We all know how hard it is to be able to secure the permission to hunt a piece of private land owned by someone else. With that being said, we now have another obstacle in our way to battle to secure that permission, it is CWD.
Before I go on to relate this story, a lot of common sense must be used because there can be a million different conclusions that can be construed from this story. This particular land owner of this story, I did some work for a couple of years back. I did some work on his horse barn, and while there I noticed that he had a large tract of land fully wooded. Now lets jump to the present. This last week he allowed a hunter (friend or not I don’t know) to set up a tree stand on his property and archery hunt there. I’m not sure of all the circumstances since I heard this from the land owners friend, but the DNR was notified that there was bait on the property. The DNR promptly issued the landowner a ticket for the bait, not the hunter.
Like I said there could be a million different conclusions made here. But the point I would like to draw from this story is this, don’t break the trust of the land owner you get permission from to hunt his land. If you gain a land owners trust and then do something to break that trust you not only hurt yourself, but you hurt all hunters in the process. Landowners today are leery of giving hunters permission anyways. If you are lucky enough to get that access, why would you do something stupid or illegal to jeopardize that privilege, especially with illegal baiting?
This particular land owner was fined $500 and could also face jail time. Michigan’s DNR isn’t playing games this year with baiting! This is the second instance I have heard of where someone was fined the maximum allowed by law. I have also heard they are also going to start going for the jail time of 90 days in the clink also. With CWD being found in Michigan, they are dead serious this year on NO BAITING. I have heard time and time again from hunters who are going to deliberately violate the law and bait. Be fore warned that they are going to lower the boom on these guys this year.
Bottom line is, if you gain permission to hunt private land, don’t be stupid enough to bait on it. It places the land owner in jeopardy and it will do nothing to help our cause to get them to trust us hunters and allow us hunters to hunt their property.
