I think it’s more a matter of the game feeding itself 
- helping itself to crops, browsing on vegetation, rooting around and doing damage.
It is good to know that there are at least some people who encounter and appreciate good service (thank you Roger). Experiences are always subjective but my original post was made to disclaim what seems to be a commonly held notion among the English that all estate agents are lazy parasites.
One could easily say the same of anyone involved in numerous industries…fashion, advertising, retail, media, catering, entertainment and journalism to name a few. None are exactly essential to our betterment or survival and in many instances are far more detrimental to the common good than estate agents so please let us not tar all with the same brush.
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No crops round here…and hunters spread maize liberally for them. I know because our dog loves it and heads off to guzzle it all up. So many a time we have eventually found him with bulging belly surrounded by maize kernels. Or had to deal with the aftermath in the middle of the night…which is unmistakable (yuk).
To set the record straight I do realise that some will have had far from satisfactory service.
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I don’t mind paying well for a service but sometimes high agents fees don’t translate into good value for money.
Politician perhaps - lying cheating bastards. Almost seems like a precursor to a political career 
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In that case - I don’t think conservation is the reason why they hunt 
In some areas there is a conservation case to be made, but not everywhere.
My few words will never convince those who do not believe the Chasse should exist… not my problem. 
Personally, I am glad we have excellent and dedicated Chasse in our commune. We are in a glorious part of France and the chasse work hard to ensure the correct habitat is maintained (including waterways) etc etc … to encourage and support the wildlife. They maintain the biodiversity and regulate the invasive species… etc etc…
As a result of best efforts, we humans profit from the sight of so many beautiful animals and birds wafting on through their territory… we are the “interlopers” who gaze in wonder…
Yes, shooting does occur. Culling is inevitable in some circumstances - but it is never wild/random shooting hither and thither. Permission to kill has to be sought from the Prefecture and permission is not simply handed out willy-nilly. There has to be a good reason for anything to be killed.
Anyone who has doubts about the way their local Chasse is behaving - should speak with the Mairie, the Gendarmes , the Lieutenants de Louveterie (Chasse Police)… no-one should be allowed to run wild with a firearm.
En effet sur cette saison 2018-2019, il a été totalisé 7 accidents de chasse mortels. Ce chiffre semble toutefois important mais est en baisse depuis plus de 30 ans.
I would treat as rubbish any lurid stories of armies of drunken gunmen and stray bullets whizzing past your kitchen window from hunters lurking in your garden.
La chasse is integral to rural France and is regulated. Most chasseurs are ‘good-guys’. As Stella says the chasse police are active, thorough and liable to turn up anywhere, so are therefore respected by chasseurs. If there’s an actual problem, you can report it.
The issue here is not the hunters but the track, its condition, ownership and responsibility for long term upkeep.
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At the risk of wandering off-topic… can we spare a thought for all those people killed on our roads… often as the result of “misuse” of a lethal weapon - the automobile !! 
The track and its condition/ownership/implications… all of that is important and could be a deal-breaker for Noel Sussex.
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If people think 400 deaths and 2000+ injuries in the last 20 years are acceptable statistics for a pastime that is supposed to be policed/regulated then I what do I know. Last season’s accident numbers were 15% higher than the previous season’s which may be down to the halving of the cost of the chasse permis, another of Macron’s bright ideas.
As someone who attended shoots in the UK every week I have absolutely no issue with people hunting here provided they know what they’re doing, the problem is a lot don’t hence the amount of accidents.
Tim, I believe it was just the cost which was reduced, not the training itself, nor the examination etc, which need to be undertaken and passed before a permit is granted… 
(police clearance is necessary too I think…)
It was a pledge by Macron when he was running for President to appeal to the hunting lobby and he went ahead despite opposition by wildlife and countryside campaigners, is it a coincidence that the numbers of chasseurs has increased as it’s been made cheaper I think not, more hunters = more accidents, it’s that simple.
But what actually do they do? Do the chasse actually organise work parties to clear waterways, cut down friche, sow wild flowers seeds, what?? My experience is that this is done by landowners, who may also be members of the chasse, but they do it as part of their responsibility for looking after their land. Or it is done by contractors on behalf of large land owners like ONF or EDF, or for the commune. And the commune provide local people with permission to clear parcels of communal forest and take the wood for a small price, which helps maintain the right balance - but nothing to do with the chasse. The most the chasse do is a bit of bushwhacking along the paths that they use - the public footpaths are maintained by others.
I am really not against the local hunt, but just find it somewhat specious that hunting is justified on environmental grounds without much hard evidence that they do take positive action for this. It is a rural cultural activity, that’s a justification in itself.
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It is, of course, although without knowing what the terrain is like or who owns it or what the maintenance arrangements are, it’s hard to advise any further than “you need to find out”.
But, it’s also about whether this house is the OP’s dream house or not. It sounds like his first purchase in France so it doesn’t hurt to point out other potential issues that have a bit of a track record of catching Brits out, simply because they’re not issues a Brit would think about if they were considering a similar rural property in the UK. (Where I thought hunting was banned, so I was a bit surprised that it appeared to be business as usual on a recent visit to Wales.) “Country Life” in many rural parts of England tends to be prettified, gentrified and sanitised, compared to many parts of France where rural living is still about huntin’ shootin’ fishin’ and farmin’.
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I cannot say what the chasse in your area do…
but in our area they are extremely active and do “get their hands dirty” … they work hard at maintaining and improving… they are not simply weekend gung-ho guys… they are serious folk who love the land and what it supports and provides.
We were stuffed either way.
La chasse is shooting, rather than hunting. Hunting is chasse à courre and there’s a lot less of it mainly because it isn’t always possible to run an équipage because of the expense, space needed etc.
Rough shooting is very easy, logistically.
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Hunting with dogs is the norm around us, what makes us laugh is that the hunters spend more time trying to find their dogs than anything else, we’ve had so many end up in our garden we could run a kennel! 
Can’t you just give me one example of what they actually do when they are getting their hands dirty?
Jane… sorry, I thought you would understand the expression… “getting one’s hands dirty” refers to folk actually doing the work (whatever that may be) rather than relying on other people…
You were saying that in your area the landowners did the work necessary to maintain biodiversity and habitat… here, the chasse work sometimes with the landowners and sometimes in place of them - (hence my comment " they get their hands dirty") 