What is your biggest public land pet-peeve?

[grappling_hook]

I live between 60k acres of public. I cant tell you the amount of times Ive come out of the woods to a vehicle parked beside me, drive the entire way home and never see another. A lot of times I didnt see those vehicles all spring or summer. Its like they think.... well this guy found something so I am going here too.

Ive had guys pull in beside me in the predawn in similar situations. Id get it if the woods were loaded full of people but they arent. I usually have the most problem if theres a trail head of any type.

It's the guy in the blue:

 

[A-A-Ron]

I've got a few that I encounter frequently. First is litter; either personal garbage, or crap leftover from logging operations. I find choker cables partially buried all the time. One time I was walking an old skid road on public land and found 16 discarded chainsaw bars just laying in a pile. EVERYONE should pack everything out.

My second is cattle ranchers that basically harass the wildlife. The are allowed to let their cattle graze the public lands, and they usually own land adjacent to the public land. Their cows are frequently in the public areas during hunting season, and with the added pressure of hunters, the elk will drift back and forth from public to private throughout the season. That part is legal so I accept it and the challenge that it presents. BUT.......

These ranchers will also "guide" hunters on their property, so they want the elk out of the woods, and seeking refuge from public land hunters by staying in the privates.
To keep the elk low in the public areas and close to the border of public and private, the ranchers will drive the lower public roads with empty stock trailers all day long. The noise from an empty stock trailer on gravel roads is immense. And nobody that we've spoken to has ever seen them loading/unloading cattle in those trailers during season.

Difficulty to prove to any game warden, but we all know what's going on.

That's one of the first things that drove me to find more remote areas. I spend more time getting there and coming out, but it's definitely more enjoyable while back in there.

 

[rodney482]

The public

 

[Raggedwolf]

Gas drilling company’s being able to lock off public roads and all the weeds that come in after the ground is disturbance nothing done about it.

 

[bigbaddad71]

I can't stand all the rock cairns all over the place.

I'm not talking about the legitimate rock cairns that mark trails on otherwise featureless rock sections of trail; I'm talking about all the stacked rocks that everyone seems to love building on every creek bend, vantage point and campsite.

In case you're wondering, I'm the jerk that keeps knocking them down.

I'm that guy too.. I don't give two s&*t's if you made it there..

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[Ksfarmer]

The whole litter deal is gettin worse every year. Public ground, country roads, etc. I finally caught a guy dumping on our farm. I followed him from a distance back to what i presumed to be his house. The couch and load of trash he left on our farm ended up back in his front yard somehow...

 

[IBEWJMFL]

Litter either left at camp sites, on the roads or even worst in the woods. You packed it in you should Be able to pack it out.

 

[aussie9]

Generators running for hrs....
Second of all.. rubbish left behind along with crap and dunny paper.
FFS people, dig a hole, burn paper and cover it.

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[Loggerdude]

The ass***** who keep taking it away. Libtards, dirt worshippers and the whole array of them who never use or experienced anything other than controlling something they don’t understan or have no value in !

 

[4ester]

People who litter. Forest Service that does absolutely nothing to fix the roads, yet they have dozens of people sitting around doing nothing. Outfitters that think they own the mountain, and have trails built absolutely everywhere.


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[minengr]

Littering, people that don't close gates, general douchebaggery.

I've had people make fun of me for the amount of trash in my truck. I normally responded with "I had to throw it somewhere, I wasn't near a trash can, and I'm not throwing it out the window.

 

[strand]

I had something happen in CO for the first time last season, and it happened repeatedly on that same hunt. I try to talk to everyone I see hiking in or out on the same trails, especially if we're both heading into the same area. An hour before daylight, 2 miles in and 1000' vertical from the trailhead, I have a young couple come up the trail behind me so I say hi and ask which direction they plan to hunt that day. It's the kind of area where you only have a couple major drainages, and I didn't want to bump into them later. If you're in this spot, everyone knows about every 'honey hole' up there and we're all day hunting. They were super tight lipped about even the general direction they were going, so I let them know where I was headed and they said ok, good luck, etc. 2 hours later we bump back into each other in the spot I said I was going into and the guy's response "hey, it's public land." Had that guy told me he wanted to hunt that drainage I would have said cool and went a different direction to avoid the pressure. I let him know that and tried to have a conversation since we were both hunting this area during the rest of the 9 day rifle season, but he wasn't having it. We had a couple similar awkward encounters throughout the week.

 

[Backyard]

Flagging tape.
FFS take it out with you!
And what's the need anymore with all the GPS crap that everyone has?

 

[BigRiver]

Got a few, but in recent years the biggest and most chronic here in norther Michigan is UTVs blazing trails were ever they please taking what little “big” tracks of land carving it apart with trails wrecking wetlands, Brookie streams and just generally taming wild things.


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[mfllood3800]

lack of hunting ethics.

 

[30338]

I'll temper this with, hey its public so folks can hunt how they choose. I hunt a unit with very low success rates with blackpowder. I'll encounter doe tag holders walking all day long through bedding areas taking running shots at any antlerless deer they jump. Have numerous times had bucks bedded in a thicket and waiting for last light to pick them off when they come creeping out only to have 1-2 guys walk right through jumping does.

I tend to go around 80% success rate on decent bucks and in the process have a lot of does wander by slowly under 50 yards off. Thinking some of them would have better success learning the habits of the animals and pursuing them in a different manner. Again its public so everyone is within their rights to learn and hunt their own way.

 

[daziggle]

Litter. I feel like those who litter also do every other horrible thing on public land. It’s like the gateway drug to being an asshole.

I agree, litter bugs have no respect for nature or any other thing. They are just self absorbed plague. Many hikes my pack is filled with other trash that they left behind. Leave it better than you found it!!!

 

[MallardSX2]

-Flagging.
-People who park next to my truck and walk in right behind me knowing that I am likely hunting the only pinch point thats worth a shit on the whole property....then climb a tree and shine their flashlight at you, like your the asshole. Seen that 50 times.

 

[BUCKELK]

Texans are the most annoying thing about public land. Biggest Toy Hauler, biggest side by side, biggest camp, biggest pile of beer cans left at their camp. I hate Texans unless they talk about seceding from the nation, then I get all remember the alamo and want to join their cause!! At least they vote right!

 

[ranchhand02]

Trash. I hate it when people litter.