Well.. We showed up at the lease last Friday night and found about 75 acres have been cut!!!! Sat morning I found a guy getting some tools off of 1 piece of equipment and I was able to find out that they plan to cut 300 acres, he gave me a copy of the map and it is going to take out 5 stands that we have already set up. The guy who manages the lease has not returned any calls. VERY FRUSTRATED HERE!!! not sure what to do. never dealt with this before.

Any suggestions?

Did you have a written contract detailing the lease agreement between you and the landowner or the individual who manages the lease? If not, not much you can do.

Sounds like your lease manager has dropped the ball.

That is why he is the lease manager and why he is suppossed to stay in contact with the landowner to prevent surprises like what has happened to you.

Landowners hire folks to do certain things and don't have time to worry about fitting schedules to work around hunters because the ranch operation always comes first. Maybe some communications with the owner a little earlier might have delayed this or at least gave a chance to work around it.

If it's not in the contract about this sort of thing, it needs to be, and it's probably too late for the lease manager to do anything about it now.

Sounds like you need to start shootin everything on the lease in your lawful limits and get off the lease.

Man I hate to hear that. I can't imagine why they'd be cutting right now anyways, timber prices are in the toilet. Anyways, I'd be trying to recoup some of my lease money

It sounds like timber company owned!!! I'm on timber land myself but they usually cut, if they're going to, before or after the season but they will cut when they need or want to!!!

That's BS !!! You should get Your Money back !!!

I am meeting the lease manager Friday morning, he said he did not know until the day before they started cutting...

It is timber company owned, he said there was a bug rush to get the wood because of some issues on another spot. I honestly don't know what that is all about, but I hope to find out and get this resolved. He also said he had a few options for us....

Drought killed a lot of trees and need to get them out before there's a beetle infestation problem. Timber companies will generally put out projection maps showing estimated dates of harvest and generally are reasonably accurate. If it makes you feel any better I've shot bucks from their log sets on thanksgiving morning while their equipment was not in operation, so during the process a lot of deer don't mind. The great thing about them cutting (except for timing) is it puts the brrowse down at deer level for the next few years. Most timber companies also have an option of hunters contacting their foresters about setting up foodplots along SMZs prior to replanting. So upon foodplot and road establishments you have a place to hunt that shouldn't get touched for another 20-30yrs.

I wouldn't sweat it. Our hunting got better as the cleared out some trees. We've shot some decent deer with equipment sitting in visible site.

yea just hunt. it happened to me in cass co. couple years ago and you could finally see more than a hundred yards. next year will be great, just adjust and hunt the edges of the standing timber

Paper leases usually make reference to this in the contract. Sucks but make the most of it. Better visibility. Start practicing at a longer distances!