Duck Hunting Land Trust

[lovetogrouse]

Hi Everyone,

I'd like to understand people's appetite towards donating money to create a Washington-focused land trust aimed at acquiring waterfowl hunting lands for the sole purpose of creating habitat and providing more public hunting opportunities.

I'm inspired by success stories such as Samish Wildlife Area and Skagit Headquarters Unit. While they are by no means perfect (hunters have to deal with skybusters, trash, and competition for blinds), they are far better than nothing. Personally, I don't think I would have developed my love of duck hunting without lands like Samish.

I'm imagining something like the Western Rivers Conservancy, where the sole focus is to acquire, preserve, and then hand off hunting lands, ideally to the WDFW. Land development in the region is not going to stop, and there's no time like the present to start conserving land.

Love my idea? Hate it? I'd love to hear your feedback. Both in terms of its viability and the amount you think you or your friends would donate if such a thing existed.

[metlhead]

Meh, not really intetested. Just another organisation that would eventually create it's own agenda from the top. Might be a place to go but would be mediocre hunting at best without severly restricted hunt time which is similar to refuge hunting. Lame. Great idea to curb development though and help habitat. More private access to discourage leasing may work

[PatoLoco]

The Skagit chapter of the Washington Waterfowl Association tried to get something like this going about 15 years ago, which they called the Heritage Lands Program. You can do some googling and find out more about it. Long story short, get out your checkbook. And then keep it out. Farmland in northwest WA is expensive. Managing land for ducks is expensive. Finding farmland for sale in an acreage that makes sense, while also in a location that makes sense, is a tall order. Add to that the big money coming in with groups like Duck Camp.... you'd have some competition.

But I like the idea. The more food and managed areas for ducks the better. And even better if it is open to the public.

[JBG]

In the short term we could focus on getting more support for WDFW to contract with landowners to get them to allow public access on some of their fields.  Maybe get a private donation fund set up thru WWA that would directly help WDFW pay farmers for public access. 
WDFW got the farmed island and now cant keep it specifically for hunting due to the legislature stating that all public lands in WA need to prioritize salmon recovery which is why they wont fix the dikes and turning the island back to a tidal estuary. 

[Chesterdog]

The Skagit Island Unit had an old Eagle Scout project on it that was nearly 100 years old.  How many of those do you think are in existence and still being used every fall weekend?  The natives can claim that lands are culturally significant and the sate shivers with goosebumps and bends over.  Skagit Island Unit was something that I would consider "culturally significant" to myself and my family.  That was until they flooded the Island in order for Insley and the state to collect federal $$ because they could prove that they care about salmon by sacrificing the most productive hunting unit west of the cascades.  Normally when they do something like this to a group with power and authority, it's written into the project that they have to mitigate the loss by providing a new opportunity of available land to offset the loss.  In this case it did not happen and westside hunters lost an opportunity that would be comparable for Eastsiders to Potholes being killed for salmon recovery.  Every time I hear people on the East complain about Wet siders sliding over the pass and invading their spots, I think "well, you should have spoken up when they gutted all of our spots over here."
In my view, WDFW had a responsibility to require some kind of mitigation to the hunting community for the loss of access to the most productive unit in the state and didn't, which is a huge failure.

[high_hunter]

In the short term we could focus on getting more support for WDFW to contract with landowners to get them to allow public access on some of their fields.  Maybe get a private donation fund set up thru WWA that would directly help WDFW pay farmers for public access. 
WDFW got the farmed island and now cant keep it specifically for hunting due to the legislature stating that all public lands in WA need to prioritize salmon recovery which is why they wont fix the dikes and turning the island back to a tidal estuary.

This is essentially the PLHO program. It's had varied success but is still going & growing. Maybe WWA or other NGO's could provide donations to WDFW but it could be difficult to ensure it goes directly to this PLHO or similar access programs.
https://privatelands.wdfw.wa.gov/private_lands/search.php

As far as the OPs question, good idea but as others have said, may be difficult to put into practice without deep pockets.  Possibly better using an existing organisation to divert funds & energies towards this effort. 

[Stein]

I was with you until the part where you hand it off to WDFW.  Might as well save time and just flood it yourself.

It's doable, but expensive as noted.  Guys with big check books aren't going to want to have shot raining down on them from the guy 50 yards on either side.

What is probably needed is something equivalent to RMEF, certainly the existing waterfowl organizations aren't interested.

[knob221]

I've been wondering the same thing. The system is broken.

The PLHO program is a joke the way it works right now. Fields that you can hunt any time without reservation don't hold birds, and the "quality" hunts have to be reserved two weeks ahead of time. Who knows if conditions will be right or birds will be using it on the day your reservation comes around?

Know Where to Hunt Club is gobbling up private land access, is charging an arm and a leg for membership, and has a waitlist to get in anyways.

