Selling hunting landfive things a buyer asks you to settle, and the liability statute in its own words
A buyer of hunting land asks the seller to settle five things: who has permission or a lease, which deer programs the tract is in, any CRP contract, the land use class, and where the lines run against public land. Each has an office or a professional that decides it.
The seller's list for wooded ground, then Va. Code 29.1-509 quoted
Each of the five questions a buyer of hunting land asks has a paper answer and a named office or professional behind it.
- Leases and permissions: who hunts the tract now, and under what paper. An attorney reads any lease.
- Program enrollments: DMAP, DCAP or a deer damage permit. The Virginia Department of Wildlife Resources (DWR) answers for each.
- CRP acreage: any field under a Conservation Reserve Program contract. The FSA county office answers for it.
- Land use class: whether the county taxes the tract at use value. The Commissioner of the Revenue keeps that record.
- Lines against public land: a wildlife management area, the National Forest or the Parkway. A land surveyor and the managing agency settle them.
The listing itself runs through the same five steps as every listing described under selling land.
The recreational use statute in its own words
Va. Code 29.1-509 B starts from a broad rule:
A landowner shall owe no duty of care to keep land or premises safe for entry or use by others for hunting, fishing, trapping, camping
Va. Code 29.1-509
Subsection B also says no warning "of hazardous conditions or uses of, structures on, or activities on such land or premises" is owed to a person entering for those purposes, "except as provided in subsection D", whether or not the landowner gave permission. Under subsection C, a landowner who gives permission to hunt does not thereby make the hunter "an invitee or licensee to whom a duty of care is owed". The statute's landowner includes any "lessee, occupant or any other person in control of land or premises", so a lessee counts as a landowner for this section.
Subsection D keeps several kinds of liability in place; two bear on hunting ground:
Nothing contained in this section, except as provided in subsection E, shall limit the liability of a landowner which may otherwise arise or exist by reason of his gross negligence or willful or malicious failure to guard or warn against a dangerous condition, use, structure, or activity.
Va. Code 29.1-509
The provisions of this section shall not limit the liability of a landowner which may otherwise arise or exist when the landowner receives a fee for use of the premises or to engage in any activity described in subsections B and C.
Va. Code 29.1-509
The statute's definition of a fee excludes "rentals or similar fees received by a landowner from governmental, not-for-profit, or private sources". DWR's landowner page reads it more plainly: a landowner who charges a fee is "no longer protected from liability under this State law". Neither text says whether a hunting lease payment is a fee or a rental.
Who has a yes to hunt the tract, and what the Code says about leasing it
Permission to hunt is given by the landowner or the landowner's agent, and hunting without it is an offense in Virginia whether or not the land is posted.
Va. Code 18.2-132 makes going on the lands of another to hunt, fish or trap "without the consent of the landowner or his agent" a Class 3 misdemeanor. Posted land carries a higher consent standard, covered where buyers ask about walking a tract. Under 18.2-136, when the chase begins on other lands, fox and coon hunters may follow their dogs onto prohibited lands, and other hunters "may go upon prohibited lands to retrieve their dogs, falcons, hawks, or owls but may not carry firearms or bows and arrows on their persons or hunt any game while thereon"; retrieving by vehicle is allowed "only with the permission of the landowner or his agent."
Va. Code 29.1-521 names hunting leases inside a ban. It forbids selling or buying a hunt guaranteeing the killing of a deer, bear or wild turkey, then adds: "Nothing in this subdivision shall prevent a landowner from leasing land for hunting." That carve-out says nothing about what a sale does to a lease. How a farm lease when you sell passes to a buyer has its own answer; whether a hunting lease works the same way is an attorney's reading. A lessee also stands differently from an owner under the landowner license exemption.
Two other subdivisions of 29.1-521 are safest in the Code's words. On Sunday it is unlawful to hunt or kill "any wild bird or wild animal, including any nuisance species, with a gun, firearm, or other weapon, within 200 yards of a place of worship or any accessory structure thereof", or "any deer or bear with a gun, firearm, or other weapon with the aid or assistance of dogs". It is also unlawful "to put out bait or salt for any wild bird or wild animal for the purpose of taking or killing it", except as that subdivision provides. DWR answers how either applies to a tract; how deer seasons meet a showing schedule is answered separately.
