Pheasants Forever P.A.T.H. Program Tops 100k Acres of Enrolled Private Land for Public Access

Pheasants Forever and Quail Forever recently crushed early goals for expanding public access to private lands through P.A.T.H. (Public Access to Habitat) by opening over 100,000 acres of prime wildlife habitat to public hunting.

“P.A.T.H. is our key program to provide access to private land and landlocked public lands,” says John Laux, permanent habitat protection programs manager for Pheasants Forever and Quail Forever.

P.A.T.H. was launched in 2023, powered by a donation from onX Hunt and administered by Pheasants Forever. The program adds up-front financial incentives for landowners to open key acres for conservation efforts and public access.

South Dakota was the pilot state for the program. It already had a strong voluntary public access program (often referred to as a “walk-in” program) in place, with over 28% of its huntable acres enrolled, but with pressure on public land increasing and quality bird habitat on the decline, it made sense to try a program that could tackle both issues at once: create and protect high-quality wildlife habitat while giving hunters more places to hunt.

Following South Dakota’s lead and also supported by onX Hunt, Nebraska joined the P.A.T.H. initiative in 2023. Each state had set its own goals for acres opened to the public, and each state exceeded those goals … by a lot.

“As of August 2025, South Dakota has enrolled 69,950 acres,” says Laux. “The state’s initial goal was to open 10,000 acres a year, so they have way surpassed that goal in less than three years. Nebraska had a goal of enrolling 25,000 acres within the first three years, and it now has 51,956 acres in two years.”

One of the additions that really helped South Dakota leapfrog its goal was securing 30,000 new acres of private land in Ziebach County. It now serves as the single largest enrollment of the P.A.T.H. initiative and its rolling plains support pheasants, grouse, deer, and pronghorn.

“Advocacy for public lands is woven into the fabric of onX and we believe permanent protection is vital to the future of public access,”
– onX Hunt Marketing Manager Ben Brettingen

“But we also recognize that securing land outright is hard to scale. Walk-in access itself is a novel solution to open access, and what makes P.A.T.H. so exciting is that it builds on that idea to create an even more innovative way for states to expand accessible, huntable acres faster and more affordably. And having Pheasants Forever as a critical partner in this effort gives us confidence that providing financial support for P.A.T.H. will succeed thanks to their expertise, infrastructure and commitment to build a new way to open access.” 

To qualify for P.A.T.H., states must have an existing walk-in program in place, which is commonly managed by a state’s Fish & Wildlife Department. It’s an important piece of the partnership and provides peace of mind to many landowners knowing their private acres are part of a time-tested, monitored program.

“State wildlife agencies are key for the delivery of P.A.T.H. and the creation of new initiatives,” says Laux. “They’ve been great relationships for Pheasants Forever and I know there’ll be a lot more.”

The PATH To Follow

“We have a goal at Pheasants Forever to bring P.A.T.H. to five states total in 2025,” says Laux, and with the very recent addition of North Dakota it’s a step closer to hitting that goal.

“North Dakota’s land is 94% privately-owned,” says Emily Spolyar, the North Dakota state coordinator for Pheasants Forever. “This program is giving landowners access to a program that helps them conserve their land and use it to create exceptional wildlife habitat.” 

North Dakota has a strong walk-in program in place for hunters known as PLOTS (Private Land Open to Sportsmen). In the 2025-26 hunting season, over 880,000 acres will be accessible through the program.

The goal North Dakota has for P.A.T.H. is to support the expansion of high-quality hunting in the state and to bring new private lands to the table. Specifically, Spolyar and others are looking for agricultural lands that might not be profitable for farming and encouraging landowners to turn them over to perennial cover—a mutually beneficial outcome for farmers and hunters compared to unprofitable lands being sold or developed.

“This helps them get a return on their lands,” says Spolyar, “and that’s done by creating new wildlife habitat. It’s icing on the cake that it will be opened to the public for hunting. That’s how we found alignment with P.A.T.H. It’s beneficial to both hunters and landowners.”

Pheasants Forever has a goal to open 15,000 new acres via P.A.T.H. in North Dakota, and the organization is encouraged seeing how quickly goals were surpassed in the first two states to come online. The first new habitat acres will be planted in the spring with perennial cover and hopefully accessible for the 2026-27 hunting season.

With the foundations set and a proven model running in multiple states, the impact of P.A.T.H. on hunters, landowners, and local economies—hunters are credited with an economic impact well into the hundreds of millions of dollars in the Dakotas alone—appears set to expand as fast as the partnerships behind it are able to move.

“From the very early conversations, my hope for P.A.T.H. has been national in scope, to give states a framework to launch or grow their voluntary public access programs,” says onX Hunt’s Brettingen. “We’re excited about the road ahead, one that not only opens more acres but also strengthens local economies, fuels advocacy for public lands, and creates new streams of support to keep the flywheel turning. At onX, we see PATH as more than a program, it’s a catalyst for lasting access and opportunity across the country.”

For more information about P.A.T.H. click here.