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Join Date: Dec 2005
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Hunting dispute festers
Are out-of-state deer hunters a financial blessing or curse for S.C.?
By JOEY HOLLEMAN
jholleman@thestate.com
JEFF BLAKE/JBLAKE@THESTATE.COM
Rick Bright of Florida climbs into a deer stand at the Zig Zag Hunt Club in Furman. Large numbers of deer hunters from nearby states come to South Carolina to hunt.
Bright and his fellow Florida hunters arrive each year bearing monetary gifts that boost the state’s economy, in particular rural businesses and landowners. But many S.C. hunters see Bright and his like as something sinister — harbingers of the downfall of local hunt clubs.
About 12 percent of the 141,000 licensed deer hunters in the state come from elsewhere, mostly from Florida, Georgia and North Carolina. But that hardly measures the out-of-state hunters’ influence, both good and bad.
The non-resident hunters have contributed to the rapid rise in the cost of leasing the hunting rights for forest land, forcing some local hunt clubs to get by on smaller or less desirable tracts.
But what’s an economic punch in the gut for some is a helping hand in difficult times for others. Land owners and businesses look forward to the influx of out-of-state hunters each fall.
But many local hunters seethe when they see Florida plates.
“We’re just average working people,” said Doug Richbourg of West Columbia. “We don’t make the kinds of money they do. We can’t compete with them for land.”
PAYING BIG BUCKS
Bright drives from Coral Springs, Fla., several times each year for extended stays at the Zig Zag Hunt Club, just outside the tiny Hampton County town of Furman. There he hunts with 20 other members from Florida — and one member from Beaufort — on 2,500 acres leased by the club.
“I come up here to relax,” said Bright, who has been hunting in South Carolina for nearly 20 years. “I’ve got a place I can hunt for free in Georgia. But I love it up here.”
The superintendent of a South Florida golf course since the late 1970s.
He pays $1,900 for his membership in the Hunt Club, and each of the club’s 22 members spends nearly that much again to prep the 2,500 acres for hunting each year. Add in food costs and gas for his eight-hour trips, and Bright figures he spends $5,000 a year for several long weekends and one 10-day hunting trip.
That pays for a spot for his old camper behind club owner’s house, a clean but Spartan kitchen and dining room, and the right to use an overflow bunk house only a rugged hunter would endure.
Nix said he makes a minimal profit on the club. His expenses include the cost of leasing land (he owns only a few hundred acres), upkeep of the buildings and electricity for the facilities. Somebody also has to pay for the ingredients in the pecan pies his mother bakes for the hunters.
Bright appreciates the hospitality of Nix’s family and the quality of the club’s hunting property. He and his teenage son killed six deer in the first six days of an extended October trip.
BLAME GAME
During public meetings held this year to discuss possible changes angry locals blamed out-of-state hunters for stresses on the deer herd.
Statistics don’t back that up: Deer remain plentiful, according to state wildlife officials.
Instead, the basis of the animosity boils down to money.
“People who have been leasing hunting land for generations; a lot of people from Florida come up here and offer two or three times the money and take property out from under them,” said Mickey Herring of Columbia.
“Land is so scarce that we’re killing our sport because of the greed.”
More than 1 million acres are in the state’s Wildlife Management Area program, set up to facilitate hunting on public and private land. That total is only slightly less than in 1990.
But many hunters prefer not to share hunting spots at wildlife management areas with others they don’t know. That’s why thousands join clubs that lease hunting rights on private land, where members develop friendships and trust through the years.
It’s difficult to say how many hunt clubs there are in the state. About 2,000 take part in the Department of Natural Resources’ antlerless deer harvest program. Agency officials suspect that might be half the clubs in the state.
For decades, timber companies leased hunting rights on their land at bargain rates to the clubs. As the timber companies have sold off their land in recent years, the new owners need to make more money to cover the purchase price. That’s one factor in the rising cost of hunting leases.
Hampton County hunters say hunting leases have gone from $4 an acre a decade ago to $20 an acre in recent years. Most locals blame the jump on out-of-state hunters who are willing to pay more for prime hunting land.
“They offer two or three times the money and take property out from under the locals,” Herring said.
