What is the Hunter Access Program?
For more than 80 years, the program continues to provide hunting and trapping opportunities to the Commonwealth's sportsmen on millions of acres of private lands.
Created in 1936, the Game Commission’s Hunter Access Program began as an experimental program cooperative designed to increase hunting territory, improve game conditions, and improve wildlife habitat on farms The program became an overnight sensation for the Game Commission; hunters saw it as a plan to augment lands where public hunting was allowed, and landowners saw it as a means to better manage their property's game populations through hunting, trapping and habitat enhancements. As the program gained more favorable reviews and endorsements, eventually it spread throughout the entire state and began to enroll properties with various habitat types.
The Hunter Access Program, which is governed by a term-lease agreement, creates a partnership between the Game Commission and landowner whereby they work in concert to improve public hunting and trapping opportunities and wildlife habitat on the property enrolled. Hunters and trappers help to manage game and furbearer populations through lawful hunting and trapping. In exchange for this access, the Game Commission provides a variety of benefits and incentives to the cooperating landowner.