Jackson Bienville

[aggravated]

Who else thinks it sucks that Weyerhaeuser pulled a bunch of land out of the game reserve?

[hunter]

You can join the lease with them

[aggravated]

hunter wrote:

You can join the lease with them

Don't think so. Starting price is outrageous and no telling what will end up going for. Heck, starting bid price is more than double the properties they already lease right beside the parts they pulled out. It's their property so I realize they can do what they want and I'm glad they didn't pull it all, but the whole thing still stinks. Been in the reserve for better than 50 years but now they decide to pull it. Afraid it's probably a sign of things to come. Big companies want to say they are all about community involvement and doing the right thing because it sounds good and is good PR, but in the end that seems like just spin, or sure does in this case anyway. Truth is money is their number one concern, or so it seems by actions such as this. Well that is fine, just don't try and spin it some other way. Using the good PR from it having been in the reserve in the past to try and market it now also stinks. Community involvement, doing the right thing, and giving back are all just catch phrases when applied as they are in the case of this company. Actions say more than words. First they slam the deer doggers and now they slam the folks that have to hunt public land. Willamette was never like this. I know they have some good local folks that work for them, so I'm not directing this at any of them. Just saying I think the situations sucks and it is the company.

[Mismanaged Area]

Can't hunt here, can't hunt there, can't ride a 4 wheeler down this trail, can't leave a stand on a tree, check in, duck hunt this day and not this day and not after 12, and not here but there, check out, don't plant lines anymore, can't use corn, don't allow camping, just a bunch of rules for ticket for this, ticket for that, hogs taking over the world due to the fear someone might shoot a deer.

[really]

Mismanaged area you apparently haven't hunted there or read the rules in a few years. You can hunt anywhere on the place, except for in the middle of a road or an atv trail. The only time you can't is the one weekend in October when they have the youth and handicap deer hunt. Also, they changed the duck hunting stuff back to normal several years ago. You can hunt ducks anywhere on the place other than on opening weekend of the gun deer season, and you can hunt ducks any day of the week and until 2 pm. You can also leave stands in woods as long as they aren't on the tree. And you can ride anywhere to get a deer or pig you kill, just can't ride anywhere you want anytime, but you have to expect some rules on public land. Same with corn, it's like that on all wmas. Can't bait on any of them. Big whoop. Deer move better because of no baiting. And they still manage the lines as much as they can, but ain't been planting because they can't get enough money anymore. If what Weyerhaeuser is bidding the tracts they took out for is any indicator of what the state is having to do to keep part of jb, then I would expect they really don't have money now to plant. They kill alot of deer and hogs there and it's good hinting, but it can't be like hunting private land because there are too many different folks hunting it and they have to have some rules to control things somewhat to keep the timber company happy. It isn't what it was but it's still really good and probably better now for deer than it has been in a long time. Sucks that they just lost almost 1/4 of it. If you hate it so bad, lease some of what the timber company took out and manage it like you want to. Unless you are rolling in cash though, you won't be able to do much once you pay that high lease fee. Good luck sitting in your box stand somewhere looking at your feeder. From what you gripe about sounds like you probably too lazy to hunt public land anyway. And I don't know of them writing many tickets either, except to goobers that are too ignorant to follow the rules, which are pretty simple for public land.

[no hope]

They will go up on everbody if anybody leases the new land they took out of reserve

[no doubt]

Get ready for it then because bids on the tract west of the Jonesboro Arcadia highway are up to $10.84 according to their website. The others are still where they started I think, but may have been bid on Just at the minimum. who knows. Somebody will end up bidding and everyone will be screwed eventually.

[puppylover]

no doubt wrote:

Get ready for it then because bids on the tract west of the Jonesboro Arcadia highway are up to $10.84 according to their website. The others are still where they started I think, but may have been bid on Just at the minimum. who knows. Somebody will end up bidding and everyone will be screwed eventually.

Private property. Corporations are people.

[no doubt]

puppylover wrote:

<quoted text>
Private property. Corporations are people.

I agree with you there. They can do what they want with their property. I just don't agree with saying you do the fair and right thing and are all about community and giving back and yada yada yada, and then turn around and make max profit off of what you were doing to give back. Don't say one thing and do something else. If you're in it for the maximum money in everything than just come out and say so. Funny it doesn't sound as good that way though does it? I got problems with the BS spin on this issue and so many others. The actions suck, but I could tolerate them so much better if they didn't do something that's not really positive overall except for making profit and then try and make it sound like the best thing since sliced bread when they advertise about it.

[no doubt]

Puppylover, in other words what I'm saying is I don't fault the workers for this company in the least. I respect them. They are getting jacked around as bad as anyone from what I've seen. The company doesn't care what they think either about this or anything. The people make the company, but the way the business is run and things are handled is a direct result of upper management somewhere not from around here most likely. I know alot of good folks that work for this company and I expect alot of them didn't like how this was done and the direction things are heading either. I don't fault them locally. Many of them lease from the company they work for and in the end will get bit in the butt by this just like folks hunting the reserve. I think it is a sign of a company where local ties aren't a concern. Decisions made by folks at a corporate headquarters in another state far from here that probably view their employees that get the jobs done as just numbers and look at their decisions as just business. If it's just business that's fine, just say that is all it is and don't try and sugar coat it to make it sound like it is something it's not. If they were still Willamette and had a headquarters in ruston, the reserve, the company employees, and the local communities would all be better off most likely. Things been going down hill ever since Weyerhaeuser pulled a hostile takeover of Willamette over 10 years ago. since then this whole area and the people involved have just been a means to an end for the folks calling the shots. Same thing has happened in other places with other companies and folks that ended up being under Weyerhaeuser by the same methods as they ended up coming in here. So no gripes at the good local folks that work for them. I feel sorry for them being stuck working for a company like this. Wish the company would pull out of our area and sale to a company that seemed to really care about more than just max profit with no concern for the people and communities affected. If you don't know what I mean talk to some loggers and folks that work in this part of the economy. I betcha a lot of them feel the same way, or at least a bunch of them have said as much to me.

