Hunting Land in Murray County, Minnesota

About 9,000 acres of public WMAs and WPAs, mostly grassland and wetland

Murray County has approximately 65 State Wildlife Management Areas (WMAs) and Federal Waterfowl Production Areas (WPAs), totaling roughly 9,000 acres open to the public for hunting, trapping, and wildlife observation. Most of this land is grassland containing wetlands of varying sizes, with some sites including food plots and woody cover consisting of shrubs and conifers, and only a few sites containing actual woodland. White-tailed deer, pheasant, and ducks and geese are the most commonly pursued species in the county. For a buyer specifically evaluating land for its hunting-access value, proximity to one of these public WMA/WPA parcels is worth checking directly against the DNR's own WMA map rather than assuming a nearby-looking parcel is public land -- boundaries on the ground don't always match casual visual impressions from a road.

Murray County also has roughly 12,000 acres enrolled in the federal Conservation Reserve Program (CRP), which pays landowners to take cropland out of production and establish wildlife habitat. CRP enrollment by itself does not open land to public hunting access -- permission from the landowner is still required for any private land, CRP-enrolled or not, unless that specific parcel is separately enrolled in the Walk-In Access program described below. A buyer should not assume a CRP sign or grassy field means public access is allowed.

Walk-In Access: a separate program on enrolled private land, no landowner contact needed

The Minnesota DNR's Walk-In Access (WIA) program provides public hunting access on private land that is already enrolled in existing conservation programs -- a distinct legal channel from both the public WMA/WPA acreage above and ordinary CRP enrollment. A hunter with a WIA validation can access an enrolled WIA site from September 1 through May 31, from half an hour before sunrise to half an hour after sunset, with no landowner contact necessary during that window. The DNR maintains an interactive map and a Murray County-specific detail page listing current WIA sites and their acreage.

For a buyer evaluating a specific parcel, this cuts two ways: a neighboring parcel enrolled in WIA means public hunters may legally be present nearby on a defined seasonal schedule even without contacting that landowner, which is worth knowing before assuming privacy from an adjoining property. Conversely, a landowner who wants to open their own land to public hunters in exchange for a per-acre incentive payment can ask the DNR about WIA enrollment for a specific parcel -- a genuine option for a buyer weighing extra income against public access on land they don't plan to actively post against trespassing.

Lake Shetek State Park: its own DNR-managed hunting opportunities

Lake Shetek State Park, occupying roughly 1,108 acres on the southeastern shore of the lake north of Currie, offers its own hunting opportunities managed directly by the DNR, including a controlled goose hunt along with more general hunting access for ducks, deer, pheasant, and other small game within the park. Because state parks generally restrict hunting to specific zones, seasons, and permitted methods that differ from the more open access on a standard WMA, confirm the park's current hunting zones and any controlled-hunt application requirements directly with the DNR or the park office rather than assuming park land behaves like the county's general WMA acreage.