There is plenty of land available for hunting

Luckily for you, finding a place to hunt is not hard in Idaho.

Two-thirds of the state is publicly owned, so some of the best hunting spots are available to everyone.

The Idaho Department of Fish and Game also has secured access to hundreds of thousands of acres of private land through its Access Yes program.

Grab a map, check the Internet and be ready to do some exploring.

Here are some places to check out:

NATIONAL FORESTS

Boise, Payette and Sawtooth offer excellent big game hunting for deer and elk. Unit 39, which includes most of the Boise River drainage, is one of the state's top deer and elk producers and much of it is on National Forest land.

National Forests are relatively easy to access, but still offer thousands of square miles of roadless areas accessible by trail for those seeking solitude or the chance for trophy animals.

SNAKE RIVER

If you're a waterfowl hunter, you could spend decades exploring the Snake River and still find new surprises. The Snake bisects southern Idaho and offers an abundance of wildlife habitat, including free-flowing river sections, reservoirs like C.J. Strike and Swan Falls and hundreds of islands, including those in the Deer Flat National Wildlife Refuge.

The Snake River is a magnet for waterfowl, and if Lake Lowell freezes in the winter, thousands of ducks and geese head to the river.

The best access to the Snake is by boat, preferably jetboat. You can run some sections with a propeller-driven boat or float in a canoe, drift boat or other craft between the numerous boat launches along the river.

FISH AND GAME WILDLIFE MANAGEMENT AREAS

WMAs are so popular they've become victims of their own success. On weekends they can get crowded, but if you want quick, easy access, they're tough to beat.

There are three in the Treasure Valley: Fort Boise WMA near Parma, Montour WMA off Idaho 52 between Emmett and Horseshoe Bend, and Payette WMA near New Plymouth.

There is also the C.J. Strike WMA near Bruneau, the Cecil Andrus WMA near Cambridge and the Niagara WMA south of Wendell.

Fish and Game stocks pheasants at some of the WMAs, which require a special permit to help offset the cost of buying birds. You will find other upland birds, doves, and waterfowl at WMAs.

For more information on WMAs or to get directions, log on to www.fishandgame.idaho. gov/cms/wildlife/wma.

LAKE LOWELL/DEER FLAT NATIONAL WILDLIFE REFUGE

The refuge has two sectors, Lake Lowell and the Snake River Islands. The Lake Lowell sector encompasses 10,588 acres on Lake Lowell and adjacent lands. The Snake River Islands sector contains about 800 acres on 101 islands, which are located along 113 river miles from the Canyon/Ada county line to Farewell Bend in Oregon.

Lake Lowell offers duck and upland bird hunting, but goose hunting is forbidden.

There are special regulations for hunting the refuge, and for information log on to www.fws.gov/deerflat/hunting.htm.

LAKE CASCADE

This reservoir near Cascade has a large population of waterfowl in the fall and lots of public access.

You can hunt from shore or boat and there are miles of mud and sand flats after the reservoir is drained by irrigators in the summer, almost all of which provide public hunting areas for ducks and geese.

ACCESS YES PROPERTIES

Each spring, landowners offer their lands to F&G for hunters and anglers, and a committee of sportsmen in each region determine which provides the best value.

This year, F&G has secured 95 lease agreements, opening 444,735 acres of private land for use by sportsmen.

Locations of Access Yes properties change from year to year. To find them log on to fishgame.idaho.gov, go to the hunting page and look for the Access Yes icon.

OWYHEE DESERT

The Owyhee Desert has some of the most remote and sparsely populated areas in Idaho and there's a lot of game there.

The Owyhees have traditionally produced trophy mule deer, pronghorn antelope, elk and mountain lion. The Owyhees also are a great place for chukar hunting.