Buying wrp eligible land

Bszweda

5 year old buck +
Has anyone ever bought wrp eligible land and then converted it? Do you really get 85% of the value of the land or how is the value determined? It sounds to good to be true to only needing to invest like 20 to 30 % then converting it and then having a strictly only hunting property.
 
I guess one of the major issues Iam seeing is you need to have owned it for atleast 7 years.
 
In my area, WRP eligible land is row crop land. Thus, the other side of the coin is that you’ve permanently defeated the property’s highest and best use by converting it to hunting land. If it’s valuable enough for the WRP conversion to be a windfall, it probably cash flows well.
 
Resale is horrible, but it that isn't an issue...
 
Resale is horrible, but it that isn't an issue...
Interesting point. Looking at hunting land in my particular area from an investment performance standpoint, WRP tracts bought 15-20 years ago have appreciated much more than other types of tracts. I’m sure this is specific to that regional market.
 
No guarantees that WRP will qualify . Certain areas pay much better than others .
 
Better have an attorney review the contract, you lose a lot of your rights as a landowner. You have to apply for a permit to plant or cut a tree, put a foodplot or road gate in.

In our area, the NRCS admins were anti hunting eco terrorists. Tried to stop deer stands & duck blinds, purposely delayed approval of an existing food plot because a spotted newt was found 2 miles away and had to have DNR do a environmental land study. You can lose a lot of resale value because of restrictions.
 
No guarantees that WRP will qualify . Certain areas pay much better than others .

I think they pay higher for land the is currently ag, but was converted from marsh/wetland many years ago. Also think the larger ag landowners do better on price as they have more land to leverage.
 
If they did WRP with less restrictions. Allow 10-20 acres of food plots or crop to pay taxes, tree plantings, allow stands, access trails etc… more landowners would sign up.

The people that run these programs are certainly not the average Joe hunter. The bottom line it should be a mutually acceptable program. But it doesn’t work that way.
 
If they did WRP with less restrictions. Allow 10-20 acres of food plots or crop to pay taxes, tree plantings, allow stands, access trails etc… more landowners would sign up.

The people that run these programs are certainly not the average Joe hunter. The bottom line it should be a mutually acceptable program. But it doesn’t work that way.

They told me I could not cut & maintain trails on my property until after July 15th because that was the yellow breasted marsh swallow's nesting season.
 
This is all very interesting. In the MS Delta, WRP is very widespread and I haven’t heard it to be strictly regulated.
 
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