Unit 32

[jonesface]

Hi everyone new member. Have been reading on this site for a while and a lot of good info. Very knowledgeable hunters. I have a question about unit 32. I have a Nov28 to Dec4 tag. I hunted down there last year for quail and saw a lot of deer sign. So i decided to put in and got drawn. I have been down there scouting several times this year and have found that areas that were open last year are now gated off and no tresspassing signs up. Im hunting on the west side of the Galiuro mtns and plan to stay over there unless i cant find any bucks soon. I have seen a few doe but that is all. Im not looking for any hot spots (unless your willing to give them out JK) just some places to see some bucks I would appreciate any help i can get. any roads you suggest or phone numbers to call? thanks!

[Redman]

32 has been harder and harder to get access, I have not hunted there in a few years, I know this sounds like a cop out, but I would start with the hunt unit reports from the Game and Fish and get off the road a few miles......

 

Redman

[Guest 300ultramag.]

ur in the right area

[jonesface]

ur in the right area

Thanks for your reply. I was scouting in Aug and ran into a Guiding Outfitter. I cant remember the name of the Outfitter but that must be good news RIGHT? I guess I will just keep looking and try to find out who owns the private property to see if they will let me on. THANKS!

[jonesface]

32 has been harder and harder to get access, I have not hunted there in a few years, I know this sounds like a cop out, but I would start with the hunt unit reports from the Game and Fish and get off the road a few miles......

 

Redman

Thanks Redman. I know I might have to do that but time is running short to scout out a new area.

[Dodger2]

This is just my opinion....I have hunted the east side and the west side of the Galiuros...I like the east side....

[jonesface]

32 has been harder and harder to get access, I have not hunted there in a few years, I know this sounds like a cop out, but I would start with the hunt unit reports from the Game and Fish and get off the road a few miles......

 

Redman

Just found out today from the AZGFD that last year a lot of the Ranchers were letting 25 people go through there land to hunt as long as you paid a $25 fee. (That is why last year I was able to go places that I cant this year) Found out this year an Outfitter went to all of these ranches in 32 and made a deal with them to put up gates and locks for X amount of dollars. The only way you can go through this private property now is if you book a hunt with this Outfitter group which is $1000. Mercer Ranch and other ranches will not let you through this year. GF didn't give me the name of the Outfitter group. This is the case on the east and west side of the Galiuro Mtns. GF said they are working with the state and federal government to build roads around these private properties but will take several years. So good luck to anybody that has a 32 tag!

[JMP]

32 has been harder and harder to get access, I have not hunted there in a few years, I know this sounds like a cop out, but I would start with the hunt unit reports from the Game and Fish and get off the road a few miles......

 

Redman

Just found out today from the AZGFD that last year a lot of the Ranchers were letting 25 people go through there land to hunt as long as you paid a $25 fee. (That is why last year I was able to go places that I cant this year) Found out this year an Outfitter went to all of these ranches in 32 and made a deal with them to put up gates and locks for X amount of dollars. The only way you can go through this private property now is if you book a hunt with this Outfitter group which is $1000. Mercer Ranch and other ranches will not let you through this year. GF didn't give me the name of the Outfitter group. This is the case on the east and west side of the Galiuro Mtns. GF said they are working with the state and federal government to build roads around these private properties but will take several years. So good luck to anybody that has a 32 tag!

 

 

If that's true, it's a prime example of why i don't care much for some of these outfitters. GF told you this??

[jonesface]

32 has been harder and harder to get access, I have not hunted there in a few years, I know this sounds like a cop out, but I would start with the hunt unit reports from the Game and Fish and get off the road a few miles......

 

Redman

Just found out today from the AZGFD that last year a lot of the Ranchers were letting 25 people go through there land to hunt as long as you paid a $25 fee. (That is why last year I was able to go places that I cant this year) Found out this year an Outfitter went to all of these ranches in 32 and made a deal with them to put up gates and locks for X amount of dollars. The only way you can go through this private property now is if you book a hunt with this Outfitter group which is $1000. Mercer Ranch and other ranches will not let you through this year. GF didn't give me the name of the Outfitter group. This is the case on the east and west side of the Galiuro Mtns. GF said they are working with the state and federal government to build roads around these private properties but will take several years. So good luck to anybody that has a 32 tag!

 

 

If that's true, it's a prime example of why i don't care much for some of these outfitters. GF told you this??

Yes

[25-06]

32 has been harder and harder to get access, I have not hunted there in a few years, I know this sounds like a cop out, but I would start with the hunt unit reports from the Game and Fish and get off the road a few miles......

 

Redman

Just found out today from the AZGFD that last year a lot of the Ranchers were letting 25 people go through there land to hunt as long as you paid a $25 fee. (That is why last year I was able to go places that I cant this year) Found out this year an Outfitter went to all of these ranches in 32 and made a deal with them to put up gates and locks for X amount of dollars. The only way you can go through this private property now is if you book a hunt with this Outfitter group which is $1000. Mercer Ranch and other ranches will not let you through this year. GF didn't give me the name of the Outfitter group. This is the case on the east and west side of the Galiuro Mtns. GF said they are working with the state and federal government to build roads around these private properties but will take several years. So good luck to anybody that has a 32 tag!

