Dick.
Great points about access. Caps may help, but it could also just shift access to fewer people with much much deeper pockets.
Please also consider the forsight that the fine people of Alberta put into their wildlife laws. They saw this problem on the horizon and addressed it the following way. To me, this is the reasonable but "outside-the-box" thinking we should embrace.
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http://www.albertaoutdoorsmen.org/hunti ... index.html
Access to Public and Private Lands
Except under authority of a Game Bird Shooting Ground Licence, it is unlawful to directly or indirectly buy or sell, trade or barter, or offer to buy or sell access to any land for the purpose of hunting any big game, furbearing animals or game birds.
WILDLIFE ACT of Alberta
http://www.qp.gov.ab.ca/Documents/acts/W10.CFM
1984 cW-9.1 s48;1996 c33 s34
Disposition of access to land
49(1) No person shall directly or indirectly buy or sell, trade or barter or offer to buy or sell access to any land for the purpose of hunting any big game or any fur-bearing animals on any land.
(2) No person shall directly or indirectly buy or sell, trade or barter or offer to buy or sell access to any land for the purpose of hunting any game bird except as provided in subsection (3).
(3) No person shall directly or indirectly buy or sell, trade or barter or offer to buy or sell access to any land for the purpose of hunting upland game birds
(a) on privately owned land unless the person holds a licence issued to the person for that purpose pursuant to this Act and except in accordance with the regulations, or
(b) on public land that is not privately owned land.
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This is the most reasonable starting point for discussion on hunting access. The resource of interest, game animals, belong to the people of the state, unless they are specifically grown and released under a game preserve lic. Some may comment that this will do away with any incentive to keep a lot of good habitat on private ground. However, we're already paying for a whole bunch of habitat through CRP and NRCS(?) and whatever else.
Will it lead to a whole bunch more game preserves? - sure. These folks should be encouraged to make a good sustainable business with capital investment and all that.
M.