AB 1169 revises California’s Shared Habitat Alliance for Recreational Enhancement (SHARE) program by increasing the financial limits paid to private landowners for public wildlife-dependent recreation, making the Department of Fish and Wildlife (department) a mandatory grantmaker for the program, and directing a formal evaluation of the changes. The bill raises per-acre and per-participant compensation caps, authorizes reimbursements for nonprofit and landowner implementation costs, and creates reporting and sunset mechanics that time-limit the changes.
Why it matters: the bill temporarily amplifies incentives for private landowners to open lands for hunting, fishing, and other wildlife activities by raising pay and ensuring grant funding. At the same time it confines funding to the SHARE Account in the Fish and Game Preservation Fund, exempts the program from certain procurement rules, and requires an October 1, 2029 evaluation — all features that reshape how the state finances and measures public access to private habitat.
At a Glance
What It Does
AB 1169 raises compensation caps for private landowners to $52 per acre and $87 per public participant per day (with annual inflation adjustments), requires the department to make grants or enter agreements necessary to implement SHARE, and authorizes reimbursements to nonprofits and landowners for program-related services. It creates a temporary expansion that sunsets on January 1, 2031, after which prior statutory language becomes operative.
Who It Affects
Directly affected parties include private landowners who host wildlife-dependent recreation, nonprofit conservation organizations that administer access or receive grants, and the Department of Fish and Wildlife, which must adopt regulations, administer grants, and collect program data. Hunters, anglers, and other recreational participants will see changes in access opportunities tied to participation and outreach funding.
Why It Matters
The bill alters the incentive structure for private land access by combining higher, inflation-adjusted pay with mandatory grant authority and reimbursements — increasing program reach in the short term while preserving a statutory pause (sunset) to force an evidence-based reassessment of costs and participation.
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What This Bill Actually Does
AB 1169 restructures SHARE in two overlapping ways: it temporarily expands the program now and then installs a fallback version that takes effect after the temporary period. In the near term the bill amends existing sections to require the department to make grants and to raise financial compensation limits for participating private landowners to $52 per acre and $87 per public participant per day.
Those higher limits apply starting in the 2026 calendar year and will be adjusted annually for inflation using the mechanism in Section 713 of existing law. The department may also reimburse nonprofits, private landowners, or other entities for costs or services tied to implementing SHARE.
The bill keeps the SHARE Account as a dedicated fund inside the Fish and Game Preservation Fund and reiterates that General Fund moneys cannot be used. It requires the department to deposit designated federal grants and program-specific fees into that account, limit administrative overhead to reasonable direct costs, and preserve the ability to spend on wildlife conservation on lands subject to SHARE agreements.
The program remains exempt from certain public procurement provisions, which gives the department flexibility in contracting for outreach and delivery.AB 1169 builds in guardrails and a review process. It requires the Director of Fish and Wildlife to submit a written evaluation to the Legislature by October 1, 2029, covering landowner participation, acreage availability, account balances and expenditures, outreach activities, and hunter/angler participation — including evidence about new or returning participants.
Critically, the expanded provisions (including the “shall make grants” requirement and higher compensation caps) are set to expire on January 1, 2031; at that date the bill makes an alternate version of the statutes operative that reverts compensation caps to the prior $30 per acre and $50 per participant levels and restores language that the department “may” make grants rather than “shall.” The reporting requirement itself sunsets later under the Government Code timetable, so the Legislature receives evaluation data well before the temporary expansion ends.
The Five Things You Need to Know
The bill raises SHARE payment limits to $52 per acre and $87 per public participant per day, applicable to the 2026 calendar year and indexed annually for inflation using Section 713.
The department is changed from authorized to required to make grants or enter into agreements for SHARE during the temporary expansion period (the statute reads “shall make grants” until January 1, 2031).
All funds designated for SHARE must go into the SHARE Account within the Fish and Game Preservation Fund; General Fund money is expressly prohibited and administrative overhead is limited to reasonable direct costs.
The Director must deliver a written evaluation to the Legislature by October 1, 2029, addressing landowner participation, acreage, account balances and expenditures, outreach, and hunter/angler participation trends.
The program and its agreements remain exempt from certain Public Contract Code and Military and Veterans Code procurement provisions, and the statute preserves confidentiality of private landowner identifying information, waiver requirements, and Civil Code Section 846 protections for landowners and administering entities.
Section-by-Section Breakdown
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Near-term SHARE framework: mandatory grants, SHARE Account rules, reimbursements
This amended text establishes the SHARE program while requiring the department to adopt regulations, report annually, and maintain usage data. It instructs the department to deposit designated fees and grants into the SHARE Account in the Fish and Game Preservation Fund, prohibits General Fund use, limits administrative overhead to reasonable direct costs, and directs internal accountability for restricted fund expenditures. Critically, subdivision (d) changes the department’s role from discretionary to mandatory for making grants or entering into agreements “when the department finds the grants or agreements are necessary.” Subdivision (f) authorizes reimbursements to nonprofits, private landowners, or other entities for costs or services related to implementing the program. The entire section is set to be repealed January 1, 2031, creating a temporary statutory regime.
