I guess it’s all a matter of what you grow up with and are accustomed to. I came across this acticle this morning and found myself with my mouth part way open, reading in somewhat disbelief and disgust.
As most of you know, I am a nativer Mainer. I think every state can boast this statement: “We do things a lot different in Maine”. We do, and they do in Texas too and probably a bunch of other states that I’m not aware of but am learning quickly.
In Maine, private land is considered open to the public unless the landowners posts his/her property. We always encourage hunters to get permission and not assume anything. It is the polite thing to do. As Maine lands get bought up by the landgrabbers, more and more of that land is being posted to no hunting or trespassing. Our day will come.
In Texas, it’s a different story. Land is closed to hunting and you have to get permission from the landowner to hunt. If you own land and you intend to lease your land to hunters, you need to buy a lease license from the state.
Don’t forget, this is your land. You bought and paid for it and you can’t do with it what you want. I know that the state owns (if that’s the right word to use) the wildlife and they don’t want anyone profiting from hunters shooting state-owned game.
As a landowner in Texas, here are your options. You can sit on your land, close it to the public and the state can maintain you a nice wildlife population free of charge, thanks to the hunters who buy licenses. Or you can open your land up to hunting for free. Or you can lease it to hunters.
Should you opt to lease it to hunters you need a license to do that. There are three different kinds of licenses available all with different fees and fee structures. I am not going to bore you with all the details but if you’d like to see how it’s done in Texas, click here and you can get all the details. I now better understand why hunting leases can get expensive.
Tom Remington
