OutdoorNebraska

6 OTHER ACCESS OPPORTUNITIES Platte River Recreation Access (PRRA) Program The Platte River Recovery Implementation Program (PRRIP) has purchased and restored numerous tracts of land along the Central Platte River to provide habitat for threatened and endangered species. In 2011, PRRIP partnered with Game and Parks to develop the Platte River Recreation Access (PRRA) Program to provide limited, walk-in public access on select PRRIP lands through an online reservation system. More than 6,200 acres of land along the Platte River are available through the PRRA program. These properties have area-specific regulations for public use relating to hunting, fishing and other authorized activities. Given that access is limited to a specific number of users, PRRA lands are not displayed in this atlas. To learn more about PRRA, view available properties, or make reservations, please visit PlatteAccess.org. Additional information is provided on page 115. Passing Along the Heritage (PATH) Program The PATH program is an online reservation-based program that provides Nebraska youth and their mentors access to hunt on private lands and selected public lands. Only youth under the age of 18 may hunt on this land. The mentor is there to help the youth and ensure a safe hunting experience. PATH is made possible by a partnership between the Nebraska Game and Parks Commission and its valued partners (including Lower Platte North NRD, National Audubon Society and private landowners). Visit OutdoorNebraska.org/PATH for more information (note that the Internet Explorer browser is required to access the database and register). Are Nebraska's "School Lands" Open to Public Access? In recent years, Game and Parks has received an increasing number of questions regarding access to properties owned by the Board of Educational Lands and Funds (BELF), which are often referred to as "school lands." Popular mapping software used by hunters often displays BELF lands as publicly accessible and also tends to label their ownership inconsistently. Unlike some surrounding states, Nebraska's BELF lands are not open to public access unless otherwise posted. Note on State Refuges – established by statute and closed to hunting except as noted in the Small Game & Waterfowl Guide. These are private lands where landowner permission is required to hunt, and include: Garden (includes Clear Creek WMA Refuge), Dodge-Saunders, Boyd-Holt and Lincoln County Refuge. Wildlife Habitat Improvements Every year, numerous habitat projects occur on both publicly accessible and private lands across Nebraska. Many of these projects aid in restoring natural habitats and ecosystems and benefit game species as well. Federal programs, such as the Conservation Reserve Program (CRP), play a key role in maintaining wildlife habitat on a landscape scale. Initiatives such as the Berggren Pheasant Plan target financial incentives for habitat work in specific regions of Nebraska. Additionally, the OFW program provides financial incentives to landowners willing to enhance habitat on enrolled acres. Game and Parks (and its partners) have private lands biologists throughout the state that provide technical and financial assistance to private landowners willing to improve wildlife/fishery habitat and address other resource concerns on their land. Contact your nearest district office (shown on page 3) to reach a Game and Parks biologist and see page 114 to view Pheasants Forever partnership biologist information. These biologists utilize a wide variety of federal and state conservation programs to help accomplish both landowner and wildlife-related objectives. Projects include prescribed burning, grassland seeding, prescribed grazing, invasive tree removal, and much more. For additional information on these and other programs that improve habitat for wildlife in Nebraska, visit OutdoorNebraska.org/LandownerPrograms.

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