10/31/2017
CELEBRATING 40 YEARS
DNR Hunting Access Program celebrates 40 years
By MONIQUE FERRIS of
Michigan Department of Natural Resources
Michigan is home to one of the nation’s oldest private-public partnership programs, offering financial incentives to private landowners who allow public access to their properties for hunting.
The Michigan Department of Natural Resources’ Hunting Access Program has developed over the past 40 years, initially in the southern part of the state, recently expanding northward.
“This program grants access to quality private hunting lands close to urban centers and in agricultural areas,” said Mike Parker, conservation partners program specialist with the DNR’s Wildlife Division. “The availability of hunting lands close to home is critical for attracting new hunters, retaining those already involved in the sport and supporting Michigan’s strong hunting tradition.”
According to a 2013 study by the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation, outdoor recreation supports 6.1 million direct jobs across the country and $646 billion in spending each year.
In Michigan, hunters contribute $2.3 billion to Michigan’s economy and support the professional management of the state’s natural resources.
The DNR places a high priority on providing hunting access through public lands and leased private lands for public access. Michigan is blessed with over 4.5 million acres of public hunting lands, most of which are in the Upper Peninsula.
Twenty-one percent of Michigan is comprised of public land, but in southern lower Michigan – where 90 percent of the state’s 9.9 million citizens live and 72 percent of the 790,000 hunters reside – only 3 percent of the land is public.
Historical legacy
Michigan’s Hunting Access Program was created in 1977 as the Public Access Stamp Program by Public Act 373 of 1976, with the purpose of leasing private lands to provide public access for hunting.
The original program was based on findings from a 1974 pilot study in five southern Michigan counties, initiated by the U.S. Agriculture and Soil Conservation Service, as well as an earlier access project called the Williamston Plan, which was in place during the late 1930s and early 1940s.
Within five years of its initiation, the Hunting Access Program had grown to over 790 properties leased, covering 188,000 acres. After 1982, those numbers declined to fewer than 50 farms and less than 8,000 acres by 2010.
“Program decline was a result of decreased funding availability and rental payments not keeping up with market conditions,” said Monique Ferris, a DNR wildlife biologist and coordinator of the Hunting Access Program.
Since that significant enrollment decline, recent efforts have emphasized the importance of providing public access on private lands, reinvigorating the program.
In 2005, the DNR established the Hunter Recruitment and Retention Work Group charged with developing an action plan that identified three to five approaches to increase the number and proportion of Michigan residents hunting and to retain new, as well as current, hunters.
“The work group’s number one recommendation called for the reinvigoration of the public access program through increasing landowner payments, providing options meeting landowner needs for land management and security, multi-year leases and quality maps,” Parker said.
In 2010, the DNR and the Michigan Department of Agriculture and Rural Development received a Voluntary Public Access – Hunting Incentive Program grant, through the federal Farm Bill, to expand the Hunting Access Program.
Funding from the grant was used to increase lease rates, market the program, hire a program coordinator and contract with soil conservation districts to service the program locally. The overall goal was to use the grant money to double the number of acres and properties enrolled in the program.
In 2014, a new federal grant was approved for $1.2 million. The program was expanded into the eastern Upper Peninsula for the first time, opening over 5,200 acres for small game and sharp-tailed grouse hunting.
The following year, the DNR was awarded another federal grant to expand the program to the northern Lower Peninsula and hire a full-time program coordinator.
The DNR, in partnership with the Department of Agriculture and Rural Development and local conservation districts, has worked to lease a total of 200 properties with a combined 25,000 acres of private hunting lands for public access.
“Our commitment to providing access and working with new partners has more than tripled the number of properties enrolled in the Hunting Access Program over the past three years,” Ferris said.
To improve the program, the DNR has also increased its conservation officer patrols on program lands, cultivated local conservation district support at the county level, created a Hunting Access Program webpage, and conducted surveys of hunters and landowners.
“The DNR has also developed an interactive mapping program, Mi-HUNT, making it easier than ever for hunters to locate HAP properties and to find a great deal of useful information at the click of a mouse,” Ferris said.
to read more of this story go to www.michigan.gov/dnrstories
and to learn more information on the HAP program go to
www.michigan.gov/hap
