• If you are having problems logging in please use the Contact Us in the lower right hand corner of the forum page for assistance.

Guess I Stirred The Pot

Help Support Ranchers.net:

N

Northern Rancher

Well-known member
Joined
Feb 10, 2005
Messages
12,247
Reaction score
0
Location
saskatchewan
Paid Hunting-friend or Foe

Those of us who love to hunt truly live in a paradise called Saskatchewan. There are few places in the world where trophy class animals of several species can be hunted with no trespass fees and nominal license charges. Outfitters can hunt on private land and are prohibited by government law and policy from compensating the landowner.

There however is trouble in paradise-many landowners fed up with various policies are simply posting their land 'No Hunting'. These same landowners if they resided stateside could receive substantial income for allowing hunting on their land. In fact King Ranchs of Texas the largest cattle ranch in the United States receives more income from paid hunting then it does from its vast herds of cattle and horses. Almost every farm and ranch supplements their bottom line with a home based outfitting business.

Montana has a program called Block Management whereby a portion of license fees is set aside and are used to compensate landowners for allowing hunting access.The landowner and the wildlife dept. meet and draw up conditions of access. Landowners are usually compensated $10/hunter/day-not a lot but better than the nothing they receive in Saskatchewan.

The Sask. Wildlife Federation is opposed to paid hunting for obvious reasons-however the status quo is not working. There is less land available for hunting every year province wide.The ill advised CWD slaughters that have taken place in the south have made even more landowners deny access. What is the solution if any-I don't think any one wants Saskatchewan to turn into the United States where in many places only the rich can afford to hunt.

A block management scheme like Montana's could work-most hunters wouyld support a nominal license increase if it opened up more access. Another idea would be to give landowners a set number of discretionary tags-they can be used by themselves, given away, transferred to outfitters or sold to nonresident hunters. However by receiving these tags the landowner would have to allow access to Sask. Resident hunters for a portion of the season. More land would be available for hunting but landowners would be allowed to generate some revenue for producing the resource.

No program is perfect but on this issue I think we need to be proactive not inactive.

I didn't think this was very inflammatory but from my e-mails and phone calls I've gotten some people do lol.
 
This could be interesting NR as I wrote an article for the May SSGA magazine saying pretty much what you said. The SSGA is asking Sask. Environment to start a Task Force to look into how this would work. Maybe a blended approach similar to Montana's paid hunting / Block managed hunting.
I sat in the Wildlife advisory board for about 5 years and every time the expansion of Outfitting or for pay hunting or even compensation for land owners or non resident hunters came up the SWF boys screamed bloody murder.
Maybe I should put your e-mail adress at the end of my article. :D
 
Well I think something should be done-they dropped the anterless tag for my zone and there are ALOT of deer up here. Most guys are afraid of putting on the party for free-for instance I wouldn't see a problem with you charging a trespass fee for access to your place for mule deer. You are managing the resource you should benefit from it-I think farmers might leave some more habitat if they could see a return from it.
 
Northern Rancher said:
Well I think something should be done-they dropped the anterless tag for my zone and there are ALOT of deer up here. Most guys are afraid of putting on the party for free-for instance I wouldn't see a problem with you charging a trespass fee for access to your place for mule deer. You are managing the resource you should benefit from it-I think farmers might leave some more habitat if they could see a return from it.
Click to expand...


What other place of business would take the intrusions of hunters for close to four months with NO compensation? I don't think every body wants to be an Outfitter but some compensation would be nice. We wrote pretty close to the same piece so it should be fun to see if we get any action.
 
I find this interesting,good points have been made by both NR and BMR. I just can't get over this unsettled feeling that payed Hunting has been the cause for the dissention in South Dakota.

I'm also thinking about the friendships lost once one has to pay for something they've had for free for years.

I also feel if guides are getting paid why shouldn't the landowner thats supplying the land.

I don't know where I stand :???:

I've heard crumbling about Alta wanting to do the same thing,theres quite a bit of unrest in the F&G groups because certain of areas,Some F&G members are mostly urban that will lose access's if paid comes into play.
 
