I thought I'd summarize what I've learned over the last few weeks regarding leased lands and my own experience so it might help others out.
There are a few different types of leased crown land out there. As hunters we're likely most interested in "recreation on agricultural public land."
This brochure is about the best summation of how things are supposed to work.
Then you go
here and see if there is leased land you'd like access to. Just keep zooming down until you see sections, and then click on the "info" tool at the top, click on the quarter section, the info about access will come up. First read if there are any conditions on access (usually are, reasonable), and if you need to contact someone first. Sometimes you do, sometimes you don't. Some leases have management plans or conditions, some don't. Some of the time you have to contact someone first to get access. This is where things may start to get more complicated.
When you call the contact up I'd suggest being respectful and asking for permission on specific days in certain areas. Print off the map from the lease site so you and the leaseholder can talk about features on the lease easily. You're likely talking with someone who is out there on the land, and he is responsible for it. It is public land, but he likely runs stock on all of it, and manages it, and cares a great deal about it. He may have a bad taste in his mouth from poachers, previous users, etc. I don't own or lease land and firmly believe in public access to public land, but after talking to a few of these guys I can see that they are in a difficult position trying to manage people on the leases, telling them what you're going to do on the lease just isn't going to be well received at all. And they have some power...
OK, hopefully all goes well, you get permission to go on, and treat the land well and respect the leaseholder's fences, stock, property, etc. End of story, stop reading if it all works like this for you.
In my experience the leaseholder may say something like, "I've already got two guys in there, and don't want more. Sorry." If that's in the SRD plan on the site end of story again, leaseholder's call. There is no way transparent way to verify that the leaseholder is in fact following the plan. You can call SRD at this point if you think he isn't. A lot of the time there is no access plan on the SRD site, yet the leaseholder basically says no for a reason that's not listed under the reasons a leaseholder can deny access.
Before you give up or call SRD I'd recommend talking with the leaseholder again for a bit. A couple of calls, an offer to pay a visit, just get some sort of relationship with the leaseholder and things may be OK. You shouldn't "have" to do this, but as I'm learning the people who live and work there have a history with that land that's every bit as strong or much stronger than how we feel about "our" favorite hunting spots. Makes sense, but looking at a "lease" on a computer screen is not the same as working it.
A lot of people are likely to get mad at this point and say, "Our land, expletive you." But here's the murky bit: If you do that then you're going to have to deal with SRD, and while SRD supports public access the land owner can also say to SRD, "Well, I've still got 30 cattle in there, so no." Even on huge lease, if it's not crossfenced then cattle in there at all are pretty much cause to deny access (unless moving the cattle around to prevent access, and that's not easy to prove). Or the leaseholder can say, "I've already got hunters booked on every single day, that guy can hunt the paved quarter section by the sewer plant (for example)". Now, it shouldn't work like this, but in reality in my experience it does. What's nice and neat and concise on the computer screen just isn't in real life.
This is where the whole system starts to wobble. SRD and the leaseholder may have talked and come up with a plan that just isn't on the site yet. Or the leaseholder is getting pounded by requests and his system of writing stuff down on a piece of paper in the pile by the phone is falling apart a bit because he's trying to find the missing 50 cows with most of his time, and he can just say, "Full." Leaseholders are often not spreadhsheet on their iPhone kind of people, but that's the job they're being asked to do. This is a problem. Oh, and the contact info for the site is sometimes not right, use the link below to contact SRD and get the new info.
On the web site there are some "hard" rules for how leases work. In reality there's a leaseholder, you, and the SRD, and it's all pretty human and not so clearcut as it is on paper.
If you eventually do
need to talk to SRD the list of people is here. The guy I dealt with was very professional and fast in responding, and definitely helped.
A big problem is that we all use the internet and are fast on it, while SRD is trying to manage thousands of leases and leaseholders, some of which are "problem" spots in one year and then OK in the next, land managers change on the leases, etc. etc. Some of the leaseholders are internet geeks, but a whole lot aren't. It's just not a simple system to keep updated, especially for a "problem" that only crops up periodically. I don't see it really working well for either hunters or leaseholders. Long-term, if the population keeps growing as seems likely, some other system is going to have to be implemented, or the current one tightened up substantially. At present leaseholders can abuse the system with either good or bad intentions, and if protested the results may not be good for the hunter.
There's one lease that has obviously great hunting on it, the leaseholder has told me "no" despite every effort I could make. I've talked with SRD informally about it, but have to decide if I want to have SRD contact the leaseholder and attempt some sort of resolution or not. This may just **** the leaseholder off, and while the leaseholder technically can't deny me access he could certainly make the experience not a lot of fun as noted above. Might be worth it to bust up what I see as basically a hunting preserve for the guy's buddies, might not if I get access to it with some work... It's a flawed system when that's how the thinking has to go. This leaseholder is also friends with the other leaseholders in the area I have organized access to. If someone is annoying my friends I'm likely to be annoyed too.
Conclusion: Personally, I feel mixed about the whole experience. I met a few good people on leases and look forward to hunting there so that's positive, but the original piece of leased land I wanted to access is still off limits despite all the good faith and effort I've tried. I believe public access means just that, but I'm not sure it's worth the battle to get access, or if I'd enjoy the access I do get. The system has some real problems that I'm not sure how to solve in a way that makes economic sense.
Let's keep it civil if this winds anyone up, both leaseholders and the SRD are very likely to be reading this.
Hope this novel is useful.
Grazing Lease Land Summary
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