The Daily News

If you’ve read this column over the years you’re familiar with my opinion that the greatest threat to the future of hunting is the lack of access to land. Other attempts to retain and recruit hunters will be pointless if those new hunters don’t have a place to go or birds and animals to hunt.

Minnesota’s new youth deer season is a good example. Though well-intentioned, the October youth season won’t likely bring many new kids into hunting. It’ll only give kids who already hunt another opportunity. The real solution to recruitment of young hunters is to provide their parents not only a place to hunt but ducks, pheasants and deer to shoot as well. If mom and dad are confident they’ll find a place to hunt and game to shoot, they’ll buy licenses and take the kids along. Problem solved.

Not an easy solution, admittedly, but it’s the most viable one. Fortunately, some states have figured that out, including the Dakotas. North Dakota’s PLOTS program and South Dakota’s Walk-In Program have been highly successful in providing hunters a place to take their kids and enjoy a day in the field.

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Those programs recently got a potential boost with the funding of the Open Fields program, which was introduced to Congress in 2003 by Sen. Kent Conrad, D-N.D., and Sen. Pat Roberts, R-Kan. Earlier this month the U.S. Department of Agriculture released $50 million in funding to support Open Fields, which rewards landowners for allowing access for fishing, hunting and birdwatching.

Open Fields is designed to support existing state-based access programs. The feds provide some funding but states still administer the various programs. Twenty-six states have access programs that will be eligible for funding but each state has to apply.

“We will be submitting an application for some of the funds to be applied to our PLOTS program,” said Randy Kreil, chief of wildlife for the N.D. Game and Fish Department. “We’ll also serve as a 'mentor' state, providing advice and guidance to states who want to develop similar programs.”

Open Fields was authorized in the 2008 Farm Bill but it took this long for the funding to be released. Lest you think $50 million is a lot of money for hunting, recognize that 100 million Americans take part in wildlife-related activities and they spend more than $100 billion (with a “b”) every year. Hunting and the outdoors is a huge business upon which many jobs depend and it should not be taken lightly by anyone.

Because it took so long to get the program rules established state agencies find themselves with only three years left in the 2008 Farm Bill and this year is more than half gone already. That means the $50 million dollars has to be awarded and spent over the next two-and-a-half years. The USDA has allocated $16 million for 2010, $16 million for 2011 and more than $17 million for 2012. If all this money isn’t allocated it may be difficult to get funding, hopefully at a higher level, in the next farm bill.

“We are quickly putting together our application, which has to be in by Aug. 23,” said Kevin Kading, private lands coordinator for NDGF. “We’re looking at how we’ll spend the money first. We may use it in CRP high-use areas, locations where we’ve had deer depredation problems or we may focus on getting access to some private badlands country for big game hunting. Another goal is to open up access to public property that’s currently landlocked by private land.”

Kading said some western states have also considered using the money to gain access to public land surrounded by private property. That’s always been a point of contention in the west and a real burr under my saddle. There should always be “reasonable” access to all public land but that’s a topic for another day.

The Open Fields program offers tremendous potential for helping to provide a place to spend time outdoors. If this $50 million “taste,” which is less than one-third of the cost of a single F-22A fighter jet, can be increased in the next farm bill, Open Fields can be part of the real solution to the problem of retention and recruitment.

Nothing is more crucial to the future of hunting than having a place to hunt.

PARK HUNT

The National Park Service has finally developed their plan for reducing the number of elk in Theodore Roosevelt National Park’s south unit.

Anyone, from any state, may apply to become one of the volunteers who will enter the park and use firearms to take cow elk. Under the plan there will be five teams, which will include a team leader and four volunteers (a.k.a. hunters) in the park each week for 12 straight weeks, beginning Nov 1. That computes to about 240 volunteers.

The application process must be done online at the http://www.nps.gov/thro.

You’ll find an application and a list of frequently asked questions. Applicants can apply alone or in groups of up to four people. Your application will be assigned a number and a random drawing will determine the successful applicants. The deadline to apply is Aug. 9 and you will know if you’re successful within 2-4 weeks.

It took a long time and a lot of political wrangling to get this conservation measure approved. However, it’s necessary. The elk population in the park is at least three times what the carrying capacity of the habitat is so something has to be done to reduce the elk herd. This was, and is, the most logical and fiscally responsible option.

WALLEYE

STOCKING

The N.D. Game and Fish Department set a record with their walleye stocking efforts this year. A total of 11.5 million walleye fingerlings were distributed into state waters in 2010. That compares to the previous record of 10.9 million in 1991.

Four million of those fingerlings went into Lake Sakakawea and the rest were stocked into 114 lakes and rivers. These fingerlings will supplement natural reproduction, which is expected to be excellent due to favorable water conditions.

MN WATERFOWL

There was some talk of possibly moving Minnesota’s waterfowl season up a week, where it would coincide with North Dakota but evidently the Department of Natural Resources decided against it. The waterfowl season in Minnesota will open at 9 a.m. on Saturday, Oct. 2.

An early goose season, as well as the first-ever sandhill crane season, will open on Sept. 4. Youth Waterfowl Hunting Day will be Sept. 8.

LONGNOSE GAR

My bowfishing exploits resulted in another first last week. I was on Ten Mile Lake and shot my first longnose gar. They’re a very strange fish with lots of teeth and the one I shot was 40 inches long and skinny. I’ve never even seen one before but I knew Ten Mile had them so I kept an eye out for one and got him.

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