North Dakota Game and Fish Department updates

September 3, 2018

Swan Hunt Lottery Held, Licenses Remain

North Dakota’s swan lottery has been held and 408 licenses remain. Only hunters who do not have a swan license for the 2018 season can apply, as regulations limit hunters to one license per year.

Beginning Sept. 4, all remaining licenses will be issued on a first-come, first-served basis. Resident and nonresident hunters must apply online at the state Game and Fish Department website, gf.nd.gov. The license fee is $10 for residents and $30 for nonresidents.

The statewide tundra swan hunting season is Sep. 29 – Dec. 30, 2018.

Hunters Reminded of Big Game Transport Rules

Big game hunters are reminded of requirements for transporting deer, elk and moose carcasses and carcass parts into and within North Dakota as a precaution against the possible spread of chronic wasting disease (CWD).

Hunters are prohibited from transporting into or within North Dakota the whole carcass of deer, elk, moose or other members of the cervid family from areas within states and provinces with documented occurrences of CWD in wild populations, or in captive cervids. Hunters should note that Montana is now included in the 2018-19 CWD proclamation as a state that has had free-ranging deer, moose or elk diagnosed with CWD and therefore now has big game transport restriction.

In addition, hunters harvesting a big game animal in unit 3F2 in North Dakota cannot transport the whole carcass, including the head and spinal column, outside of the unit. This is a new rule from last year, when hunters could take the carcass outside of the unit if it was taken directly to a meat processor within five days of the harvest date.

Only the following portions of the carcass can be transported:

· Meat that has been boned out.

· Quarters or other portions of meat with no part of the spinal column or head attached.

· Hides with no heads attached.

· Meat that is cut and wrapped either commercially or privately.

· Clean (no meat or tissue attached) skull plates with antlers attached.

· Antlers with no meat or tissue attached.

· Upper canine teeth, also known as buglers, whistlers or ivories.

· Finished taxidermy heads.

Agencies Prohibit Hunting over Bait

Hunters are reminded it is unlawful to hunt big game over bait, or place bait to attract big game for the purpose of hunting, on both public and private land in deer unit 3C west of the Missouri River, and all of units 3E1, 3E2, 3F1 and 3F2.

In addition, placing of bait for any purpose is prohibited on all North Dakota Game and Fish Department wildlife management areas.

Hunting over bait is defined as the placement and/or use of baits for attracting big game and other wildlife to a specific location for the purpose of hunting. Bait, in this case, includes grains, minerals, salts, fruits, vegetables, hay or any other natural or manufactured food.

The designation does not apply to the use of scents and lures, water, food plots, standing crops or livestock feeds used in standard practices.

Hunting big game over bait is also prohibited on all U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service national wildlife refuges and waterfowl production areas, U.S. Forest Service national grasslands, and all North Dakota state school, state park and state forest service lands.

PLOTS guide available

The North Dakota Game and Fish Department’s Private Land Open To Sportsmen Guide for 2018 is now available online at the Game and Fish website, gf.nd.gov. In addition, the free printed PLOTS guides are available at most license vendors and other locations throughout the state.

The guide will feature about 762,000 PLOTS acres. Because the guide is printed in mid-August, some PLOTS tracts highlighted in the guide may have been removed from the program since the time of printing. There will also be some PLOTS tracts where the habitat and condition of the tract will have changed significantly. Conversely, Game and Fish may have added new tracts to the program after the guide went to press.

To minimize possible confusion, Game and Fish will update PLOTS map sheets weekly on its website.

The PLOTS guide features maps highlighting these walk-in areas, identified in the field by inverted triangular yellow signs, as well as other public lands.

The guides are not available to mail, so hunters will have to pick one up at a local vendor or Game and Fish office or print individual maps from the website.