FERNANDINA BEACH, Fla. — While public land access remains a persistent and major challenge for many sportsmen, privately owned land provides the majority of opportunity for today’s hunters. When asked to describe the type of land they hunted most often in the past 12 months, roughly two-thirds of hunters used privately owned properties compared to one-third who utilized public lands the majority of the time.
These findings do not, however, diminish the important role federal and state-owned lands play in providing hunting opportunity for American sportsmen. In fact, while public land hunters account for a quarter of the overall sportsmen surveyed, they still far outnumber those who hunt land they own or lease. In fact, public land hunters outnumber them even when combined. Only those who hunted a friend or family member’s land outnumbered public land hunters. The breakdown by type of land hunted was as follows:
I hunted most often on a friend or family member’s property 39 percent
I hunted most often on public property 30 percent
I hunted most often on property I own 16 percent
I hunted most often on property I lease 11 percent
I hunted other types of land most often (employers’ 5 percent
properties, out-of-country, etc.).
“Both private and public land access remains critical in providing opportunity for our nation’s hunters,” says Rob Southwick, president of Southwick Associates, which designs and conducts the surveys at HunterSurvey.com, ShooterSurvey.com and AnglerSurvey.com. “With half of all hunters dependent on lands owned by others, the results also underscore the importance of encouraging private landowners to permit free or fee hunting on their properties if America’s hunting heritage is to be maintained.”
As part of that same survey, hunters were asked to describe the size of the property they hunted the past 12 months revealing the important role smaller properties play in providing quality hunting access. Forty percent said they hunt lands less than 100 acres in size, while another 21 percent hunt lands between 100 acres and 200 acres. Only 39 percent of those hunters surveyed hunted lands larger than 200 acres.
To help continually improve, protect and advance hunting, shooting and other outdoor recreation, all sportsmen and sportswomen are encouraged to participate in the bi-monthly surveys at HunterSurvey.com, ShooterSurvey.com and/or AnglerSurvey.com. Every other month, participants who complete the surveys are entered into a drawing for one of five $100 gift certificates to the sporting goods retailer of their choice.
