received a great letter today from GFP...

B

benelli-banger

Well-known member
I'm a landowner in SD, specifically in a wetland easement program, and the letter was soliciting my interest in enrolling the land in a walk-in program. Glad to see them pursuing land for this type of program. It said that last year 1400 landowners enrolled about 1.2 million acres across the state. Bottom line, this is a good thing...may have gotten a letter in the past like this, but I don't recall...nice to see this occurring.
 
It is land that has been enrolled in a program that prevents it from ever being farmed, developed, changed, etc...mine is a perpetual easement...can't ever be modified...it is permanent habitat, basically. We could enroll 6 additional acres for each acre of wetlands, allowing the whole quarter section to be enrolled. We got a one-time payment for doing this. Main thing, I am happy to know GFP is actively seeking more land to be put in the walk-in program! We were discussing stuff like this a few weeks ago in a different thread when we learned the brood survey was being axed to save 700k annually, and we were dreaming about how to spend that $....acquiring more land for public access was a common goal. This letter Inreceived isn't the result of that 700k now being freed up, but it was nice to see gfp is trying, at least.
 
Good to see those steps in the right direction. I primarily hunt public/private land open to all, like Plots, WIA, block management ,etc in the state I'm hunting in at the time. I've noticed that SD has the worst looking private land enrolled in programs of any state. I suspect that is a result of all the commercial operations paying more for the better land than the state. Money talks to the landowner, hopefully the state can make it better for the landowner to enroll their land in the state programs.
 
benelli-banger said:
I'm a landowner in SD, specifically in a wetland easement program, and the letter was soliciting my interest in enrolling the land in a walk-in program. Glad to see them pursuing land for this type of program. It said that last year 1400 landowners enrolled about 1.2 million acres across the state. Bottom line, this is a good thing...may have gotten a letter in the past like this, but I don't recall...nice to see this occurring.
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Benelli-banger, not trying to hijack your thread but is there some way I can contact you about info on the Peeire Nat Grasslands. Tom
 
Alaskan swamp collies said:
Good to see those steps in the right direction. I primarily hunt public/private land open to all, like Plots, WIA, block management ,etc in the state I'm hunting in at the time. I've noticed that SD has the worst looking private land enrolled in programs of any state. I suspect that is a result of all the commercial operations paying more for the better land than the state. Money talks to the landowner, hopefully the state can make it better for the landowner to enroll their land in the state programs.
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I don't hunt too close to any major commercial operations...but lots of private landowners host pay to hunt groups for the first 2-4 weeks of the season...the best public ground I tend to find is WPA's, as it is good winter cover...lots of WMA's are decent as well...WIA's can be weak, some are decent, some are good...depends on cover, what's going on nearby with the crops, etc. Usually the weakest public land I find is school lands... the blue stuff on the public lands map...but even some of them can be OK...I really like CREP, too...it is pretty new, so the grass is less than 10 years old, much of it less than 5 years old...
 
Benelli-banger, thanks for the info. Maybe you could give me your thoughts on this. About 8-9 years ago, a gorgeous piece of private land became a Walk-in Area. But for 2 seasons only. Then the WIA signs disappeared & all that were left were little USFWS Conservation Easement markers around the border. I was pretty disappointed. Sure, still great for wildlife, but not great for hunters.
In your opinion, what might be reasons this was only a WIA for 2 seasons? My guess is they had "guests" on their land who weren't very well mannered. Thoughts?
 
A5 Sweet 16 said:
Benelli-banger, thanks for the info. Maybe you could give me your thoughts on this. About 8-9 years ago, a gorgeous piece of private land became a Walk-in Area. But for 2 seasons only. Then the WIA signs disappeared & all that were left were little USFWS Conservation Easement markers around the border. I was pretty disappointed. Sure, still great for wildlife, but not great for hunters.
In your opinion, what might be reasons this was only a WIA for 2 seasons? My guess is they had "guests" on their land who weren't very well mannered. Thoughts?
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Could be...maybe they wanted to hunt it themselves. It was enrolled in an easement program like mine. Hard to say why they took it out of WIA...the WIA deal pays about $5/acre...better than nothing, but not that much in the grand scheme of things if you hunt it yourself...the taxes on my quarter are about $2400/year...the WIA deal would have paid about $900/year...since I hunt my own ground, I would never do this, glad others do, though!
 
Good to hear they are pursuing new places for hunters in South Dakota. Always have a great time in South Dakota!
 
A5 Sweet 16 said:
Benelli-banger, thanks for the info. Maybe you could give me your thoughts on this. About 8-9 years ago, a gorgeous piece of private land became a Walk-in Area. But for 2 seasons only. Then the WIA signs disappeared & all that were left were little USFWS Conservation Easement markers around the border. I was pretty disappointed. Sure, still great for wildlife, but not great for hunters.
In your opinion, what might be reasons this was only a WIA for 2 seasons? My guess is they had "guests" on their land who weren't very well mannered. Thoughts?
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The USFWS does not post their easements. Maybe different program?? If you have questions on the FWS easement program hit me up. Glad to help.
 
WRP, which is the program my land is enrolled in, is still private land that isn’t open to the public, obviously. I could put it in walk-in status and get the $5 per acre per year, but I haven’t done that. Like any other private land, I don’t have to post it, it’s not open to
the public...but I do post it just to make sure people know it’s private land.
 
USF&WS easements are designed to protect wetlands and other ideal "conservation" land from being farmed and drain tiled. It is perpetual and transfers when the land is sold. Different than CRP in target areas and length of time. CREP is kind of an in-between program designed mostly to protect waterways from silt and chemicals (via grassland buffers). None of these programs result in land being opened to the public.
 
Is this a voluntary program?

Yes. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (Service) enters into conservation easements only with interested landowners.

How long does the easement last?

This is a permanent (perpetual) easement between the Service and the landowner. If the property is sold, the easement transfers to the new landowner.

What does it mean that the easements are “limited-interest?”

A limited-interest easement entitles the Service to purchase a limited set of rights on privately owned land. With wetland easements, the wetland areas cannot be drained, filled, leveled, or burned. With grassland easements, the grasslands cannot be cultivated, and haying is restricted until after July 15 of every year.

Are Service wetland and grassland easements managed in the same way as conservation programs managed by the Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS)?

No. NRCS programs are managed by the U.S. Department of Agriculture and may have different objectives and conservation strategies. Contact the Service wetland management district office in which your land is located for more information. Contacts can be found in the menu on the left.
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BRITTMAN said:
USF&WS easements are designed to protect wetlands and other ideal "conservation" land from being farmed and drain tiled. It is perpetual and transfers when the land is sold. Different than CRP in target areas and length of time. CREP is kind of an in-between program designed mostly to protect waterways from silt and chemicals (via grassland buffers). None of these programs result in land being opened to theIn public.

In SD, CREP is open to public hunting...one of my favorites. I see signs that are similar as far as the acronym goes in MN, but it isn't open to public hunting. The thing about CREP in SD that I love is that the program is fairly new, so the grass is not old and past its productive capability in most cases...
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CREP is just CRP were the state of SD pitches in some extra money to the landowner to open it up to hunting.
 
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