Agricultural public land in Alberta is owned by the province of Alberta and managed for multiple uses, including recreational and agricultural activities. Under new legislation introduced in 2003, the Alberta Government created a dispute resolution process for recreational users and leaseholders of agricultural public lands to solve disputes over recreational access.

• the allowing or refusal of access to the agricultural lease land,
• the imposition of a term or condition by the leaseholder, or
• the making of contact for recreational access.

To help prevent disputes, recreational users should plan ahead when thinking of visiting public lands, particularly agricultural lease lands. It is also recommended that all disposition holders and recreational users educate themselves on current legislation, regulations and policies.

How do the Dispute Resolution and Review processes work?

The dispute resolution process allows the parties in conflict to discuss their concerns and find agreeable outcomes for both leaseholder and recreational user. There are three stages available to resolve the recreational access dispute.

• Stage 1 - The focus of this informal stage of resolution is for the disputing parties to resolve the recreational access issues themselves, with the help of a facilitator, if needed.
  
  
• Stage 2 - The second phase involves a formal process where a Local Settlement Officer (LSO) will review the issues surrounding the dispute. A facilitated agreement will be encouraged, but if the two parties do not come to an agreement, a binding decision will be issued on recreational access.
  
  
• Stage 3 - The final stage provides for a review by a Director of the binding decision given in Stage 2.

The full steps of the process are outlined in this flowchart.