As I was driving home from work this morning, I suddenly realized why hunting ground is getting harder and harder to find.  Every piece of standing timber that was 20 acres or more that was within 5-10 minutes of town had been surveyed, sectioned and sold as lots to upper class baby-boomers who had lived in town their entire life, then wanted to move to "the country" after they retired.  Now dont get me wrong, anybody wanting to get out of town has my blessing, but is it really "the country" if you own 1/2 an acre and the guy you used to live next to bought the one right next to it and is building his house within a stones throw from you?  You still cant shoot in your backyard, let your dog run loose, or run the trash out in your underwear.  What really kills me is the prices these people pay for this little piece of Americana.  $5000 a lot is actually a good price.  Christ man.  You could buy a hell of alot more than a half an acre for that.  As long as I'm ranting, I'm real tired of farmers cutting out fencerows to save a turn or two on the tractor.  I used to have hundreds of yards of fencerows behind my house and now I can see all the way across to the next road.  Now, it is their land and they can do what they wish, but then they turn around and say "Ya know, I just dont understand where all the quail and rabbit went to.  They must have been over hunted.  Anything I can do to help them out?"  I want to slap them.  Try telling one to leave two or three rows of beans standing along the edge of the field through the winter and see what they say.  Usual response is "Oh I cant do that, thats money".  Yup.  A whole two or three bushell.  OK.  Now that I've probably pissed off all the farmers and semi-suburbanites, flame away, but I feel alot better.

I know what you mean.  It's sad.

Along with the ever creeping urban sprawl comes the onward march of the urban/collectivist mentality too. Collective responsibility, collective authority, (collect-all-your-guns) etc. THAT is the real destructive part I fear the most.

If you really want to get the "stuff" flying, you could point out that population growth in the United States is driven largely by immigration -- not just the immigrants themselves, but the larger families they tend to have after arrival.

absolutely correct. as (sub)urbanization spreads, there is less and less natural land left for outdoor activities. one day, the entire world will be paved over, with little green median strips, and people will think of squirrels and pigeons as wildlife.

there will be no place to hunt, camp, hike shoot or just enjoy some solitude. cities will look like movie sets from bladerunner. the frontier was gone before the 20th century began, and we're filling in the gaps with convenience stores and townhouses like there's no tomorrow. maybe there IS no tomorrow.

we're populating and destroying natural areas at a high rate of speed, and it's going to be an unpleasant place to live in if we continue at this rate.

For these reasons, I moved out to a place where I can still shoot in my yard - in my underwear, if I want.

[:D][BD]

Its a choice, really.

Do you want to be close to family, the job, the supermarket???

Then choose "city life."

If free living is more important, move out to the REAL country, and pay the price it demands in inconveniences.

Sorry, but you can't have your cake, and eat it as well.

Life sucks that way.

Hmmmmmm....shooting in your backyard in your underwear huh?  I used to live in SC, and now I think I know you[:D].  That has to be a saftey violation or something.

garheadjr, that's not even the worst part.  The worst part is the urban sprawl that continues to grow, which in turn means more people driving that growth, and hence more urban voters electing officails that tell us rural folks what to do with our land, and how and when we can do it.  Britain is a prime example of how urban politics controls the people in rural areas.  Around here I've noticed another trend, people move here from cities, and then start trying to tell locals who have lived here all there life what [b]we're[/b] going to do about the environment, hunting, crime etc. and be damned what everybody else wants.  Does'nt look like things are going to improve anytime soon either.[:(]

I guess a lot of the urban sprawl is also due to zoning laws. In some neighborhoods, there are no where to walk to, such as stores, and all you have is other houses. So you have huge areas where if you want to go to a grocery store etc, you have drive.  Or there are huge spans of area where there is nothing happening on the weekends and are like black holes because it has been zone industrial, and the factories are closed on the weekends.

I have a farmer in my community who refuses to except the asking price from people like me and my neighbor for his 1000 acres.  Instead, he is willing to except a lesser bid from a mass contractor.  Fortunately the town zoner, my best friend, refuses to rezone the land from farm to residentual.  Looks like hes stuck into taking our offers!

