np307
Well-known member
For years I have held a significant amount of skepticism for the future of hunting in my area. This skepticism isn't driven because of regional politics, people in this area are very pro-hunting. It isn't driven because of species declines, deer and turkey are doing relatively well. Turkey populations across the rest of the SE have seen declines but thus far we have been somewhat insulated from this decline. My skepticism has been driven by watching development after development pop up and wood lot after wood lot cut down.
I know complaining about housing developments on old hunting ground is nothing new. Reading Morgan's biography of Boone years ago drove deep into my mind the awareness that the ground I grew up on, Boone had hunted and then escaped because the hunting declined as the people moved in. Various runs of that cycle have occurred since that day. I once spoke to a man about the house I grew up in and he lamented to me that he ran coon dogs through those woods as a boy.
On the other side of the coin though, I've watched what happens when economic growth is nonexistent or negative. Addiction and poverty have too long gripped forgotten mill towns and rural communities. I was a youth pastor in a very rural area for a while. The stories of opioid addiction that grip students I once taught are brutal and harrowing. Obviously drugs and suburbs aren't mutually exclusive, but the rate of young adults strung out where I am now and where I was then is strikingly different.
Regardless of my personal feeling on housing developments encompassing what used to be hunting land, it's going to keep happening as long as the population grows. It's simply outside of my sphere of influence to remotely begin curbing the appetite of progress. That weighs heavy on my mind sometimes as I walk through the woods. I've often questioned how long my son will be able to enjoy the same spots I hunt right now.
This turkey season, some of that fear was realized. Public hunting land in NC comes in a few different categories, but all are lumped under the heading of "game lands". Some game lands are national forest, some are state owned land, and the rest are privately owned lands that are enrolled in the game lands program. This is very similar to walk-in areas out west.
NC doesn't come to the top of most people's list when they think of public land, especially to yall out west, but we aren't without a couple million acres of it. Of course, there's plenty of people on those couple million acres including non-hunting users so it can be crowded at times.
So late in turkey season, a bunch of signs went up on some privately owned game lands that I like to hunt. Quite a few chunks of land, most of them several hundred acres each. Land chunks like this are extremely helpful to have because it allows the animals using those chunks to be less influenced by what's happening on private land nearby. In total, the acreage that these "for sale" signs went on add up to about 5000 acres. The sum total of the asking prices is $89 million. The sales ads are all pitched toward land developers putting lake houses on them.
There's a lot of people upset about this land being sold. A lot of people are incorrectly blaming the state for selling it or hoping to petition to stop it. I really can't blame the company that owns the land. They're cash strapped and these land assets are a great stop-gap measure from their perspective. Obviously I hate to see the land sold. I've had some good hunts on this land. Losing this much acreage in this area of the state will only make the crowding on the other public land worse.
Stories like this are the reason the early conservationists moved to protect certain chunks of land. Places shielded by the unending march of progress. Public land transfer is quite the hot topic these days and there are many calls for public land to "pull its own weight" for budgetary reasons. Personally, I can't think of any greater reason for public lands to exist than the guarantee that future generations will have somewhere to go. Something wild left to see. I hope we can hold on to it.
I know complaining about housing developments on old hunting ground is nothing new. Reading Morgan's biography of Boone years ago drove deep into my mind the awareness that the ground I grew up on, Boone had hunted and then escaped because the hunting declined as the people moved in. Various runs of that cycle have occurred since that day. I once spoke to a man about the house I grew up in and he lamented to me that he ran coon dogs through those woods as a boy.
On the other side of the coin though, I've watched what happens when economic growth is nonexistent or negative. Addiction and poverty have too long gripped forgotten mill towns and rural communities. I was a youth pastor in a very rural area for a while. The stories of opioid addiction that grip students I once taught are brutal and harrowing. Obviously drugs and suburbs aren't mutually exclusive, but the rate of young adults strung out where I am now and where I was then is strikingly different.
Regardless of my personal feeling on housing developments encompassing what used to be hunting land, it's going to keep happening as long as the population grows. It's simply outside of my sphere of influence to remotely begin curbing the appetite of progress. That weighs heavy on my mind sometimes as I walk through the woods. I've often questioned how long my son will be able to enjoy the same spots I hunt right now.
This turkey season, some of that fear was realized. Public hunting land in NC comes in a few different categories, but all are lumped under the heading of "game lands". Some game lands are national forest, some are state owned land, and the rest are privately owned lands that are enrolled in the game lands program. This is very similar to walk-in areas out west.
NC doesn't come to the top of most people's list when they think of public land, especially to yall out west, but we aren't without a couple million acres of it. Of course, there's plenty of people on those couple million acres including non-hunting users so it can be crowded at times.
So late in turkey season, a bunch of signs went up on some privately owned game lands that I like to hunt. Quite a few chunks of land, most of them several hundred acres each. Land chunks like this are extremely helpful to have because it allows the animals using those chunks to be less influenced by what's happening on private land nearby. In total, the acreage that these "for sale" signs went on add up to about 5000 acres. The sum total of the asking prices is $89 million. The sales ads are all pitched toward land developers putting lake houses on them.
There's a lot of people upset about this land being sold. A lot of people are incorrectly blaming the state for selling it or hoping to petition to stop it. I really can't blame the company that owns the land. They're cash strapped and these land assets are a great stop-gap measure from their perspective. Obviously I hate to see the land sold. I've had some good hunts on this land. Losing this much acreage in this area of the state will only make the crowding on the other public land worse.
Stories like this are the reason the early conservationists moved to protect certain chunks of land. Places shielded by the unending march of progress. Public land transfer is quite the hot topic these days and there are many calls for public land to "pull its own weight" for budgetary reasons. Personally, I can't think of any greater reason for public lands to exist than the guarantee that future generations will have somewhere to go. Something wild left to see. I hope we can hold on to it.
