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[troutbreath]

Coming to a Province near you.




Paid access to hunt, fish?     
Written by Ric Swihart Lethbridge Herald     
Monday, 09 February 2009 
 
 
A three-year pilot project in southwestern Alberta for paid hunting and fishing access should be implemented in the spring. Jim Csabay of Readymade, chairman of the board of the St. Mary River Irrigation District, caught  Alberta Irrigation Projects Association delegates off guard Monday when he asked if Alberta Sustainable Resource Development was considering compensating private landowners for providing hunting and fishing opportunities for sportsmen.
Livingstone-Macleod MLA Evan Berger of Nanton, parliamentary secretary for SRD, deferred Csabay’s question about landowners who may not want to participate in the pilot scheduled in the Alberta Wildlife Management Unit 108, which runs from near the County of Lethbridge airport in a triangle to the American border, running along Highways 4 and 5, and unit 300, which is anchored by Cardston on the northeast, running along the southern boundary of the Blood Reserve and angling southeast along the northern boundary of Waterton Lakes National Park.
 Berger said that while he has been deeply involved in much of Alberta’s proposed land development policy, he has not been involved in the paid hunting and fishing issue.
But an official with Alberta Fish and Wildlife in Lethbridge said the pilot is part of the Open Spaces concept that has been under study for more than a year and has gone through different phases as part of a recreation access management plan.
The pilot will only apply to private landowners.  Qualifying landowners will enter into a contract leading to paid compensation for allowing hunting on land or access to streams and rivers across private land.
He said habitat development is another potential benefit. Landowners can tailor access to their local land conditions. 
Budget constraints will limit the number of landowners who can participate. Compensation will involve several factors, including size of land base, habitat available for wildlife, riparian areas and coulees.
Compensation will be a maximum of $20 a day per hunter or fisherman allowed access to private land. It may range from $2,000 a year to $10,000, he said.
Citizens and sportsmen’s groups can expect a public information meeting in late March or into April.
The goals of the program include identifying and acknowledging the stewardship role private landowners play; gain increased access to private land, partly to keep deer populations in check and maintain a balance of habitat and wildlife on the land.

[adriaticum]

You shouldn't be posting things like that anywhere.
It gives people ideas.
In some places in the US there is no public land or public resources, like lakes, rivers, forests.
It's all private and you have to pay to go anywhere outside you back yard.
They have the word FREEDOM written in their constitution, but they can only exercise it in their tiny little 1000 sqft apartments.
It all started with road tolls...
Remember that

[work2fish]

Sounded weird so looked it up a bit.  It's the gov. paying private land owners to allow access on thier private land, not the hunters paying land owners directly, though it will probably be funded from license fees eventually.   Lots of big private land areas in alberta where there is no hunting unless the land owner allows it.  This is supposed to open up more areas apparently, so crown land isn't the only option.  There was sorta an underground system like this in part of alberta, where people would bribe to land owner for access to hunt on his property, so this is kinda making it a bit more legit.

The equiv, for us out here would be opening the private areas of the alouette to fishing in exchange for the land owners getting paid per user access.

Lots of hunters against it in alberta, not too sure what I think of it yet, though I stopped hunting a long time ago, and there aren't too many private areas I would like to fish that come to mind where there is no access.

[marmot]

It opens the door to privatizing fishing and hunting on a larger scale, I think that is the problem.  To me its our govt's way of getting people used to the idea of paying for it while they plan in the backrooms how to begin charging for use of govt. land.

Wouldn't expect anything less of them.