How Conservation and Annual Hunting Leases Go Hand in Hand

By: Patrick Long

At first glance, an annual hunting lease seems like a golden ticket to your own private stand. But in reality, it’s also one of the strongest conservation tools hunters have at their disposal. The dollars that are generated from these leases help landowners fund projects to improve habitat, wildlife populations, and hunting opportunities for countless hunters season after season.

Annual hunting leases directly fund the conservation of a piece of land. The money earned by these landowners is often reinvested into the leased land for things like habitat restoration & enhancement, property maintenance, ecological monitoring, and population control. These hunters benefit from healthier herds, better habitat, and consistent access, while the land itself continues to thrive.

Read on to see how lease dollars affect the land as they ripple through ecosystems by improving habitat, boosting game numbers, and even helping non-hunted species. Let’s break down how annual hunting leases create better hunting today while safeguarding conservation for the future generation of hunters and outdoorsmen.

Are Leases Ideal for Conservation-Focused Hunters?

Annual leases require a bigger upfront investment than short-term leases, but offer far more value in the long run. Year-long access to a prime piece of hunting real estate means you can scout the property thoroughly, hang stands in premium spots, and actually learn how local wildlife moves through your particular piece of landscape.

This consistency can create a positive relationship not only with the landowner but also with the land itself. Over time, you quit feeling like a visitor and you become one with the land. It’s this mentality that helps perpetuate conservation efforts and mentalities into the future.

Reinvesting in Conservation Efforts

The truth is, many landowners want to improve their land but simply can’t justify the expense on their own. Forestry and rangeland stewardship can become costly endeavors. Annual lease income can help bridge that gap, providing steady income that makes real conservation projects possible. A few of these important projects include:

• Planting food plots- Providing year-round forage for deer, turkeys, and other popular game species.
• Conducting controlled burns- Rejuvenating native grasses, clearing out invasive plants, and encouraging new growth forests.
• Thinning timber- Opening up the understory, creating better browse and cover for whitetail, rabbits, and grouse.
• Restoring wetlands- Benefiting ducks, geese, and countless non-game species that need this specific habitat to thrive
• Managing predators- This one is a must for any healthy wildlife population that helps to balance herd health and improve fawn and turkey poult survival.

Without this extra funding, many of these projects would remain nothing more than pipe dreams. But when hunters’ lease payments are reinvested in the land, the results are tangible to all.

Better Habitat Almost Always Means Better Hunting

Every hunter feels the difference on properties where lease income has gone into conservation. Think about all of the state walk-in ground that you’ve hunted that could use some habitat love.  When proper measures are taken, healthier habitats produce healthier animals. Deer herds grow larger, antler quality improves, and turkey nests produce more hatchlings.

Improving hunting habitat doesn’t necessarily require a degree in wildlife biology; even small changes can make a noticeable impact. If a landowner planted just a couple of clover feed plots in year one. It wouldn’t be out of the question to see more and heartier deer with bigger racks by the second season.

Annual Lease Dollars Ripple Out Further Than You May Think

Think of a clover field or food plot, for example. While deer and turkeys are feeding, pollinators like bees and butterflies are also thriving and benefiting from this rangeland stewardship. Timber thinning opens up sunlight for new undergrowth, which eventually becomes habitat for smaller mammals. Wetland restoration brings in ducks and geese, but it also supports populations of frogs, fish, and other amphibians. Even predator management balances populations in a way that benefits everything from rabbits to songbirds. An ecosystem is an extremely intricate web of organism interactions that rely on each other to thrive and survive.

Annual leases not only make hunters partners in conservation that benefits their own needs, but they also reach well beyond their own pursuits for others to enjoy the outdoors.

Hunter Stewardship and Conservation Ethics

There is also an obvious shift in attitude that comes with hunting the same ground during an annual lease. When you know you’ll be back season after season, the land feels less like a rental and more like a responsibility. It’s this mindset that needs to be taught to the next generation of hunters to take better care of the outdoors.

Here are some simple ways that we can all be land stewards, and feel good about it:

• Don’t leave behind trash, and do your part to help reduce trash left behind by others. Unfortunately, this is something you see all the time on public grounds, but if we all do our part in picking up some refuse on our way back to the truck, it could make a massive impact.
• Trespassers and poachers don’t pitch in to conservation efforts like the rest of us do. It’s these folks that generally don’t have any respect or reverence for the land they use to feed themselves, so I say the less of them the better.
• Passing on a perfect shot on a young buck to let it grow and promote herd health. (This can be a tough one, but it’s a long-term investment that could lead to your next monster wall mount)
• Public outdoor areas would be in much worse shape if it weren’t for people volunteering on habitat projects like planting or brush clearing. You would be hard-pressed to find a landowner out there who would want to turn down any extra help in improving their land.

Think of it like the difference between staying in a hotel and living in a home. Hotel guests are known to leave a mess for someone else to clean up because “It’s not their problem”. A homeowner, on the other hand, invests in upkeep and improvements because they’re in it for the long haul. With annual leases, hunters develop that same sense of ownership. They want to leave the ground better than they found it so that it is ready for them when they come back for another hunt.

Why Leases and Conservation Belong Together

To those who don’t know, an annual hunting lease looks like just a contract for access so that a group of hunters doesn’t have to share the ground they hunt. Take the time to take a step back, and you will realize the picture is much more impactful.

Annual lease dollars help fund habitat improvements that keep target species healthier year-round, create prime habitat for animals of all sorts, and aid in predator management, which is one of the many keys to a healthy herd of animals.