if so it will be many years , way to much natural gas coming out of that area right now

All valid points. I would be interested to see the amount of public land gained vs the amount lost in the last 20 years. Didn’t the size of Coosa WMA get cut in half a few years back?

Just remember - if you were the landowner - you wouldn’t cut a deal with the state to have it for public hunting in the first place. And if for some reason you did - you would be trying to get out first chance you could.

Any land in the WMA system that is in a lease of any kind, is subject to being gone at anytime.

I’m almost positive we’ve lost somewhere in the range of 50-75,000 acres of public in the last 15 years. We may have added 20,000 back.

Unfortunately, this is true. The leases signed many years ago when Charles Kelley was Game & Fish director, and prior, are either gone or starting to expire or will soon. The landowners are in it to make money, get tax breaks or whatever else they can. Few, if any, are providing land for WMAs out of the goodness of their hearts.

As to what can be done to obtain more land for WMAs, it's unlikely it will happen solely for WMA use unless other entities are involved like the land trusts, Nature Conservancy, DU and NWTF, etc. The examples about Forever Wild are valid - they're "public" lands but only to a point because many exclude hunting. I don't know of any WMAs that exclude bird watching or camping or hiking or communing with nature.

Charles told me once years ago one of his biggest regrets was not finding more ways to buy land -- not lease it -- and getting Legislators on board with that. He knew the leases were a stopgap and would disappear one day.

A lot of WMA's are also Corp of Engineer or TVA land. They are usually leased to the state for $1.00 a year, but the ACOE or TVA can pull that lease whenever they choose for whatever project they have to work on.

Most COE land is open to public hunting anyway even if it is not inside the wma program.

I hate to hear you lost your honeyhole Southwood. I actually found that area towards the end of turkey season and was really looking forward to scouting it for next year. Looked like some great woods. They've cut a lot of trees in the last few years on the Helena side. It will be the back side of Old Cahaba subdivision in the next ten years.

I hunted a few times at cahaba this year, first time. I'll say it's got a completely different feel than what I was expecting. Very "timber company"-ish and not particularly pretty or well managed for diverse timber stands. Zero WMA placards on trees, not a one that I saw that states you were hunting a WMA. I actually got a note from the GW about blocking the gate, first time that's ever happened and I've logged many hours in another WMA, suggesting they do a decent amount of work behind those gates even in season. Much more like a massive hunting lease than a publicly funded piece of hunting ground.

Coosa got cut a lot more than that. It was around 35,000 acres not too many years ago, and I am pretty sure it was over 40,000 at one time. The problem was that most of it was owned by timber companies, and they pulled it out so that it could be leased. Most of that land was owned by Kimberly Clark for decades and they let the state have it for very little money. When they sold out, the new owners were not interested in giving it away, and you can't blame them.

Most of it has been sold more than once, and FW bought a block of 10,000 acres and that is about all that is left of the WMA. The timber company was willing to sell another 10,000 acres, and FW was interested in buying it, but our county commission opposed the sale because they didn't want to lose the property tax money. I thought that was very short sighted, but they didn't ask me. That soil is very poor and carried the lowest possible appraisal rating. I know that the taxes on it were 50 cents an acre not too many years ago, and even if they have doubled since then the tract wouldn't have brought in enough money to pay the salary of even one commissioner.

I don't know what the agenda was, but someone had an agenda that was unrelated to that very small amount of property tax. It worked; the land was sold to another company and now the public doesn't even have access to the creeks.

The state giveth the state taketh away!

The state is under the thumb of the landowner. If you're a landowner and could develop "wilderness" or let the state have it for a pittance so people can chase turkeys and wood goats, that's a no-brainer.

Who owns the land that is being lost?

In the FL panhandle, all the best WMAs were timber company lands leased to the state. Around the mid to late 80s it became much more profitable to lease those lands to hunting clubs and we lost most of our quality public hunting land here. I will say that the first year of a WMA switching to hunting club always produced the largest bucks for that club. I have seen no exception to this and I think it is because baiting becomes legal and there are some mature bucks around that are susceptible to it when it first starts. Once they all get whacked that first year, none ever live long enough to get to that age again.

daylate, who was the big timber company that owned all the Panhandle land but sold or developed it (Seagrove, "30-A" areas), or leased it?

I know the state lost 19,480 acres in Clarke Cty and I know why they lost it.

Under the leadership of Chucky the state will probably lose more if I were a betting man!

When I lived in Alabaster there were rumors flying around back then the state would lose some if not all of the Cahaba WMA. I guess over the years that has slowly started playing out.

To be fair to the landowners, I would never give up my family's land to the state after seeing the leadership go all in on theories while wasting thousands of our hard earned dollars on "turkey research". Absolutely will I not allow Chucky and gang ruin our land that we have worked hard on improving.

Yep, over a snake.

Does anyone know if the state has any property leased in the WMA system where they pay the going rate and not these $1/99 year leases?

I’m curious what their budget allows for land leases or land purchases

That’s a great question

Probably St joe paper company.