Make your voices heard – Hunters invited to comment on Share

Shared Habitat Alliance for Recreational Enhancement (SHARE) intendeds to open more public access to private land.

Half of California's 101 million acres are privately owned. Hunters and other outdoor enthusiast are mostly excluded from private properties. Landowners are concerned about liability issues, damage to their land and improvements, vandalism and the perils of unfettered public access. Access fees and/or fees for leasing hunting rights are another powerful incentive for landowners to keep the general hunting public away from their ranches.

The SHARE program is designed to change that. It requires public users of participating ranches to sign liability waivers. The waiver is authorized under Section 1573 of the California Fish and Game Code. It provides landowners with guidance for wildlife habitat improvements and can relieve wildlife depredation and damage on the property brought on overpopulation of game and other animals.

Most importantly it does compensate ranch owners for allowing access to their properties.

Hunters and people engaged in other outdoor activities profit from the program through increased access to private ranches, entry to landlocked public lands and with additional other wildlife dependent recreational activities.

To achieve these goals the Department of Fish and Game (DFG) “is proposing to add a section to the California Code of Regulations, Title 14. The regulations proposed clarify and make specific the landowner enrollment process, the public application and permit issuance process and the general operating conditions for the Shared Habitat Alliance for Recreational Enhancement (SHARE) program.

The proposed regulations (Section 602) will be available for public review and comment from Oct. 14 through Nov. 28, 2011.” (DFG News 10/14/11)

This is an opportunity for individual hunters as well as hunting related organizations to voice their opinion and to offer constructive suggestions instead of griping about the lack of access to private land. Without active hunter participation the program and the regulations proposed by DFG will be dominated by one-sided interests.

Hunters can find details of the proposed section to be added to the California Code of Regulations (Title14) on the DFG website at www.dfg.ca.gov/wildlife/hunting/share.

In order to be heard and considered comments must be received by DFG no later than 5 p.m. Nov. 28, 2011.

Comments received by the due date will be considered before the regulations are adopted.

Comments can be e-mailed to vbarr@dfg.ca.gov, mailed or hand-delivered to:

Victoria Barr
Department of Fish and Game
1812 Ninth St.
Sacramento, CA 95811

Now it the time to speak up. Or to quit complaining about lack of access to private land for hunting.

PJJ