{"id":45286,"date":"2025-08-12T15:43:22","date_gmt":"2025-08-12T19:43:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/dnr\/?p=45286"},"modified":"2025-08-12T15:43:22","modified_gmt":"2025-08-12T19:43:22","slug":"chesapeake-forest-2025-hunting-tract-lottery-deadline-is-aug-21","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/dnr\/2025\/08\/12\/chesapeake-forest-2025-hunting-tract-lottery-deadline-is-aug-21\/","title":{"rendered":"Chesapeake Forest 2025 Hunting Tract Lottery Deadline is Aug. 21"},"content":{"rendered":"<div style=\"width: 427px\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"\" src=\"https:\/\/live.staticflickr.com\/65535\/52785927361_09c6e13c89.jpg\" alt=\"Dirt road into a forest\" width=\"417\" height=\"278\" \/><p class=\"wp-caption-text\">Chesapeake Forest Lands comprise 187 management units totaling more than 76,000 acres in six lower Eastern Shore counties. Maryland Department of Natural Resources photo.<\/p><\/div>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Hunt clubs interested in obtaining a hunting lease agreement on\u00a0<\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/dnr.maryland.gov\/forests\/Pages\/chesapeakeforestlands.aspx\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Chesapeake Forest Lands<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u00a0can enter a\u00a0<\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/dnr.maryland.gov\/forests\/Pages\/publiclands\/CFL\/Hunting-Tract-Lottery.aspx\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">lottery<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u00a0for available tracts in Wicomico and Worcester counties. The\u00a0<\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/dnr.maryland.gov\/Pages\/default.aspx\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Maryland Department of Natural Resources<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u00a0will accept\u00a0<\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/dnr.maryland.gov\/forests\/Pages\/chesapeake-forest-lands-application.aspx\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">online entries<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u00a0until August 21, 2025.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">The department advises entrants to visit the Chesapeake Forest tracts before making a selection, as some have limited access. Hunt clubs are expected to help maintain access roads, gates, and signs on the leased property.<\/span><!--more--><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Rules and guidelines for the lottery are as follows:<\/span><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Only hunt club members at least 18 years of age can participate in the lottery.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">A hunt club must have at least two members licensed to hunt in Maryland with one person designated as the club president.\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Each member may fill out a lottery form. Only one submittal per person will be placed in the lottery.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">The drawing will occur at 2 p.m. on Aug. 22. Winning entries\u00a0will be awarded the first available tract they choose.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">The Chesapeake Forest Lands comprise 187 management units totaling more than 76,000 acres in six lower Eastern Shore counties. The state purchased the lands to manage and protect them, and to expand opportunities for public access for outdoor recreation like canoeing, birding, fishing and hunting.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Maryland hunting licenses can be purchased or renewed at the department\u2019s licensing website, <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/mdoutdoors.maryland.gov\/login\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">MD Outdoors<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Hunt clubs interested in obtaining a hunting lease agreement on\u00a0Chesapeake Forest Lands\u00a0can enter a\u00a0lottery\u00a0for available tracts in Wicomico and Worcester counties. The\u00a0Maryland Department of Natural Resources\u00a0will accept\u00a0online entries\u00a0until August 21, 2025. The department advises entrants to visit the Chesapeake Forest tracts before making a selection, as some have limited access. Hunt clubs are expected to<a href=\"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/dnr\/2025\/08\/12\/chesapeake-forest-2025-hunting-tract-lottery-deadline-is-aug-21\/\">&nbsp;&nbsp;Read the Rest&#8230;<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":146,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[957,1965,3172],"tags":[3434,3126,4960,5234],"class_list":["post-45286","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-appnews","category-maryland-forest-service","category-hunting","tag-chesapeake-forest-lands","tag-eastern-shore","tag-hunting","tag-lottery"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/dnr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/45286","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/dnr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/dnr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/dnr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/146"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/dnr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=45286"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/dnr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/45286\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":45289,"href":"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/dnr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/45286\/revisions\/45289"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/dnr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=45286"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/dnr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=45286"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/dnr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=45286"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}