Fee Hunting May Boost Farm Income, Wildlife Habitat

Hunting is a recreation activity that mostly occurs on private land, where the right to hunt is controlled by landowners. Access to private land for hunting is becoming more limited, helping to explain recent declines in hunting participation rates. To explore this issue, ERS recently examined the implications of expanded fee hunting on land enrolled in the Conservation Reserve Program (CRP). The ERS study found that hunting fees increase landowners’ willingness to participate in the CRP by supplementing CRP rental payments