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over state trust lands within Tribal reservation boundaries and receive federal public lands managed by the Bureau of Land Management as state trust lands in exchange . Following the transfer , those lands would likely be closed by leases to benefit the state , resulting in approximately 37,000 acres of land previously open to public hunters possibly being closed or restricted .
“ Sportsmen need assurances that land that has always been open for public hunting will remain open for hunting in perpetuity , that wildlife and public access will still be a priority ,” Brock Wahl , co-chair of the North Dakota chapter of Backcountry Hunters and Anglers , advises on the proposal , further warning , “ Instead , public hunters ’ interests are being ignored and the federal delegation won ’ t even entertain a conversation about this issue .” Even following a mild winter and noted increases in game like upland birds , deer and pronghorn populations , with hunting success in the fall increasing under those conditions , concerns are mounting that access to habitat holding wild game now and in the future is what will limit harvest numbers and the ability of hunters to punch their tags -- a concerning consideration
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in light of the forces at work against access .
“ If you ’ re looking at , say , the number of pheasant crows we heard ( last spring ), compared to what was at a similar date when we had this much , we shot 600,000 roosters . Can we do that now ? No , I don ’ t think so , mainly because of access ,” relates RJ Gross , North Dakota Game & Fish Department upland game biologist . “ I would argue that access is a bigger problem than our habitat loss , just because there ’ s not as many places to go any more .” He conservatively estimates just 350,000 rooster pheasants to be taken this fall as a result .
There ’ s hope on the horizon though , as novel ideas fill the void left by decreases in available acres of CRP nationwide and on the ground in the Dakotas . Through the combination of corporate philanthropy and sponsorship of incentive programs , new options for better funding of setaside programs at the state and federal level , coupled with the requirement of enrollment in state access programs are taking root .
The first such inventive program , formed in South Dakota in 2023 through a cooperative effort of Pheasants Forever , SD Game Fish & Parks Department and
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online mapping company , onX , looks to sweeten the pot for landowners requiring payment for conservation acres to stay competitive with the alternative of planting crops .
The Public Access to Habitat ( PATH ) program utilizes donated funds -- in the case of the SD pilot effort , $ 250,000 from onX -- to add another incentive on top of payments from newly-enrolled CRP or other state conservation programs and recently-inked contracts for access programs , making the income more competitive for marginal lands .
Currently more than 10,000 acres in South Dakota are set for public access this fall through PATH , with more than 6,000 additional acres awaiting approval . In time , the founding groups hope to see the program roll out into other states in the pheasant range as well . “ Moving forward we ’ re going to meet with the onX team and other corporate partners in the coming months to help determine where our priorities might lie to expand this program … into Nebraska , North Dakota , and there ’ s conversations about an impact in Arizona , and where we can start this in Michigan . So , as you see this web is starting to creep out beyond the South Dakota borders ,” says Jake Hanson
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, Pheasants Forever Director of Development who worked on the PATH partnership .
It may just be in the nick of time . Hunter numbers have dropped off from the height of the pandemic , and recruitment of younger hunters aged 18 to 30 remains a challenge for agencies throughout the country . With one of the primary reasons for hunters hanging up their shotguns and stowing their boots permanently being the lack of access to quality hunting areas , the close monitoring of the ownership , transfer and use of federal and state public lands along with the development of new programs to incentivize access are vital in a place like North Dakota , where approximately 92 percent of all acres are privately owned .
While numbers of wild game may be increasing due to seasonal and weather influences , and some habitat improvements are perhaps in the CRP pipeline from the next Farm Bill and other proposed federal programs , access is quickly becoming the top concern and may be notable this autumn on the landscape , requiring new thinking and new resources to continue to fund the future of hunting and bring balance to the three-legged platform on which that future sits . • |