tarheel
Well-known member
I came across this while researching something else and thought it might be of interest to the members. https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct...-land/&usg=AFQjCNG8Q59F3oCzJ9gPLk_i4EcXUYK6xw
Public land per person by state.
- Thread starter tarheel
- Start date
JohnCushman
Well-known member
No wonder I can't seem to fill my tags 
VAspeedgoat
Well-known member
Wow, that was an interesting article. I'm glad I live in a high public land low population state like VA, or else I might sit and daydream about hunting out west all the time!
noharleyyet
Well-known member
shoots-straight
Well-known member
Some states have high hunter populations, others much lower. If I understood him correctly he was determining acres per person by total population.
Wouldn't it be better to see what the acres per licensed hunter was?
Wouldn't it be better to see what the acres per licensed hunter was?
tarheel
Well-known member
As near as I could determine his figures were for populations of each state and the representative public land in that state per resident.
I suppose if one really wanted or needed to know what the acreage per licensed hunter is it could be determined easily enough, but doing it for all states would be a monumental task, as licenses sold in some states isn't released to the public for whatever reasons; I've tried to do exactly that for several Western states and ran into a wall in some of them, though it could be how I worded my search inquiry even when trying several combinations of wording.
Edit Update: I did find that North Carolina issues just over 1 million licenses; 795K hunting and 245K fishing, more than the population of Montana.
Also found license data for all states but it's a bit confusing in some columns. What isn't confusing is the amount of revenue generated, though this data is several years old. (13) Would be interesting to see more current figures.
https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct...ry.pdf&usg=AFQjCNGv8g-lFNEbXE5AfY4urcpiI5sVyg
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shoots-straight
Well-known member
I would take the total license holders (North Carolina) would be 430,000 and divide that into acre's. Montana has 230,000 odd license holders. If I read that right?
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tarheel
Well-known member
Yeah, but the 430K data is old, as is the 230K for MT. The 795K figure which I got from another site for NC is current data, haven't looked for MT's current hunter numbers. Every Tom, Dick and Harry who can hang a tree stand is now in the woods and not only putting a lot of pressure on what public land we have but on all the gamelands as well. In NC we have considerable private land which is put into the gamelands program, some of which is available to the public 6 days per week, some for three days per week, some by permit only, and with the influx of people moving into the state from all over, the hunting community has grown considerably in recent years. I think all the TV hunting shows has had a great deal to do with the increase as well as a booming deer herd. We don't have many quail or grouse left, fewer and fewer people hunt small game and that leaves just migratory fowl, turkey, bear and deer to attract new hunters.
I just ran the numbers with the current NC figures: 0.22 acres of public access hunting land per person, 2.64 acres per licensed hunter. Not a great deal of opportunity there!
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genesis273
Well-known member
Tarheel, you are correct about the influx of people moving into NC and the amount of pressure on the public land that is available. As much as I enjoy public land hunting, you won't catch me walking through NC gamelands during hunting season! It's almost rediculous. But during the 80's and even the early 90's, I killed the majority of my deer.
2500 miles to the west, a whole different story!
2500 miles to the west, a whole different story!
shoots-straight
Well-known member
It should make your public lands in the west even more valuable to you too.
tarheel
Well-known member
It should make your public lands in the west even more valuable to you too.
I've been trying to educate people on the current stance of the GOP, especially Cruz, re the transfer of public lands, the potential sale of them if transferred, and the long term impact to future generations of sportsmen and those inclined to utilize the public lands.
Divided loyalties for this old Republican, but it has to be done.
