Official Newspaper of Eddy County since 1883
Official Newspaper of Eddy County since 1883
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From the end of spring goose and turkey seasons until the mid-August early Canada goose opener, North Dakotans find themselves in a stretch of about three months with no gamebird season open. While some hunters take to shooting activities such as sporting clays or honing their archery skills, there's an option for "shooting" North Dakota's outdoors with anything from an old flip phone or modern smartphone, to a high-grade professional camera. Photographing the outdoors is always in season and...
One of the most widely discussed topics and legislative issues this year is commonly referred to as “electronic posting.” In short, the 2021 state legislature passed a bill to allow electronic posting of private land, giving landowners another option for posting private property. This system is currently available to enroll lands, with the law going into effect Aug. 1, 2021. In addition to the current posting laws allowing landowners to post lands with physical signs or leave lands unp...
I'll never be mistaken for a master gardener, and that’s OK. Beyond borrowing the neighbor’s tiller and breaking up the ground each spring, I lose interest in the garden even before the first spuds are planted. So, it comes as no surprise that when a stray rabbit is clipping the greens, I wonder more about whether my son's trapping will produce another grilled cottontail dinner, than if we'll have any lettuce or peas left. Yet, I also fully understand the pride many gardeners take in their sum...
This is the time of year when North Dakota Game and Fish Department game wardens, biologists and other staff across the state handle an influx of calls about young animals. From seemingly abandoned deer fawns, to birds that fell from a nest, to a mother duck trying to lead her brood across a crowded city parking lot, people care about North Dakota wildlife and want to do what they can to help when these situations arise. However, the best thing to do in almost all such cases is to simply leave...
The 2020 closing of the paddlefish take season (a limited catch and release was offered), was one of the few outdoors cancellations I recall over the past year. Game and Fish Fisheries Chief Greg Power said safety of snaggers, caviar processors and data collection staff were a major concern. “Paddlefish snaggers concentrate in large numbers in a small area, and often participate in snagging while shoulder-to-shoulder,” Power said. “There is no realistic way to maintain proper separ...
The challenges of the past year have impacted all jobs and North Dakota game wardens were no different. In a similar way to how virtual conferences and online shopping were suddenly more popular than ever due to the reduced contact and concentration, so too was time in the outdoors. Fresh air and wide-open spaces replaced indoor concerts and sporting events in many cases. The outdoors was open, and more hunters and anglers took to the fields and waters. About the only outdoor activity canceled...
If you drew a spring turkey license and haven’t received the tag in the mail yet, it could be because you haven’t purchased a new general game and habitat license, or combination license, for the 2021 hunting seasons. The general game and habitat license is required for pretty much all hunting of game species in North Dakota. This requirement became law in the 1960s. The transition to electronic licensing and all-electronic applications now allows the North Dakota Game and Fish Department to...
One of the nationwide hunting and fishing agency priorities is referred to as R3. Recruiting new participants; retaining the current participants; and reactivating past hunters and anglers who have fallen away from outdoor recreation. Cayla Bendel is the N. D. Game and Fish Department's R3 coordinator. She joins a growing list of conservation agency individuals spearheading R3 around the country. "I'm a born and raised Minnesota 'blue-plater,' and from 'the cities' at that. My greatest...
We need to point out a few important news items this winter that won’t help you catch more fish through the ice, but are important, nonetheless. Agencies Partner to Help Landowners with CRP Offers The U.S. Department of Agriculture is accepting applications for its voluntary Conservation Reserve Program. Private landowners can sign up at their local USDA Farm Service Agency office through Feb. 12. This popular USDA program provides options for environmentally sensitive land by reducing soil e...
Wildlife management and biology – science as a discipline – is a function of learning through time, research and analysis. Really not much different than life where we better understand, with a little more time and learning, the past to help plant the future. Years back when discussions were being held on the management of mountain lions in North Dakota and it was asked how many we had in North Dakota, I'd honestly and lightheartedly explain how mountain lions really don't like being cou...
The holiday season is crazy, especially during a pandemic, so I'm guessing a few worthy news and notes from the outdoors may have slipped by. Here's a few I think even non-hunters and anglers may find interesting. Salmon in North Dakota? Yes, we do have a viable salmon population in North Dakota and fisheries crews have completed their annual salmon spawning operation on the Missouri River System, after collecting more than 2.1 million eggs. Russ Kinzler, North Dakota Game and Fish Department Mi...
Here's some ice fishing insight for North Dakota this winter from Greg Power, fisheries division chief for the North Dakota Game and Fish Department. Q: In terms of fishing activity, how much participation in overall effort is winter ice fishing? Power: It can be substantial. In an open winter, at least in the past, we've seen as much as 25% of our entire annual fishing effort come from the ice fishing season. On a bad winter, historically, it could be as low as 5%. Q: Outdoor recreation continu...
Have you ever tried darkhouse spearfishing in North Dakota? If not, there's a first time for everything? As we've seen since last March when the pandemic began cancelling, rescheduling and turning much of the world upside down, interest and participation in recreating outdoors has been on the rise. Recently, Greg Power, Game and Fish Department fisheries division chief, shared some insight from last year's spearing survey that showed 27% did so for the first time in winter 2019-20. While there...
