Land Access

COVID-19 response: temporary closures

The Government of Alberta has temporarily closed front counters at all Fish and Wildlife offices across the province.

You can contact Fish and Wildlife offices using the phone numbers listed on the Fish and Wildlife - Contacts page.
For recreational sportfishing or hunting information, please visit AlbertaRELM or call the AlbertaRELM Help Desk at 1-888-944-5494.
Vehicle access is now permitted at parking lots and staging areas in provincial parks and public land. Facilities like playgrounds and washrooms remain temporarily closed. For more information, visit the Alberta Parks advisories page.

For more information about Alberta’s COVID-19 response, visit COVID-19 info for Albertans.

In Alberta there are about five million acres of public land under agricultural lease that hunters may access.Whether you wish to hunt on agricultural public land or privately owned land, there are some steps you need to complete before you enter onto the land.

If you wish to access agricultural public land, you must first contact the leaseholder and provide information about your visit. Although leaseholders must allow reasonable access to the land for recreation, there are some circumstances where the leaseholder may deny or apply conditions to access.

Similarly, if you wish to access privately owned land, you must first contact the landowner, or the landowner’s designated contact person, for permission. In contrast to the holder of an agricultural or grazing lease, a landowner may deny you access for any reason.

Privately Owned Land	Agricultural Public Land
The landowner has the right to permit or deny access for any reason.	The leaseholder is required to provide reasonable recreational access. Access may be denied under certain conditions, as specified in the Recreation Access Regulations.

For detailed information on access to agricultural public land in Alberta, visit:

Recreational Access to Agricultural Public Land

Includes a map of the location of agricultural public lands in Alberta, contact information for these lands, and information on the rights and responsibilities of leaseholders and recreational users.

The Use Respect Program

The Use Respect program is an initiative of Alberta Environment and Parks and the Alberta Conservation Association. Its purpose is to build awareness of the rights and responsibilities of recreationists, agricultural leaseholders, and landowners, particularly as they pertain to recreational access to lands.

Under the Use Respect program, yellow and green signs will be placed along the fences of potential hunting areas on both agricultural public lands and privately owned lands. These signs will list the contact information of the leaseholder, landowner or a designated contact person.

The signs are intended to make it easy for hunters to meet the responsibility of contacting leaseholders or landowners before entering onto their lands. Remember, the access rights for agricultural public land and privately owned land are different:

Agricultural public land: The leaseholder is required to provide reasonable recreational access. Access may be denied under certain conditions, as specified in the Recreation Access Regulations.
Privately owned land: The landowner has the right to permit or deny access for any reason.

Use respect. Always contact the leaseholder or landowner before entering onto agricultural public lands or privately owned lands.

Updated: Sep 16, 2016