Cabela’s Giving Money To Montana For Land Access

Hat Tip to the Newshound!

Cabela’s Trophy Properties, a real estate company owned and operated by Cabela’s, the sporting world retail giant, is attempting to give money to the Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks department to be used for hunting land access. Why?

For some time moaning, groaning and outright anger has been expressed by some Montana sportsmen who claim that Cabela’s real estate company is taking hunting and fishing land away from them. Cabela’s Trophy Properties works with contracted real estate brokers to market valuable ranch land in parts of Montana for upwards of $6 million. The problem, say some sportsmen, is this land is sometimes being bought up and shut down and some say Cabela’s is marketing the land to encourage buyers to turn it into private hunting grounds.

Cabela’s can’t afford to lose its customer base, particularly when they are planning to open a retail store in Billings soon. To offer some form of mending those fences, Cabela’s wrote a check for $50,000 to MFWP and promised another $60,000 over the remainder of the year. The stipulation that goes with the money is that FWP uses is solely for the purpose of retaining or gaining land access for outdoor sportsmen.

Cabela’s also says they are changing their marketing strategies, says the company’s Vice President Mike Callahan.

Under new policies, Cabela’s will not advertise the prospect of subdividing land in Montana, Callahan said. He also said the company will not list property if a state land-access program called block management covers it and terms of the sale preclude transferring the block-management contract to the new owner. The block management program pays landowners to allow public hunting and covers about 8 million acres in the state.

But some within FWP say the gesture is meaningless because the state can’t force a new buyer to renew with the block management program.

Montana isn’t all that much different than several states across the country where land access is drying up faster than the Mojave Desert. It becomes a sticky wicket when discussion turns toward trying to put restrictions or limitations on land ownership. States are scrambling trying to come up with ways to encourage land owners to leave their properties open to hunting, fishing and general outdoor recreation. Some states have created incentives to do this but it just seems the trend nationwide is to buy up that land and shut it down.

This shutting of land down isn’t relegated just to preservationists bent on locking out the world. Lands are being bought up exclusively for the purpose of personal hunting lands. As a matter of fact, some sportsmen encourage this. Some have banded together to buy their own hunting lands and others believe the idea of groups or clubs paying whatever is necessary to lease a piece of prime land solely for hunting, is the only way to go.

Those angry and frustrated at the loss of lands say it doesn’t help when someone like Cabela’s, whose future depends on those same sportsmen buying goods, is participating in reducing the lands available through their real estate practices. Reports are some angry sportsmen have thrown out their Cabela’s catalogs or even shipped them back in protest.

The FWP now holds the check from Cabela’s and some members of the Commission are a bit reluctant to cash the check. Willie Doll is one such commissioner but wouldn’t offer reasons.

Commissioner Willie Doll said he had concerns about accepting the money, but did not elaborate. He said public comment about using it should be obtained.

In some ways I have to ask myself if the money is nothing more than a bribe or at least some sort of peace offering more than a bona fide effort to help the outdoor sportsman. It is however $50,000 with another $60,000 promised. I’m not sure what FWP can do with that amount of money to further the likelihood of land access but legally, I don’t think there is much anyone can do. Cabela’s has a right to diversify their business and within the laws of the land, prosper through their real estate program. It will be up to Cabela’s to determine whether the actions they are taking with Trophy Properties is worth the risk of losing retail customers at their outlets.

The gauntlet has been tossed down. Cabela’s has said it wants to sell high priced “trophy properties” as another means of making money. They are betting that with some appeasement money and a little cajoling, the damage will be minimal and they can continue on with business as usual after a brief bump in the road.

On the other hand, it is now up to the sportsmen to decide whether Cabela’s is sincere in their efforts to patch things up and help sportsmen find more land access. If not, then they will find another store to buy their gear. If enough feel this way, they could force Cabela’s to do more to change.

This is no small matter for Cabela’s. We should be reminded that according to figures(pdf) from the recent study done through the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, hunters and fishermen alone spent over $75 billion dollars in 2005. The same studies show that a hunter on average spends around $1,800 a year on hunting. That’s a potential sales figure for Cabela’s and all other hunting equipment retailers competing for the customer, of over $225 million.

So what will it be? Will Cabela’s money smooth over the ripple in the pond? Or will the sportsman put their foot down and spend their dollars at another store?

Tom Remington