DMAP, DCAP and damage permits are written to a named person and a named place
The DWR deer programs a seller may be enrolled in are written to a cooperator or permit holder and a defined area, and DWR decides what a sale does to each.
- DMAP
- A site-specific program allowing a more liberal kill of antlerless deer than county either-sex day rules; open to any club or landowner at no charge, with approval at DWR's discretion. Its rules require exclusive deer hunting rights on enrolled land and state that "DMAP tags are non-transferable."
- DCAP
- DWR's deer damage program. Its tags are valid only on the control area listed on the permit, used by the landowner or lessee or issued to hunters they choose.
- Damage permit
- Under Va. Code 29.1-529, a permit to kill antlerless deer on production lands, issued to the owner or lessee on request when deer are damaging "fruit trees, Christmas trees, crops, horticultural plants, or personal property utilized for commercial agricultural production". Under the statute, the permit expires December 31.
None of DWR's program pages, the DMAP rules or 29.1-529 says what a sale of the land does to any of the three. The area DMAP biologist at DWR answers that for a given tract.
DWR's public access programs, PALS and POWRR, open private land to the public; the PALS areas DWR lists are in Dickenson, Wise and James City counties, and DWR says POWRR funding "will be focused in the Coalfields region of Southwest Virginia", so neither points to ground in Carroll, Grayson, Wythe, Pulaski, Montgomery or Floyd County or the City of Galax. Subsection E of 29.1-509 makes a landowner with a public access agreement with a state agency, a locality or certain other bodies "immune from liability to any member of the public" for that use. Whether a given agreement is one subsection E reaches is DWR's or an attorney's to say.
Public ground along the boundary, as each agency describes its hunting
Public land beside a hunting tract comes with its managing agency's rules, and the Blue Ridge Parkway is the one neighbor on this list closed to hunting.
| Area | County | Agency | What the agency's page says about hunting |
|---|---|---|---|
| Crooked Creek WMA, 1,882 acres | Carroll | DWR | Deer, turkey and squirrel are the most popular species hunted; use requires a license, boat registration or access permit |
| Stewart's Creek WMA, 1,138 acres | Carroll | DWR | Deer, grouse, turkey and squirrel hunting are available |
| Big Survey WMA, 7,500 acres | Wythe | DWR | Earliest stages of development; bear still hunting allowed, hunting bear with hounds prohibited |
| Mount Rogers National Recreation Area | Carroll, Grayson, Wythe and others | USDA Forest Service | Hunting is among visitors' opportunities |
| Matthews State Forest | Grayson | State Forest, listed by DWR | "archery only in designated areas" |
| Blue Ridge Parkway | Carroll, near Stewart's Creek WMA, and others | National Park Service | "Hunting is prohibited on all Parkway land." |
The Parkway row is the firm one: a tract that meets the Parkway meets land closed to hunting, and DWR says tracking dogs from Parkway lands needs permission. On DWR-owned lands and National Forest lands, DWR's public lands page says it is unlawful to build, maintain or occupy a permanent tree stand; portable stands not permanently affixed may be used.
Where a tract's line runs against any of these is a land surveyor's work, with the managing agency for its side: DWR for a WMA, the Mount Rogers NRA office at (276) 783-5196 for the National Forest, the Park Service for the Parkway. A creek raises a separate question about who owns the riverbed, and the county guide covers the trails, rivers and the Parkway as places to visit.
Old fields under contract, the county's use class, and the cover a buyer walks
A CRP contract approved after December 6, 2019 does not pass to a buyer automatically: under 7 CFR 1410.51 CCC may approve the new owner for a new contract, and that owner "must assume all obligations of the CRP contract of the previous participant."
That date is the scope 7 CFR 1410.1 sets for the rule; an older contract's terms are the FSA county office's to state. If the new owner does not become a successor to the contract within 60 days, "or such other time period as CCC determines to be appropriate", the contract ends on the affected land and the original participant forfeits future payments on that acreage and refunds past payments with interest and liquidated damages, "except as otherwise agreed to by CCC." Whether hunting a given CRP field is an authorized use under 1410.63 is the FSA county office's question.
