm guessing some of that is people hauling trash to the dump and it blows out. But I don't know for sure. It is very hard to understand how so many people think it's ok to throw trash all over the place.
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Drive the interstates or 4 lane highways in the south half of MS right now... half the trash on the side of the road are empty sacks of corn or sacks that held deer feed/bait. It's almost surreal.
 
I have noticed over the last 20 or so years that hunting and fishing shows on tv have dropped off a lot, soccer golf and anything but outdoor shows have taken the stage, folks have had to work more hours and there's other things to hold kids attention besides outdoor stuff. still as the population grows so will folks wanting to use the outdoors for other than hunting and fishing, we are burdened with paying for most of it the way our system is set up, the lakes along the Tn/Ky border get hit a lot for skiing wake boarding ect, it makes it rough to fish a lot of days, my own grand kids watch way too much utube ect. the worlds changing but I am not
 
mike243 said:
I have noticed over the last 20 or so years that hunting and fishing shows on tv have dropped off a lot, soccer golf and anything but outdoor shows have taken the stage, folks have had to work more hours and there's other things to hold kids attention besides outdoor stuff. still as the population grows so will folks wanting to use the outdoors for other than hunting and fishing, we are burdened with paying for most of it the way our system is set up, the lakes along the Tn/Ky border get hit a lot for skiing wake boarding ect, it makes it rough to fish a lot of days, my own grand kids watch way too much utube ect. the worlds changing but I am not
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I see what you're saying and on the surface, it does seem to be trending that way overall. But under that surface, there are way more hunting and fishing shows now than there was when I was growing up. Tons of fishing series, as well as 3 major hunting networks - heck I walked in to our cabin over the weekend and my uncle was telling me how this one guy on tv has 3 different hunting shows. I don't quite understand that - big ego? 🤣

Overall, I do think we are trending away from hunting (shows), but I also think many are trying to make a living off of YouTube and are shifting to that platform. I don't watch hunting shows anymore, but I do watch a ton of YouTube videos on habitat management. I'm eat up with that stuff.
 

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