I was once a member of a club in St Clair. The old St Clair WMA was leased to the state for $1.00 per year and was a tax write off. The state was supposed to maintain gates and roads, plant a certain number of food plots, and use biologists for herd management. The owner of the land gave the state several years to fix what was supposed to be done, but failed in every area. So, landowner pulled lease from the state and offered it to us since we already leased other land from him. I'm sure this still holds true for other WMAs that are being pulled and now clubs.

I am not familiar with those areas but La Floresta Perdida leased some 40,000 acres to the state as a WMA in Escambia County and it was slap covered up with deer. I don't think there was anywhere in there you could climb a tree and NOT see a deer. There was a lot of IP land that was WMA on both sides of the Escambia River that had good hunting as well. All of it is club land now.

On the flip side

Lots of clubs lost land in north Alabama and it’s way under utilized.

Why the state won’t simply open these big wmas up like statewide seasons like a lot of other states do is beyond me. Limit what someone can kill if you worried about it but some of these wmas like Freedom Hills and Lauderdale would be just fine.

They open them up to the circus for turkeys when the population is at restocking levels again but not deer when those populations are at all time high. Makes no sense to me

Just so happened the landowner and the game and fish commissioner was the same guy at the time

I might would have to quit hunting if that happened. I’d probly go into a deep depression and not come out! I’ve hunted there exclusively since the mid 90’s and love the hell out of it! (Referring to Cahaba!)

They keep clearcutting my best spots. Pisses me off.

WMA's lost in the southern part of the state......... TR Miller, Kinterbish, Butler, Scotch, Boykin, Escambia Creek. May be some more but this is what i can recall. I would say that would be close to around 100,000 acres of lost public hunting land, maybe more. That was one hell of a lot of hunting land for around 16$ per person. Them good ole days are long gone.

Man Kinterbish used to be something else. Most deer sign I have ever seen in any one place.

Can't blame the landowners. Scotch is getting mid west lease prices for what was once the old WMA.

Honestly, its not worth it.

Not my circus, not my monkeys...

I know the land would have never been managed the way he wanted it under the state. You should have seen the condition of it when we got it and compared it to just 5 years later. Night and day difference. But, you should have seen the do's and don't that came with the lease...

I know he became commissioner in 03, bought the land in 07, and we got it in 12 or 13. I always figured he was using MO to build it up the way he wanted and then pull it to either sell for big $$ or get a premium lease price. Genetics are there and I've seen some studs come off that land. Hasn't happened yet though, so who knows...

Are You still in the Club slgunnel?