Recreational hunters are concerned about finding hunting land to participate in their sport of choice. There are some programs through the National Rifle Association Institute for Legislative Action to increase access to hunting land, though. One program, called Open Fields, is attempting to increase recreational land availability for sport hunters and fishers.  

The point of the Open Fields legislative program is to provide incentives to Recreational Real Estate owners who allow public access to portions of the hunting land. There are different names for the Open Fields program in various states across America, but what it does is the same everywhere. Hunting land owners are paid fair amounts of money to encourage them to open up their land to all public wildlife recreation enthusiasts.

Some states where the program has been most successful include Kansas, Colorado, Nebraska and North Dakota. Any state that has a lot of rural properties has a lot of potential hunting land, and it can be profitable for land owners to share a portion of the land with the public, with what are called walk-in programs. If the program is expanded to all the states in the union, however, millions of acres of hunting land will be available to the public. The controlled access to the recreational properties also ensures better hunting practices, because rules can be more tightly enforced by private owners, since it is on their land.

Congress has introduced the Voluntary Public Access and Habitat Incentive Program Act (S. 548) to compliment the state hunting land programs. Senators Kent Conrad (D-ND) and Pat Roberts (R-KS) are the primary sponsors of S. 548 in the United States. A companion hunting land bill was introduced in the Senate, H.R. 1351. Representatives Earl Pomeroy (D-ND) and Tom Osborne (R-NE) introduced the bill in the United States House of Representatives.

If these hunting land bills pass, the government would pay $20 million each year fro five years to any state with an Open Fields program or any comparable recreational properties program. This is a significant program, because of the potential to open many millions of acres of private hunting land to all hunters. Open Fields also provides incentives to rural land owners to improve the habitat for wildlife. This is essential for the future of hunting land in America.

The federal program is designed to provide immediate funding for ongoing hunting land programs, and as an incentive for additional states to start Open Fields programs. The Voluntary Public Access and Habitat Incentive Program will allow these state hunting land programs to expand as quickly as possible. The program will also avoid the burdens of federal mandates on the design and implementation of the individual state hunting land programs.