 

 

If that's true, it's a prime example of why i don't care much for some of these outfitters. GF told you this??

Big time bummer guys...$$$$Kinda wonder what it will be like in a few more years

[Redman]

That is sad news, a friend of mine called Mercer right when the draw results were out and was told they were not allowing access this year, they did not tell him about the outfitter.....

 

Good Luck

 

Redman

[Coueser]

Thanks for the update. That's too bad. I have that tag this year as well. I guess that means that more of us will be packed into the same areas. The ability to get out and hike and get away from roads will probably be more important this year than before. Good luck to ya. I sure hope they get some new public roads built so we can avoid the whole private road mess because I sure don't see that problem ever getting fixed. There are just too many inconsiderate people that ruin it for those that try to be considerate. Anyways, thanks again for the update.

[audsley]

Unless something is done, the problem you're seeing in Unit 32 is going to snowball until we're all left hunting just a few patches of public land that still have access.

 

I'm going to ask everyone's indulgence with the following very long excerpt from an article I wrote for this fall's Arizona Wildlife News, a publication of Az Wildlife Federation. This is what we're up against.

 

Whose Public Land Is It?

This is the first of a two-part series on public lands access in Arizona.

 

Imagine driving to your national forest for a day of hiking, hunting or bird watching and finding a sign on the road that reads:

 

Cowboy Bob’s National Forest Entrance

 

Daily rates

Hunters $50

Hikers and Birdwatchers $25

Campers $100

Ladies half price on Tuesdays

 

Sound farfetched? Well, the sign is fictitious, but the practice of private individuals charging fees for public land access is not. Landowners all over the West have been doing it, and it appears to be a growing industry. Meanwhile, other landowners are choosing to simply lock out the public altogether and enjoy exclusive access to public lands.

 

The problem is especially acute in southern Arizona where most roads leading to national forest and BLM lands cross private lands before reaching a National Forest or BLM boundary. Vast areas of Federal lands, including some entire mountain ranges, lack legal vehicular access. Many even lack reasonable hiking access.

 

Coronado National Forest consists of several “sky island” ranges surrounded by state trust land, BLM land and private property. Of the approximately 300 entry points to the Forest, fewer than 100 have legal access. Access to lower elevation ranges managed by BLM isn’t much better.

 

Currently the Santa Teresa and Winchester mountain ranges are effectively off-limits to anyone without specific landowner permission to cross private stretches of road. Most of the Mule, Swisshelm, Mustang, Pedragosa, Peloncillo (north, and most of the south section) and Doz Cabezas ranges are also inaccessible. Significant portions of the Chiricahuas, Galiuros, Whetstones and Dragoons are blocked off, as are parts of the Santa Ritas and Huachucas.

 

Many of the roads that are now closed had been open to the public for many years, in some cases decades. Many had even been maintained over the years by county taxpayers.

 

The current situation is bad enough, but it has the potential to become even worse. Many of the major rural roads in southern Arizona cross stretches of private land that theoretically could be locked off should landowners decide to exercise that prerogative. Examples include the Ruby Road east of Pena Blanca Lake, Rucker Canyon Road circling around the southern end of the Chiricahuas, Happy Valley Road east of the Rincons, and High Creek Road between Bonita and the Galiuro Wilderness.

 

Virtually anyone needing to cross private property needs the landowner’s permission. This includes officials from the US Forest Service, BLM and Game & Fish seeking to perform their duties, as well as any type of recreational user. It’s an obstacle for hikers, campers, hunters, bird watchers, climbers, rockhounds, 4WD clubs, herpetologists and equestrians.

 

In Skeleton Canyon in southeast Arizona, a concrete monument marks the site of Geronimo’s final surrender to General Crook. But you may not visit it without permission of nearby landowners even though the site is on Coronado National Forest land. To reach the surrender site just off a numbered forest service road, travelers would need to trespass for six or seven miles before reaching the forest boundary. A locked gate about ten miles from the surrender site drives home the point.

 

Why Lock Out the Public?

 

Landowners include ranchers, mine operators, land speculators and developers. Their reasons for blocking access to public lands are as varied as the landowners themselves.

 

Landowners of all types typically cite litter and damage to natural resources as reasons for locking gates. Ranchers and mine owners worry about vandalism to infrastructure. And in southern Arizona’s troubled border environment, many believe unlocked gates serve to invite more smuggling traffic.

