Maybe Hunting Leases On Private Lands Not Such A Great Idea

The ideal thing for hunters is for every landowner to leave his or her land open to hunting during the various seasons. We know that doesn’t happen for a variety of reasons, one of them being the realization that in some cases a landowner can rake in a sizable hunk of change by selling the hunting rights to his land. In some cases, landowners might be having to rethink that strategy as destruction to crops might be more costly than what they get for a lease.

Back last February, a Moffat County rancher named Rodney Culverwell, started killing elk that he says were destroying his property. He was charged with 16 counts and found guilty on 4 felony counts of illegally killing elk, etc.. He could face jail time and hefty fines of up to $400,000.

Elk trampling crops, knocking down fences and being costly to ranchers in Northwestern Colorado isn’t really new news. Taking the actions Culverwell did is.

Some of what Culverwell claimed in court and even prior to his shooting the elk is that the Colorado Division of Wildlife didn’t do enough to help him protect his property and better manage the herds of elk. Perhaps he is right to some degree but what did Culverwell himself do to help himself other than shoot the elk that were mangling his fence?

Northwest Colorado is promoted as prime elk hunting. Some ads say it is the best in the world. Therefore, landowners can demand pretty inflated prices for a hunting lease. According to testimony at Culverwell’s trial, last year he charged $80,000 for a hunting lease on his own ranch. One would have to begin recalculating the business decision to take the $80,000 considering what happened.

When you sell the lease, as a landowner you may not have the control you would like to get the number of elk off your land. If you were to leave your land open to public hunting, even though sometimes the negatives that come with that angers the landowner, the obvious question then becomes which is the better business choice?

The trend that is sweeping the nation is for hunting leases. I’m not fond of them but understand the why’s and wherefore’s. From a landowner’s perspective, I want to have full control over access to my land. As a hunter, I want affordable access to land so I can hunt. Both the landowner and the hunter, along with the fish and game departments need to manage these game populations which requires a three-way cooperative effort, one that doesn’t always happen.

So, maybe the idea of a hunting lease on private land is now starting to come back and bite the landowner because wildlife managers aren’t able to control populations through the issuing of tags. With exploding populations of game that can be destructive, the landowner is now having to swallow added expenses from the damage caused by the animals.

Some, especially in Colorado, think the answer is to import wolves to control the elk populations. There’s a lot of problems if this should happen and one that I certainly do not support. It’s really a matter of exchanging one set of problems for another. If the elk numbers were reduced, unmanaged populations of wolves would turn around a destroy the ranchers livestock, etc.

Part of the problem landowners face now from wolves is that advocates for sprinkling wolves around the world, continue their lies and deceptive practices. Many people were reluctantly convinced that wolves should be brought into the Yellowstone area. They were told that once populations reached a certain level, state management would take over so that there would be minimal property damage and human conflicts. Once that goal was reached and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service attempted to turn control of the wolf over to the states, wolf advocate groups sued to stop that action.

Now areas in Idaho, Montana and Wyoming have some serious wolf issues and with things tied up in the courts for what could be decades, why would anybody in their right mind willingly bring wolves into the state of Colorado? And why should anyone believe what these groups say now that want wolves brought into the state?

To make wildlife management programs work, requires cooperation from everyone - landowners, hunters and state game departments. Mess up any one of those influences and problems begin to surface.

Tom Remington