PrintAccess is one of the biggest issues facing sportsmen today. To address this issue, various hunter and angler access programs have been created in individual states to provide incentives to private landowners who open up their land for public hunting and fishing.
The benefit to sportsmen of these programs, first and foremost, is to increase the acreage available to hunters and anglers, which can help with recruitment and retention of participants. Additional benefits may include providing an economic boost to rural communities, strengthening ties between rural and urban communities, increasing the appreciation and respect for these communities, and technical assistance for wildlife management on private land.
Incentives to landowners for public access include offering tax credits or tax rebates to private landowners and protecting landowners from liability in case of accidents. Imaginative incentives included proposed legislation in Vermont that would have offered 15% of the state moose permits to landowners.
Other incentive to help access private lands, ones that are important to landowners, is that landowners maintain control of the property and hunting is generally regulated to foot traffic only.
Another factor that can open lands otherwise posted is protecting the landowner from liability. For example, Arkansas passed legislation (AR HB 2324) that encouraged landowners to open their land to the public by limiting landowner liability. Pennsylvania strengthened language (PA HB 13) to protect landowners' liability in accidents.
In some states, no legislative action was required. Many programs are administratively created by state fish and wildlife agencies utilizing funding programs already in place or creating stamps or permits to generate necessary funds - others rely on introducing and passing positive legislation.
Interesting facts from the highly successful Kansas "Walk-In Hunter Access" program:
- In the fall of 2005, 1,023,000 acres of private land were opened to public hunting (an increase of 9600% since the program's 1995 inception)
- For spring of 2005 turkey hunting, 135,000 acres of private land were enrolled (an increase of 220% since the program's 2001 inception)
- The fish access program, which has added in 1999, opened 92 miles of stream/river access available in 2005
- Over 86% of cooperators are moderately to very satisfied with the program
- Greater than 96% of hunters are in favor of the program
History
The issue was first presented to the NASC at the 2006 NASC Annual meeting by Kansas DNR and was issued as a NASC issue brief the following year. Eighteen states now have such access programs in various stages of implementation: California, Colorado, Idaho, Kansas, Kentucky, Michigan, Minnesota, Montana, Nebraska, North Dakota, New York, Oregon, Pennsylvania, South Dakota, Utah, Vermont, Washington and Wyoming.
