Baldwin resident hopes hunters flock to game preserve

? Mike Eckman quit his city job and returned to the family farm to make a living. But he won’t be farming.

He’ll be hunting.

The rural Baldwin man this week opened Eckman Gamebird Farm & Hunting Preserve on his family’s 700-acre farm at 988 E. 1800 Road. The 25-year-old Baldwin native recently stepped down from his job with the Lawrence Parks and Recreation Department to concentrate on the hunting preserve business.

“I had a city job and this gets me back out on the farm where I want to be,” Eckman said. “The best thing about it is I’m living my hobby as a career.”

Eckman thinks his hobby could turn into a lucrative business. He’s hoping the preserve will attract 1,500 hunters from Sept. 1 through March 31, when the business is open.

The preserve provides quail, pheasant and chukars, a game bird that combines some of the characteristics of both a quail and a pheasant.

Eckman raises quail and chukars on his farm and purchases pheasants from an area farm. He releases the birds into the wild about an hour before each hunt.

Hunters, who must make a reservation, can sign up for a full-day or half-day hunt. They can choose what type of birds they want to hunt and how many they want released into the hunting area. A full-day hunt generally lasts six hours and a half-day is three hours.

Eckman requires hunters to attend a safety meeting in addition to having proper licenses.

Half-day, unguided hunts cost $60 per person and includes the release of either eight quail, five chukars or four pheasants per hunter. Additional birds can be purchased for release. The price ranges from $6 to $15 depending on the species.

The preserve also offers guided hunts, which means Eckman will provide a dog and one of the company’s four escorts. The price for a full-day guided hunt is $180 per person, which includes a bird-cleaning service and lunch at the preserve’s clubhouse, which is a renovated milk shed.

Once hunters pay their fees, they’re shown to one of four designated hunting areas, ranging from 50 acres to 160 acres. The hunters can shoot as many birds as they find in the area, which sometimes is more than the number they paid to be released. If hunters don’t catch the game that they paid to be released, it is left on the property.

Eckman said he thought the business was in the perfect part of the state, near several large cities, including Lawrence, Topeka and the Kansas City metro area.

“As our urban areas grow, people don’t have a place to hunt anymore,” Eckman said. “There’s still plenty of people who like to hunt, but it is just a matter of having a place to go.”

Eckman came up with the idea for the business late last year and began opening the area on the weekends in December. Between December 2001 and April 2002, the preserve attracted 500 hunters, which has fueled his optimism for this year.

Now that he’s open full time, he’s received business from corporations in the Kansas City area that bring clients out to hunt during the weekdays.

“For some companies, they use this as a way to wine and dine their customers,” Eckman said.