Know Where To Hunt Club

[knob221]

This is regarding the club in the title, located in Snohomish, Skagit, and Whatcom counties.

This is the website if you are unfamiliar.   https://www.kwth.com/

Would love to hear people's thoughts on this. There was a previous thread on this from 2015, but wanting to revitalize it. The club has grown significantly in the amount of land they're leasing, and I'm assuming membership too. It seems like about half of the fields around Fir Island have been leased by this club, they have the KWTH signs in them.

A membership in 2026 cost $3,400. Membership prices are expected to rise every year. There is a cap on how many members and you already have to join a waitlist to get in. The amount of fields they lease has grown every year and is getting substantial. Surely they will keep gobbling up hunting access at this trajectory.

Seems like a great option if you can afford it. The days of knocking on doors for free private access are long gone anyways, and now you can get access to hundreds of fields in one membership instead of being locked into one lease that may or may not be holding birds when you want to go hunting. Now you have the ability to get on birds consistently if you can afford it.

The flip side is of course, quality waterfowl has become privatized and monetized so that only the wealthy can play. Seems like we're turning into the European model. With the Skagit Headquarters/Island Unit/ game farm being completely abandoned this year and staged for intertidal restoration next year, it seems that the futue is one where only the wealthy will get to experience the joy of hunting waterfowl over crops.

Before you mention the WDFW Private Land Hunting Opportunity program or Samish Unit, I know they exist. Those are pretty much jokes from my experience. Thats a whole other discussion.

[knighttime25]

I honestly dislike the club, only because my local hunting access has been cut down over the years due to everything they have leased. I grew up in Skagit Valley and went to school and played sports with all the farmers kids, so access was never an issue. I'm not in favor of the club but I get the point of it from the hunter's perspective and the farmer. Now that my kids are getting old enough to come along, I wish that they could experience what I had growing up. Just my 

[Bearhunter]

The club appears to be primarily driven by revenue generation. There should be a reasonable cap on how much land any one entity can control. I fully support duck clubs in principle, but KWTH feels different—it operates less like a traditional hunting club and more like a large business designed to maximize profit for the owner.

Rather than locking down as much land as possible, why not focus on a limited number of properties and invest in making them exceptional places to hunt? The current approach seems to be about acquiring every available parcel and continually increasing membership to boost revenue. While that may be an effective business model, it raises the question: at what cost?

This trend ultimately limits access and leaves fewer opportunities for our kids and future generations, unless they have the financial means to buy their way in.

If the club and land locked up continues to grow there really will be NO WHERE TO HUNT...

[JJJ]

The club appears to be primarily driven by revenue generation. There should be a reasonable cap on how much land any one entity can control. I fully support duck clubs in principle, but KWTH feels different—it operates less like a traditional hunting club and more like a large business designed to maximize profit for the owner.

Rather than locking down as much land as possible, why not focus on a limited number of properties and invest in making them exceptional places to hunt? The current approach seems to be about acquiring every available parcel and continually increasing membership to boost revenue. While that may be an effective business model, it raises the question: at what cost?

This trend ultimately limits access and leaves fewer opportunities for our kids and future generations, unless they have the financial means to buy their way in.

If the club and land locked up continues to grow there really will be NO WHERE TO HUNT...

Exactly.... And we wonder why the number of hunters are decreasing....

[knob221]

If you're against it, do you have any ideas on solutions?

[Stein]

Agree with the above. Much, if not most of the properties that are no longer available on WDFW's private lands program have simply been outbid by groups including them.  There are others as well and every year we loose a couple, almost always the better properties.

That said, I'm not opposed to paying for access to private land but I would (and am) going east and paying a guide vs paying a pretty large amount to those guys for a crapshoot.  The properties they have that I'm familiar with don't hold birds all the time, you still need to scout and figure out where to book and then compete with other members who are also want to reserve the same properties.

For $3,400 you could hire a guide on proven properties for 10 days give or take.

[bear]

Not a fan of this club.  It took away land that I used to be able to hunt for free.  Don’t think it’s a positive thing for hunting access

[JJJ]

I guess some homemade cookies and pie for the landowner days are over.....

