Never have I heard a company speak and portray them selves as the best thing that's ever happened for the hunter, when they are the worst! Every club needs to drop their lease and refuse to pay the astronomical price on their land . they will be forced to drop the price and stop raping the average Alabama hunter . Amen!

The question begs to be asked....what happened?

Yep, dont come on here flaming for your first post without giving details.

had property leased for six years, westervelt increasing the rate every year, all the land around me has westervelt and started their clubs the same time and we are charged $4.00 ac more .broken promises to drop our rate to the average in the area, We did 100's of hours of work to improve the land and deer herd , just to be priced out and let someone else rip the benefits. Sound familiar

I am sorry to hear that.

That sucks.I was gonna lease some land from em a few years back,glad I didn't.I lease from RMS and have no complaints.

That sounds exactly like my new club. It is NICE......someone really took care of it before we got it this year. Roads are all cleaned off so my truck don't get scratched up. Shooting lanes all cut out and some nice green fields. Buck to doe ratio is better than anywhere I have seen in that part of Alabama too and there are some big ones running around.

Westervelt sucks. I have a friend and fellow church member that moved here from out of state to work for them. He is a wildlife biologist. He was in charge of the leases in this area. Anyway, he was fired before before Christmas because he "knew" too much. They knew that he knew the crookedness of the company and that he was not going along with their plans. He said that he had been talking to them for 4 years about giving the long time leasors a break with the economy. They declined. They said what we all know, "someone will pay it if they don't like it". He said that he got tired of not helping customers. That the company was not about customer satisfaction.

Just to ask a dumb question here, but unless you had a multi-year lease locked in, why did you spend so much time and money on land that didn't belong to you?

Sounds like they are a typical business operating to make the most profit they can - simple capitalism. It is simply supply and demand.
If you own a company that makes widgets and can sell that widget for $10.00, then why would you price it at $5.00?

I'm not affiliated with them in any way and think lease prices have gotten out of hand, but is it really the company's fault? The consumer drives this train.

Just curious, what are the rates per acre?

Some people just don't get it. Westervelt is a very good company and does a lot for their hunters, more than most timber companies. They expect to get the most revenue out of their property. In fact, their stock holders demand it. You can't blame an owner for asking market price.

If you don't like lease rates buy land or hunt public land. It is that simple. But getting on here and ranting about a company who is proven to be strong into wildlife and hunter satisfaction is asinine.

I have absolutely no affiliation with them but know of their practices. I even know of Bowhunters friend and situation. I still know they are very good to their lessees.

I just don't see it.

I understand ALL the arguments and can actually see both sides of the situation.

The thing I do NOT see is why the rates are increased EVERY year and a mulit-year lease actually costs MORE per acre instead developing relationships and appreciating the care and diligence of most of the leasors and rewarding them by LOWERING the rates or offering discounts for long-term leases.

I will say this about Westervelt. We just this year have gone back to them and negotiated with them about helping us on our cost of our leases we currently have. They have been more than gracious and considerate. They have reduced our lease and are planning on helping us in the future until the economy picks up.

I dont know what yall did, but they have been really helpful with us and even letting us know about good land upcoming for future leases.

I've probably hunted on ten different Gulf States Clubs. They R expensive,you must follow their rules and be able to negotiate.
They always allow big plots,and I've never seen the big mud hole roads you often see on other clubs. People do work on their leases to enrich their hunting experience. No you don't have to do the work,but then what would you have to take pride in ?
Face it Alabama hunters like a well managed club as far as bush hogging, road trimming and road slagging.

If you don't want to pay someone else will. Westervelt is great to work with but like everything else prices are going up.

Im not sure how much land will continue to go up. Right now there is plenty of land to lease anywere in the state. Our club has 19,000 acres and lease from several different companies or land owners. We get plenty of referrals from them about land that is not being leased or is being dropped by existing clubs.

The economy has hit the hunter just as hard or harder than anything else. Especially to clubs that have members from many miles away or out of state... We have seen this in our club.

Gas is making it hard on anything we do now... And nothing is being talked about it anymore.. And guess what.. its going up again...As long as gas is high, our economy will struggle.

Westervelt and RMS are the best in the industry in my opinion. I have very positive dealings with both. Plum Creek is pretty good too but they pay huge bonuses to land mgrs for helping drive lease revenue. The timber industry needs to create a sustainable hunting lease mentality similar to the sustainable forestry programs. There is a huge difference between maximum price/acre and optimal price/acre that can be sustained long term.

Now this is just crazy. It cost $$$$ to be in SFI or FSC and a lot of it. If you create a program for leases like these prices will be even higher.

As for other comments above.

The problem with capitalisim there is someone that will be driving the market. The masses don't have the money like the upper class, but many of the folks with plenty of money are leasing said properties. But if your house was on the market and you could sell it to a wealthy guy for $500,000 or a middle class person for $300,000 what would you do? I know, sell it to the guy for $300,000 cause you are worried about having a good relationship with someone...

That said, there well be a stopping point for lease prices because the market will force it to, but to think and blame it on the folks that are the messengers/employees is ridiculous. We have jobs to do to feed our family just like you. We are in the business of generating income for our company, if we don't we are just another unemployment statistic.

That said, I hope my lessees feel like I take care of them. I do my absolute best to fight for what I think is right and reasonable, but at the end of the day I have to do my job to the best of my ability.

I have no problem with companies making money, but the customer should matter! When you say if you don't like it hunt somewhere else; we will lease it to someone else , this what was told to me by a westervelt employee after I asked for some relief on the land price per acre, cause I was paying $4.00 more than all my neighbors that started at the same time I did . Then was called back by said employee saying that I was right and he would put me at the average price in the area the next contract renewal, which was the next year. This being said we continued to manage the land and put money into it to better the wildlife year round, thinking that all was good, being that the land would drop in price and we would be there for the long term. The rug was pulled out from under us, westervelt going back on their word and not only did they not go down in price but increased the price, what a slap in the face! Over the years we spent thousands of $'s with this company and did everything right and was told that we were a model club many times, to end, I read and believed that westervelt is here for the long term leaser , hunters that bought into the westervelt way of managing property and wildlife, to be successful in business the customer should matter most, ones that never cause problems, pay on time, make your assets better than they were before we got there, They lost a great customer due to greed, SIMPLE!