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A partnership between the North and South Dakota state chapters of the National Wild Turkey Federation and Pheasants Forever is helping open more private land to public hunting across the Dakotas.
Through the partnership, the South Dakota NWTF State Chapter contributed $5,000 and the North Dakota NWTF State Chapter contributed $8,000 this year to Pheasants Forever's Public Access to Habitat program, commonly known as PATH. Pheasants Forever debuted its PATH program in South Dakota in 2023 and expanded to include North Dakota in 2025. Other states with PATH programs include Michigan, Nebraska and Oklahoma.
The combined investment opened 10,515 acres of new public access within the Dakotas. Anyone wanting to hunt on these publicly accessible parcels can do so during any legal, active hunting season in the state. Hunters can find maps of huntable areas on each respective state game agency’s website. In addition to the acres enrolled in 2026, the South Dakota NWTF State Chapter has allocated another $10,000 for the program in 2027. Based on the cost of agreements completed through the previous year's project, the funding could potentially help make as many as 8,000 new acres available to hunters in South Dakota.
PATH provides one-time incentive payments to landowners who agree to open qualifying private property to public hunting. Acres enrolled in the program must meet certain habitat criteria to be eligible. The idea is to provide not just additional access acres, but additional access to acres that have a quality habitat component or that will be restored to a beneficial habitat through the program. The payments supplement those offered through the North Dakota Private Land Open to Sportsmen program and South Dakota's Walk-In Access program, making public-access agreements more appealing to participating landowners.
Through the previous South Dakota PATH project, NWTF contributions helped open 5,984 acres of new public access. The North Dakota contributions helped open 4,531 acres.
The benefits extend beyond the hunters who use the property. Access payments can encourage landowners to retain grasslands and other wildlife habitat, maintain land enrolled in conservation programs and use management practices that benefit wild turkeys, upland game birds and other game and non-game species.