 

Sometimes gates are locked for the safety and peace of mind of homeowners living next to the road. For example, the gate to Peck Canyon in the Tumacacori Mountains stayed open for decades until the owner, whose ranch house is only a few yards from the gate, finally had enough of living with a national forest access point located close to the border. Night traffic had increased dramatically, and his gate was being opened at all hours, often by people he’d rather weren’t anywhere near his home. Rival smugglers were killing each other and leading law enforcement on high-speed chases punctuated by gunfire within minutes of the house. When he finally put a padlock on the gate, no one protested.

 

The Peck Canyon case is not especially unusual. There are others like it all along the border. In that case, Game & Fish was eventually able to purchase right-of-way for alternate route into Peck Canyon, but in many other cases that isn't possible due to the terrain, right-of-way land not being available or roadless/wilderness designations making it illegal to connect an old road to a new one.

 

But other landowners are motivated by very different forces. Depending on one’s point of view, some of these other forces can be characterized either as good business sense or just plain selfishness and greed.

 

In many areas, national forest and BLM lands are effectively controlled and exploited much like private property by contiguous landowners. With the public locked out, these areas become the private playgrounds and hunting preserves for landowners’ families, friends, business associates or those with whom they would like to curry favor. (The sheriff of one southern Arizona county is known to hunt on a ranch that is locally notorious for keeping hunters off its BLM allotment at gunpoint. Despite complaints of property and hunting rifles being taken by force, the allotment owners are not prosecuted.)

 

Some landowners partner with outfitters to sell guided hunts offering clients exclusive access to Federal lands. Previous owners of the Cross F Ranch in the Santa Teresa range advertised “old west-style buffalo hunts” on their ranch, which was mainly comprised of state trust and BLM lands with only a small percentage of privately deeded land. In the Skeleton Canyon area, private landowners are effectively managing the public’s deer herds by managing the deer hunts. Game & Fish might decide how many tags to issue for a given Hunt Unit, but private landowners get to decide how many people will hunt on the Federal lands where they control the access.

 

Some hunters have climbed over locked gates and trudged miles up a forest service road believing they would be rewarded with less hunting pressure and a deer population where most of the bucks die of old age. Instead they find sprawling encampments of trailers housing a landowner’s guests, clients and guides who have been hunting there every year as if it was their own private land, which it isn't.

 

Real estate values are another factor. The ability to control access to adjacent BLM and national forest lands increases the value of a property. Sales brochures and websites entice buyers with the prospect of exclusive access to adjacent state and Federal lands.

 

More than 50 per cent of current cases involve ranchers with grazing leases on adjacent state and Federal lands, but a growing number involves mine owners and subdivisions.

When developers subdivide ranches that have roads leading onto Federal lands, they can offer gated communities with private access to government lands, free from intrusion by non-residents.

 

Another reason gates become locked has to do with landowner relations with government agencies. Gates are sometimes locked in retaliation or to show a government agency who’s boss. In Cochise County not long ago, a gate was locked after Game & Fish cited a ranch employee for killing a bear and leaving the meat to rot. Another ranch has been closed ever since a family member was convicted for participating in a poaching ring. In a recent Graham County case, a landowner closed a road providing sole access to a portion of the Galiuros because she was mad at the sheriff and wanted to call attention to a perceived injustice having nothing whatsoever to do with the road. (The Arizona Desert Bighorn Sheep Society took her to court and the road was eventually re-opened, but this case illustrates the use of road closures as weapons in personal or political disputes.)

 

Obviously there are many reasons why landowners choose to lock gates. Some road closures are defensive. Others reflect recognition of opportunity and a decision to cash in on it. Some represent power struggles between landowners and government. There are even a few cases involving wealthy landowners who simply choose not to share the public’s land with the public if they don't have to.

 

But all closures have one thing in common: landowners lock gates leading to public lands because they can. And how did that situation come to be?

 

 

 

[jonesface]

 

Unless something is done, the problem you're seeing in Unit 32 is going to snowball until we're all left hunting just a few patches of public land that still have access.

 

I'm going to ask everyone's indulgence with the following very long excerpt from an article I wrote for this fall's Arizona Wildlife News, a publication of Az Wildlife Federation. This is what we're up against.

 

Some landowners partner with outfitters to sell guided hunts offering clients exclusive access to Federal lands. Previous owners of the Cross F Ranch in the Santa Teresa range advertised “old west-style buffalo hunts” on their ranch, which was mainly comprised of state trust and BLM lands with only a small percentage of privately deeded land. In the Skeleton Canyon area, private landowners are effectively managing the public’s deer herds by managing the deer hunts. Game & Fish might decide how many tags to issue for a given Hunt Unit, but private landowners get to decide how many people will hunt on the Federal lands where they control the access.

 

 

THIS IS EXACTLY Whats happening!!!!! What can we do?

 

 

[Kilimanjaro]

This pisses me off to no end... I have a 32 tag and to get blocked access because of some @#$% rancher and some back stabbing outfitter is not going to fly. I WILL be thourghly complaining to AZGF and anyone else who'll listen.

 

 

I cannot stand this crap.