Keving67

I saw a rediculous television commercial once that had a family on a camp out in the freeway median.  Anyone who believes we will pave the place over in the next 1000 years needs to fly over about 1/10th of the west in an aircraft with a cruise speed of about 100knts.  Try Boise to Denver, or Cheyenne to Lincoln Nebraska.  Really, if it is too crowded where you are, move.  If you can't move the problem is a result of your desired lifestyle/income requirement.  Don't even get me started on the overpopulation nonsense.  I do agree the illegal immigration thing is way out of line.  Planerench out.

I have witnessed this firt hand. Or more accurately been a victim of it? at least I feel victimized when farm land I hunted and shot on  as a child is now some retired GM workers back yard.

garheadjr

       Where in IL do you live? There is still a lot of land where I'm at. But your right in the last past year I have seen a lot of the farmers selling there land. Now when I go back up north around the suburbs of Chicago it makes me sick. It's just so dirty and over crowded up there. If I move it's going to be south.

Exactly.

I would be willing to bet that there are MILLIONS of square miles in this country where the population density is <1 person/sq. mile.

The only problem is that MOST of this land is owned by the Federal Government.  The real problem is not overpopulation, but federal ownership and management of land.

Why should Uncle Sam own 25% of the country?!

I got news for you!  The government owns 75% of my state and we have the largest chunk of untouchable wilderness land outside of Alaska!  I don't remember anything in the Constitution about the Feds owning land.  And if it ain't in there they are not supposed to do it!  It did give the Feds absolute power over those states conceived after the war of northern aggression!  Planerench out.

I believe that it is closer to 40% that the government owns. But I also think that most of that land that has so few people on is that way for good reason - the land itself is barren and no one wants to live there.

i know what ya mean-we used to shoot/hunt right out our back yard-then we heard it was for sale for 100,000 for 80 acres.  now each lot is going for that-because it has trees on it.

no disrespect intended. i wish i could share your concept of spaciousness.
people in still-thinly-populated areas (generally far- to midwest) dont see this as a problem, and have a completely different mindset about it. those of us who live in the original 13 see it getting crowded, and fast.

i face a dilemma similar to the one you mention. my options are few: deal with the crowding, traffic, noise, and pollution, or change my occupation and abode. frankly, i dont know if i could earn a living in idaho, or survive the first winter. if i were 30 again with no family, i might try it anyway.

No offence taken, I just get tired of the commie/green folks emotion.  There still exist some beautiful country yet to build on for the guy who wants the 1000 acre back yard.  Except for the FEDS!  Planerench out

I'm not sure SD has that problem. Most areas here are either staying the same or actually shrinking. The only exception may be the half dozen larger cities. My Uncle and Grandpa on my dad's side farm and when they are talking about land they talk in quarters. A quarter of an acre. I'm not sure how many they have but we are talking a lot of acreage. When I'm there I can't see probably more than a dozen houses total. And you can see REALLY far. We never had many trees to begin with though. My uncle is planting some though., for windbreaks and such.

Since we are bitching about landowners I'll jump in here as well. My family owns 500+acres with a farm and dairy on it. There are dairys all over the country side here. What torques my shorts is the city folk who move right next to a dairy and then complain about the SMELL!!! Its a dairy for crying outloud. These same urbanites ban together and get these dairies shut down because of the smell.  Granted some dairys stink more than they should, if it's done right you won't even notice when you drive by.

idaho-ar15

Amen bro!  It is the country, right?

I'd rather live in a "city", than next one of those awful "McMansion" developements.

You must always be careful, when buying land in the country.  You never know when some jackass is going to buy the plot next to you and build some of those damned things.

So buy alot of land.  Buy abutting State or Nat'l land, or better yet waterfront.

McMansion developements are PURE EVIL.

I just hate the smell of pig $hit. That is a story from my youth working at a farm the way cows and horses smell is just natural. After a little time almost relaxing.

Thats a big 10-4 buddy. The only saving grace is that BLM land surounds 3 sides of the farm which equalls lots of open range for my soon to be .50BMG.  

idaho-ar15

$5000??? The lots of the farm behind me are STARTING at $180,000 each.

Is it unpopulated because it's barren, or is it barren because it's unpopulated?

Human inventiveness can be a powerful force.  Before the invention of air conditioning, Las Vegas was just a little desert town and much of Florida was swampland.