[storyteller]

I share Steins sentiment, I would rather go east and pay a guide.    Not a fan of the European  model.

[MADMAX]

It’s no different than the Weyerhaeuser and Rayonier access hunt clubs IMO.
Not a fan

[full choke]

I share Steins sentiment, I would rather go east and pay a guide.    Not a fan of the European  model.

What do you think is going on over east with the guides? same/same

[storyteller]

Last weekend, went over for a guided hunt, the guide supplied DSD decoys.   Our group of 6 came back with 10 honkers, we blew the last bunch that came in or we would have had 14.   I think overall their are more birds in Eastern Washington, Grant county has some of the largest harvest numbers in the state.

[ghosthunter]

I started duck hunting 27 years ago when I bought my first lab. Back then my primary hunting was at the Samish unit. 12 years in I bought my 2 nd lab and my grandson was old enough to come with me.
We would often head out from the parking lot at 1 am ,claim a spot, and sleep under a tarp till shooting time.  About the 20 year mark the dog is older and I am to the point of not interested in the competition of getting a spot.
This year at 74 and the dog is 13, we get up look at the weather and if rains go back to bed.
I didn’t buy a stamp till Christmas.

I be been out once hunting private access sites. But some of them now have gone to online reservation only. Which I am not interested in doing.

When this club first started I was approached at work to join it. At that time it was $1400.00. I declined. I have a lot of better uses for my money than paying to kill a few ducks.

This will be my last year probably buying a waterfowl stamp. My dog is old and when she’s gone if I get another it will be a spaniel and I will concentrate on grouse. I can do that for five months and the cost of gas with little or no competition. Maybe a Dakota Trip with friends.

It seems there is a new requirement every year to hunt private land owner sites.

Just tired of all the hoops.

[JJJ]

It’s no different than the Weyerhaeuser and Rayonier access hunt clubs IMO.
Not a fan

EXACTLY....

[JJJ]

I share Steins sentiment, I would rather go east and pay a guide.    Not a fan of the European  model.

What do you think is going on over east with the guides? same/same

Even MORE exactly..... unfortunately...

[PatoLoco]

I'm seeing more and more KWTH and Duck Camp signs going up everywhere as well. I'm not a fan of either, but at least Duck Camp seems to be investing in planting food for ducks and geese, instead of the KWTH fields which all look to be whatever is left from harvest with nothing planted except maybe a cover crop. Correct me if I'm wrong but that is what I have seen. There is no way I would pay to sit in some of those fields.

I, too, have lost access to a couple fields I used to hunt because of KWTH.

Rough times for the public land hunter in Skagit County, and it doesn't look like it's ever going to get better. I'm glad I was around for the last 12 years or so of well managed duck food and amazing hunts on the Farmed Island up until the dike breached in 2021.

[RobinHoodlum]

I'm a Skagit Valley lifer and was an avid duck hunter. Worked in ag early in life at a time when landowners in the flats giving permission when asked was the norm. IMO, 4 things have all but ruined DIY hunting opportunities here on private AND public: 1) trespassers, 2) slobs who don't pick up after themselves, 3) clubs like KWTH, 4) DFW's "quality" hunting program. #1 &  #2 opened the door for #3 & #4

[EnglishSetter]

I see nothing "untypical".  There's more people who want access than the land will accommodate so the private land goes to those willing to pay.

I had friends who paid $4000 for a duck blind in rice country that was nothing special. 

Growing up we had a family membership in American Sportsman's Club.  They leased land for a variety of hunting.  No real improvements, but limited access.  Then they hire "officers up the club, salesmen, etc.) with pretty decent salaries.  Pretty soon it's a business vs a hunt club.  They sell more memberships without corresponding increase in properties.  Members get frustrated that they paid this $$$ and still can't get on the property, so they quit paying their membership dues.  Club goes defunct.  Members from the defunct club, start a new club, with many of the same properties since they have the contacts.  Lather, rinse, repeat.

As for outfits like Weyerhaeuser, .Gov COULD strike a deal for access since they also log public lands.  But as mentioned above, fire risk and trashing the place have to be considered as well as vagrancy and nefarious activities.

