Will our descendants have anywhere to hunt?

[Muzzleloader]

As condos and houses go up left and right, I wonder, will future generations have anywhere to hunt. Large woodlots are being clear cut for development left and right. Here is a post and the first comment under it from today, for example.

New Hampshire Deer Hunter​

Mathew Bouchard · 19m ·

I'm not posting this for debate I'm posting this out of respect to my fellow hunters.
If you hunt in Windham, NH on Rockingham Road (Route 28) and you have have a nice ladder stand in there along the swamp as well as a couple cameras I'm letting you know that we are going to be doing a clear cut in there for a large condo unit. We are suppose to be starting this week and next week with getting the rest of the flagging done. This meaning the stand will be removed by the property owners as well as the cameras. Unfortunately this stand is on property that has 2 Keep out signs and no identifying contact info on the stand... BUT instead of them removing it yesterday I asked if I could atleast try to find the owner before is removed.
The property was starting to be flagged yesterday so there has been surveying going on. The sad part is there is some really nice buck sign in there as well as I got to see a nice buck near your stand yesterday while it was vacant. SO.... Needless to to say, I will not give the location as I don't want your stuff to get legs and walk away but if you have a stand on Rockingham Road in Windham, NH I suggest checking the area. If you see the flagging tape throughout the road you walk in on I'm doing my due diligence and letting you know first!!!








4 Comments


Nathan Wolanyk
Damn.
One of my hunting areas is getting flagged as well for development. Makes me a little sad.

 

[mowbizz]

I used to hunt in that stretch (many moons ago)
Some big suburban bucks roam those areas…a least the developer is giving g someone a chance to get his stuff out but what are the chances the owner of the stand sees that post?

 

[NH Hunter]

Hunters make up less than 4% of the US population according to a quick google search. How many of that number serve on any sort of conservation committee in their town, volunteer for any organization from NH wildlife federation to trout unlimited? Then we as hunters whine about developments , cutting, "sanctuary "donations of land. How many take the time in March to educate themselves on hunting and fishing related legislation. For the record..... "involvement" doesn't mean a "like" or "retweet".

Instead..... we as hunters make sure we have OUR little slice of heaven , keeping out every other hunter. Only worried about killing that buck TODAY, not about who gets to kill one in the future. Hell.....we even put their names in books with their antlers scores like they're some kind of folk hero. Ironic since the P&Y and B&C was designed to recognize the animal , not necessarily the hunter who killed the animal. We even f-ed that up.

Does it suck? YUP!!! Is it likely to happen regardless if we are involved or not? Probably, but at least we'd be giving a fight and not just sitting on our assess complaining.

 

[jht2224]

Tough topic…..everyone has a right to earn a living and put food on the table for their family. If someone spends the $$ to buy a property and follows all of the regulations that are in place to develop that land, well then what can anyone do?

Our family recently lost a plot of land that we had permission to hunt on since 1967…my dad killed his first buck their as did I. Really sucked to see it turned into a 60 house sub division. For us it was rough to lose all the memories that we had built there over 50 yrs. BUT we didn’t own the land so not our decision as to what happened to it. Our family sits on several boards on our town that govern such projects. That being said if all rules are followed who are we to try and take food off the table of the developers. Again really tough topic and something i contemplate often as I look at my young children. I just don’t know what the solution is….I guess get involved and stay involved and continue to teach our youngsters what we believe in.

 

[NH Hunter]

Completely agree⬆

I hunt an area that is owned by a private school. During Covid they walked THEIR land and flagged it for mountain bike trails all over the mountain. As you can imagine the deer runs were the first areas they found and the easiest to convert to trails. They brought mini excavators in.

I avoid the area now. But it was their land to do what the want. I get it, agree with it, and understand it. Imagine if we as a group of hunters had an organization that we could contribute to for the purchase of forests that welcome hunter FIRST. As a whole the hunters contribute 8 billion dollars to hunting related purchases. I bet WE as a group could own some serious acreage that could assure our tradition.

However that would require thinking about tomorrow , not just killing a deer today.