O P E N F I E L D S A N D W A T E R S P R O G R A M
O F F E R S Q U A L I T Y P U B L I C A C C E S S
In 2015, 434,000 acres were open to public hunting. This
includes 182,000 acres of wildlife management areas owned by the
Commission and areas owned by other entities but managed by
Nebraska Game and Parks, as well as 252,000 acres of Open Fields and
Waters (OFW) program private land that is open to walk-in hunting,
fishing, and trapping statewide. Within the OFW program an initiative
was piloted for 2015 in Lincoln County that opened more than 8,000
acres of access for big game hunting such as turkey, mule deer and
elk. Interviews and surveys with hunters continue to show that the
OFW program provides high quality access sites and excellent hunting
opportunities. All of the state's public and OFW sites are detailed in the
Public Access Atlas, which has seen a significant increase in the usage
of its interactive version available at OutdoorNebraska.org.
T W O N E W A R E A S O P E N T O T H E
P U B L I C
Prairie Queen Recreation Area (Sarpy County) and Danish Alps State
Recreation Area (Dakota County) opened to public use in 2015. These
areas both feature reservoirs, built by the Papio-Missouri River Natural
Resources District (NRD), that have many fish- and angler-friendly
features incorporated into their basins thanks to technical assistance
from Commission staff and federal Sport Fish Restoration funding.
Prairie Queen is operated by the NRD while Danish Alps, including 219-
acre Kramper Reservoir, is operated by the Commission.
CUTTHROAT
TROUT
FROM
OPEN
FIELDS
AND
WATERS
PROPERTIES
ON
THE
WHITE
RIVER
WEST
OF
FORT
ROBINSON
STATE
PARK
34 Nebraska Game and Parks Commission • 2015 Annual Report