[YoungFowler]

for outfits like Weyerhaeuser, .Gov COULD strike a deal for access since they also log public lands.  But as mentioned above, fire risk and trashing the place have to be considered as well as vagrancy and nefarious activities.

Weyerhaeuser doesn't log public lands.

In Idaho, the state made a deal with Potlatch Deltic to open their lands for public access, but no way Washington wants to pay a timber company that kinda cash for hunters. If they did something like that, it certainly wouldn't include motorized access.

[silverdalesauer]

Something to consider is that the farmers are having to pay property taxes every year. From what I understand clubs like Know Where to Hunt and others use member fees to help pay leases, which many farmers have said are used to help pay property taxes that seem to be going up every year.

Part of the problem is our state is taxing us to death, both on the hunting license side and in the property tax side.

The recent floods up north certainly aren’t helping the farmers either. I imagine that their homes took quite a hit from flooding.

When farmers lose their land because they can’t afford the property tax and then the government and other private businesses or developers come in and buy up that land and they’ll be no hunting whatsoever.

If hunt clubs help, keep farmers intact, and surviving, I’m all for it.  The more farmland that remains intact, the more likely ducks will stick around. Even if that means those of us who can’t afford to join clubs, we have to find public lands, at least the farms will be around to support the ducks.


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[Tbar]

Something to consider is that the farmers are having to pay property taxes every year. From what I understand clubs like Know Where to Hunt and others use member fees to help pay leases, which many farmers have said are used to help pay property taxes that seem to be going up every year.

Part of the problem is our state is taxing us to death, both on the hunting license side and in the property tax side.

The recent floods up north certainly aren’t helping the farmers either. I imagine that their homes took quite a hit from flooding.

When farmers lose their land because they can’t afford the property tax and then the government and other private businesses or developers come in and buy up that land and they’ll be no hunting whatsoever.

If hunt clubs help, keep farmers intact, and surviving, I’m all for it.  The more farmland that remains intact, the more likely ducks will stick around. Even if that means those of us who can’t afford to join clubs, we have to find public lands, at least the farms will be around to support the ducks.


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This might be the worst excuse I've heard.  Between the OSTA and the counties comprehensive plan the tax burden is minimal.  Those tax breaks should absolutely be void, OSTA is based on agriculture production over the last several years and classifies current use. 

[metlhead]

Not sure what tax burden others have but for referance, I pay about $13 per acre annualy in Thurston county.

[johnsc6]

I'm a Skagit Valley lifer and was an avid duck hunter. Worked in ag early in life at a time when landowners in the flats giving permission when asked was the norm. IMO, 4 things have all but ruined DIY hunting opportunities here on private AND public: 1) trespassers, 2) slobs who don't pick up after themselves, 3) clubs like KWTH, 4) DFW's "quality" hunting program. #1 &  #2 opened the door for #3 & #4

I agree, specifically the quality snow goose hunt program that brought all the outsiders up

[johnsc6]

Something to consider is that the farmers are having to pay property taxes every year. From what I understand clubs like Know Where to Hunt and others use member fees to help pay leases, which many farmers have said are used to help pay property taxes that seem to be going up every year.

Part of the problem is our state is taxing us to death, both on the hunting license side and in the property tax side.

The recent floods up north certainly aren’t helping the farmers either. I imagine that their homes took quite a hit from flooding.

When farmers lose their land because they can’t afford the property tax and then the government and other private businesses or developers come in and buy up that land and they’ll be no hunting whatsoever.

If hunt clubs help, keep farmers intact, and surviving, I’m all for it.  The more farmland that remains intact, the more likely ducks will stick around. Even if that means those of us who can’t afford to join clubs, we have to find public lands, at least the farms will be around to support the ducks.


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This might be the worst excuse I've heard.  Between the OSTA and the counties comprehensive plan the tax burden is minimal.  Those tax breaks should absolutely be void, OSTA is based on agriculture production over the last several years and classifies current use.

says someone who obviously does not farm or own farmland, cause if you did you would know what you just spewed is bull *censored*....