Eyes on Landowner Concerns: How Do Landowner Concerns About Fee Hunting Impact Their Willingness to Lease?

Abstract

Although leasing hunting rights increases landowner income and provides incentives to improve wildlife habitat, few landowners lease their lands. In this article, landowner attitudes about potential problems associated with fee hunting leases were explored based on a mail survey of nonindustrial private forest (NIPF) landowners. Responses to questions eliciting landowner levels of concern with 17 potential issues associated with hunting leases were aggregated into four categories: concerns about property damage and liability, customer relations, impacts on personal use, and impacts on habitat, wildlife and safety. Landowners were grouped into five subgroups based on their attitudes to these four categories. These groups were significant predictors of landowner willingness to allow hunting access in conjunction with public land hunting lease rate, property characteristics, and landowner demographics. These results provided insights into problems facing hunters and land managers attempting to improve access to NIPF lands.