[no doubt]

I realize some of this is the sign of a crappy economy as well, but I still think it would all be better if it was the old company and more real decisions were handled locally by folks that had ties to the area.

[no doubt]

As far as the game reserve is concerned, it would help with this one if WLF had showed more interest in the past and present in north LA public land, but we so far from baton rouge that we are out of sight and out of mind most of the time i guess. Sad.

[no doubt]

Those that run WLF that is. Not the folks up here that are like Weyerhaeuser local folks and are just stuck doing what the bosses say do.

[Ole Goober]

really wrote:

Mismanaged area you apparently haven't hunted there or read the rules in a few years. You can hunt anywhere on the place, except for in the middle of a road or an atv trail. The only time you can't is the one weekend in October when they have the youth and handicap deer hunt. Also, they changed the duck hunting stuff back to normal several years ago. You can hunt ducks anywhere on the place other than on opening weekend of the gun deer season, and you can hunt ducks any day of the week and until 2 pm. You can also leave stands in woods as long as they aren't on the tree. And you can ride anywhere to get a deer or pig you kill, just can't ride anywhere you want anytime, but you have to expect some rules on public land. Same with corn, it's like that on all wmas. Can't bait on any of them. Big whoop. Deer move better because of no baiting. And they still manage the lines as much as they can, but ain't been planting because they can't get enough money anymore. If what Weyerhaeuser is bidding the tracts they took out for is any indicator of what the state is having to do to keep part of jb, then I would expect they really don't have money now to plant. They kill alot of deer and hogs there and it's good hinting, but it can't be like hunting private land because there are too many different folks hunting it and they have to have some rules to control things somewhat to keep the timber company happy. It isn't what it was but it's still really good and probably better now for deer than it has been in a long time. Sucks that they just lost almost 1/4 of it. If you hate it so bad, lease some of what the timber company took out and manage it like you want to. Unless you are rolling in cash though, you won't be able to do much once you pay that high lease fee. Good luck sitting in your box stand somewhere looking at your feeder. From what you gripe about sounds like you probably too lazy to hunt public land anyway. And I don't know of them writing many tickets either, except to goobers that are too ignorant to follow the rules, which are pretty simple for public land.

Ole Goob had not read the rules lately because he quit hunting in JB. I found 12 pages of rules, REALLY. The rules are simple if you can remember them all, the EXCEPTs are the killer. Ole Goober hunted there and walked the 1/4 or more that it took to hunt and tried to do right, but thought it SUCKED when he got a ticket for parking his ATV 10 feet past the end of the trail, before daylight with a poorly marked end of the trail. I have met many more respectables that have felt tricked and cheated in WMAs As well as you know the rules, you sound like a GOOBER that writes some of the near baseless tickets.

[really]

Ole Goober - Sorry for your misfortune. You had me pegged wrong too. I am definitely not a possum cop. I just hunt WMAs regularly and have found it pretty easy to follow the rules. Some places are worse than others though. Depends on the place and the possum cops that work on it. Was the ticket you got the real deal or a warning. If it was a warning ticket then I would just call it a learning experience. If all you did was park 10 feet past the end of a trail like you say and you got the real thing ticket, and assuming you were polite and not a smart arse with the game warden, then I'd say it was BS. Most of the wardens I've run into on JB wouldn't write somebody for what you are talking about unless the person getting checked mouthed off or something, but there are a few that would either way. There are at least a few like that anywhere. Some are hardarses in general and some are just very by the book. Most I know for JB though wouldn't even write a warning for what you are talking about. You must've run into the wrong one. I'd say go hunt the place if you want, just be careful and remember it ain't like hunting private property so follow the rules to a T in case you do run into one of the GWs that is by the book. I'd also suggest if you have any question if something is ok, call the people and ask them before you do it to be on the safe side. That's always worked for me. I know a ton of folks that hunt the place and very few have ever got a ticket.

[really]

By the way, if I were one who wrote tickets you can bet your butt I wouldn't write somebody for what you got wrote for. how long ago did that happen? Just curious. I know there is one or two that I've run into in last 2 years that are extra strict and could write something that is better left alone. Most of the regular agents there are pretty laid back or so it seems. I know several guys that had minor infractions and just got a light lecture and not even a warning ticket, much less a hard copy ticket. If it was back 7 or 8 years ago when that happened to you then I'm almost not surprised because at that time there was one or two GWs that were young and out to prove something or seemed to think they were and were writing a bunch of crap tickets from what I gathered. If it was back then, the one that was really burning people is gone now and another that was just a butthole in general got transferred or quit one. Everybody I've run into for last few years seems ok for GWs.

[yep]

It all boils down to money. There goes another little man.

[u said it]

yep wrote:

It all boils down to money. There goes another little man.

This x 2 ! Agreed !

[AD on Craigslist]

There is an ad on craigslist looking for members for a new hunting lease in Jackson Parish. It has a nice little price tag of $1400 per membership. It is the land that runs along 167,( the one that floods).

[too high]

$1400 seems pretty high compared to membership in other local leases, but I guess it has to be high when they paying over twice the cost per acre leased. Too high for me! Can't be that good hunting. I'll stay where I am hunting now and take out of state trip for that kinda $$$!