The Deer Group of Lasting Forests is a company (hypothetical and under design) that is designed to solve a problem. The problem is large -- more like an octopus than an orange. The problem is that public deer live on private land, they cannot see boundary paint, and private lands are small (about three-fourths of them are less than 100 acres). The land value goes up; the taxes too. The deer are becoming more abundant (a topic of another article). The landowners are more abundant, better educated, and generally financially better off than in the past. Deer problems are increasing and deer hunters are decreasing. About a third of the landowners cannot afford to invest in forestry or intensive land management. There is a high rate of turnover among landowners; investing in land may seem ill advised. There is a problem. Maybe there are several; it seems reasonable to try to approach a solution for a system rather than for each part separately.
One part of the solution is planned, coordinated use of land under contract. The contract is a lease-for-use contract, long-term, with limited options to modify or improve the land for deer and deer resource users, and with payments grounded in shared profits. The higher the profit, the higher the return to the landowner and to The Deer Group. The contract becomes a part of the land title and it may be transferred to the new owner or removed by purchase from The Deer Group at an amount 8 times the income to R* Deer from the land in the previous year. The "buy-out" provision protects long-term investments in fertilizers, trails, etc., but does not impair a typical land sale.
Not simply a hunting club lease, the contract allows for large areas to be developed together so that they can be used year-around for benefits from the deer resource. Scouting; legal hunts by certified hunters; intensive hunts that take the desired number of deer to achieve various objectives; herd protection; anti-poaching work; and all of the other benefits and services of The Deer Group are provided to land-owners that are willing to place their land under contract for profits as well as for continuing personal and family benefits.
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This Web site is maintained by R. H.
Giles, Jr.
Last revision January 17, 2000.
