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Game and Fish Offers Wildlife Food Plot Seed

Landowners interested in planting wildlife food plots for pheasants can now sign up to receive free seed from the North Dakota Game and Fish Department for the 2019 growing season.

Rather than a more 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, 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.

“In the past, Game and Fish food plots have been mostly tied to a Private Land Open to Sportsmen walking access contract,” said Kevin Kading, Game and Fish private land section leader. “This new promotion 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 who are interested in receiving the food plot seed must sign up on the Game and Fish website at gf.nd.gov by March 31, 2019. Seed will be available in April for participants to pick up at Game and Fish offices in Bismarck and Dickinson this first year. In future years seed for this promotion may be available at other locations in the state.

Game and Fish private land biologists can provide technical assistance on food plot location and site preparation.

Landowners who are 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.