New public land for VA sportsman!!!

[Jeff in SC]

Here is a link that I found today about the release of some new land for Va sportsmen and women!]] (To view links or images in this forum your post count must be 1 or greater. You currently have 0 posts.

[Jeff in SC]

Will I did not do something right with the link, but here is the article!


RICHMOND - Outdoorsmen in Southwest Virginia have new PALS.


As in Public Access Land for Sportsmen, the first step of which will grant hunters, anglers and other wildlife watchers access to an 18,000-acre tract of privately owned land in Dickenson County. The Department of Game and Inland Fisheries unveiled the new program at its quarterly board meeting here Thursday.

It's pretty simple, and similar to programs in place in other states. The department leases land from private owners, then allows public access.

The only catch for sportsmen is that they must buy a $12.50 access stamp from the department.

Just as a single national forest access license allows hunters to use all U.S. Forest Service property in Virginia, a single PALS stamp would allow a hunter, angler or wildlife watcher access to all PALS properties.

This first PALS tract should be open in time for the deer archery season opener the first Saturday in October.

The property is owned by The Forestland Group, a company based in Chapel Hill, N.C., that manages more than 1.1 million acres in 11 states.

Department officials hope this is just the beginning of the PALS program.

"The potential is super," said Bob Duncan, chief of the department's Wildlife Division. "I see this as just the first of what I hope are more and more."

Sportsmen should hope so, too.

Surveys have shown that reduced access to hunting land is among the chief complaints of the state's hunters.

A lack of hunting grounds is not such a big deal along the Blue Ridge and its massive chunks of the Jefferson and George Washington national forests.

Access is not as good in other parts of the state.

"In far Southwestern Virginia there's very little publicly owned land," said Allen Boynton, the game department's regional wildlife manager for Southwest Virginia.

Boynton said the Dickenson County property - they're still working on a name for the place - deserves hunter attention.

"It's fantastic grouse and turkey hunting," he said. "And pretty good deer hunting."

Boynton said he expects 500-1,000 hunters to seek hunting permits.

The department is still finalizing procedures for issuing the permits, which may be sold out of the department's regional office in Marion.

As for future PALS properties, the game department has no specific criteria, such as a minimum acreage, for considering land for the program.

The game department said the fees it will pay to lease PALS properties will vary depending on a number of factors, including the area's size and potential for attracting sportsmen.

In the case of the Dickenson County tract, the department has agreed to pay the owner one-third of the revenue raised through sale of the access licenses.

Because only one property is in the program, that kind of deal makes sense. As more chunks of land are added, lease agreements will have to be customized.

The PALS program isn't the department's only encouraging news on the public hunting access front.

Duncan said a realignment of personnel within the division should lead to some positive changes on wildlife management areas.

Duncan said each of the department's regions will be getting a wildlife biologist whose primary responsibility is land management.

Those biologists are already in place in the department's regions in Northern Virginia and far Southwest Virginia.

The biologists' focus will include improving wildlife habitat - and, thus, hunting and wildlife watching opportunities - on wildlife management areas.

Virginia has 32 wildlife management areas, and it's no secret than many are not living up to their potential.

Consider, for example, the department's own take on the Havens wildlife management area in Roanoke County.

"The poor soil conditions and the ruggedness of the terrain have limited wildlife production and the ability to manage the property," reads, in part, the department's description of the place.

Focusing more attention on the Havens and other wildlife management areas can only improve opportunities for the many Virginia hunters who look to public land for their outings.