Herring’s cost to lease a small parcel in Orangeburg County has doubled in recent years. A club Herring sometimes hunts with nearby couldn’t match a lease offer by a Florida club and had to move to less desirable land.
SEARCH FOR A SOLUTION
If out-of-state hunters are a problem — a matter for debate — what can be done about it?
The easiest way to discourage the influx would be to shorten the state’s hunting season and strictly limit the number of deer that can be taken in a season.
The agency suggested a five-buck annual limit for the entire state, which some Upstate counties already have. However, at public meetings to discuss the changes, a vocal minority screamed its opposition. The move would hurt residents more than non-residents, they said.
Though 74 percent of the hunters at those meetings backed a five-buck limit, the agency has yet to back any changes in its limit or season.
Some S.C. hunters would prefer a large price boost for licenses sold to out-of-state hunters. Basic hunting license and big game permits are $225 for non-residents and $18 for residents. A fee boost might not drive away the non-residents, but at least it would pump more money into the natural resources agency, Herring said.
Because they pay higher fees than locals, non-residents already pay nearly 50 percent of the hunting license fees that the state collects.
The trickle-down economic loss would be much greater.
Deer hunters spend an estimated $370 million in S.C. stores each year and create 6,981 jobs, according to a 2001 study by the International Association of Fish and Wildlife Agencies.
MONEY TALKS
“If you’re a non-resident, you’re an outsider,” Snider said. “I don’t hear those sorts of things as much as I used to. But I think that’s because they see me down there a lot more.
“I rent a house in the area. I buy from their stores.”
It’s hard for many S.C. hunters to stay mad at the out-of-state hunters. The higher lease fees paid to hunt might be helping their land-owning cousin through tough financial times. The out-of-state hunters might be keeping their neighbor’s grocery store in business.
“With farmers in our area struggling the way they have, (extra income from hunting leases are) the only way they can hold onto their land,” said Bob Wiggins, whose Hardware in Estill caters to hunters. “It’s a good thing for the county.”
Somebody with 1,000 acres, ideally with a mix of timberland and farm fields, can pull in $10,000 to $20,000 for hunting rights. In the process, though, the landowner might price old friends off the land.
Some out-of-state interests also are buying the land outright and converting it to upscale hunt clubs. That creates a double whammy for people like Dan Nettles, an Estill hunter who wants to build a house on a few acres in the country.
“My wife and I want to find a piece of affordable land, and we can’t,” Nettles said. “People come in from Florida and pay so much for it. Just outside of town, there are three 24-acre tracts for sale. They want $10,000 an acre.”
Nettles also can’t afford the skyrocketing cost of joining local hunt clubs. The inexpensive ones are $700 a year; high-end clubs have dues in the thousands.
Many Lowcountry operations, instead of signing up season members, advertise for three-day and one-week hunts. Bostick Plantation near Estill charges $1,350 for a three-day hunt, which includes accommodations but not license fees.
Nettles and others said they have seen more deer carcasses left in the woods in recent years. They blame it on out-of-state hunters interested only in an antler rack to mount.
Connor Causey has a different view of out-of-state hunters who frequent his feed-and-seed store in Furman.
“This time of year, 60 to 65 percent of our business is from Florida hunters,” Causey said. “They’re good people.
“I take personal checks from them. In all my years, I’ve only had one come back from the bank. That guy came back two weeks later and paid me in cash. He said his wife had been mad at him for coming up here to hunt, and she cleaned out their bank account.”
Florida hunter Bright knows about shrinking bank accounts. He struggles to pay for his deer hunting addiction. But he appreciates the quality of the hunting and the friendliness of the people in South Carolina. Like many of the Florida hunters that he knows, Bright hopes to retire here.
“I’ve been hunting in South Carolina so long,” Bright said. “I’m not a local, but I know the woods like I’m a local.
“This place is heaven to me.”
Reach Holleman at (803) 771-8366.
| Zen900 Says: As a workng man and new to deer hunting this is one of the first problems I bumped into. Unfortunately the solution to these problems always ends up being increased fees. Instead of looking out for hunters or the game they hunt; wildlife departments end up looking out for their departments. As far as high income hunters: they are sometimes just fools with money who spend money selfishly without considering the sport or other hunters. It's kind of like they think everything is ok as long as they get what they want. |
11-19-2006, 04:29 PM