The land use class depends on the county. Carroll, Montgomery and Pulaski programs include forest use with a 20 acre minimum, and Montgomery says open space does not qualify; Wythe and Floyd cover agricultural and horticultural use only, and Virginia Tech's use-value table lists no ordinance for Grayson or the City of Galax, which the Commissioner of the Revenue can confirm. A sale's effect on that status is covered under selling land that is in land use.
Virginia Cooperative Extension's guide for new woodland owners frames habitat plainly: "The type of wildlife you should expect to see in your woods depends on the food, water, cover, and space your land provides." It adds that adjacent woodland can supply what one tract lacks and that an edge, such as field against woodland, provides habitat, and it points owners focused on habitat to a DWR wildlife biologist.
Stands, blinds and feeders raise a contract question: whether they stay with the land turns on what conveys under the purchase contract.
Hunting ground to list: tell Lowell what is in place
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Good questions, straight answers.
Does a written hunting lease bind the person who buys the land?
Va. Code 55.1-1606 alone does not settle it. The section gives a grantee of leased land the same advantage against the lessee, on the lease's covenants, that the seller had, but whether a hunting lease is a lease of land under that section, and whether a given one binds the buyer, is a Virginia attorney's reading of the lease and the purchase contract.
Can DMAP tags be handed to the buyer at closing?
No. DWR's DMAP rules state that "DMAP tags are non-transferable" and that they may be used on designated lands of the cooperator. What a sale does to the enrollment itself is for the area DMAP biologist at DWR to answer.
Is the Blue Ridge Parkway land along a tract open to hunting?
No. The National Park Service says "Hunting is prohibited on all Parkway land", so the Parkway side of a tract's line is closed to hunting. Where the boundary runs is a land surveyor's work, with the Park Service for its side.
Where this page's facts come from
Every rule, office and figure above traces to one of these. Rules change; check the office before you act on one.
- Va. Code 29.1-509: duty of care and liability for damages of landowners to hunters, fishermen, sightseers Virginia General Assembly
- Va. Code 18.2-132: trespass by hunters and fishers Virginia General Assembly
- Va. Code 18.2-136: retrieving dogs, falcons, hawks and owls Virginia General Assembly
- Va. Code 29.1-521: unlawful acts, including the hunting lease carve-out, Sunday and bait Virginia General Assembly
- Va. Code 29.1-529: permits to kill deer damaging agricultural production Virginia General Assembly
- Va. Code 55.1-1606: rights of a grantee of leased land against the lessee Virginia General Assembly
- Landowners (H-Finder) Virginia Department of Wildlife Resources
- Deer Management Assistance Program (DMAP) Virginia Department of Wildlife Resources
- DMAP rules Virginia Department of Wildlife Resources
- Damage Control Assistance Program (DCAP) Virginia Department of Wildlife Resources
- Public hunting lands Virginia Department of Wildlife Resources
- POWRR Virginia Department of Wildlife Resources
- Crooked Creek WMA Virginia Department of Wildlife Resources
- Stewart's Creek WMA Virginia Department of Wildlife Resources
- Big Survey WMA Virginia Department of Wildlife Resources
- Mount Rogers National Recreation Area office USDA Forest Service
- Mount Rogers National Recreation Area USDA Forest Service
- Blue Ridge Parkway FAQs National Park Service
- 7 CFR 1410.1: CRP administration and applicability eCFR
- 7 CFR 1410.51: transfer of land under a CRP contract eCFR
- 7 CFR 1410.63: permissive uses of CRP acreage eCFR
- Va. Code 58.1-3230: forest use and open-space use defined Virginia General Assembly
- Va. Code 58.1-3233: use value qualification minimums Virginia General Assembly
- Special Assessment Land Program Carroll County
- Frequently asked questions Wythe County
- Land use information Montgomery County
- Land use value FAQ Pulaski County
- Commissioner of the Revenue Floyd County
- Land use value assessment estimates (LUVA) Virginia Tech
- ANR-136, Welcome to the Woods Virginia Cooperative Extension