Samish is absolute garbage, I'm sorry. The sky busting is insane. I think we need a unified effort to pressure WDFW to improve things. The PLHO system is broken and a waste of money. Samish is an absolute hot mess and I don't know what the solution is other than to spread people out by giving folks other places to go. They still owe us replacement lands from the conversion of Headquarters to tidelands. Fixing those things could go a long way, but groups have to be organized and unified in their demmands to WDFW.

As far as creating a private or NGO organization as you mentioned, I have a large appetite for it. I think the big money hunt clubs need to be challenged or we will end up like Europe. Something the average guy could afford, but would keep out the rif-raf or complete novice waterfowlers that create the problems at Samish. A budget hunt club that maybe isn't as high quality, but still has opportunity. Rules to keep people behaving appropriately and ethically. Perhaps throw in some volunteer requirements and maybe land owners would be open to the cause of keeping hunt access accessible to more people.

These are initial thoughts on the matter. DM me and I'd be happy to exchange numbers and talk more.

[PatoLoco]

WDFW could start to show some acknowledgement of loss of hunting areas by eliminating the 3 game reserves in Skagit County that they already own. I wonder if there has ever been a unified push from hunters to do that?

[lovetogrouse]

Meh, not really intetested. Just another organisation that would eventually create it's own agenda from the top. Might be a place to go but would be mediocre hunting at best without severly restricted hunt time which is similar to refuge hunting. Lame. Great idea to curb development though and help habitat. More private access to discourage leasing may work

Thanks for the feedback, I really appreciate it!

I agree with your point about the danger of self-serving non-profits. I think the ideal model would focus fundraising around specific parcels. That way you'd know exactly where your money was going and what you were going to get out of it. The Bainbridge Island Land Trust is a good model in my opinion. https://www.bi-landtrust.org/protected-space/grand/

On another note, I think that saying that a land trust would bring mediocre hunting misses the forest for the trees: any new public hunting land will relieve pressure on our other hunting lands such as Samish. To me it's a win-win.

[lovetogrouse]

The Skagit chapter of the Washington Waterfowl Association tried to get something like this going about 15 years ago, which they called the Heritage Lands Program. You can do some googling and find out more about it. Long story short, get out your checkbook. And then keep it out. Farmland in northwest WA is expensive. Managing land for ducks is expensive. Finding farmland for sale in an acreage that makes sense, while also in a location that makes sense, is a tall order. Add to that the big money coming in with groups like Duck Camp.... you'd have some competition.

But I like the idea. The more food and managed areas for ducks the better. And even better if it is open to the public.

Agreed, I think you'd need mega-donors to get this to work. 100 donors donating $10K each to buy a $1M parcel is easier to organize than 10,000 $100 donors.

[lovetogrouse]

I was with you until the part where you hand it off to WDFW.  Might as well save time and just flood it yourself.

It's doable, but expensive as noted.  Guys with big check books aren't going to want to have shot raining down on them from the guy 50 yards on either side.

What is probably needed is something equivalent to RMEF, certainly the existing waterfowl organizations aren't interested.

Agreed. Something like RMEF, but with a Northwestern Washington focus would be great.

With all of the development and leasing going on in Western Washington, I feel like now is the best time to act.

[lovetogrouse]

I've been wondering the same thing. The system is broken.

The PLHO program is a joke the way it works right now. Fields that you can hunt any time without reservation don't hold birds, and the "quality" hunts have to be reserved two weeks ahead of time. Who knows if conditions will be right or birds will be using it on the day your reservation comes around?

Know Where to Hunt Club is gobbling up private land access, is charging an arm and a leg for membership, and has a waitlist to get in anyways.

Samish is absolute garbage, I'm sorry. The sky busting is insane. I think we need a unified effort to pressure WDFW to improve things. The PLHO system is broken and a waste of money. Samish is an absolute hot mess and I don't know what the solution is other than to spread people out by giving folks other places to go. They still owe us replacement lands from the conversion of Headquarters to tidelands. Fixing those things could go a long way, but groups have to be organized and unified in their demmands to WDFW.

As far as creating a private or NGO organization as you mentioned, I have a large appetite for it. I think the big money hunt clubs need to be challenged or we will end up like Europe. Something the average guy could afford, but would keep out the rif-raf or complete novice waterfowlers that create the problems at Samish. A budget hunt club that maybe isn't as high quality, but still has opportunity. Rules to keep people behaving appropriately and ethically. Perhaps throw in some volunteer requirements and maybe land owners would be open to the cause of keeping hunt access accessible to more people.

These are initial thoughts on the matter. DM me and I'd be happy to exchange numbers and talk more.

I appreciate your input. I'm less in favor of hunt clubs and more in favor of a long term solution that involves setting aside land in perpetuity. To me the problem with hunt clubs is that they are unstable and depend on management and leaseholders, each of whom can change at a moment's notice.

Personally, I'd rather take my chances with WDFW than a hunt club. I do think the WDFW has a good track record of land management in spite of their salmon habitat management.