Q: I am a landowner here in East Texas and I lease the
majority of my land out to hunters. Last
year before hunting season I decided to harvest some of the timber and after
the harvest I spent a lot of time ensuring that my roads were left in good
shape by making sure that waterbars were left and were built correctly. The problem that I have is the hunters will
drive across these waterbars tearing them down and I have to spend more time and
money rebuilding them. Is there anything
I can do to discourage them from driving across my waterbars and tearing them
up?
A: This is a common problem between landowners and
hunters. Hunters often do not realize
how much time and money is spent on properly constructing waterbars. Also they may not realize just how important
waterbars are in protecting roads from erosion and keeping them functional for
the landowner. Continuous traffic and
even occasional traffic across waterbars will degrade their structural
integrity and impede their ability to properly disperse water from the
roadway. However, there are a couple of
things that you can do to discourage hunters from driving across your
waterbars.
A
good way to discourage hunters from driving across your waterbars is to include
this as a condition of the lease that they sign. Include a section in your lease that states
the hunters will not drive their trucks or ATVs down roads that have waterbars
placed on them and if they do there will be some type of penalty. This penalty could be that the hunters would
have to pay to have the waterbars rebuilt or this could constitute revoking
their hunting lease. Whatever the penalty
is it should be agreed upon by both parties and included in the lease agreement
to ensure that both parties interests are protected.
Placing
tops and other logging debris in your waterbars can also discourage hunters
from driving across your waterbars.
Hunters are less likely to drive across a waterbar that has limbs
sticking out the top of it versus a waterbar that doesn’t. There are consequences to driving across one
of these debris filled waterbars. These
consequences can include the hunter puncturing one of his tires on his vehicle
or ATV or even worse a limb could puncture the radiator causing severe damage
to the hunter’s vehicle. These damages
can be costly to fix thus making a hunter a little more reluctant to drive
across one of your waterbars.
Another
alternative that can be used separately or in conjunction with the previous two
is to create a barricade at the entrance of the road. This can be done by pushing up tops and limbs
and making a large brush pile that can’t be driven across. However, this would
limit your access to the road as well and make it difficult for you to get in
and manage your property. Another
possibility is to place a cable across the entranceway but this may be a little
more costly but it would certainly keep hunters off your road and keep them
from destroying your waterbars.
The
best solution to this problem is to discuss your concerns with the hunters
before allowing them access to your property.
Most hunters are considerate of the landowner’s wishes and will comply
with them in order to gain access to the property. Remember that waterbars are only effective
when constructed properly and maintained.
The BMP Bluebook offers recommendations on how to properly construct
waterbars. You can obtain a copy of the
newly revised BMP Bluebook by visiting your local Texas Forest Service office
or you can view it online at http://txforestservice.tamu.edu/water. If you have any questions regarding BMPs
please call me at (936) 639-8180.
* This article was published in the March 2005 issue of the Texas Logger
