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Post by wayvis on Aug 30, 2024 15:40:56 GMT -5
FWIW here's the first opening that popped up on a Florida Lease group on Facebook; "I have a 161 ac lease in Northern Nassau county, bordering on CR 108, near I-95. About half is clearcut and half is 4-5 yr old pine. A few patches of old growth thruout. I need one member. It has not been hunted last year, and only me and the one member will hunt this year. 2 food plots but neither one is planted. completely surrounded by other hunt clubs with roads as borders. 1200.00 for the year until 5/31/2025. Please message me with contact info." Yep, Nassau County is where I hunt. Sounds like he's wanting about 15 dollar/acre which is about what Rayonier is charging for a lot of their leases. As someone said it sounds like just a place to sit. Unfortunately, that's what most leases are. Guys that live close to a WMA that not quota a lucky if you like to roam the woods. The club that I hunt is divided into 100 to 150 acre areas. This gives a little room to roam but not much and if it gets clear cut your screwed. I just moved to Saint Augustine so this well be my last year in this club. Don't think I will be getting in another lease, its just getting too crazy. Most likely will start hunting public land again. It's going to be hard since I'm use to hunting 50-60 day a year. Guess I will be doing a lot more fishing.
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Post by bullfrog on Aug 31, 2024 16:16:42 GMT -5
Grove Park used to sell out within a minute of going live every year. Sounds like people aren’t going for the price.
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Grove park
Aug 31, 2024 19:26:35 GMT -5
via mobile
Post by Crkr 23 on Aug 31, 2024 19:26:35 GMT -5
Imagine you didn't have any knowledge of either Grove Park or Lochloosa and had the opportunity to hunt either one. If you took a ride on Fish Camp grade, the road that separates the two WMAs, I'll guarantee you would check out the Southside (Lochloosa) first. The state uses fire for management on Lochloosa and Weyerhauser uses herbicides on Grove Park. I realize that they have 2 different goals for each piece of property but Grove Park is not very hunter friendly. I can remember Grove Park before Weyerhauser bought it,it was part of Lochloosa and was a romp and stomp with dog hunting on half of it. IMO the hunting was better back then. The first few years of Grove Park hunting was very good and then the herbiciding began and it has gone down hill since.
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Grove park
Aug 31, 2024 19:48:39 GMT -5
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Post by bullfrog on Aug 31, 2024 19:48:39 GMT -5
I don’t think they were spraying it when I hunted it. I hunted it mid 2000s.
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Post by 4ward on Sept 1, 2024 6:21:40 GMT -5
I don’t think they were spraying it when I hunted it. I hunted it mid 2000s. I think Weyerhaeuser bought out Plum Creek around 2015 or so. (Price has climbed every several years since then). Not sure if Plum Creek treated it any better but I think they did. The NW section is what I believe is in the most jeopardy of being shut down. The rest of it needs to be returned to wmd and part of Lochloosa again. There is also a very large parcel of bordering private land that could come into play. It will be interesting to see what unfolds with that.
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Post by Crkr 23 on Sept 1, 2024 9:03:16 GMT -5
Yes, in my opinion it should be all in Lochloosa including the section that Ben Rowell(a game commissioner) stole for his hunting club. That occurred under the beloved Lawton Chile's watch.
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Post by james14 on Sept 1, 2024 10:24:56 GMT -5
I've hunted it since Ft. McCoy closed in 2011. The $1000 price increase was tough to swallow, but still worth it since I know the area well. However, it has definitely gone downhill in recent years. This is the first year in a LONG time I don't have a 100" buck on cam...and I'm running nearly 20 cell cams. I've had years where I saw bucks literally everyday I went in the woods, but those days are gone. I remember about 10 years ago the 13-14 seasons were slim, so I'm hoping for a rebound to what I saw in the 17-20 years; but I also don't believe it'll be in the system long enough to see that come to fruition. I'm not sure what I'll do when it's gone. I may change my entire hunt schedule and leave the state for the most part.
Law enforcement presence is also slim to none. I routinely report illegal vehicle activity, but getting a response has been like pulling teeth. Private landowners using the area like it's their own playground, guys driving their trucks through the middle of the woods, people using rifles during ML firing off multiple shots in seconds...it's gotten ridiculous. To their credit, I did get a response in the spring, and landowner got a hefty fine (avoided the $1000 fine for not having a permit), but as a whole, getting any LEO response is way harder than it needs to be. I can only imagine the toll that poaching is taking.
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Post by Crkr 23 on Sept 1, 2024 11:39:11 GMT -5
You find a bait site in there and the GW's will respond to that, I had 2 of them on speed dial. Locked gates would help a lot, give the users a combination. At a minimum they should gate all the perimeter and make all access through Fish Camp Grade.
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Post by 4ward on Sept 1, 2024 14:24:32 GMT -5
There are also access problems in some areas, for some. I know of stands that can only be accessible to people with special privileges. Maybe they have a grove park permit?, I don’t know. They certainly have keys to both,closed state land and county conservation land gates though. Doesn’t sit right with me.
Crkr, I believe I know the club you are referring to. My buddies and I used to hump 3+ miles to get there from the other side. Things got ugly a couple of times. It always resulted in the guy driving across the “walk in” area, begging for forgiveness. They indeed had permission from the local leo. Nothing was ever done to stop it.( this was when it was ALL Lochloosa)
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Grove park
Sept 1, 2024 14:48:47 GMT -5
via mobile
Post by Crkr 23 on Sept 1, 2024 14:48:47 GMT -5
Alachua county allows a few of their parcels of land to be hunted by a select few people. In return for hunting these select few are required to post and maintain the property, about like a private club. Supposedly they have to reapply every 3 years for this privilege but the one tract that I'm a little familiar with has never changed hands since the program was started. To me this really is not an acceptable use of this property and seems corrupt. If it's public land and you are going to allow hunting on it then everyone should have an equal opportunity.
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Post by 4ward on Sept 1, 2024 14:53:50 GMT -5
PM incoming.
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Grove park
Sept 1, 2024 15:39:54 GMT -5
via mobile
Post by Crkr 23 on Sept 1, 2024 15:39:54 GMT -5
Pm returned
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Post by cyclist on Sept 4, 2024 10:56:42 GMT -5
Alachua county allows a few of their parcels of land to be hunted by a select few people. In return for hunting these select few are required to post and maintain the property, about like a private club. Supposedly they have to reapply every 3 years for this privilege but the one tract that I'm a little familiar with has never changed hands since the program was started. To me this really is not an acceptable use of this property and seems corrupt. If it's public land and you are going to allow hunting on it then everyone should have an equal opportunity. I get the notices when the hunting lands come up for renewal.
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Post by bullfrog on Sept 5, 2024 20:57:20 GMT -5
It was definitely Plum Creek land when I hunted it heavily. I used to live about 15 minutes away. Once in a while I drive through Cross Creek and check it out to see how the woods have changed.
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Post by linemannf on Sept 7, 2024 10:16:50 GMT -5
Everything changed when Georgia Pacific bought most of the timber lands in Alachua County from Owens Illinois, then for a short while it was Nekoosa Packaging, then Plum Creek,and finally Weyerhauser, not speaking about Grove Park but private lease land, we had an 18,000 acre lease that O&I kept the roads graded and provided all the gates and material to keep it locked up, the roads were so good you could have dog hunted out of a car, each time it got sold it got worse but Plum Creek was the absolute worst, spraying and killing everything but pine trees, the gall berry's, palmetto berry's , etc gone and animals don't thrive off of pine straw.
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