Category: Blog

Some have proposed reducing hunter recruitment efforts, but there is another obvious solution: increase the area of ​​accessible public land.

Easier said than done, you might say. But onXmaps and Theodore Roosevelt Conservation Partnership have catalyzed a movement that could provide access to more than 16 million acres of public land. This land is already publicly owned, but because it is surrounded by private parcels, it is not legally accessible. These areas are what these organizations describe as “landlocked”.

MeatEater highlighted this issue on the main podcast when onX launched #projectlandlocked in 2018. Since then, the mapping company has issued five additional reports highlighting the fact that this isn’t just an issue on public lands in western states.

OnX identified 174,000 acres of landlocked public land in the southern states, 80,000 acres in the mid-Atlantic states, and 303,000 acres in the upper Midwest. Additionally, they found 6.35 million acres of state-owned landlocked land in Western states along with the 9.52 million they found on federal land.

Hunters across the country legally own this land as US citizens, but cannot access it without a helicopter. There is a growing demand to give these hunters what they paid for and, perhaps, ease the overcrowding and recruitment dilemma that has plagued the outdoor community.

How do public lands become “landlocked”?
OnX defines landlocked public lands as those parcels that are “surrounded by private land without a public road touching the edge of that public land or between or crossing those lands,” according to Lisa Nichols, access defense manager for onX. . The mapping company has developed an automated analytics that analyzes its data to identify landlocked areas. OnX analysts perform quality control tests to ensure that the program works correctly.

Public lands were made landlocked through a variety of means, but most of the problem stems from government initiatives from the 1860s onward to stimulate westward expansion of the country. To incentivize railroad companies to build transcontinental tracks, Congress passed a series of land grants that gave builders 10 1-square-mile parcels for every mile of track they laid. Federal officials often awarded this land in checkerboard patterns with the railroad receiving odd-numbered blocks and the federal government retaining even ones. The idea was that the remaining federal blocks would increase in value after the completion of the railroads and then be sold or occupied.

At the same time, under the Homestead Act of 1862, Americans were allowed to claim and “prove” 1-square-mile parcels of government-owned land in the West. Some of those efforts were successful and became successful ranches, but many failed and later reverted to government control. Both paths led to the chessboard of public and private land that we know today.

Enterprising hunters have tried to move from one public plot to the next where the plots meet at the corner, but this practice remains in dubious legal territory. While the legal question still lingers in many states, and may soon be tested in Wyoming, onX defines these checkerboard lands as landlocked.

However it happened, Nichols said, public lands are not usually made landlocked through intentional action on the part of landowners.

“That’s how the story happened,” he explained. “Certainly, there are landowners who might purposefully buy different pieces of land to gain exclusive access. But that’s probably less than a tenth of a percent of the landlocked land we’ve found.”

It’s not just a western problem
Historical and geographic realities have dictated that Western states contain far more public land—and landlocked public land—than their counterparts in the East. But that doesn’t mean eastern and southern states are immune to the problem.

As part of its efforts to drive a national response, onX has released landlocked reports on the South, Mid-Atlantic, and Midwest. Nichols believes that anyone who enjoys the outdoors in these areas should be even more concerned about this problem than Western residents.

“They don’t have as much public land in general,” he said. “And it doesn’t just affect hunters. It’s also affecting people who just want to go out. It affects the whole experience of going out if there were more places that the public could access.”

In the South, ONX and TRCP identified 75,000 acres in Florida, 49,000 acres in North Carolina, 28,000 acres in Arkansas, and 22,000 acres in Tennessee that lack permanent public access.

In Tennessee, for example, 550 acres of national forest land is landlocked because it is surrounded by private land and falls along the western slope of Holston Mountain. Statewide, Tennessee hunters have access to only about 7,000 public acres.

The same story is true in North Carolina, where there are 150 acres of landlocked public land in the Uwharrie National Forest. This may not seem like much, but considering the fact that only about 7% of the state’s total land mass is held by the public, people who are outdoors in Tarheel State should look to take advantage of every acre.

You can find similar examples in other onX reports. In New York, there is an inaccessible 600+ acre parcel of Flat Rock State Forest teeming with game animals. In Minnesota, two parcels totaling 600 acres would give anglers access to more than 1,000 feet of shoreline on North Long Lake. In Wisconsin, a group of landlocked areas totaling 525 acres sit right next to a state wildlife area and a county forest.

These parcels are not large, especially when compared to the millions of acres in the West. But for hunters and anglers looking for a place to hunt in largely private states, 600 acres is much better than nothing.

What is being done and what can be done?
The crucial first step in tackling this problem is already underway. Public land seekers have long known about landlocked land in their areas, but without a national sense of the problem, it has been difficult to galvanize support among the general public or lawmakers.

