KDWPT Buying Land For Hunting Around Urban Areas

One of the top priorities of the Kansas Department of Wildlife, Parks and Tourism is to provide access for hunting opportunities in urban areas, and in a state that is 98 percent privately owned, that task becomes even more important and difficult.

Throughout the years, KDWPT has struggled to provide adequate, quality hunting access around the urban areas of Kansas City and Wichita. iWIHA is a new program that has been developed to address this issue.

iWIHA is a way to give additional incentives to landowners who provide limited hunting access where it is needed the most and is available in 18 urban counties near the Kansas City, Lawrence, Topeka and Wichita areas.

This program takes a limited-use concept and ties it to the iSportsman application that is currently being used on several Public Wildlife Areas across the state as well as military installations across the nation to help manage public-use areas.

Landowners who enroll property into the program will decide how many hunters have access to the property, when they have access to the property and with what equipment they are allowed to hunt with.

Participating landowners will receive a payment, which varies depending on the number of acres offered (no minimum), quality of habitat and length of the access period.

If you are a landowner interested in learning more about the incentives of enrolling property into iWIHA, call Tim Urban at 913-422-1314 ext. 105. Call soon, as funds for the program are limited.