USDA Prohibits Certain Hunting
Use Of Acreages In CRP Program

(Editor's note: This is a new wrinkle in CRP land-use restrictions. As such, we're not certain what it may mean to landowners under circumstances other than those in Kansas. And frankly, we're not sure USDA does, either. Our conditioned inclination is to assume the worst and hope it doesn't come to pass.)

WICHITA, Kan. —(AP)— Operators of private hunting reserves in Kansas were stunned by a recent notice from the U.S. Department of Agriculture that they may be operating illegally.

If the decision stands, it could have a significant impact on the 112 state-licensed preserves and on the economies in rural areas across the state that depend on the annual influx of hunters.

The Farm Service Agency of the Agriculture Department issued a notice Oct. 26 that the operators of preserves could not use land enrolled in the federal Conservation Reserve Program.

Many of the reserves are on such land.

CRP was created in 1985 to take highly erodible land out of production and replace crops with native grasses that would prevent soil erosion, filter water and provide habitat for wildlife.

The ruling, strictly interpreted, says that anyone hunting CRP land within a hunting preserve is breaking the law.

The timing is particularly bad because all the Kansas preserves also known as controlled shooting areas — were booked months ago by hunters who drop thousands of dollars into local economies.

"I think everybody is in a tailspin right now because they don't know what's going on," said Gene Pimlott, owner of Jayhawk Outfitters at Hill City. "I've got people booked in for the rest of this year. What am I supposed to do with these people?"

Pimlott, who has been in business for eight years with more than 150 out-of-state clients who come to Hill City each year, has about 5,000 acres in licensed shooting areas, virtually all on CRP land.

"The best I could tell you is that we were not aware that this was going on," said Parks Shackelford, the federal official in Washington, D.C., who wrote the notice.

Landowners with CRP acreage may legally lease their land to guides and outfitters as long as the hunters stay within regulations established by state wildlife agencies.

Established hunting preserves, however, are a different story, Shackelford said. They qualify as commercial enterprises because they operate outside normal hunting practices by having a seven-month season, no bag limits and no restrictions on hunting hen pheasants.

Shackelford said his chief concern is that CRP acreage be managed to fulfill the intended purpose of the program. Landowners may manipulate but not dramatically alter grasslands in the program.

"A lot depends on the question of how we are going to draw the line," Shackelford said. "If somebody has normal CRP land that's not being tampered with, and all they're doing is releasing birds onto it, then maybe that's not so bad and we'll draw a different line."

Alan Waggoner, who is in his first year as a game bird farm operator in Tribune, hopes to raise 12,000 birds this year and increase his production to 20,000 in 1999.

He said the notice would put him out of business because all his clients own shooting areas that have the bulk of their acreage in CRP.

"It's a critical issue for us and other game farms and controlled shooting areas," Waggoner said.

For 10 years Bob Husband, owner of Mid America Pheasants near Pierceville, has increased his game bird farm business from fewer than 10,000 birds in the first year to 30,000 birds in 1998.

"We've seen a good steady growth," he said, "and it's opened the door around here for several small businesses to get started or for other folks to supplement their income. It's going to greatly impact me because 75 percent of my customers use CRP acres to do their hunting on."

Game bird farms and hunting preserves aren't the only enterprises that would be hurt if the federal notice stands.

Sublette, a tidy farming community in Haskell County has three large controlled shooting operations that pump thousands of non-resident dollars into the local economy each year.

"When I heard about this the other day, I thought 'Oh, my gosh, more government regulations,'" said Gene Ochs, a Haskell County commissioner.

"We've got something here that's working. We're not going to get rich, but it brings money into Sublette."

Virtually every business in Sublette, Ochs said, benefits from the dollars brought in by the three controlled shooting areas.