Thanks to onX and TRCP, the true extent of this problem is clear to anyone willing to listen. Nichols believes his reporting played a role in the passage of the Great American Outdoors Act, which funded access initiatives through the Land and Water Conservation Fund (LWCF).

“Since we first released the Western Federal Lands report in 2018, we have seen the impact of so many people educating themselves on this topic. Seeing the numbers put it on people’s radar and it generated a lot of energy,” Nichols said.

The LWCF allocates $27 million annually for access initiatives. As Nichols put it, providing access to landlocked land offers great “value for money.”

“Agencies and organizations working on this issue are always looking for easements and small parcels of land that would make a connection between a public road and landlocked public land,” he explained. “There are so many opportunities where public land is a few hundred feet away. Those are the ones that provide the most bang for the buck.”

Unfortunately, money is often the key to securing access to landlocked areas. Easements or entire parcels must be purchased or traded with owners, so sending a few dollars to your favorite public lands organization is an easy way to make an impact.

OnX runs a grant program, and Nichols explained that this money is often used to identify and secure easements that are at risk of disappearing. Landowners sometimes operate handshake access agreements that provide public access for free. If that owner decides to sell, that access disappears. Grant programs can identify and secure access through those parcels before they change hands.

The landlord community’s response to #projectlandlocked has been mixed, Nichols said. Some recognize the problem and want to help, while others don’t want to give up their exclusive access to landlocked public land. In either case, it is crucial that hunters and fishermen gain or maintain the support of these landowners and avoid turning the issue into a crusade against private landowners.

Neither the government, nor conservation organizations, nor hunters can force a landowner to sell a parcel or an easement. Opening up landlocked land will necessarily require buy-in from the owners, and Nichols encouraged hunters and fishermen to do whatever they can to achieve that end.

“Be overly respectful of landowners and be acutely aware of the challenges they face when there are so many more people on the landscape during hunting season. Nobody wants to look bad for another bad apple,” he said.

Just getting started
The Great American Outdoor Act and subsequent access funding was a huge victory, but there are still access initiatives that deserve the support of the hunting community.

At the federal level, the MAPLand Act could be a game changer. This piece of legislation passed the House of Representatives on March 15 with an overwhelming bipartisan majority of 414-9. As we have discussed previously, the MAPLand Act would, among other things, provide funding for public land agencies to digitize records of easements or rights of way on private lands. This data could then be shared with companies like onX to provide hunters with information about previously unknown hotspots.

“If someone doesn’t have access to information, they don’t have access to that public land,” Nichols said.

Hunters should also be aware of and support access programs in their state. The OnX reports describe the programs in each covered state that provide funding for projects to provide more access to the public.

In Wisconsin, for example, the Knowles-Nelson Stewardship Program provides millions of dollars to enable the Department of Natural Resources to unblock Wisconsin’s state parks, fish and wildlife areas, and state natural areas. The program is set to expire this year, and new bills from Wisconsin lawmakers would allow the state to sell land gained under the program. If you live in Wisconsin, consider this a call to action.

No matter where you live, you can do three things right now to help unlock landlocked public lands in the future: 1) donate to and support a public lands nonprofit like Theodore Roosevelt Conservation Partnership, 2) contact your US representatives and express your support for the MAPLand Act, and 3) learn about and support programs in your state that acquire new public lands.

Those hunters who are concerned about overcrowding should be especially interested in opening access to landlocked public lands. It’s not a silver bullet, but it’s the most natural place to start.

That is the central question of a new lawsuit filed in Maine last month. The plaintiffs, a husband and wife with four children, claim that the state’s ban against Sunday hunting violates their “natural, inherent and inalienable right to food,” as written in the state’s recently approved constitutional amendment.

“Maine’s ban on hunting on Sundays is a historical and religious anachronism,” the lawsuit adds.

Eleven states still restrict Sunday hunting in some way, but many of those bans are being rolled back. Maine and Massachusetts are the only states with year-round statewide bans. This year, Virginia lawmakers struck down the state’s Sunday hunting ban on public lands, and Pennsylvania is in the process of allowing hunting every Sunday.

If this lawsuit is successful, it would be the first victory of its kind for hunting rights in the United States. Maine is the only state to pass a “right to food” constitutional amendment, but the strategy could provide a model for other states looking to expand and ensure hunter access every day of the week.

Hunting in Maine
To understand the lawsuit’s argument, it is important to understand how hunters have traditionally accessed land in the Pine Tree State. About 95% of the land in Maine is private, but state law allows hunters access to private parcels as long as the land is free of “No Trespassing” signs and the owner has not personally prohibited hunters from entering the land. the property.

Hunters generally apply for permission anyway, but that permissive culture is part of the reason Maine is one of the latest states to repeal its Sunday hunting ban. A small but vocal group of landowners support the ban because they want at least one day a week when they don’t have to think about hunters on their property.

