SHARE PROGRAM HISTORY

In 2006, California Outdoor Heritage Alliance (COHA) staff initiated the first of many private land hunts for public hunters under the Shared Habitat Alliance for Recreational Enhancement (SHARE) Program. The hunts begin in December and ended in early March, when a special late season for Aleutian Canada geese closes in Del Norte and Humboldt counties.

The objective is offer low-cost private land hunting opportunities in an effort to retain existing hunters and to encourage others to take up hunting for the first time. Other goals include fostering improved relations between hunters and landowners, financially supporting farmers and other landowners who provide public access for hunting, and encouraging responsible hunter behavior in the field.

The SHARE Program was authorized in 2003 through California Waterfowl Association-sponsored (CWA) legislation, AB 396 (Harman-R, Huntington Beach). A pilot program was implemented to determine overall landowner and hunter interest. If approved by the California Fish and Game Commission and if sufficient funding is available, the California Department of Fish and Game would be authorized to take the program statewide in subsequent years.

Similar land access programs in at least 12 other states have opened millions of acres of private land to public hunting. In fact, the programs have been so well received by landowners and hunters that federal legislation has been introduced over the last couple of years to provide seed funding for new state programs. Should this legislation succeed, millions of dollars in federal grants would become available to the states.

A maximum of 592 hunters were authorized to participate in the SHARE Pilot season. Hunters were required to submit a small application fee for each hunt date and property and were then selected randomly via lottery. No additional entrance or other fees were imposed, but every participant was also required to submit a signed liability waiver.

In response to high demand for the Aleutian goose hunts, those hunters who were drawn but could not attend their hunts were encouraged by the SHARE administrators to donate their hunts to others who were not selected in the lottery. This effort allowed an additional two dozen or so hunters to participate while helping landowners keep geese from decimating their cattle forage.

Thirteen landowners participated in the initial season. Total private land acreage made available through the program was 6,335 acres. Two properties were limited to junior and first-time female hunters to encourage those hunters into the field.

Feedback thus far from the hunters has been excellent, with good to fair hunt success reported and high-quality experiences overall. Many hunters have urged that the program continue in future years. And some who were not drawn for the program have recommended changes to the lottery system in order to ensure greater hunter participation. We are currently evaluating these recommendations.

Interaction between hunters and landowners has also been quite positive, helping to achieve the important goal of improving landowner/hunter relations. Many property owners have commented that the program helped them achieve their depredation control or financial objectives and that they would like to enroll their lands again into the program for the 2007-08 hunting season. This feedback, along with the landowner and user data, demonstrates that a private land access program can indeed work in California.

In 2007, COHA presented all of this information and other relevant data to the Fish and Game Commission. A key issue has been securing future funding for the program. The authorizing legislation for the SHARE Program allows for funding from a variety of sources (other than the state’s General Fund), such as federal monies and user fees.

For the 2006-07 SHARE Pilot Program, $53,500 was provided in grants from the National Shooting Sports Foundation and National Rifle Association. In addition to CWA and COHA, the California Department of Fish and Game, California Farm Bureau Federation, and California Cattlemen’s Association cooperated in facilitating the private-land hunts. COHA and CWA staff would also like to thank Ed Smith, Bryan Yost, and Marty McClelland for their valuable assistance.

For more information on the SHARE Program, please call Mark Hennelly at COHA, (916) 643-4607 or go to http://www.dfg.ca.gov/hunting/.

If you have an interesting story or pictures from one of the SHARE hunts, please email us at cwaeducation@calwaterfowl.org