If you’ve never tried ice fishing before this pandemic impacted year, with all the cancellations of activities and events, now might be the time to pick up a new hobby or renew an old winter pastime. I was sent my first ice fishing photos in late October. The angler had walked out on 3 inches of pretty good ice, and while it’s never something I’ll advocate the fact is I’ve seen safer ice this past October than I have at times in late February. It proves the advice that there’s no such thing as...
I grew up in an era when wild game cooking involved a can of cream of mushroom soup and a roaster. The wild game – grouse, duck, partridge or a rare pheasant – was simmering beneath the greyish gravy base. It was the way Mom did it, the way Grandma did it and maybe family before her? Cooking show addicts would scoff if TV stations aired a history of prairie fare. Quite honestly, it wouldn't take long. What has evolved is an expanded variety and appreciation for wild game cooking- with cre...
North Dakota had its first confirmed case of chronic wasting disease in deer detected in 2009. Since then, CWD has become a familiar term to most North Dakota deer hunters. Dr. Charlie Bahnson, North Dakota Game and Fish Department wildlife veterinarian explains, “We first started finding deer with CWD in Grant and Sioux counties, hunting unit 3F2, in 2009, and we’ve been finding positive deer down there ever since,” Bahnson said. “And in 2018 we found it for the first time in Divide County, uni...
The 2020 North Dakota deer season opens Nov. 6 at 12-noon Central time and runs through Sunday Nov. 22. Legal shooting hours after opening day are a half-hour before sunrise to a half-hour after sunset each day. Here's a few of the more common questions that seem to come up each year. I can't find my deer license. What should I do? You must obtain an application for a duplicate license from the Game and Fish Department by calling (701) 328-6300 or printing it off the website at gf.nd.gov. Fill o...
Most hunters, and nonhunters for that matter, are shocked, surprised and maybe a little bewildered, when they learn that just 35 game wardens safeguard North Dakota's vast hunting and fishing resources across the state. Certainly, no one has led me to believe those warden numbers are too high. Just think of the geographic expanse mixed in with topography from the badlands and Turtle Mountains, to the hills of the coteau and the flats of the drift prairie. There's plenty of nooks and crannies to...
I was paging through old photographs at Mom and Dad’s earlier this fall, looking for a 1980s picture of my Dad, his friend, Robert, and myself after a pheasant hunt in LaMoure County. We each held and proudly displayed one trophy rooster. It was from 1983 when you had 24 or so pictures on a roll of film and the investment was even more for buying and developing the precious film. Honestly, three decades later, the photograph is priceless. It represents the value of a hunt with friends and the le...
While 2020 has been an unusual year, to say the least, there is some good news in the outdoors as many of North Dakota's bird and big game populations are on the rise. Deer Game and Fish made available 69,050 licenses for the 2020 hunting season, an increase of 3,550 from 2019. Population and harvest data indicate the state's deer population is stable to increasing, but still below management goals in most eastern hunting units. Consequently, there was a moderate increase in deer licenses...
If you are a landowner in North Dakota wanting hunters to help trim coyote or Canada goose numbers, law allows hunting and access without permission if the land is not posted. Conversely, if a landowner wants to restrict access or trespassing, the requirement is to post the land as "No Hunting" or "No Trespassing." The debate in landowner and hunter discussions has continued in the North Dakota legislature for decades with different bills addressing the same concerns for generations. The last le...
Hunters often keep their eyes and ears open this time of year for reports on the fall flight forecast of ducks from North Dakota (up 9% from 2019) and late summer pheasant brood counts (better than last year). Lost in this glimpse of what the 2020 fall hunting seasons might hold is a staggering number that is so closely tied to North Dakota's prairie landscape that harbors, at times, an untold number of waterfowl and upland game birds. According to the North American Breeding Bird Survey, the We...
While there’s plenty of chatter about bowhunting, chasing upland game and planning for waterfowl and pheasant openers, there’s a few topics that don’t specifically pertain to any specific hunting season or activity. For instance. The North Dakota Game and Fish Department’s Private Land Open To Sportsmen Guide for 2020 is available online at the Game and Fish website, gf.nd.gov. In addition, the free printed PLOTS Guide, which is not available to mail, can be found at most license vendors and oth...
I grew up listening to Casey Kasem’s Weekly Top 40 music countdown. It was a different era where musical success wasn’t measured by downloads and clicks. Even to this day I can’t say I really understood how his Top 40 was compiled, but I was hip to the long-distance dedications. Listeners (maybe thousands?) would write the show and Kasem would read one on-air and the dedication was granted. How he picked the song and when to play it was seemingly sort of science-based on geography and popularity...
When you consider North Dakota’s storied hunting heritage and the reality that about 93% of the land in the state is privately owned, it’s no wonder landowner-hunter relations have long been a vital component of our hunting legacy. Nevertheless, the Game and Fish Department’s owned or managed wildlife management areas also play an important role in not only providing public access but quality habitat to foster and safeguard those animals hunters ardently pursue. North Dakota has more than 220 w...