This year, the state legislature considered a bill that would have repealed the ban. A Maine landowner told the committee that he and his family enjoy walking his property on Sundays.

“They just want to know that if they climb the mountain on Sunday they won’t get shot,” he said.

That bill would have allowed landowners to ban hunting. An amended version of the bill would have allowed Sunday hunting only for landowners and those given express permission by them. Even with these provisions, the Interior Fish and Wildlife Committee voted 8-3 against the measure.

Jared Bornstein has been organizing the lawsuit as executive director of Maine Hunters United for Sunday Hunting. He is also a lobbyist in the state legislature.

“The honest truth about the Sunday hunt in the legislature … most of them don’t care that much, and they don’t want to take a controversial stand on something they don’t really care about,” Bornstein explained. “The people who do care … have not been able to overcome that apathy.”

Others argue that allowing hunting on Sunday will prompt more property owners to ban hunting on their property. This will undoubtedly occur under certain circumstances, but a recent survey by the Maine Inland Fish and Wildlife Department (IFW) shows that 64% of landowners who “always” allow access would continue to allow the same level of access if hunting is allowed on Sundays

In fact, 10% of that group would be plus likely to allow access if Sunday hunting ban is repealed. The largest percentage of owners (68%) who say they are most likely to restrict access say they “rarely” grant access as it is.

the demand
Giving landowners the authority to ban hunting on Sundays hasn’t been enough to overturn the ban, so now hunters are going from the legislature to the courts.

Last year, Maine voters adopted a “right to food” constitutional amendment by referendum. Here is the text of the amendment in its entirety:

“All people have the natural, inherent and inalienable right to save and exchange seeds and the right to grow, breed, harvest, produce and consume the food of their choice for their own nourishment, sustenance, bodily health and well-being. provided that an individual does not commit trespassing, theft, poaching, or other abuse of private property rights, public lands, or natural resources in the harvesting, production, or procurement of food.”

Bornstein said the amendment began life as a hunting and fishing right provision similar to those passed in other states. It was expanded to ensure that hunting and fishing rights survived the rules and regulations imposed by the legislature. He does not specifically mention hunting and fishing because the authors did not want to limit their scope by listing individual activities.

The plaintiffs in the lawsuit—a married couple named Joel and Virginia Parker—argue that the Sunday hunting ban violates this constitutional right because it does not provide enough time or opportunity to gather “the food of their own choosing,” that is, the wild game. . Joel Parker works five days a week, which only gives them one day a week to teach their four children to hunt or hunt together.

“In addition, due to the Sunday hunting ban, the Parkers are unable to plan an entire weekend hunt as a family in more remote areas of the state because they only have one day per weekend to hunt,” the lawsuit states.

In 2021, Maine’s whitetail rifle season was extended from October 30 to November 27, giving hunters who work weekdays just five days to fill out their tags.

The Parkers aren’t the only Maineans affected by the hunting ban. Maine hunters who spoke with MeatEater expressed similar frustration at not being able to hunt 50% of the days they don’t have to work.

“For most of us who have to work full time, the Sunday hunting ban severely limits our ability to feed our families,” said Kristine Thomas. She is often tasked with using her vacation time to take care of elderly relatives, so that option isn’t available to her either.

Even if adults can take vacation days during hunting season, John Meagher noted that children often don’t have that luxury. “The state has no problem offering reasonable lifetime hunting and fishing licenses at a reduced cost to kids, but a lot of kids who played sports, like mine, played fall football or baseball every Saturday,” he said. . Meagher’s son is now 23 years old and didn’t get a chance to grow up by going out into the woods.

Nick Cummings takes the perspective of the landowner. “I own land on which I pay taxes. I hunt my land when I want, but on Sundays I can’t. Why shouldn’t I be able to do as I please with my own land every day of the week? he asked him.

The lawsuit notes that landowners could still ban hunting on their property just as they do today. They could, for example, restrict hunting on Sundays but allow it on any other day of the week.

Additionally, allowing hunting on Sundays would not threaten wildlife populations. Jim Connolly, director of resource management for the Maine Interior Department of Fish and Wildlife, told a joint legislative committee that Sunday hunting is a “social issue, not a biological discussion.” Other state wildlife officials whose states have repealed Sunday hunting bans have not documented increases in harvest due to the change.

“Not hunting on Sundays is not a biological necessity,” Bornstein said. Maine is not meeting its deer or bear quotas, so adding another hunting day would not threaten game populations regulated by the state. “You should be able to hunt when you want to hunt, as long as you stick to the season dates and bag limits,” he concluded.

Land-owning allies?
It’s important to note that not all Maine hunters support changing the status quo. Twenty-two percent of hunters moderately (6%) or strongly (16%) oppose allowing hunting on Sundays during established hunting seasons, according to the Maine IFW. While the majority of property owners would continue to allow hunting on their property, about a third say they would restrict access to hunting. For hunters who depend on these plots, victory in Sunday’s hunting campaign could mean limiting their own access.

