Program opening private lands to public hunting keeps growing in Ohio

When Dave Kohler started organizing the Ohio Landowner-Hunter Access Partnership in 2021, he had no idea if the program would actually take off.
But, the program, which incentivizes private property owners to provide access to hunters, has grown by leaps and bounds over the past three years, said Kohler, the wildlife program administrator for the ODNR Division of Wildlife.
“When we started this, I had no idea whether it would work or not,” he said. “So, 2020 was the first year that we got a grant for it. I think if you would’ve asked some of my counterparts years ago, they would have said this would never fly. But, (back then) we didn’t have the ability to have online reservations or emails sent directly to the landowner and permits issued that way as well.”