I got the following email from our club president today. Pisses me off because we have over 7 years there and a ton of improvements that are now for naught. If I have my way there will be no 100 yard Range left when I leave. I built it and I'll be danged if I am going to leave it.


Gents,



I hope all is going well with you. We have a few things to discuss of importance.



First of all, I went to the post office today to pick up a certified letter. It was from Westervelt. A scanned copy is attached. Let me say from the start that I had no idea this was coming, but when our lease ends 5/31/14, they aren’t renewing it, at least where it is today. A dog hunting club wants to lease 30,000 acres, so they are getting our present lease. The guy who wrote the letter said that if we would like to move, they’ll make it happen should an area in Bay or Calhoun County become available.



So, we have until 5/31/14 to:



a. Remove all hunting gear, including stands, ladders, feeders, cables, equipment, etc.

b. Remove all BUILDINGS, including Scottie Ray’s

c. Remove all trailers, cans, boxes, materials

d. Fill in the water hole

e. Fill in the fire pit

f. Remove the shooting bench, and clean up the range.

All turkeys must die then!

WTF!!! Now how do they know for a fact it is a DOG club???? I swear we can't win for loosing... Man, I hate you are loosing your club especially after that long. Maybe they will change there minds.

Sounds like some Westervelt employees like to dog hunt. A prime example about working to try and have a "trophy" club and to only shoot the big ones and save the smaller ones for 3 or 4 years down the road, only have something happen to the land you have no control over, thus it's just urine down the drain. Join the dog club and slip out to your favorite stands.

WE were told by Westervelt that in alabama they do not allow dog deer hunting. Its says so in a friend of mines contract.

Hey, maybe it's a pitbull club. Feel better?

Just kidding Jtapia. That sucks man.

Yep, that sux alright. About 3 yrs ago we lost some really good land after about 16yrs. The fellers there were all like family. It was like a second home.

The accompanying pdf attachment was an image of the Westervelt letter. It specifically said that our area was to become part of a 30,000 acre Dog hunt club that had negotiated with them and it was strictly a "business decision" and they would be happy to relocate us in some of the upcoming vacancies if we felt that would be a direction we wanted to follow.

I don't mind it being a dog hunt club as much as I mind them cancelling our lease after we worked so closely with them when we improved the property. Untold thousands of dollars invested in that place.

Sounds dang sorry to take something from an existing lease holder.... Guess they are getting the family deal....or raising the ante....

Atleast I'd feel safe there!!

Pouring all that money into a lease is crazy to me.

I got one of those letters several years ago from Champion Paper notifying me they were selling our lease to Forever Wild. I was "graciously" given two weeks to remove everything from our lease. I received the letter on October 7th and that was the one week before opening day of bow season. I called and was told we were out of there and would not be reimbursed for the fields we had planted. I told the man from Champion (A Mister Whitehorse or Whitehouse) I would be there that weekend to plow all the fields up and leave them like they were when I leased it. He told me we would be ticketed if we plowed the fields up and I told him meet me at the gate with the ticket book. I hung up and he called me back about an hour later and told me we had a month to hunt the land and the lease would run out Thanksgiving Weekend. I have never been back to the lease and don't plan to. I killed a lot of good deer off of that tract and treated it like my own. I also offered to buy this tract several times and was told it would never be sold. I feel your pain.

well when you call them out there and discuss what they would consider the Ideal lessee and then do what their biologist asked us to do and then some. Do everything by the book and run a good clean trophy club you should have the reasonable expectation that your renewal is automatic as long as we want to be there. We got approval and built roads and a bridge and had community food plots maintained year round that nobody hunted, we were the ideal costumer. That didn't matter though I guess someone offered a dollar an acre more than we were giving.

Did they not offer you a counter bid??

Oddly enough, this area used to be owned by Champion !

Naw. The email is all I any of us got from the club president and the letter they sent him was all he got.
We were scheduled to elect a new president and council of five on the 19th. Our president only serves a year and nothing goes through except through our council of five.

Sure hate to hear that.I know you gotta be pissed!Thats why i dont dump a pile of money in any lease i got.We keep the roads clean,plant food plots and hunt.We are not a "trophy"club but more of a just have fun club.If your happy im happy kinda deal.We dont shoot but just a few does..well actually the kids shoot the does..and they might shoot a couple bucks a season.Hell I've had the land leased for bout 4 yrs now and i dont think I've ever even killed a deer over there.When i leased it i leased it more for the kids than anyone else and to see their faces when they shoot something over there..well it makes it all worth it.Good luck to yall finding more land and i would tell westervelt to lick my balls.Check out www.resourcemgt.com and see if they got anything available in your area.They should start putting up available leases around july.

I would call them myself and get to the bottom of it first hand. Hate it for ya though.

i wouldnt be surprised to see westervelt lodge #2 pop up there. it would be a really good plan, "hey guys instead of spending company money to get this place like we want it we can let some poor sapsucker do the work for us and make money off of them and yank the lease out from under them after deer season to ensure they dont go on a were losing the lease killing spree" they will probably be booking hunts in a few months

If they do, then that is a sorry company..