Any Suggestions

[Cornhusker]

I finally drew 57 this year for antelope. Scouted it for a week in August, had the gps chip to determine access of private from public worked great. Saw lots of goats.

Last night I read on the Wyoming Fish and Game that they are shutting off all easements of the BLM roads to the north which basically denies access to all the checkerboard land in the unit over 50% of unit. This includes Delaney Rim road, Barrel Springs road, Eureka springs road among others. The GF increased tags by a third this year and then took away 50% of the hunting land. I'm calling today but are easements possible or this just another lockout of the out of state hunter. They issued this August 26th, 25 days before the season opened.I talked to a BLM guy when I was out there and he went over maps with me and among the ideas he pointed me to involved access through the roads that are now closed to public access.

Any suggestions are appreciated greatly. Yes I covered the south which is all public but saw a lot less antelope than in the checkerboard land of the North. It looks like my waypoints are now worthless.

Thanks for any help
Cornhusker.

 

[nripepi]

Jump the corners and try to beat it in court. Buy a chute plane and fly into the checkerboard areas. Rent a helicopter and land in the checkerboard areas. Jump out of a plane and land in the square mile with the biggest buck.

Man that really stinks, I bet that changes the odds in 57 big time.

Best of luck to you and I hope those roads are still open somehow.

 

[Cornhusker]

Spent most of the morning on the Phone they won't be opened. If any of you care enough to voice your displeasure with the BLM and it was suggested by BLM officals that sportsmen whether you have a tag for the area or not get active. The guy according to the BLM to send letters of diapproval to is

Rawlins BLM
Patrick Madigan
1300 N. 3rd st.
P.O. Box 2407
Rawlins, Wy. zip?

 

[chipc]

Husker,
Did the WGFD or the BLM shut off the roads ? Did they give you any reason why ? Did they tell you how long they will be closed ? Why are the closures just in that area ? I've spoken to some of the BLM guys out of Rawlins in the past and they were very helpful. This doesn't seem to make sense and it should worry all of us because ''our'' unit could be next. GOOD LUCK. Chip

 

[Cornhusker]

The biologist I talked to of the area Tony Mong found out today and he is doing the antelope survey for the Fish and Wildlife. The explanation BLm give you on the phone and on the internet is the land owners didn't want the excessive traffic on the BLM roads during hunting season. All related to money but it pisses me off. The people I talked to at Rawlins was very helpful and I appreciated their help the guy I mentioned in the previous post according to two people I talked to apparently has the authority to close these roads. They shut off over half of the unit of which 50% is public by closing these roads and didn't release they were doing it until August 26th. My first letter is to him my next letters are going to be sent to someone higher up I don't know who yet. Not that it will do much good until we band together as hunters. Thanks Rick.

 

[chipc]

Thanks. I'll send a letter to Madigan too. I just don't know how they can shut off a public road because someone doesn't want the traffic. I've never heard of that before. If thats all it takes to shut down a BLM road it wont be long and they will all be closed. Chip

 

[nontypical]

I would guess those roads are on private land.It's the landowner's right to shut them down,no matter how much it sucks.We won't be getting much help from BLM,I wouldn't think.

 

[SouthernWyo]

You guys are way off base. The roads that you are talking about are not being "shut down", they were never open to public access. There never has been any public easment across the private property. Any road signs that implied that a road was/is BLM have been removed so that the public doesn't continue to belive that they have the right to use these roads when it doesn't exist.

Whoever you talked to with the BLM that guided you to these roads is an idiot and I'd be more pissed at him than at losing access that you never had. Tony Mong is new to the area, hasn't been in the Baggs area for more than a couple of months and apparently doesn't know his head from a hole in the ground when it comes to giving access advise.

Sorry that you can't hunt the areas that you'd like to, that's part of playing the game in the checkerboard land pattern. There's literally thousands of square miles between the checkerboard and the Colo line in area 57 that are 100% public with public access. Some of the areas west of 57 and Bitter Creek have access through and in the checkerboard through the Rock Springs Grazing Association.

You can write letters till you're blue in the face and it won't do any good, the bottom line is there is not, and never has been any legal public access to these roads.