RECREATION ACCESS MANAGEMENT PROGRAM
INTRODUCTION
There are limited incentives for the agricultural landowner to maintain quality habitat and participate in wildlife stewardship. Access to private land is becoming more difficult, while at the same time the demand for quality hunting opportunities and access to prime fishing areas is increasing.
Privately owned agricultural lands provide significant areas of high quality habitat for wildlife and outdoor recreation, yet few tangible incentives exist for the agricultural landowner to provide or maintain quality habitat or act as wildlife stewards. In fact, these activities can have a significant financial cost and risk to the landowner. Wildlife habitat maintenance can result in increased wildlife populations and related landowner property damage (e.g. fences, crops and cultivated forage).
The use of private land by hunters and fishermen can also negatively impact the landowner (e.g. damage to property and the time required to manage this access). This has resulted in reduced access to private land, while at the same time there is an increased demand for quality hunting opportunities and access to prime fishing areas.
The University of Calgary was contracted in April 2007 to develop and propose a pilot program that would increase access to hunting and fishing on private land. As a result, the University of Calgary established the Land and Wildlife Stewardship Working Group that was comprised of members from Alberta Beef Producers, Western Stock Growers Association, Alberta Fish and Game Association, Hunting for Tomorrow Foundation, Alberta Conservation Association, the Alberta Association of Municipal Districts and Counties, Alberta Professional Outfitters Society, Alberta Agriculture and Food, Alberta Employment, Immigration and Industry and the University of Calgary. Alberta Sustainable Resource Development participated in an advisory capacity.
One of the proposals for a pilot project was the Recreational Access Management Plan (RAMP). SRD would like to proceed with a pilot program of a variation of the RAMP proposal. The following is a more specific project proposal to be taken to the public for input and discussion.
PROGRAM OVERVIEW
RAMP is modeled after the Block Management program which has been in place in the State of Montana since 1985. The Alberta program is being operated as a Pilot and is planned for WMUs 108 and 300. For 2008 the RAMP program design will be completed with criteria for contracts, management plans and evaluation. Initial landowner contacts will be done with the intent of having the program operational for 2009. It is important to have a meaningful and workable pilot program. We will not be able to develop it in time to be operational for 2008 with the current public consultation process that needs to occur. The pilot will then run for 3 years from 2009 to 2012. It is a voluntary program that will address fish habitat and fishing access during the open fishing seasons and/or wildlife habitat and hunting access during the fall hunting season. The program will offer assistance to the landowner with the booking and management of hunters and fishermen who are accessing private land. It will provide a maximum compensation of $2000. per year per section of land per landowner for hunting or fishing access and habitat retention. The type of access and the quality of the habitat provided will influence the annual maximum. Compensation will be paid at a rate of up to $20 per recreation day. Half of the compensation, up to $10, will be paid on habitat values, and half, up to $10, will be paid on access provided, with a maximum of $20 per recreation day being paid. Payment could be made by providing goods and services to landowners for habitat enhancement and improvement. The program will be operated on the basis of a contract between the landowner and government. Contracts will be developed which will lay out the conditions for operation and termination if either party desires to terminate. The contract will be for 3 years with an annual review and renewal.
PROGRAM IMPLEMENTATION
The program will be implemented at the WMU level pursuant to the following guidelines and procedures.
1. Eligible lands.
• Lands which are a high priority for the program include: 1. Lands which contain high priority resource and/or habitat areas, which will be maintained or enhanced
2. Lands where a good potential exists for a long-term cooperative relationship with the landowner/landowners,
3. Lands where enrolment will result in sustained or increased hunter/fisherman access to private land,
4. Lands where access to otherwise inaccessible land will be achieved or maintain
5. Lands where enrolment will reduce other management problems (e.g. .problem wildlife)
• As demand for enrolment may exceed the program’s budgetary or administrative capacities, enrolment may be limited and prioritized on the basis of:
1. size of property, quality of habitat and recreational experience,
2. access provided to adjacent, inaccessible land,
3. creation of new access,
4. addressing wildlife damage problems,
5. the level of public access demand for the hunting and fishing opportunities offered.
• Enrolment Application and Enrolment Evaluation Forms will need to be developed. The corresponding forms for Montana’s Block Program will need only minor modifications to be applicable in Alberta.
• Applications for the enrollment of new lands or the expansion of existing lands may be made at any time. Because of the time required to negotiate a contract and the various plans and to create the necessary information packages for the overall program and individual sites, applications received after March 31 will not be implemented until the following year.
2. Access.
There are several categories of access:
• Access may be permission to cross private land along a designated route to reach Public or other land beyond the private land.
• Access may be permission to cross private land to a stream, river or lake and to fish along the shore or launch a boat.
• Access may be permission to enter and hunt game on private land.
• Access may be limited (e.g. foot access only; vehicular access may be limited to established trails).
3. Access Compensation
The program expects free public access to harvest all legally harvestable species during the entire season for each species in accordance with an approved Access Management Plan. Lands with temporally limited access (e.g. permitting public access for 3 months of a 4 month fishing season) may be considered for inclusion in the program if, and only if all (commercial and recreational) hunting or fishing access is similarly restricted. Lands with limitations on the species harvested may also be considered for inclusion in the program if, and only if the same restrictions apply to all (commercial and recreational) users. If access restrictions are too complex or onerous, a request for inclusion in the program may be rejected.