Well if a friendship is based on one party providing the other with free entertainment it's not much of deal. If you read the second last paragraph I think I have a pretty good solution. I know myself if I had some discretionary tags I doubt I'd sell them-I'd just like to be able to invite some friends up from stateside to hunt once in awhile. It would be nice to see Little Montana Cowgirl shoot a decent buck for a change lol. I think that the concept of if you take tags to sell you have to allow free access to Sask. residants would work well.
 
Northern Rancher said:
Well if a friendship is based on one party providing the other with free entertainment it's not much of deal. If you read the second last paragraph I think I have a pretty good solution. I know myself if I had some discretionary tags I doubt I'd sell them-I'd just like to be able to invite some friends up from stateside to hunt once in awhile. It would be nice to see Little Montana Cowgirl shoot a decent buck for a change lol. I think that the concept of if you take tags to sell you have to allow free access to Sask. residants would work well.
Click to expand...
Ya...that does make sence for sure. I do like the idea of still allowing the provinces residents free access.Lots of kinks to be worked out though huh?
 
Its really unfortunate that a few bad apples ever spoiled things for hunters. I allow full and open access for any and all hunters on my lands, except my home quarter where my family/animals reside. I feel the benefit of having hunters all over my place far outweighs any negative there may be. Of course, I haven't many bad experiences either, except for the elk hunters that chased a herd of elk into my cattle herd and I caught them dropping my gates to go into the pasture and "shoot the elk out of the cattle herd".

Rod
 
I'm a big time hunter and a landowner-free hunting isn't a bad thing but if a landowner wants dsome compensation he should have a means of receiving it. Hunting is a millions of dollars industry in Saskatchewan-hard to put the party on for free.
 
Oh don't get me wrong, I'm not arguing against those who want compensation for it, especially if it opens up more landbase for hunters. We're in a serious state of over-conservation in this area, so the more wild critters that are harvested, the easier it is on us. Coyotes, wolves and bears have laid claim to hundreds of calves this year. Elk and deer have laid waste to hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of hay and grain. A few years back, Dad lost close to $40,000 worth of red clover when the snow came early and he was only able to harvest a small percentage. The deer and elk looked after harvesting the rest of it. He did receive adequate compensation for it through the wildlife fund, but it would have been far better to let it sit over winter and harvest in the spring...

As for me, I've got very few wild critters on my lands, and I feel this is because I allow every hunter in the area to hunt here. Its just not a safe place to be if you have four legs and aren't a cow :)

Rod
 
Definitely don't want to see pay hunting. Believe me even thought it isn't supposed to happen it does. I am a very avid hunter it starts with birds, i have to compete with 6 outfitters within 25 miles and because the birds roost on the big water beside my place. Now the Outfitters are doing under the table deals. It has even come to the point where there have been confrontations in the field with outfitters all i can do is call the DNR officers. The Outfitters don't see anything but money and could give a crap about anyone but themselves, the land they are driving on or what a mess is being left behind. If you want to make money from hunting, simply fix up an old house for a hunting lodge and rent it out for hunters to stay at. Amazing what guys will pay for lodging :wink: Just an idea.
But as for having the government control who can hunt on my land they mess things up too often already. There are enough idiot hunters out there already they don't need to think they have the right to hunt on my land.
 
If the Hunters want free hunting there are thousands of county and state lands to hunt on. I don't fix fences and pick up beer cans for nothing. I get $15.00 an acre. Snow mobile trail through one piece of our land. In four years they have never said please or thankyou. Nothing against hunters or snowmobilers, but there are a few inconsiderates making it bad for everybody. :cry: :mad:
 
I could sure use some of those hunter's to help put my crop in the next few weeks.They only show up in the fall when the works done and want to hunt off a corn field.
 
Being a capitalist at heart, I am all for paid hunting. Having said that, we for the last several years have given permission to all that have asked and had those that don't ask charged with trespassing. The welcome hunters are more than generous and we wouldn't make more if we could charge. No money just jerky, meat, sausage and home made gifts. I do like the Montana model and I think SRD is embarking on a pilot project. I volunteered but I don't think that it is coming to my place.
 
