Accessing Private Lands for Hunting in Illinois

When it comes time for the nearly 320,000 licensed Illinois hunters to find a place to hunt things can get a little frustrating. The easiest solution for many hunters is to depend on public land, such as properties owned, managed or leased by the Illinois Department of Natural Resources (IDNR), the U.S. Forest Service, and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. IDNR provides 486,195 huntable acres on 200 sites (2017-2018 Illinois Public Hunting Areas Report), which sounds considerable until you consider that that represents approximately 1.3 percent of the total Illinois surface acreage.

The other option hunters have for finding land for hunting is through property in private ownership. With about 95 percent of Illinois privately owned, many hunters gain access to property by developing a relationship with a receptive landowner.

Far too often, a polite inquiry to a landowner results in a ‘wish I could, but I can’t risk the liability’ response. What landowners need to know is that, thanks to the establishment of the Recreational Use of Land and Water Areas Act, 745 ILCS 65/1 et seq., their liability is greatly limited when allowing recreation or conservation use of their property when no money changes hands.

“The Recreational Use of Land and Water Areas Act was designed to encourage property owners to make their land and water areas available to any individual or member of the public for hunting or conservation purposes by limiting their liability toward persons entering the land for those purposes,” explained Mark Alessi, Chief of IDNR’s Division of Wildlife Resources.

The Act defines “land” as roads, land, water, watercourses, private ways, and buildings, structures and machinery or equipment when attached to the realty. It excludes residential buildings or residential property.

Recreational or conservation purposes is defined as entry onto the land of another to conduct hunting or recreational shooting, or any activity for conservation, resource management, education or outdoor recreational use.

While the Act does not prohibit a landowner from charging fees, landowners who do so will not enjoy the limited liability protections offered by the Act. The Act does allow the recreationist to share with the landowner game or other products from their recreational use, as well as contributions in kind, services or cash made for properly conserving the land.

A landowner is not responsible for keeping the premises safe for entry or use by any person for recreational or conservation purposes, or to give any warning of a natural or artificial dangerous condition, use, structure or activity to those individuals (see Section 6 of the Act).

In summary, the Recreational Use of Land and Water Areas Act limits common law landowner liability for personal injuries occurring on property open to the general public, or for just certain individuals, for hunting and recreational shooting. The Act, following an amendment in 2014, also limits landowner liabilities for injuries on the property for persons engaging in recreational or conservation activities provided the property is opened to the general public. In other words, the property is open to everyone.

Landowners charging fees for the use of land will not be protected by the Act.

For more information, review the Illinois Compiled Statutes regarding Recreational Use of Land and Water Areas Act, or see page 10 of the Illinois Digest of Hunting and Trapping Regulations 2017-2018.

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Kathy Andrews Wright is retired from the Illinois Department of Natural Resources where she was editor of Outdoor Illinois magazine. She is currently the editor of Outdoor Illinois Wildlife Journal and Illinois Audubon magazine.