Donating your land to public

Any of you guys ever thought of buying up some land by yourself or with others then donating land to the public when you get too old to use it? Been thinking about that and it seems like a powerful hunting legacy to leave behind.

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The ranch owner here that I manage for is probably going to give his to the conservation department when he's done with it, with some stipulations on how it's managed. I'm sure it'll be named after him and designated as always available as agricultural use.

 

You hear of people doing that here in wi every so often. Usually it's people whose land already butts up to other large chunks of public and most of the time it's probably not donated I'm sure its sold to the dnr or whoever.

 

If I could afford to buy some land that would be very cool.

 

Honestly I think I'd rather leave my legacy to my family. Partially because I'll never own enough ground to make it worth while to the Conservation Department, but also because I want to be able to leave something of real value to my daughter.

 

I realize it's slightly hypocritical given that I am 90% a public land hunter; but there is something about giving anything voluntarily to the Government that makes my skin crawl.

 

Don't think the WI DNR is in the business of buying land anymore (unless that's changed post-Gov. Walker.) They were selling it off as of 2 years ago.

 

I hear you, but many people who donate write out contracts per say. For example, a couple larger tracts down in southern VA are bow only. And they cannot be used for anything else but for the public to use.

 

Indiana and Michigan have kinda-sorta similar programs where you can open your land to public hunting...you get a big tax break.
That's something I would be more inclined to do. Put it in a family trust with very strict guidelines and then enter it into a hunter access program.

Wisconsin has a program where you can do something similar to that but I think you may also have to put your land into a forestry programs where they can come in and clear cut the crap out of it. Cheeseheads on here probably be able to clarify that.

 

I would love to be able to do that someday. To leave a gift from God to our future and passing on what we love would be about the best thing to do for our future generations. There can never be enough public land.


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I get where you come from. However, there is a big difference in giving to your local or state government, expressly for the purpose of increasing hunting opportunities, than to the Federal government. At least for most of us this would probably hold true; that line of reasoning may not work in Commiago, Hellnois.

 

I hunt some public like this. Story goes the kids thought they were gonna hit the lottery and cash in on daddy’s property when he finally croaked. Only to find out that he left it all to the state with conditions that it be utilized for conservation and public use. It allows a lot of people access to fishing, deer, waterfowl, small game.

 

Yup.WI has something similar. The landowner has to agree to the state's management plan to enroll. There are open or closed properties. Open means open to the public for certain activities like hunting. I believe the tax reduction is based on the open/closed designation. The land is enrolled for a 25 or 50 year period

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I have gone up and cut on land in WI working with a friend's brother in law. I learned the difference between commercial cutting and cutting on fires. The old saw loggers can put a tree where ever they want without wedges, the mocked me and my falling wedges.

 

I sold land that is now owned by NYC watershed, its open to hunting, hiking and fishing in perpetuity

 

You really need to be careful of this. We got our last piece because the owner mentioned me in her will. Strange we never spoke or met. I did send her a letter once that she never responded to. Well she had two out of state family members that she willed it to but stated I was to get first offer to buy. Well one family member was a snow flake and decided to contact the nature conservancy. They tried conning him into selling to me with them having control of property.. WHAT???!!!! They sent out their people to assess it. Then they went and paid for an updated abstract. Well he came to me with this idea and they sent their many page contract to me. This contract dictated if we did anything on our land they did not approve of, they had the right to fine and sue us ,at our expense, with possible land seizure..LOL. I told him he was going against the owners wishes and I declined to buy . I would be contacting her estate lawyer letting them know what was going on.
I said we could buy with deed restrictions that would do what he wanted. With one important difference. I would agree to a strict no residential or commercial building restriction written into deed. UNLIKE the conservancy that could and would sell such a piece as a building lot with land, in order to raise funds for operations. They never told him this. Well he asked, they told him the truth, he backed out. They then sent him a huge bill for their services. He then called us again. By then I'm talking years, I wasn't in the mood to play. He had back taxes now and lawyer fees, then the conservancy fees. Long and short I wrote the restrictions document for the deed and he took my 10,000 for 24 1/2 acre deal . To that a hunting camp or an ag building can be built. Just not commercial or a residential home. This keeps my assessment down thus lower taxes. I would never go with our conservancy.

 

Whatever people decide to do with their land make sure it's in a will for gods sake. It was only a couple years before my wife's grandmother passed away that she mentioned she didn't have a will. And she had a couple hundred acres of prime south central Wisconsin farming/hunting land worth probably hundreds of thousands of dollars. Of course this created a giant family fight that ended with siblings never speaking to each other again.

 

Practice practice practice...lol.

No way a tree that is visually leaning one direction will fall 180 degrees opposite. Guys die every year trying to do that.

I use wedges when in doubt. No shame there what so ever