WILLOW CREEK — A quiet experiment in hunting lease tourism is gaining traction this fall, as out-of-state sportsmen pay landowners for exclusive access to private woodlots during deer season, generating income for local farmers and filling motel rooms during what has traditionally been a dead week on the calendar.
Henry Farr of Farr Family Farm is one of three local landowners participating in the program, which was facilitated by the newly formed tourism committee. Farr leased his 180-acre woodlot to a group of four hunters from Massachusetts for the first week of November — the peak of the white-tailed deer rifle season — for $1,200.
“Every year I watch out-of-state trucks drive past my farm on Route 11, heading to the state land north of town,” Farr said. “I thought, those guys are hunting on land that costs me property tax and producing nothing for me. Why not charge them to hunt here?”
The program matches landowners with hunters through an online platform developed by the Maine Department of Inland Fisheries and Wildlife. Landowners set their own prices and access rules. Hunters get exclusive access to private property that is less pressured than public land.
The economic impact extends beyond the lease fees. The four hunters renting Farr’s woodlot are staying at the Pine Cone Motel, eating breakfast at the General Store and dinner at the Dry Dock.
Pine Cone Motel owner Ed Morrison said the last week of October and first week of November have historically been the motel’s slowest period.
“I usually close for maintenance that week,” Morrison said. “This year I’m staying open and I’m nearly full.”
Tourism committee chair Dean Moreau said hunting lease tourism represents the kind of low-infrastructure, high-yield visitor strategy the town should pursue.
“We’re not building anything,” Moreau said. “We’re just connecting people who have land with people who want to walk on it. That’s the cheapest tourism infrastructure there is.”
The program is limited to four properties this year. The tourism committee plans to expand it to at least 10 properties in 2014.