There are getting to be some really hard feelings between hunters and landowners here in Montana. I look for it to get worse with theses new regs that Fish, Wildlife and Parks has come up with.

A family friend's place is in the block management program. The biggest thing that just ticks them off is the fact that some of the hunters that come on their place through the program drive where ever they want with no thought of staying on the road. They have kicked guys off of planted winter wheat and out of pastures full of cattle. They do turn them into the game wardens, but that's not much because they cannot keep them out.

We do not charge for hunting. When we had a terrible mule deer doe problem we did everything we could to work with FWP and hunters to get this problem fixed. Finding 50 does in your hay is not pleasant. Cleaning up over 100 round bales tore up by deer is not enjoyable.
We finally said enough and told our hunters no more bucks could be shot until the does were brought under control. FWP was not happy about it and told us we could not put restrictions on the hunting. Yes we can.
The does are now under control.
We are now getting calls from other hunters wanting to come hunt, turns out they only want the bucks we now have. Told them it is does only for the new guys, but the hunters that stepped up and helped us can shoot what ever they want this fall as long as it is a 4x4 or better.
 
I Luv Herfrds said:
There are getting to be some really hard feelings between hunters and landowners here in Montana. I look for it to get worse with theses new regs that Fish, Wildlife and Parks has come up with.

A family friend's place is in the block management program. The biggest thing that just ticks them off is the fact that some of the hunters that come on their place through the program drive where ever they want with no thought of staying on the road. They have kicked guys off of planted winter wheat and out of pastures full of cattle. They do turn them into the game wardens, but that's not much because they cannot keep them out.

We do not charge for hunting. When we had a terrible mule deer doe problem we did everything we could to work with FWP and hunters to get this problem fixed. Finding 50 does in your hay is not pleasant. Cleaning up over 100 round bales tore up by deer is not enjoyable.
We finally said enough and told our hunters no more bucks could be shot until the does were brought under control. FWP was not happy about it and told us we could not put restrictions on the hunting. Yes we can.
The does are now under control.
We are now getting calls from other hunters wanting to come hunt, turns out they only want the bucks we now have. Told them it is does only for the new guys, but the hunters that stepped up and helped us can shoot what ever they want this fall as long as it is a 4x4 or better.
Click to expand...

I tell the hunter that come here that if they can't shoot a bug buck take a does. It doesn't seem to work. Too many shoot first and look later. Only a few actually stalk their deer and visually score them first.
What do you do to make sure hunters only take a 4X4?
 
Lease hunting is a way of life in Texas..........been working good many years,as a matter of fact with this droughty weather,there are alot of folks that would have went under without it....good luck

http://www.leasehunter.com/browse-leases.php?gclid=COSHppf_qZECFRpdagodC27qfQ
 
HAY MAKER said:
Lease hunting is a way of life in Texas..........been working good many years,as a matter of fact with this droughty weather,there are alot of folks that would have went under without it....good luck

http://www.leasehunter.com/browse-leases.php?gclid=COSHppf_qZECFRpdagodC27qfQ
Click to expand...



Thanks Haymaker

That was an interesting site.
 
NR I wish you luck. I think your gov'ts in Sask. tend to be somewhat similar to what we have in Ontario now. Little while back we asked our Lib. Minister of Agriculture for help in strengthening trespassing laws here, in part so that we could control who was and wasn't hunting on our lands. We also mentioned the possibility of farmers maybe being able to make some money from promoting hunting on us in future.

Her reply was that the wildlife belonged to the people (think that's a bit off, should be the Crown) and she wouldn't be in favour of any measure that would reduce the people's access to THEIR wildlife for recreational purposes, even if that wildlife was on private property.

She really didn't like when we pointed out that some of us were dealing with tens of thousands of dollars worth of damage from wildlife and maybe if the people were so worried about their wildlife they should pay their fair share of the bill.
 
The hunters that come here are respectful of the rules and are plesant to be around. Some of the area guys have paid hunting and they seem pleased with it also.
 

Latest posts

Top