Upland bird population will never fully rebound.

[gimruis]

Most landowners don't care if you hunt after season

That is my experience too. Obtaining permission to hunt deer on private land is like trying to pull teeth but if you ask to hunt pheasants after deer season the answer is almost always a yes.

 

[KsHusker]

We were quail hunting a buddies dads deer lease in chatauqua county in the late 80s early 90s and jumped a hen pheasant. That’s the farthest east I’ve ever seen one and the first I had ever heard of leasing.. To me it’s not about out of state hunting or the leasing. Although I hate the cameras and I despise the feeders. It’s about the cedars and the loss of habitat.
. I’m having a hard time figuring out where I’m going to hunt with any chance for success. The last 2 or 3 years is the first time I could ever say that. For now I’ll hunt more chickens and quail and probably jump a few ducks.
If someone asked where in the state for a slam dunk hunt , honestly I couldn’t tell them. I don’t want non residents here wasting their time. If you want to see how far we have fallen you don’t have to go farther then this forum. Look at all the Kansas guys surfing the South Dakota page. Just a few years ago the Kansas page was hoping.

Sounds like you are a duck hunter too? I'm not really into ducks but like watching the migration/seeing them - so follow at a distance -- there's a group Waterfowl Forums or something like that - they are facing the same issues -- what little I looked into it seemed that weather may have been affecting migrations - add on to that cheap licenses and not limiting people on popular public places (since we have so few pubic to begin with) and duck hunters are fighting over extremely scarce access.


RE the cedars - you can see the cedar invasion in the smokey hills and along Hwy 156 from I70 to Great Bend -- N of there -- it's starting - getting worse as the years go by. Smokey hills will be sad to see them deteriorate to a fraction of what they once were -- some of it has already happened.


The post above about one of the saddest stories is about right -- Im in the middle of building a house now and who knows I may not want to leave - but in the back of my and my wifes minds we dont plan on staying in this state - I want to go to NM, UT, NV, CO or AZ. KS can kiss my axx on the way out - Business is what is keeping us here for now, never dreamt I'd ever say that. In college/HS years this was the hunting heaven -- now not so much -- Wichita also is attracting sooooo many out of state Real Estate investors which is a passion of mine - nothing to buy even makes sense. Good for Wichita - but geeze - they're driving up the prices to farmland fundamentals -- IE farmland typically makes zero sense if you're getting a loan to make a profit on.

 

[GetTothePoint]

Sounds like you are a duck hunter too? I'm not really into ducks but like watching the migration/seeing them - so follow at a distance -- there's a group Waterfowl Forums or something like that - they are facing the same issues -- what little I looked into it seemed that weather may have been affecting migrations - add on to that cheap licenses and not limiting people on popular public places (since we have so few pubic to begin with) and duck hunters are fighting over extremely scarce access.


RE the cedars - you can see the cedar invasion in the smokey hills and along Hwy 156 from I70 to Great Bend -- N of there -- it's starting - getting worse as the years go by. Smokey hills will be sad to see them deteriorate to a fraction of what they once were -- some of it has already happened.


The post above about one of the saddest stories is about right -- Im in the middle of building a house now and who knows I may not want to leave - but in the back of my and my wifes minds we dont plan on staying in this state - I want to go to NM, UT, NV, CO or AZ. KS can kiss my axx on the way out - Business is what is keeping us here for now, never dreamt I'd ever say that. In college/HS years this was the hunting heaven -- now not so much -- Wichita also is attracting sooooo many out of state Real Estate investors which is a passion of mine - nothing to buy even makes sense. Good for Wichita - but geeze - they're driving up the prices to farmland fundamentals -- IE farmland typically makes zero sense if you're getting a loan to make a profit on.

I hear from farmers/neighbors regularly now that banks will not loan them enough to buy these farms that are being sold out from them for recreation. My property taxes have doubled in the last 3 yrs and my pasture rent is up 30-40% on what I've been able to keep, I've lost 320 acres in the last year that sold for 3 times what's is worth if a guy actually had to use it to pay for it. A cattle lease is almost unheard of around here anymore because deer hunters will pay more than ranchers can and make it work.

 

[Mason Brubaker]

PF is trying to help habitat and may be steering toward something better in that regard. About eight or nine years ago I was driving along US 24 in central KS and my eye caught a PF sign on a piece of land that had been habitat enhanced quite nicely. But right next to the PF sign was a "NO HUNTING" sign for the same property. Why would the average PF member want to pay for a someone's land to be habitat enhanced and then posted?? I contacted PF which responded that it does not require that a landowner open up to public hunting in order to get habitat improvements. Well, fine but that just didn't pass the smell test. If PF wants to make a difference, it should develop habitat where hunting is open to all and really get with it in this time of fewer CRP acres.

I agree that more acres should be opened up to public hunting. However, if a landowner decides he or she wants to drop 700 grand on a piece of property then they should be able to do whatever the hell they want with it. PF is "The Habitat Organization" so it doesn't bother me much that they improve private property. Private property that has a lot of birds helps to populate neighboring tracts, if habitat is there as well. I don't mind my PF membership fee going to improve someone else's land. Their membership fee might go to improve mine.

 

[birddude]

I hate to be a pessimist but having watched my own state decline into a biologic wasteland, almost void of any CRP or any other program I'm gonna say we're all screwed!! As the corporate farming screw turns and the information age is in full swing more and more of us are flocking to the places, we hear the birds are. I don't know about you guys, but I don't enjoy driving around looking for a parking spot! So, I guess I should feel fortunate to have had the health to have hunted K.S. and other states when there were lots of birds. I guess I should except my fate of put and take and preserve birds and quit bitching....NAAAAA Those stupid SOBS in power on either side don't give a damned about us. There are literally people in power who have never seen a farm!!!