In poll after poll, the most common worry of sportsmen and women is having access to a place to hunt, which, for a number of reasons, is getting more difficult for the average hunter each passing year.

But a remedy could be on the way, assuming lawmakers see the wisdom in promoting additional public access to the outdoors. Recently, Sen. Kent Conrad, a Democrat from North Dakota, and Sen. Pat Roberts, a Republican from Kansas, introduced a new version of the so-called Open Fields bill in the U.S. Senate. A companion bill will be introduced in the House of Representatives in the near future.

The bipartisan legislation, titled the Voluntary Public Access and Wildlife Habitat Incentive Program Act of 2005, would provide grants to states and tribes to open millions of acres of private land for public hunting, fishing and other outdoor recreational activities. In return, landowners would be paid for signing an access lease agreement, which could be an economic boon for cash-strapped rural America, conservation officials say.

The first version of Open Fields was introduced in November 2003. It was co-sponsored by 40 Democrats and Republicans and received broad support from the outdoors community, including hunting, fishing and conservation groups. The 2005 version of the bill, which is gaining meaningful bipartisan support, has some noteworthy changes from the previous legislation.

First, it expands funding availability to “tribal access and forest properties,” in effect expanding the land pool for potential public access. Second, the bill would provide $20 million a year for five years to states with existing access programs, with the hope that those programs will be expanded later (conservation officials report that there are landowner waiting lists in most states because of a lack of funding).

Today, there are 17 states with public access programs, which translate into about 12 million acres of land open for public access for hunting and fishing. The new legislation could open up an additional 4 million acres per year and provide an incentive for more states to adopt such programs.

The loss of access to hunting lands is perhaps the largest contributing factor to the decline in hunter numbers and license sales nationwide. Increased access could jump-start an upward trend in hunter participation.

Read AHSA's letter to Senator Saxby Chambliss, Chairman of the Senate Agriculture Committee.