Multiple hunting clubs in the Eagle Lake area will soon be forced to close due to their leases being terminated by Anderson Tully Lumber Co.

In three separate letters obtained by The Vicksburg Post dated May 4, Ten Point Hunting Club, Buck Bayou Hunting Club and Buck Track Hunting Club have been informed their leases with Anderson Tully will be terminated effective May 15 due to a pending sale of the land where the hunting camps are located.

Each of the clubs are located on parts of a 17,000-acre plot of land surrounding Mahannah Wildlife Management Area that the Mississippi Department of Wildlife, Fisheries and Parks has had preliminary discussions about purchasing.

The letters informed the three clubs they would be given 60 days from May 15 to “remove all personally owned buildings, structures or other equipment from the property,” and that, “access to the property during the 60 day period shall be for the sole purpose of removing such personal property and for no other purpose.”

Perry Egger, who is a member of Buck Track, which leased 1,400 of the 17,000 acres, estimated there are 15 to 20 clubs that lease land within the impacted area.

Representatives from Buck Track Hunting Club have sent letters to MDWFP voicing their displeasure with the proposal to turn the land into a WMA.

“The question remains, do you actually increase access to hunting by purchasing the land,” said Egger, who has been a member of Buck Track for eight years. “It’s not that it’s not good property, but the access is poor.”

Anderson Tully announced March 16 it would be sold to an unnamed company with a projected closing date of May 15. That sale will only include Anderson Tully’s sawmill, which has operated in Vicksburg since 1889 and has been owned by the Forestland Group since 2006.

A letter sent to the hunting clubs by Anderson Tully dated March 21 and provided to The Post by Kelly MacNealy, who is a member of Buck Track, informed the clubs that the sale announced March 16, “only pertains to the sawmill facility and not to any of the landholdings,” and that the transaction “will not affect the hunting clubs or the license agreements between the hunting club and Anderson Tully.”

Less than two months later, the clubs were sent another letter telling them their leases would be terminated May 15. Attempts to contact Anderson Tully and Forestland Group for comment on the sale and termination of the leases were unsuccessful.

MDWFP wants land

Russ Walsh, executive wildlife director for MDWFP, said the MDWFP Commission has “approved the process of going down those roads of looking into it (purchasing the land),” after the potential of purchasing the property was brought to their attention by The Nature Conservatory.

The proposed purchase would be made using MDWFP funds raised through the sale of hunting and fishing licenses and excise taxes on guns and ammo, Walsh said.

“If it were to come to fruition, this would be purchased with dollars that come through the agency and not general state tax dollars,” he said.

Walsh added that although Anderson Tully has already begun the process of terminating leases effective next week, the commission has not officially approved the purchase of the land.

Any land purchase must be approved by a five member land commission, but Walsh said he doesn’t believe they are the final stamp and there are other arenas it must go through to be approved.

If the sale is finalized, the 17,000-acre plot would be incorporated into the WMA system and managed as a WMA.

A large WMA

Some of the WMAs in Mississippi require hunters to participate in a drawing for rights to hunt on the land, while at others, hunters are given access after purchasing an annual license that allows them to hunt on the state’s WMAs.

“None of that has been determined yet because they are still in the exploration phase of the acquisition,” Walsh said of the how this tract’s hunting rights would be allocated.

Walsh said MDWFP is pursuing the potential sale because it may be one of the last opportunities to purchase and protect such a large contiguous area of bottomland hardwoods.

“If you look at the Delta as a whole, there’s not a lot of large contiguous tracts of bottomland hardwood left,” Walsh said. “If this were to come to fruition, this would keep intact a large valuable piece of forested wetland ecosystem. It certainly is attractive from a conservation value and it would also keep it a public holding so it would allow public access for hunting and recreation.”

MacNealy said they are not opposed to Anderson Tully selling the land, but are opposed to it being turned into a WMA because of the impact it will have on limiting opportunities for the members of the club who are disabled due to WMAs’ rules regarding ATVs and the need for specialty built stands to help them.

A separate letter obtained by The Post and addressed to Mississippi Commission on Wildlife, Fisheries and Parks chairman Scott Coopwood written by Everette Eastland, secretary of Buckhorn Hunting Club, a sister club to Ten Point who also received a letter informing them their lease would be terminated according to MacNealy, asked that if the sale goes through if the club, which has leased its current tract of land since 1935 according to the letter, could be allowed to “negotiate a continuance of us hunting and caring for the land.”

Walsh said if the sale is finalized and the tract is managed as a WMA, such an arrangement would not be legally possible.

“If the state were to purchase the property and it would be in the WMA system, it cannot be privately leased,” he said. “That is not within the legal ability to do that.”