Originally Posted by turkey247
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.



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.

"Hunting Politics are stupid!" - Farm Hunter

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