When I was growing up my dad & I were able to hunt Dove on a ranch out by the old dog track on I-70. When I got into college, the land changed hands and we weren't able to access it anymore. Now that my son is getting old enough to go out and hunt with my dad & I we're hitting the public land. It's tougher to show him how to properly behave/take care of things because it seems like a lot of people, especially non-hunters, don't treat the public lands the way they should. Picking up after yourself is an afterthought, if it's there at all.

I was just out Elk hunting with a friend of mine in 501, around Buffalo Creek and if I had brought my expedition-sized pack I probably could have filled it with trash all 3 days we were out. We picked up a bunch of trash, but there's only so much you can do. And that's just the trash. It doesn't include the graffiti on the rocks, attempts to hack down some of the few living trees in the burn area, etc. It's sad that that is what public land has come to, but with that as an example, I can understand why private landowners don't want to take the risk. I wouldn't want a bunch of drunk clowns starting a fire, littering, or otherwise abusing my land either. And while a lot of us are responsible hunters and shooters, it only takes one bad experience to ruin a landowner's perception of the group as a whole.

I think hunters are running into the same issues that mountain bikers were around the mid-90s. A few of the riders were being rude and acted like they owned the trails, so the hikers and horseback riders tried to get them banned from the trails. Since then, the mountain biking community has done a lot to try to fix that image by, among other things, getting out and working on the trails and trying to make things better for everyone. Maybe what we, as hunters, need to do is start setting the example by organizing under a non-political banner and actively promoting that we're going out and cleaning up the public lands. If we could get some press time it would definitely help the overall image and might help reverse the trend that we've been seeing in the outright closing of private land to hunters as well. Is there such an organization that we could hitch onto? Maybe something like Safari Club International or the North American Hunting Club?