I was told by my friend that owns land in Portland that forever wild is in the process of buying the remaining land that Portland landing still owns. supposedly it will be the land from the old hit and miss lodge all the way to the river. Bad news for us but good news for other hunters in Alabama. word is that it will be an s.o.a hunting area.
Hopefully it will give us hunters that put in for the soa hunts a better chance at being drawn. one more thing, I've been hunting that area for 9 or 10 years and I've never seen a black painter so no need to be scared.

I've seen a lot of black painters, especially in the Selma area. They don't come out till night though. Sometimes you can see a few of em in the spray paint aisle at Walmart.

Good for LA. I hope they don't buy another square foot in Jackson Co.

The Coosa co commission has told them to quit buying land in Coosa co. They've only bought a little over 10,000 acres that is part of the WMA, but the commission is complaining about the lost tax revenue. What I don't understand is that is some of the worst land in the state and was taxed at the lowest rate. It didn't bring in enough money to even pay one commissioner salary.

I heard that FW was gonna buy another 10,000 acres but backed out. So now that land is out of the WMA and leased to a club. Yet the county tries to promote itself as a great place for outdoor recreation. It can't be that if there is no access. I used to float Weogufka creek often, but now all the gates are locked.

My Daddy's in Law Enforcement and he told me this is true. Actually, it is a friend that is knowledgeable of the situation. It will expand the Cedar Creek SOA.

I remember hunting up there when Portland was still a hunting lodge. I think we hunted it the last year they were running it. Some fine hunting there

Wish I had voted against forever wild now that this soa crap is starting up

Why? I think it’s great. One of the best things the DCNR has done in a long time IMO.

Here we go again.

If you're a timber land owner in those counties, you'll figure out quick where the tax shortfall from FW is coming from.

Beadle's right. It really sucks that all this land can't be cut for timber, mined, quarried or otherwise developed in some way. If only the government would just get out of the land ownership business and let private investors have everything, including all the refuges, national parks, national monuments and beaches.

I think FW timber gets cut on Skyline.

Yea I agree. It keeps the pressure down for the ones lucky enough to get drawn and gives them the opportunity to harvest a really nice deer possibly. If it was a regular wma it would be crap in less than 3-4 years with 3-500 people hunting it every hunt.

I imagine, but don't know, that timber is cut on all their land as long as it falls in line with sound wildlife management practices.

As far as tax shortfalls, certainly that is going to happen, but I can't see them being that huge in a multi million dollar budget the gov't has.

Doesn't FW pay the taxes on this land? At one point I heard they did. Anyways, more quality public hunting land can't be a bad thing in itself unless you are an elitist that believes hunting is a sport reserved for royalty. If you are, medieval England harkens for thou's presence.

That timber was under an existing contract when the land sold. I know the contract holder had a few years left to get the remaining timber out. Not sure if FW has had any new timber sales on that property. CD.

I do own timber land in Coosa Co and the FW purchase had no effect on my taxes at all. If FW had bought the entire Coosa WMA we would not have lost enough tax money to pay the salary for one commissioner. I would rather the WMA still exist and cut back one commissioner, but of course that wasn't an option. Or I would rather pay one more mill of property tax and that would have been more than enough to cover the loss and we would still have the WMA.

On the other hand, taxes on my land in Perry county has gone up over 50% in the past 10 years due to reappraisal and the county also voted in a new tax for the schools. I really don't mind paying that if they will use it well, but I am in the minority of landowners who feel that way.

I just really feel bad about the loss of our WMA, and it really bothers me that there was a way to save it and it was stopped in order to save a very small amount of money. It might even be a net loss to the county - people who would have come here and spent money to hunt, fish, hike, etc, will now go spend their money somewhere else. We likely lose more in sales tax than we saved on the property tax.

I guess you know not to count it being used well here in the Blackbelt and that has nothing to do with FW. Just local politics.

I got to hunt the old hit and miss land back in the 70's. Nothing like it. Opening day used to be on Fridays and I can remember we killed 30 rack bucks on opening day and some of them were giants.

Per Jeff Arnold, Jackson County Revenue Commish, FW/State of Alabama DOES NOT pay property tax. Jackson Co. has the largest amount of FW land in the state, when it's taken off the tax rolls it's gone forever, no pun intended.

Don't know why folks South of here haven't been screaming for years for FW to purchase land in their counties and stop trying to buy all of Jackson.

When it hit's Coosa Co. they are losing tax $ and FW is paying 2-3 times the worth of land, the tax collector will come calling.