The Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources is encouraging hunters to try out public land this hunting season. WRN’s Sean Maloney chats with DNR program coordinator Gabriella LeFevre…
The Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources is expanding its Voluntary Public Access Program thanks to a new $3 million federal grant.
The program provides financial incentives to private landowners who open their properties to public hunting access throughout the year. DNR officials say the funding is the largest investment the state’s Voluntary Public Access program has ever received.
Program Coordinator Gabriella LeFevre said the additional funding will allow the agency to increase payments to participating landowners and encourage more enrollments.
“That is the biggest investment in VPA that our Wisconsin program has ever seen,” LeFevre said. “So we really want to incentivize our landowners, pay them more than we are paying them right now to have their land enrolled in the program.”
The DNR says many participating landowners see public access as a way to share and promote Wisconsin’s outdoor heritage.
“These landowners see the value in their land, they enjoy their land, and they want to share that land with the public,” LeFevre said. “And we think that’s really special and we really want to foster that land ethic for as long as we can.”
With Wisconsin’s hunting seasons getting underway, officials are also reminding hunters to take advantage of online tools that help locate public access opportunities.
LeFevre says hunters can use the DNR’s Public Access Lands Mapping Application to find available properties, including those enrolled in the Voluntary Public Access Program.
“You can always check our public access lands mapping application, and that’ll give you every type of public access land,” LeFevre said. “There’s a link that will take you to an individual PDF map of every VPA property, and that has helpful information like coordinates, driving directions.”
Hunters can find maps and additional information about public access opportunities by visiting the Wisconsin DNR website.