CHARLESTON, W.Va. — A trend which started in the western United States with leased hunting land is rapidly gaining ground in West Virginia. West Virginia Division of Natural Resources Director Frank Jezioro told a joint interim committee of lawmakers West Virginia hunters are rapidly losing hunting grounds which have long been open to them.
“Companies which own these large tracts of land are finding it economically beneficial to lease their lands to private hunting clubs,” said Jezioro. “I contacted two large coal companies and asked why would they not lease their land to the DNR. They said one we don’t think you can afford what we’re leasing it for and second we’d rather have 50 than 500 people using the land.”
It’s not the first time Jezioro raised the issue with lawmakers. A proposal he floated several years ago to create a partnership between large land holding companies and the state to reduce liability gained no traction at the legislature. He said other options he’d tried were likewise met with indifference.
“We’re looking daily with the abilty to partner with organizations that will help us buy land, that seems to be the answer,” said Jezioro. “If we can find suitable hunting land and even if they want to lease it we’re open to that. Our problem is what they want per acre. We cannot compete with the private sector when they come up with these large amounts of money.”
Jezioro said the lack of publicly accessible land could slow the DNR’s current proposition to reintroduce elk into the state.
“That’s going to hinge on the ability to have a company sign an agreement that says once those elk are established, the public will always have access to it,” he said. “It’s not right to use the hunters’ money to establish that program and have the company at a later date decide they don’t want people in there for whatever reason.”
The greatest need for public land in West Virginia presently, according to Jezioro and Wildlife Section Chief Curtis Taylor is western counties of the state.
“Those are small tracts of land, 100 to 200 acres,” said Taylor. “It’s hard to build a wildlife management area a little bit at a time. The best bang for our buck is in the southern coalfields because you do have large land holding companies.”
Jezioro said companies like MeadWestvaco fomerly sold permits to hunt their property to anyone, but now lease the property to small groups. Some charged 400 to 600 dollars to become members of the hunting club. He said Western Pocahontas Land Corporation leased its property to a club which in turn sold limited memberships for 100 dollars and had a waiting list of those wishing to join. The director also explained the concept of “double leasing” of the land in which a company will lease to one group for deer and bear hunting and a second group for grouse, rabbbits, and showshoe hare in January and February.
“This is only going to get worse,” Jezioro said. “It’s not going to get better with more competition for the land and places to hunt. We try to take the hunters’ dollars and purchase land so it will belong to the public forever. Our obligation is to see that the coming generations have the same opportunities that we had.”