By DAVID RAINER, 黑料天堂
黑料天堂 hunters will soon have an opportunity to bid on hunting leases at a live auction being conducted by the 黑料天堂鈥 (ADCNR) State Lands Division. State Lands has identified 140 potential hunting lease tracts across 32 counties that will be part of the upcoming 5-year lease cycle.
The public auction will be Saturday, May 31, at the Grande Hall at Old Mill Square 105 W College St., Columbiana, 黑料天堂 35051. Doors will open for bidder registration at 8:15, and the auction will begin at 10 a.m. However, before you show up and start bidding, State Lands Director Patti Powell McCurdy said you need to be prepared.
鈥淚 encourage everyone to first read the Auction Announcement very carefully,鈥 McCurdy said. 鈥淚t is the official document detailing all requirements related to submitting a bid that must be followed so that a hunter鈥檚 bid actually can be considered by State Lands.鈥
For details on the procedure for submitting bids, visit and click on the Hunting Lease Auction Announcement link. You can also find a Complete Tract Listing of the 140 tracts (stating the bid deposit and minimum bid amount for each numbered tract), Hunting Tract Maps and a Sample Hunting Lease.
ADCNR Commissioner Chris Blankenship said the hunting lease program expands the many excellent public hunting opportunities currently offered by the ADCNR on the state鈥檚 Wildlife Management Areas (WMAs), Special Opportunity Areas (SOAs) and various Forever Wild Land Trust tracts. No areas falling within these programs are part of the auction.
鈥淭he leasing program gives individuals the opportunity for a totally different hunting experience 鈥 a very personal one,鈥 Commissioner Blankenship said. 鈥淣ot everybody has access to family land or a hunting club. This gives the public an opportunity to lease a tract and enjoy it with family and friends. Our bidders range from hunting clubs to grandparents looking for a place to take their grandkids hunting. I suspect we might also have a few bidders who just want a place to get away and enjoy all by themselves. It鈥檚 just a different experience we are offering the public.鈥
McCurdy explained that her division conducts this auction on behalf of numerous state agencies. McCurdy considers the effort to be just one example of how State Lands fulfills its responsibility to manage a variety of state-owned land for the purpose of generating revenue 鈥 with this one having the added benefit of promoting hunting.
鈥淟ike any business that manages real estate as an asset, State Lands is charged with trying to find ways to make these tracts a revenue-generating asset for certain state agency beneficiaries such as the Department of Education and the Department of Mental Health,鈥 McCurdy said. 鈥淭o some, this might sound like an unexpected role for the Department of Conservation and Natural Resources, but really, it鈥檚 not. Employing proven conservation principles and implementing best management practices has always been directly linked to the resulting productivity of land. While you might see a one-time generation of revenue, you will never achieve the goal of perpetually generating revenue unless you take proper care of the land over the long term.鈥
The acreage of each tract is available at the link above, and the tract sizes range from 34 acres in Walker County to 1,400 acres in Tuscaloosa County. The topography of the properties includes uplands, bottomlands, as well as the foothills of the Appalachian Mountains. Some of the tracts are bow hunting only. So, out of the 140 tracts, hunters have a variety of options as to location, size and annual rental rate.