The sliding scale would involve:
Access allowed Compensation allowed
Fishing $2.00
Bird Game Hunting $2.00
Big Game Hunting $6.00 (reduced by percentage of species not allowed to be hunted1)
Seasonal Total reduced by percentage of season that access is not allowed.2
Total Maximum $10
1If there is a hunting season for four big game species and the landowner does not want one species hunted then the compensation for Big Game hunting would be reduced by 25%.
2The maximum annual compensation will be correspondingly reduced if part of the hunting season is closed for access (e.g. if the lands are available for public access during 75% of the season, the maximum compensation would be reduced by 25%.)
Access to all or a part of a land holding may be temporarily closed to address environmental situations such as extremely wet ground conditions, fire risk, etc. or to address short-term agricultural management needs such as moving livestock without incurring a penalty. Notification would be placed on the access website.
A process for verification of access and a system for auditing the amount of access and associated payments will be developed.
4. Access Management Plan.
An Access Management Plan will be created by the landowner in consultation with the Program Coordinator. A map will be produced that will list the access conditions and show the areas available for access.
5. Access. Who may gain access?
1. Access will be equally available to all persons who possess a WIN card and a valid hunting or fishing licence or are otherwise legally permitted to harvest the species being pursued.
6. Rules of Access. How will they be established?
• Rules of Access for individual properties and their modification will be negotiated between the Alberta Fish and Wildlife Program Coordinator and the landowner and will be enabled by the contract between the landowner and Department. The Rules may include but not be limited to:
1. restrictions on the use of vehicles
2. designated routes
3. restrictions or allowance for game retrieval
4. details about applying for access permission and registration
5. daily limits on hunter numbers and distribution as defined in the Access Management Plan
6. a mechanism to equitably distribute limited opportunities
7. dates that access is available
8. species that can be hunted
9. A designated contact person to gain access as well as the times of day the contact person can be reached.
• Rules of Access may be jointly enforced by the landowner and staff of Alberta Fish and Wildlife. Details will be negotiated between the Program Coordinator and the landowner. This agreement and its subsequent modifications will be enabled by the contract between the Department and landowner.
7. Compensation. What compensation does the landowner receive?
• RAMP will offer to assist the landowner in the management of pubic access to lands enrolled in this program. This may include operating a registration/allocation system, providing on-site sign-in boxes, producing and disseminating program and site-specific information, site supervision/patrols, etc. Details of the assistance provided to the landowner will be negotiated between the Program Coordinator and landowner. This agreement and subsequent modifications will be enabled by the Contract.
• An annual compensation payment will be made for habitat and access under the Wildlife Access and Fisheries Access components of the Program. The compensation will be based on the number of user access days under each program and a daily rate which is based on the habitat quality of the enrolled land. An annual maximum of $2000. per section of land will be paid. This limit will be decreased for each program component as described in Point 3 (above) in response to limitations posed by the landowner on the length of time that access is available or restrictions on the species which can be harvested.
• The daily compensation rate for hunting and fishing on enrolled land will range up to $10. per day based on habitat value. Habitat value will be assessed using methods which are specific to the habitats in the project area. Most of the habitat value for ungulates and bird game in WMUs 108 and 300 is provided by native prairie and the associated coulee complexes. The Alberta Public Lands Range Health Assessment System will be used to assess the health of the native prairie and this rating will be accepted as an assessment of upland habitat quality in these WMUs. If there are significant waterfowl habitats on the enrolled lands their value will be assessed using the Alberta Public Lands Riparian Health Assessment for Lakes Sloughs and Wetlands and where fishing access is allowed the streams will be assessed using the Riparian Health Assessment for Streams and Small Rivers. In a multi habitat landbase, a weighted average between this value and the upland value will be calculated. This will be the compensation rate in dollars for each hunter access day.
.
• The sliding scale for compensation on upland habitat values will be:
Range Health Assessment Score Range Health Percentage Compensation
30 50% $2
36 60% $4
42 70% $6
45 75% $8
48+ 80%+ $10
• The sliding scale for compensation on riparian habitat values will be:
Riparian Health Assessment Score Range Health Percentage Compensation
34/57 60% $2
37/57 65% $4
40/57 70% $6
46/57 80% $8
52/57 91% $10
8. Information Dissemination.
• The Program Coordinator will be the program’s advocate in the local community. The Coordinator will provide and disseminate information to the public about the program, which landowners are involved and how to access these lands for hunting and fishing. The coordinator will also provide site-specific information to the landowner (for his distribution) and to the users who are registered to access a particular parcel of land. This information package will show the boundaries of the property and present the rules of access and a strong use respect message. The information package will be posted on the SRD Public Lands Website for recreational access to public land
(
http://srd.alberta.ca/lands/usingpub...d/default.aspx). Contact information and times that access coordinators can be contacted will be listed to enable ease of obtaining access.
9. Contract.
• A standard contract form for the Program will be required. The Montana Block Program contract will provide some guidance. It will require significant modification due to differences between the Canadian and American legal systems and the respective programs.
10. Evaluation:
• The primary criteria for the evaluation of RAMP are landowner and sportsman satisfaction
• The program will be informally evaluated after the each year of operation
•
The University of Calgary will be designing and conducting the formal pilot project evaluation.
• Formal evaluations will occur at the end the third year
8/27/2008
Can't imagine the program will be much different than what was drafted in August of 08 given the speed governement moves at times.
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