North Dakota anglers, trappers and hunters are reminded that new licenses are required beginning April 1.
Licenses can be purchased online by visiting the North Dakota Game and Fish Department website, gf.nd.gov. Once the license is processed, hunters and anglers will have the option to print a hard copy and/or download the license to a smart phone or mobile device, which is helpful when asked to show proof while hunting or fishing in rural areas that lack cellular service.
Licenses can also be purchased at more than 140 vendor locations throughout the state. The 2022-23 small game, fishing and furbearer licenses are effective April 1, 2022 to March 31, 2023.
Grant Application to Assist R3 Efforts
Wildlife, shooting, fraternal and nonprofit civic organizations can submit an application for the Encouraging Tomorrow’s Hunters program, a North Dakota Game and Fish Department grant program developed to assist in the recruitment, retention and reactivation of hunters. The program supports projects and events that provide a positive environment to develop the skills and confidence needed to create lifelong, conservation-minded hunting and shooting sports participants.
Application deadline is May 1.
The maximum grant allowed is $3,000. The program currently helps fund approximately 40 club and organizational events and projects each year, with an average grant of $1,550.
Funds help cover event expenses, including promotional printing; event memorabilia such as shirts, caps or vests; ammunition and targets; and eye and ear protection.
Past funding has enabled groups to conduct learn-to-hunt events, or sponsor trap and other shooting events, including archery and rifle shooting. Game and Fish has a separate grant program that supports new high school trapshooting teams.
Clubs or organizations interested in applying should note the grant process, application, and records requirements have been updated. For more information, including a grant application, visit the Game and Fish Department website, gf.nd.gov, or contact Cayla Bendel, R3 coordinator, at 701-220-3461.
Game and Fish Offers Wildlife Food Plot Seed
The North Dakota Game and Fish Department is offering free seed for the 2022 growing season to landowners interested in planting wildlife food plots for pheasants.
Department private land section leader Kevin Kading said rather than a traditional corn or sunflower food plot, Game and Fish is offering a seed mix that provides increased plant diversity, including flowering plants from spring through fall, which will attract insects, the major diet component of pheasant chicks. Additionally, he said the mix will provide needed cover during spring and summer, as well as a winter food source. Other wildlife species will also benefit from this mix.
“Most Game and Fish food plots are part of the department’s Private Land Open To Sportsmen program,” Kading said. “This food plot campaign does not require a PLOTS contract, but we are asking participating landowners to allow reasonable public access, which could mean simply providing access permission to hunters from time to time, putting up ‘Ask Before You Enter’ signs around the area, or not posting the surrounding land.”
Kading added that landowners participating in this promotion cannot charge a fee for hunting.
The department will provide enough seed to cover up to a maximum 5-acre planting at no cost to the landowner.
Landowners interested in receiving the food plot seed must sign up online by April 1. Seed will be available in April at Game and Fish offices in Bismarck, Jamestown, Devils Lake, Harvey, Dickinson, Williston and Riverdale.
Game and Fish private land biologists can provide technical assistance on food plot location and site preparation.
Landowners interested in additional financial incentives may be considered for the PLOTS program as well. More information is available by contacting a private land biologist at any Game and Fish office in the state, or email ndgf@nd.gov.
Nonresident Any-Deer Bow Licenses
The North Dakota Game and Fish Department will have 810 any-deer bow licenses available to nonresidents in 2022.
Applicants can apply online beginning March 15 on the Game and Fish website, gf.nd.gov. The deadline for applying is April 15.
Up to five hunters can apply together as a party. A lottery will be held if more applications are received than licenses available. A total of 1,767 people applied in 2021.
The number of nonresident any-deer bow licenses available is 15% of the previous year’s mule deer gun license allocation.
Grants Support High School Trap League
Local clubs or communities interested in receiving a grant to support a high school trap shooting team must have the application in before April 1. Existing teams that have received a grant in the past are not eligible.
The North Dakota Game and Fish Department offers a grant of up to $1,000, with funds designed to purchase gear such as eye and hearing protection, vests, shell bags and magnetic barrel rests.
For more information, contact Game and Fish education section leader Marty Egeland at 328-6612, or email megeland@nd.gov.
Agencies Meet to Address Lake Level Concerns
Based on all the necessary ingredients needed to provide essential water levels for lakes Sakakawea and Oahe in 2022, the forecast to do just that doesn’t look promising at this time.
“Given current water levels and projected runoff based on mountain snowpack, its likely both lakes Sakakawea and Oahe will be 5-10 feet lower than the lake elevations experienced in 2021,” said Greg Power, North Dakota Game and Fish Department fisheries chief. “At these forecasted elevations, boating access at many, if not most of the boat ramps, will become problematic. The good news is that work was done during previous droughts resulting in a network of low water ramps that may become functional this year if some issues, such as erosion and sedimentation, are first addressed.”
Understanding this, Game and Fish Department personnel teamed a few months ago in a planning effort for the upcoming open water recreational season on the Missouri River System with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, North Dakota Parks and Recreation and the North Dakota Department of Water Resources.
“Current interagency planning is intended to proactively deal with these boat ramp issues through addressing coordination, permitting and funding matters yet this winter so that ramp work, where needed, can begin shortly after ice-out,” Power said. “The corps and Game and Fish have identified and prioritized potential boat ramp sites that will be impacted by the lower lake levels and are seeking additional funding and partnership with stakeholders who manage the respective recreational sites. By mid-March, various agency staff will reconvene and firm up plans based on funding needs and availability, using the most recent corps runoff forecast data.”
