Public land cwmu question

schoolhousegrizz · Jul 21, 2018

I am looking at hunting a section of land that borders a cwmu unit here in Northern Utah. On my GPS it shows the section as a green which means it is public land and forest service. However? When I click on that green section and hit the menu on it it says it's private yet it is green. Is this a malfunction with my GPS or have any of you seen this before?

legacy · Jul 21, 2018

I'm really not positive if this is the case, but I do know that there are CWMU?s that have public land inside of the CWMU that are basically considered private property and there is no public access provided. As far as I know the only way the CWMU can do this is if they provide private property that is accessible to the public.

travishunter3006 · Jul 21, 2018

Many CWMUs have PUBLIC ground within their boarders. Now you can't hunt that ground, nor is it accessible because it's often land locked by private. Read up on the CWMU program in the proclamation and it explains this very thing.

treedagain · Jul 21, 2018

a good portion of the west Box Elder county ELK CWMU's have huge amounts of accessible public ground that is included in them. in fact 1 has more public than private land. over 35,000 acres of public land lost to CWMU's, sure the public gets tags, but it is a money maker for the private landowner.

schoolhousegrizz · Jul 21, 2018

Thanks, doesn't seem like that should be legal.

257Tony · Jul 22, 2018

Have you tried downloading the cwmu unit boundary file and checking it that way? That will let you know if that piece is part of the unit. If it's not, you can then check with the county recorder to see if it's private.

schoolhousegrizz · Jul 22, 2018

Thanks Tony.

Ticks N Tines · Jul 23, 2018

Even if there is "Accessible" public land attached to a CWMU, it can be considered "CWMU land" and not open to public hunting. It seems strange, but the rule clearly states that if a private CWMU land owner would like to make a more "Definable" boundary, they can include public land into that boundary and it becomes CWMU land.

In return for taking away the public land hunting opportunity, the DWR/CWMU requires one of two options:

1. The CWMU is required to add additional public permits
2. The CWMU must provide trade lands of equal or greater value.

There are several CWMUs that have done this. Make sure you do your research before hunting the property. Sometimes it gets pretty confusing. I was on the CWMU committee for 5 years. If you would like to PM with specific questions, I would be happy to help.

Matt

Gator · Jul 23, 2018

LAST EDITED ON Jul-23-18 AT 01:28PM (MST)[p]It's kind of funny and what they try to get away with.
We brought some land (160Ac) it was part of a CWMU the main road runs along side of my land with a gate to enter the CWMU. They tried to tell us we couldn't hunt our own land because it was in the CWMU program. I told them once the land sold it was out of the Cwmu control and I as the new landowner wasn't putting in the CWMU program.
They want to say that the operator had it in the CWMU for a couple of more years per a contract they had with the old owner.
The operator hadn't make a payment to the old owner for 2 years so he as far I was concerned he broke any contract with that owner by not paying his bill and I never had a contract/lease agreement with him or CWMU program.
So now I'm sure they will keep trying to hunt on it.
I wonder how that works if you have a CWMU tag and kill a animal off that CWMU property and on someone else private land.
Sure wish I would of drew a tag this year because I sure would BE on it.
Just maybe I will spend a little time up there during the hunt seasons anyway.

"I have found if you go the extra mile it's Never crowded".
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treedagain · Jul 23, 2018

IMHO there is a BIG difference in adding a few acres here and there to define boundrys and adding HUGE amounts so the operator can have enough ground to make there CWMU. and control vast stretches of property. Case in point look at most of the west box elder elk CWMU's. like I said at least one has more public than private ground. not really a fair trade, a few bull tags where if the public could access the property to hunt multiple hunters would do so.... just another way for a operator to make money and restrict legal access to public ground.

BuzzH · Jul 24, 2018

LAST EDITED ON Jul-24-18 AT 07:43AM (MST)[p]More winning...according to SFW.

Ticks N Tines · Jul 24, 2018

Also keep in mind that Public land is still public land and the public hunter has a right to be on that land. The rule that I noted applies to species that the CWMU is authorized to hunt. However, you can still hunt small game, turkey, coyotes, etc on those accessible land parcels and hike around at your leisure. The CWMU owners don't like it, but they can't keep you off the land. They can only regulate the hunting of the authorized CWMU species on that parcel.

The CWMU can legally fence off the public land, but you have a right to that public land and can legally cross the fence. Just don't hunt the species listed on the yellow signs.

Deerlove · Jul 24, 2018

Bad trade, they get elk deer and moose, and we get the squirrel.

JumpinJ · Jul 24, 2018

Let me start off by saying that I won't indicate which CWMU this is.

So I have family with large tracks of private property and is enrolled the CWMU program. We were always told it's a double edge sword and for us to be careful not to cross over onto the public land. You would/could be arrested if you mistakenly harvested an animal on CWMU with a public tag and visa versa with a CWMU tag, or would be ticketed for hunting an area without the correct permit

I'm not a lawyer and only going on what the landowner told me. (my father in law).

I'm guessing there's a lot of us that would love to hunt public land adjacent or within CWMU but don't know where to start. Call the DWR and ask questions. There probably wanting to or already are hunting.

Here's my opinion and mine only - We've all heard the elk and deer head into private property once the hunts start. Where do these animals go when the pressure from the private land hunters go?

I would rather hunt the public property within this CWMU than the cwmu which has access from both public dirt and paved roads.

UtyoteKiller · Jul 24, 2018

We need to get the "Definable" boundary part taken out and remove the public land from this landowner welfare program. These days everyone has a cell phone or GPS with the capability to download and save maps with landowner/property boundaries. No longer should we loose more ground to landowners who don't actually own the land anymore than we all do. We aren't getting a fair shake with what we get in return.