Tuesday, January 22, 2013

Saving The Hunting Land - The Back Story


My name is Chadd and I live in York County, PA.  Like many of my other fellow hunters I believe that every year it is getting harder and harder to find a good hunting location.  It seems as the state gamelands are getting smaller each year and not to mention that the state land is polluted with no ethic hunters (ie. no respect for the land or the animals they hunt).  Two years ago I was given the permission to start hunting on a private piece of farm land which is located in southern part of York County.  The farm is a little over a 100 acres and it made up of 80% crop plots and 20% woods.  The farm is surrounded on three sides by other farms and the fourth side is a very nice heavily wooded property. Over many days of hunting and scouting it has come to my attention that the deer are using the wooded property as their bedding area and sanctuary as no one is permitted to hunt on that land. Although the farm is not producing any record breaking bucks at this point I still thought it would be a good idea to start practicing the methods of the QDMA program while hunting on this property as the crops that are being grown offer the ability to really help produce some bucks.  Well two years later as luck would have it, I have just been informed that the wooded property located directly next to the farm property is going to be put on the market for sale.  Due to the location of this wooded property there is a very good chance that the buyer will redevelop the land into something more commercial, thus eliminating the woods and the sanctuary as the deer have come to know it.  Once I was informed that the land would be going up for sale I contacted the sellers real estate agent and was told that the seller has another property in York County that he is eager to start developing on ASAP so this piece of land would be sold greatly under market cost, just over 100,000 dollars.  Since my wife and I just purchased our first house (100+ year old “starter house”) about three years ago and since then we have had our first child, so we are in no position to purchase the land, as we would not be able to afford the full second mortgage. I have tried to come up with numerous different ways of being able to save this property from being sold and redeveloped but always come back to the harsh fact that I just don’t have enough money to make it happen.  As a last ditch effort, a friend of mine named Travis, suggested that I try reaching out to other hunters and wildlife preservers via the internet and tell my story in hopes of someone being able to help.  Travis introduced me to a software app called ChipIn  which allows people to contribute money (any amount, even a $1.00 is accepted) towards a project while keeping track of the overall financial goal.  Since I would only be able to afford a mortgage of 20k, Travis suggested that I set the overall financial goal for 80,000 dollars.  My goal is through the use of the internet (via hunting forums, twitter, etc) and word of mouth that I can come in contact with enough good hearted people that can spare donating a few dollars towards this cause and reach my so that I can purchase this land and preserve it just as nature had intended.  Below I have listed a link to my ChipIn page. Thanks in advance to anyone who is able to help me reach this goal, I truly appreciate it!!


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