Power said current mountain snowpack for the upper Missouri River basin is only around 80% of normal, but one storm can change things.
“Of course, this is Mother Nature driven and subject to change,” Power said.
Elk, Moose, Bighorn Sheep Applications Online
Elk, moose and bighorn sheep applications are available online at the North Dakota Game and Fish Department’s website, gf.nd.gov. The deadline for applying is March 23.
A total of 563 elk licenses are available to hunters this fall, an increase of 40 from last year.
A total of 404 moose licenses are available, a decrease of 70 from last year. Moose units M4 and M1C will remain closed due to a continued downward population trend in the northeastern part of the state.
As stated in the chronic wasting disease proclamation, hunters harvesting an elk in unit E2 and E6, or a moose in units M10 and M11, cannot transport the whole carcass, including the head and spinal column, outside of the unit. More information on CWD is available by visiting the Game and Fish website.
A bighorn sheep hunting season is tentatively scheduled for 2022, depending on the sheep population. The status of the bighorn sheep season will be determined Sept. 1, after summer population surveys are completed. The season was closed in 2015 due to a bacterial pneumonia outbreak.
Of note, a new bighorn sheep hunting unit, B5, was created by splitting unit B4 to distribute the harvest of rams more efficiently.
Bighorn sheep applicants must apply for a license at the same time as moose and elk, but not for a specific unit. Once total licenses are determined for each unit in late summer, the bighorn lottery will be held and successful applicants contacted to select a hunting unit.
Because the bighorn sheep application fee is not refundable as per state law, if a bighorn season is not held, applicants would not receive a refund.
Elk, moose and bighorn sheep lottery licenses are issued as once-in-a-lifetime licenses in North Dakota. Hunters who have received a license through the lottery in the past are not eligible to apply for that species again.
Earth Day Patch Contest Deadline
The deadline to submit entries for North Dakota’s Earth Day Patch contest is March 15.
The Earth Day Patch Contest is step one in bringing awareness and develop consciousness about the environmental conditions of our planet and North Dakota. Students who participate will develop a patch design using five colors to incorporate some aspect of Earth Day including environmental awareness, respect for Earth, water quality, wildlife or habitat conservation in North Dakota.
The contest is open to students in grades K-12. Winners are chosen from three grade categories (K-4, 5-8 and 9-12). Each winner will receive an outdoor kit, which includes a pair of binoculars and field guides. The grand prize patch design winner is chosen from one of the three winning age categories. In addition, the grand prize winner will have their design displayed on the year's recognition patch, be featured in North Dakota OUTDOORS and on the North Dakota Game and Fish Department website.
Harvest statistics released by the North Dakota Game and Fish Department show overall hunter success during the 2021 season for bighorn sheep was 80 percent, 90 percent for moose and 65 percent for elk.
The department issued four bighorn sheep licenses and auctioned one. Four of the five hunters harvested a bighorn ram.
The department issued 470 moose licenses last year. Of that total, 448 hunters harvested 405 animals – 163 bulls and 242 cows/calves. Harvest for each unit follows:
2021 Moose Harvest
Unit
Hunters
Bulls
Cow/Calf
Success Rate
M5
5
5
0
100
M6
10
10
0
100
M8
15
14
0
93
M9
114
33
67
88
M10
179
56
108
92
M11
125
45
67
90
The department issued 532 elk licenses last year. Of that total, 462 hunters harvested 301 elk – 158 bulls and 143 cows/calves. Harvest for each unit follows:
2021 Elk Harvest
Unit
Hunters
Bulls
Cow/Calf
Success Rate
E1E
74
24
23
64
E1W
54
20
25
83
E2
123
39
40
64
E3
177
57
52
62
E4
22
15
0
68
E6
12
3
3
50
Mountain Lion Late Season Closes in Zone 1
Mountain lion hunting during the late season in Zone 1 is closed immediately. The zone’s late-season harvest limit of either seven total cats or three females was reached after the third female was taken.
A conditional season in Zone 1 will open March 6 for hunters to pursue the additional seven mountain lions that were not taken during the early season. The Zone 1 early season harvest limit was eight cats, and only one was taken.
The conditional season will close March 31 or immediately once the seventh cat is taken. Early season regulations apply, which means hunters are not allowed to use dogs. In addition, hunters who harvested a lion during the early or late season are not eligible to participate.
The mountain lion season in Zone 2, which is the rest of the state outside Zone 1, has no harvest limit and is open through March 31.
Deadline to Remove Fish Houses
Anglers are reminded unoccupied fish houses must be removed from all waters beginning March 15 until ice-out.
Fish houses may be used after March 15 if they are removed daily.
Anglers are advised to use caution while accessing area lakes. Ice conditions can vary from region to region, between lakes in the same region, and even on the same lake
CWD Test Results
With most chronic wasting disease testing completed, the North Dakota Game and Fish Department reports 26 deer tested positive during the 2021 hunting season.
Fourteen were from hunting unit 3F2, eight from unit 3A1, and one was found in unit 3B1. Single positive deer were also found in three units (3C, 3D1 and 3E2) where the disease had not been previously detected.
CWD is a fatal disease of deer, moose and elk that can cause long-term population declines as infection rates climb.
The estimated infection rates in unit 3F2 were 4.9% in mule deer and 3% in whitetail deer. In unit 3A1, the estimated infection rate in mule deer was 6.9%. Approximately 4.9% of hunters turned in heads for testing in units where the Department was focusing surveillance efforts.
Game and Fish will use its 2021 surveillance data to guide its CWD management strategy moving forward. More information about CWD can be found at gf.nd.gov/cwd.
North Dakota Game and Fish Department