I wasn't referring to a ban on hunting in general, but in how land is used. Right now Georgia has dozens of Wildlife Management Areas. Some are on private land leased by the state with money from license fees. The rest are on National Forest. All of the maintenence, food plots, roads, etc are paid for with funds from hunters in the form of a WMA stamp required to hunt on these lands.
Non hunters use these areas as well. There are some areas where the state is experimenting with requiring non-hunters to either possess a valid hunting license with WMA stamp, purchase a special use permit, or pay by the day to use these areas for horsehack riding, mountain biking, fishing, camping, and hiking. A hunter with a valid license would be covered anyway.
For 70-80 years these lands were purchased, maintained and used exclueively by hunters. My concern is that today, there are more non-hunters using this land year round than hunters are a few weeks of the year. If the non-hunters have to pay for the right to use the land, they have a right to express how the land is used. I could see the day when these areas are designated as recreation areas for non hunting uses.