We, the people, sportsman and hunters of Kentucky, do hereby initiate this petition in order to express concerns and request that the Kentucky Department of Fish and Wildlife Resources Commission work to enact a peaceful resolution to a growing problem relating to the practices of Outfitters in our State. We realize that many outfitters are reputable and work hard to manage deer on their own land to provide a great hunting experience for out of State hunters. We have no problem with this practice. These Outfitters have every right to continue their practice and to do whatever they see fit to do with their property. The concerns and grievances that we have are with the outfitters that lease property in our state in order to make a profit at the expense of the local hunter. A list of our grievances are outlined below.

 

1.      Many times Outfitters come in to our counties and offer landowners a ridiculous price for  the hunting rights, prices that the local hunters simply cannot compete with. Many times the landowner will accept these offers and the hunters that have been leasing or have been allowed to hunt are now displaced and left without a place to hunt. The Outfitter can afford to pay these prices, since they charge as high as $6500.00 per hunter for a one week hunt. Once these Outfitters get into an area which holds good bucks, they will lease as much land as they possibly can and book more and more hunters.  Eventually, more outfitters move in and begin to compete against each other for leases, driving the lease prices even higher. This creates a monopoly which crowds out the local hunter, leaving them with no place to hunt, all for one reason, to make a profit. Many Outfitters, such as Whitetail Heaven Outfitters, claim that they do not lease land that is currently being leased or hunted by other hunters, when in fact they lease any tract of land they can get their hands on, many times ousting the current lease holders and hunters. These are facts that are indisputable, and the victims of these actions are damaged parties.

 

                                                       

2.      These Outfitters claim and advertise that their properties are under strict management practices in order to produce trophy bucks. Many of the tracts that they lease are from 50 to 300 acres, some of them being mostly fields with very little woods to hold deer. Anyone who knows anything about whitetail deer management knows that it is practically impossible to manage properties this size in order to produce trophy bucks. The management practices of Whitetail Heaven Outfitters as well as other Outfitters is to shovel out massive piles of corn onto these properties, drawing the deer off of the neighboring properties so that their hunters can shoot them. The more deer they can draw in from the neighboring properties, the higher the probability that their hunters will take a nice buck. While many local hunters bait with corn also, there is no way for most local hunters to compete with the massive amounts of corn that the Outfitters use. These Outfitters, as stated before, can afford to supply these massive corn piles due to the fact that they charge up to $6500 per hunter for a one week hunt. This practice is not fair to landowners surrounding the land that is leased by the Outfitter, since the Outfitters draw the deer onto their leased property, many times leaving the neighboring properties virtually void of deer during the hunting season.  Many of the local hunters and land owners plant food plots to provide a long term benefit to the deer herd, while these Outfitters supply massive corn piles drawing deer to them and reaping the benefits of our hard work for the current season and putting back nothing in return. Their claim is that their properties get better and better year after year, but the reality is that these small tracts will actually quit producing mature bucks after a few years, since they are drawing in all the deer from the local properties, and once they have killed out the mature bucks in the area, they will abandon these properties and move on to other properties to rape them as well, leaving the local landowners to try to compensate for the damage.

 

3.      These Outfitters rarely ever kill any does on these leases. They have hunters come in from other states for the sole purpose of taking a trophy buck and once they do so, they are on their way home. This leaves the local landowners with the task of trying to harvest enough does to keep the buck to doe ratio in check in their area, which becomes an impossible task.

We therefore request that the Kentucky Department of Fish and Wildlife help us, the local taxpaying sportsmen of Kentucky, who live here and do our best to manage the deer herd, with this ever growing problem which is occurring all in order to make a profit, at our expense. As stated before, we have no problems with Outfitters who own their own land.

 

We wish for there to be some type of restrictions placed on these Outfitters. A list of our wishes are outlined below.

1.      It is our wish that outfitters only be able to run their operations on land that they own.                                

2.      If these Outfitters are allowed to continue to lease land for their operations, then we wish to see a limit on the amount of land that they are allowed to lease in a particular area. Our concern is that once they come into an area, they lease all that they possibly can, especially if that area has good quality bucks.

3.      We wish to see a requirement that Outfitters must require their paying hunters to harvest a doe before they can harvest a buck, or at least require their hunters to stay and harvest a doe after they harvest a buck, on the same property that the buck was harvested, and that the Outfitter be required to provide proof of the same.  This will help keep the buck to doe ratio in check, taking that burden off the local landowners and hunters.

4.      We wish to see a restriction on baiting imposed on the outfitters who lease. The practice of baiting with massive corn piles in order to draw deer off of the neighboring properties is just not acceptable to us since it is being carried out by someone whose sole purpose is to make a profit at our expense.

5.      We wish to see a requirement that Outfitters not be able to lease land which is currently under lease by other hunters, and that they only be allowed to lease land that is not currently being leased. Local hunters cannot compete with the price that these Outfitters pay, and is not fair to them that they must lose their lease to these profit makers.

6.      We wish to see a requirement that the Outfitters that lease small tracts must advertise that some of their properties are in small tracts and are not intensely managed as a large tract could be. The claims on their web sites that all of their properties are intensely managed is misleading and not fair to hunters who book hunts with them at such a high price just to find out when they arrive that they will be hunting a small tract that cannot possibly be intensely managed for trophy bucks. This is false advertising.

7.      We wish that a special Outfitters License with a substantial fee be required for all Outfitters that lease land for their operation, since they are making a profit off the resources of the local area in which they have no vested interest, and that the proceeds from such licenses be used for the benefit of the wildlife in our state.  Landowners that run an Outfitters service on their own property should be exempt from said license requirement.

8.      We wish to see a restricted number of non-resident deer tags sold every year to be determined by county or by region, with the exception that non-residents and their families who own land in Kentucky should be able to buy their tags over the counter.

These Outfitters make the claim that they are helping the local economy when they bring in  out of state hunters; that these hunters spend money while they are here, helping the local businesses, and that they provide revenue through hunting licenses. While the latter claim may be true, very little money is spent by these hunters with local businesses since the Outfitter supplies their place to stay and the food they eat. So most of the money that they are referring to goes into the Outfitters pocket. As far as the revenue from the hunting license, there are many out of state hunters that lease land in Kentucky already and buy hunting license, most of them actually helping the local economy by staying in motels and eating in restaurants.  

We realize that the State likes the revenue from the hunting license, but the truth is that the State’s first interest should be to the people of the State who have a vested interest in their State and local community.

Therefore, this is our request that the Kentucky Department of Fish and Wildlife Recourses Commission, and if necessary, the Kentucky Legislature, help us, the people, hunters, sportsman of Kentucky come to a peaceful and acceptable resolution on this matter.