Post-sunset version (operative Jan 1, 2031): discretionary grants and narrower reimbursements
This replacement section becomes operative January 1, 2031. It preserves the SHARE Account and many administrative features but returns the department to a permissive grant role — the text states the department “may” make grants or enter into agreements when it finds them necessary. It authorizes reimbursements for costs but narrows the administration window by shifting the mandatory grant language out of effect. The two-version design creates a clear statutory difference between the temporary expansion and the long-term fallback.
Expanded compensation, confidentiality, waivers, and operational rules (temporary)
The amended Section 1573 authorizes voluntary agreements with private landowners to permit public access and raises maximum financial compensation to $52 per acre or $87 per public participant per day. Those limits apply to the 2026 calendar year and are indexed annually. The section codifies confidentiality for landowner identifying information (unless needed for administration), requires participant liability waivers, extends Civil Code Section 846 protections to participating landowners and entities, allows written modification or cancellation with reimbursement for lost revenues or expenses, and prioritizes lands with high habitat value and the capacity for multiple wildlife-dependent activities. This version expires on January 1, 2031.
Fallback operational rules (operative Jan 1, 2031): lower caps and standard discretion
The added Section 1573, effective January 1, 2031, repeats many operational provisions (confidentiality, waivers, protections, priorities) but restores the pre-expansion compensation ceilings of $30 per acre and $50 per public participant per day and uses permissive grant language. Practically, this means the expansion is explicitly time-limited: the department and stakeholders must plan for higher payments and mandated grants only through the sunset date unless further legislative change occurs.
Mandated program evaluation and data requirements
This new section requires the Director to submit a written report by October 1, 2029, evaluating the effects of the SHARE changes, including compensation increases. The report must cover landowner participation, acreage availability, account balances and expenditures (including overhead), outreach to nonprofits, and hunter/angler participation metrics — including evidence about new or returning participants. The director must collect relevant data while avoiding duplication and use existing datasets where feasible. The reporting statute itself is set to become inoperative October 1, 2033 and is repealed January 1, 2034, ensuring the evaluation is time-limited.
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Who Benefits
- Private landowners who enroll in SHARE — they receive higher, inflation-indexed payments through 2030, confidentiality protections for identifying information, liability-waiver coverage for participants, and Civil Code Section 846 protections that reduce certain tort risks.
- Nonprofit conservation organizations and other administering partners — the bill requires (during the temporary period) that the department make grants and explicitly authorizes reimbursements for implementation costs, increasing funding and contracting opportunities for outreach and program delivery.
- Hunters, anglers, and wildlife-dependent recreation participants — higher compensation and active grant-supported outreach are likely to expand acreage open to public use and diversify available recreational sites, potentially increasing access and participation.
Who Bears the Cost
- Fish and Game Preservation Fund and program-specific revenue streams — the SHARE Account funds increased compensation and reimbursements; those resources are finite and must cover higher per-acre and per-participant payments plus administrative costs.
- Department of Fish and Wildlife — the department must adopt regulations, run grant programs, collect and report granular participation and financial data, and administer reimbursements within the statutory timelines, increasing administrative workload and oversight obligations.
- State-level license holders or stakeholders using fee-derived funding — because General Fund money is barred, the program relies on hunting/fishing license stamps, user fees, or designated grants; those funding sources will finance the expansion and may shift spending priorities within the Fish and Game Preservation Fund.
Key Issues
The Core Tension
The central tension is between short-term expansion to buy more private land access (through higher, inflation-indexed payments and mandatory grant-making) and the need for fiscal discipline, program accountability, and long-term policy clarity; the bill bets that a time-limited boost plus a legislatively mandated evaluation will justify the cost, but it leaves open who bears the financial risk and how confidently the state can attribute changes in public participation to the program.
The bill packages a short-term expansion with a built-in sunset and an evidence-gathering requirement. That structure forces a near-term push to increase acreage and participation, but it also produces planning friction: nonprofits and landowners face a limited window of enhanced compensation and guaranteed grant-making, complicating decisions about long-term investments in infrastructure or habitat improvements.
The requirement that the department “shall” make grants during the expansion increases program reach but raises questions about the department’s capacity to run grants quickly and accountably while remaining exempt from certain procurement rules.
Fiscal and measurement uncertainties also matter. The statutory indexing of compensation to inflation ties future costs to an external metric, but the bill does not attach a hard budget appropriation; the SHARE Account must absorb increased payouts.
Measuring causation in the mandated October 2029 report will be difficult: showing that higher payments caused increased hunting or angling participation — rather than coincident factors or outreach — requires consistent, high-quality data and a counterfactual that the statute does not prescribe. Confidentiality protections for landowners make sense for participation incentives but reduce transparency for third parties evaluating whether the program equitably serves different regions or demographic groups.
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