Proposal for Lewis County Fiscal Court

For the last ten years, Lewis County has been inundated with Outfitters 

who have been enriching themselves from the natural resource of the people of Lewis County.

These outfitters, who have no vested interest in the local deer herd, come from 

other counties and other states, lease land to run their operations, and sell hunts for 

our resource, usually for thousands of dollars, all for the purpose of enriching 

themselves with no regard to the impact on the people of Lewis County nor the

local deer herd. These outfitters can run as many as 50 hunters in a season on as 

little as thousand acres of land. One outfitter from West Virginia in our area killed 

20 bucks this past season. Killing 20 bucks off of something over 1000 acres is 

basically raping the land of the natural resource. 

         These outfitters are paying exorbitant prices for land leases so as to shut 

out the local people, knowing that most people cannot afford to pay such a high 

price for a hunting lease, thereby creating a monopoly. The outfitters can pay those

 prices since they are charging thousands of dollars for each client.

         In addition, the properties they lease will only hold so many deer, so they 

create massive bait piles to draw deer from surrounding properties, knowing that 

local landowners cannot afford to feed that amount of corn on their properties.

They sometimes place stands on the property boundaries or fencelines with a 

massive corn pile nearby, knowing they are drawing deer off the neighboring 

property, and when confronted about their actions they become irate.

         They have been caught taking stands down on other people’s properties,

 stealing trail cameras, and cutting fences. In one instance, we had a woven wire 

fence cut and rolled back to create a funnel for the deer, and a stand placed nearby.

One landowner had his fence cut three different time to create a funnel for the deer, 

with a stand placed nearby. One outfitter from Fleming County was convicted of 

destroying a farmer’s soybean crop after a dispute by putting 24D in the farmers 

roundup and his wife was convicted of allowing one of their clients to shoot a deer 

on someone else’s property, and then trying to cover it up, as well racking up convictions for

hunting on private property.

     One outfitter that operates in Lewis County has multiple lawsuits against him by hunters and 

farmers alike, for fraud, destruction of crops and who knows what else. His 

transgressions are so bad that Outdoor Life magazine published an article about

 him this past spring. When these guys are convicted and their outfitters license are 

revoked for several years, they get their wife or relative to apply for an outfitters 

license and continue their operation under their license. These people are nothing

 but parasites and are using the natural resource of the people of Lewis County as

 their host for their own enrichment. All they do is take from us and give nothing back.

      They usually advertise that they have a 130’ minimum antler restriction 

with a $1,000.00 fine for any deer that scores under that size. From what we have

seen, they actually don’t discourage anyone from killing a deer that small. That is 

just a gimmick to put another $1,000 in their pocket from the fine.

     They usually brag about following QDMA standards in order to ensure a quality

 age structure and a balanced and healthy herd, yet they rarely, if ever kill any 

doe, which results in a serious imbalance in the buck to doe ratio, upsetting the 

natural order of the deer herd. The hunters they book have no interest in killing a 

doe. This is just a marketing gimmick to book more hunters.

       After the 2025 muzzle loader season, we conducted a deer herd survey with a 

thermal drone that is so sensitive that it will spot a squirrel in a tree from 350 ft up. 

The survey was done on mine and some of the surrounding neighbors land which 

amounted to approximately1000 acres, to assess the damage inflicted by the 

outfitters this past season. The results were worse than we imagined. We found 33 

doe and two bucks. The bucks were a spike and a button buck. Not one mature

 buck was spotted during the survey. Biologist will tell you that a 2 to I ratio is 

optimal. A 16.5 to 1 ratio is off the charts, and will result in weakening the deer 

herd from inbreeding, causing them to be more susceptible to predators, and 

creating too much stress. Imagine two young bucks trying to breed 33 doe next 

season during the rut. They will run themselves to near death, (if they survive the hunting season)

diminishing their ability to survive the coming winter and most of the does will go unbred, which 

will result in the eventual diminishing of the deer herd all together. It is important 

to understand how too much stress can impact a deer, and compromise their ability

 to survive through the winter and making them more susceptible to predators and disease.

      Ten years ago, most hunters in the area would see multiple big, mature bucks in a 

season, and in most seasons would see almost as many bucks as doe. As it stands 

today, it is rare to see a buck, and when you do it is usually a small immature buck,

 and it gets worse every year. Another year of this will cause irreparable harm.

This is just not acceptable. Many of us are seasoned hunters who will only shoot a 

mature buck and as a result have not killed a buck in many years, due to the impact

 of the outfitters. 

     Almost everywhere I go on a regular basis, I hear people complaining about 

outfitters and the impact on the quality of hunting in our county due to their

 actions.

     Recently, house bill House Bill 397 was introduced in the Kentucky Legislature, to

 restrict the taking of trophy sized catfish from the Ohio River and its tributaries for

 commercial purposes. In other words, It would be illegal to take these catfish and 

introduce them into a pay lake. This practice amounts to the commercialization of 

the people’s natural resource. What is the difference in this and what these 

outfitters are doing? We the people of Lewis County will no longer stand for the 

commercialization of our natural resource by people from other counties and states 

who have no vested interest in our resource.

     Therefore, we propose that there be enacted in Lewis County a ban on all 

outfitters that do not own their own property. 

Then maybe the quality of deer hunting can return to normal in maybe five years or 

so and provide a meaningful experience for the people that do have a vested 

interest in the wildlife. 

Please show your support by Signing this petition.