Remeber back in the day
I can remember back in 1979 as a young man all of 18 years of age, coming to Lousisana on an athletic scholarship to play football and baseball for Northwestern St. University. What an experince that was!!! Playing with players such as Bobby Hebert, Mark Duper, Joe Delaney, Gary Reasons, and former Natchitoches Central great Larry Robinson. It was truely an honor to play with players of such ability.
But, I can also remember my first hunting trip here in Northwest Lousisana. Being from Texas where all the land is leased up, it was eye opening to me that unless you had a fence around your place or had it marked with paint every 50 feet around your proerty line, anyone could hunt anywhere they wanted. Basically Louisiana was an open range state. Now again being from Texas, this was hard for me to comprehend since you would NEVER in your wildest dreams cross another man's fence or property line. Some of my best hunting experinces of my life were during this time period when everyone would and could hunt pretty much anywhere they wanted. I can remember running into some deer hunters from Minnesota who also enjoyed the open range of yesterday and envied the freedom we had here in Louisiana. They looked forward to their La. hunts more than anything because they said they loved the fact that they could scout and roam some of the "best hunting in the south" as they called it. Maybe that's why Louisana has been called the "Sportsman's Paradise".
But now look at what is happening. Our hunting range has shrunk significantly and why? All the great hunting here in La. is now on private property and just like our neighbors to the west (Texas) you can only hunt on a few small wildlife management areas. Even some of these are now being reduced in size ie Sabine Wildlife Management Area. In a certified letter on May 24, 2007 to the LDWF, the Atlanta based company of TimberStar Southwest decided it need to bring a better return to it's investors which means a 6,500 arcre reduction to the Sabine Wildlife Management Area. The state now has 60 days to vacate the land. So how does this affect you and I, well it means that the Sabine WMA has now been cut in half from 13,706 acres to 7,206. This means land that we have been hunting for 20 to 30 years is now not available. But it's not just TimberStar but Boise Cascade has sold off more than 688,000 acres since 2004. Don't get me wrong, I know there are still some good places to hunt, but you either have to know someone or have the deep pockets to join a lease and not everyone here in La. has that. You have to wonder how much longer can Louisiana truely call itself the "Sportsman's Paradise"
