Why gates get closed on WMAs

[Coastie]

" it is likely open to foot traffic"

Is this really the case? If so, in how many cases would you have to park on private property before walking around the gate?

Guys only an idiot would agree with the behavior depicted at the beginning of this post, however, this is OUR land! To restrict access due to one or two who are abusing the privalige would kinda be like if the state shut down I-75 cause most everybody riding on it is speeding and they just dont have the manpower to stop every speeder!

Appears to me in many cases once the hunting seasons are over the gates go up and they become the private preserve of whoever is overseeing them.

Actually, in this instance, it is NOT our land. It is owned outright by the City of Atlanta Board of Aviation and operated under a memorandum of understanding with the Georgia Forestry Comission to operate the property as an industrial forest and a second MOA between the City, the GFC and the Dept. of Natural Resources that allows it to be operated as a WMA. Funding for the day-to-day operations are refunded to the state by the board of aviation including law enforcement activities by the Wildlife Technicians of the Wildlife Resources Division, Game Management Section. The only cost bourne directly by the hunter/WMA permit holder, is the cost of maintaining the foodplots such as the handicap access food plot in the picture. The Board of Aviation has the right to close any or all roads on this property at any time without notice with or without cause and to withdraw from the MOA with thirty days notice. WMA lands owned solely by the state are operated on a slightly different basis, but again, roads may well be closed when they become abused either by an act of malicious mischief or by over use during periods of extended bad weather.

 

[Coastie]

Well I wont be able to hunt if the gates get locked. I am disabled and cannot walk a long ways to go coon hunting. I am only 23 and I am sure my back will get worse.

I don't want to seem insensitive to your problem (obviously I am not a coon hunter, too many years of abuse and an artificial knee) but I must ask; if the gates were open, just how would that improve your situation? Get to the end of the road,and you still can't walk very far and the race has moved on. Many WMA roads only go a short distance and I doubt that any coon or coon dog is going to follow them anyway.
In this particular instance, the 10,000 acres of the city of atlanta tract are being closed to preserve the roads and food plots which are being destroyed on a weekly basis. The remaining 15,000 acres and nearly a hundred miles of roads are wide open and will remain open, unless they too get beat up, until late December.
I started this thread because of a number of questions that had come up over the past several months as to just why some roads were closed on WMAs. I thought that these pictures could explain just why some areas get gated off. If there were a way to do it, I would love to see all of the roads be open year round, but it just isn't going to happen.

 

[ArmyTaco]

Well how it helps me is like this. The gates for my local WMA's are very far from the land I actually coon hunt in the WMA. I drive 15 minutes or so into the WMA to get to the spots I hunt and are huntable for coon. Although I hunt in Mid Ga not there so I am not sure about it up there but it would take me hours to walk to where we hunt and alot of the times we can drive CLOSER to the hounds. I mean I can walk a good little ways thanks to pain killers but we hunt in open hardwood type areas and it takes a little driving from the gates to get to them down here.

Now I do understand some roads being closed on the WMA which is common sense because of wear, but I thought we were talking about the WMA's being gated at the entrance and only open to foot traffic from there. So I must be confused. If a road is closed on the WMA due to wear, OK. The WMA gate shut at the entrance..sucks.

 

[danmc]

The WMA in the picture has plenty of parking within the WMA even when some of the gates are shut. Having the gates closed has never bothered me up there at all. Squirrels aren't that heavy to carry out! The one other WMA nearby that I hunt is similar in that there is easy parking but the roads are closed to vehicles except during deer hunts.

Personally I tend to like having a mix of areas that aren't too hard to get to by car and some where you have to put in the leg power to get to. I'd hate to see all one or all the other.

-Dan

 

[danmc]

My neighbor doesn’t have a sign in his yard that reads…”This is not your property and you cannot build fires, paint on my house, spin up my grass, or dump furniture on it". It’s because anybody that has enough sense to get out of bed knows you’re not supposed to do those things on someone else’s property. Its because people dont care !

Ever take part in the annual Lake Allatoona cleanup? My kids and I do that every year. I understand that sometimes you may lose something from a boat and never notice, but I'm pretty certain that the 19" TV in the mud, the 6 tires (2 on rims still), the drum brakes, and the heater blower motor I drug out this year didn't blow off the back of a boat without someone noticing. What is frustrating is when you go back to the same spot the next year and clean up just as much garbage. I keep thinking I am going to put a "this is not your dump" sign up one of these years.

 

[GA DAWG]

The 10000ac part is the best hunting..It does make a huge difference on the turn outs with the gates closed..Take for instance the fork rd or river rd what ever you call it..With it closed..Pretty much takes away all my clark rd hunting..If its open..I can turn loose toward the river all up and down clark rd and not worry about it..What worries me is them not finding a coon and going down river and getting hit on kelly bridge..If its open..I can cut them off before that happens.. It dont even have a un gated plot on it!!!!!!!! Then take azeala ridge rd or p7 as we call it..Aint no way I'd turn loose a hound up that rd or that direction with it being shut..The dogs will be out of hearing in 2 min..What fun is that?? The plots or grass patches are already torn up now anyhow..Might as well open the gates As for the rest of the 15000 ac..Its toooooo steep for me even with the gates open

 

[GA DAWG]

OH yeah..P7 is gonna be a lake anyhow..So,I vote to open it and not worry about the grass patches..

 

[whitworth]

Georgia always seemed to have

some dirt racing tracks.

 

[Brad McDaniel]

Don't know the situation on the tract in ATL you are referring to. I'm sure its as you say. I was referring to WMA's in general and in general there are issues of limited access and it is OUR land. Without naming any names, I can tell you me and several friends volonteered to help maintain roads on a specific WMA where this is an issue and were dismissed in one conversation. Offered to sign any kind of liabilty waiver that the state would want.

 

[red dragon]

get them boys