We will again have access this 2025 season to a small residual portion of Kelley Farms on the East side of Manning Ave that has not yet been turned over to Washington County for the addition to the Big Marine Park Reserve. Training in these areas will start late April with an Open to All Free Training Day kickoff on Saturday April 26th. All chapter members will be able to purchase a grounds pass for open access on Mondays & Thursdays. (Passes are not available yet-will be by mid-April-see below.)
For the areas of Kelley Farms that have been turned over to the MN DNR for the new Keystone Woods WMA, we expect to have access starting April 15th to about 330 acres including multiple water sites. This access is through our membership and affiliation with the Minnesota Federation of Field Trial Clubs (MFFTC). This organization is negotiating a Lease with the DNR to allow us special permissions for dog training that the general public does not have, similar to what we have at Four Brooks.
The final details and the fee structure for how it will all work is still not finalized, but we wanted to let you know what we know at this point in time. As in the past, we will be sharing these grounds with many other dog clubs, but with dog training activities now being condensed into a smaller acreage, a more formal schedule is part of the planning, and it is unlikely that there will be “passes” for everyday open access as there had been in the past.
Once the MFFTC sets a fee schedule and calendar for the member clubs, MN NAVHDA will be selling passes to our members that will be good for BOTH the residual Kelley Farms area and Keystone Woods WMA Areas. The good news is that the cost to our members for this access will be much more affordable than the $375.00 annual pass fee when it was private land.