In a state with such a high percentage of privately owned land, it is critical that landowners not become the bad guys in this debate.

“Over 90% of Maine is privately owned and without the support and generosity of our private property owners, our outdoor recreational opportunities would be severely limited,” Connolly told the legislature.

Sunday hunting bans are likely going away. But as with other land access issues, hunters can’t afford to alienate the people they depend on for access to the wild places they love to hunt.

The lawsuit was filed in Maine Superior Court and is supported by Maine Hunters United for Sunday Hunting and Hunter Nation. Bornstein hopes the state attorney general will respond to the lawsuit soon.

“Don’t be intimidated by anyone’s experience, including mine. There have been and still are some good writers with vast experience in the field of firearms. There are also a lot of old suckers who write about guns and shooting, and a lot of younger suckers too. Gun writers, especially those who have to produce a regular column, love controversy. That column becomes a beast that must be fed every month, so the columnist is always hungry for something to write about and controversial ideas generate interest and response from readers. Perhaps it is understandable that sometimes they go overboard. Just don’t go overboard with them.” –Chuck Falcons

Properly tuned and equipped, and with a disciplined and well-trained shooter, a high caliber bolt action rifle with a variable power scope can handle 95% of the big game challenges this continent has to offer. For maximum versatility and ease of finding ammo, stick to the common and proven big game calibers such as .270, 7mm Rem Mag, 30-06, .308 Winchester and 300 Win Mag, plus short magnum versions of these same calibers.

These might seem a little heavy to a North Carolina whitetail deer hunter, and some might be a little light to an Alaskan hunter eager to tangle with a coastal grizzly bear. But they are all great weapons for a generalist hunter who wants to be ready for anything without spending his salary on an arsenal of weapons. After all, the North Carolina hunter might eventually come across one of that state’s 500-pound black bears, and the Alaskan hunter might tire of snipping around the fist-sized exit holes gaping in their meat. hunting for a mule-kicking elephant gun.

A: Vortex HS LR 4-16×50 scope.

B.: Handmade sling with neoprene shoulder pad and braided paracord strap. An average hunting rifle weighs about 9 pounds. Carrying that amount of weight all day can be annoying and exhausting. Don’t skimp on slings. The cheap ones fall apart. This type of lanyard gives you emergency access to over a hundred feet of 550-pound test cable.

C: Vortex viewfinder cover. An essential but often overlooked piece of equipment. Scopes are expensive and you don’t want the lens to get scratched. Also, it is difficult or even impossible to aim when snow or excessive moisture obscures the lenses. Neoprene “visor socks” are another good bet because they are inexpensive, durable, and provide some impact protection to the body of the visor. Oilcloth “bikini-style” covers are great at keeping moisture out, but they tend to fall apart. The same goes for flip-top visor covers. If you’re sitting on a blind, these are fine, but backpack hunters often find flip-caps easy to demolish.

D: Heavy Duty Harris Bipod. Perfect for long-range shots from a prone position, but hardly essential in areas where long-range shots aren’t likely. This type of bipod can be folded forward out of the way when not in use. The downside is that they are a bit heavy and tend to hang up when walking through thick brush.

me: Snipe-pod bipod. A lightweight, detachable bipod that can be worn on a belt and quickly attached to the rifle before firing. The downside is that it is not as stable as the Harris bipod.

F: Folding ammo wallet. Keeps ammo organized and prevents the annoying rattling of loose cartridges in your backpack or pocket.

GRAM: .270 WSM cartridges loaded with Barnes 129-grain LRX bullets.

Muzzle cover: A rifle muzzle that is clogged with mud or snow is very dangerous, as the barrel could break when fired. Cover your muzzle to prevent mud, snow, dust or moisture from intruding into your barrel using a piece of tape or, better yet, a small, sturdy latex finger cot. Wearing a muzzle cover has been shown to not affect the point of impact, as gases moving in front of the bullet remove any muzzle cover.

Gun sock: This model is the Solo Hunter Gun Cover. Keeps your firearm protected from snow and mud while out in the field and still allows immediate access.

travel case: A good travel case protects against bumps and scratches from travel. As well as cosmetics, this ensures that your scope doesn’t run out of scratch. Hard cases, like those from Pelican or Boyt, come with a protective foam insert that can be cut to fit your specific firearm. Airlines require this type of rigid suitcase and require that the suitcase be closed.

As the picture shows from left to right,

The Light Side: .243 Winchester, .25-06 Remington

The middle ground: .270 Winchester, .308 Winchester, 30-06 Springfield, 7mm Remington Magnum, and 300 Winchester Magnum

The Heavy Side: .338 Winchester Magnum, .338 Remington Ultra magnum, .375 Holland & Holland magnum