N.D. waterfowl opener for residents only
Source: Daily News
September 18, 2007
North Dakota’s duck and goose hunting seasons will open on Saturday, September 22 - but only if you call North Dakota home. Only residents are eligible to hunt for the first week of the season.
When the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service first offered states an extra week of hunting in September, Governor John Hoeven thought it would be a good idea to restrict that first week to resident hunters. It became a better idea when Minnesota decided not to accept the bonus week. Had Governor Hoeven’s idea not been implemented there would have been a huge influx of Minnesota hunters on opening weekend because their season wouldn’t open until the following Saturday.
This plan came at the height of the nonresident hunting controversies of two legislative sessions ago, and some thought it was punitive and would create a wider division between resident and nonresident hunters. I’m sure there are some nonresidents who still don’t like the idea, but the exclusive week has gained wide popularity among North Dakota’s resident hunters. They love having the opener to themselves and it won’t likely change unless the feds rescind the extra week at some point down the road.So, if you’re a resident you can start hunting ducks and geese one half hour before sunrise on Saturday. For ducks you can keep hunting until sunset but you’ll have to stop hunting for geese at 1 p.m. except on Wednesdays and Saturdays when you can hunt geese until sunset.
The daily bag limit on ducks is the same as last year. You may take five ducks per day with the following restrictions: two scaup, two redheads, two wood ducks; and only one from the following group, one hen mallard, one hen pintail OR one canvasback. In other words, if you take a hen mallard you cannot have a pintail or a canvasback.
You may have three Canada geese, two white-fronted geese and 20 snow geese. Possession limits are double the daily bag except for no possession limit on snow geese.
Nonresidents can start hunting ducks and geese in North Dakota on the following Saturday, Sept. 29. They must choose a 14-day period or two seven-day periods. There are also three zones to choose from and it gets a bit complicated so study the regulations thoroughly before committing to dates and locations.
Minnesota’s waterfowl season does not open until Sept. 29th.
PLOTS restriction
Another law that was passed during the same legislative session prohibits nonresident hunters from hunting on state-owned or managed land, including PLOTS acres, during the week of Oct. 13th through the 19th, the week following the pheasant season opener. This law was implemented to give resident hunters the opportunity to hunt the popular PLOTS acres without competition from large numbers of nonresident hunters.
As you might expect, this law caused some hard feelings with out-of-state hunters who felt they were being discriminated against. I was opposed to the restriction at the time but it too has become very popular with resident hunters and not likely to change.
PLOTS goal
Speaking of Private Land Open To Sportsmen acres, the popular program has reached a goal set by Governor Hoeven, also during the same time frame when there was much controversy in North Dakota’s outdoors. This worthwhile goal has been reached and now there are more than one million acres enrolled in PLOTS.
The 2007 PLOTS guides are now available free at license vendors, county auditors and Game and Fish offices. Not only that but you can visit the Game and Fish website and study, download and print PLOTS maps for specific areas.
N.D. does
The North Dakota deer gun season is still a couple months away but the Game and Fish Department is working to match hunters with landowners who want to increase the doe harvest on their property.
Biologist Bill Jensen is compiling a list of landowners who are willing to allow access to hunters with antlerless tags for whitetails and mule deer. So far, these landowners are located in hunting units 2C, 2G2, 2I, 2J2, 2K2, 3A3, 3B1, 3C, 3E2, 3F1, 4A, 4B, 4D, 4E and 4F.
“These landowners have contacted us and asked for help in reducing the deer population in their areas,” Jensen said. “We’re glad to direct some hunters to them, but we don’t want them to be overrun, either. This is the reason we have developed and set up the contact list. This is not intended as a guiding service for buck hunters. The intent of this program is to direct antlerless hunters to specific areas to reduce deer depredation problems in the future.”
To get your name on a contact list go to the Game and Fish website at gf.nd.gov and click on the appropriate link. If you don’t have Internet access, call the department at 701-328-6300 and leave your contact and license information.
Big N.D. buck
The details have not been released yet but a bowhunter in southeast North Dakota, near Cogswell has taken a whitetail buck that is likely a new state record non-typical buck. The hunter shot the buck on opening day and it has a wild rack with 23 points and was still in velvet. The existing state record non-typical buck was taken last year near Watford City by a bowhunter from Virginia. His buck broke a record that stood for 45 years and now it appears it will stand for only one year.
I have talked to the hunter, who is a North Dakota landowner/bowhunter, and hope to have more details once he chooses to release them.
Minn. pheasants
The pheasant population in Minnesota is said to be at its highest level in 20 years. The pheasant index came out to 107 birds per 100 miles of survey driven. That marks the third consecutive year of over 100 birds per survey and just slightly less than last year’s count of 115 birds per 100 miles. The pheasant harvest was almost 600,000 roosters last fall which is the most since 1964.
"Strong pheasant populations are the result of favorable weather and abundant habitat," said Dennis Simon, DNR Wildlife Management Section chief. "As we approach next year's 25th anniversary of the pheasant habitat stamp, it's important to recognize that our abundant habitat is in part the result of support from groups like Pheasants Forever, Ducks Unlimited, the Minnesota Waterfowl Association and many others who continue to make grassland habitat conservation a priority."
Of course, the Conservation Reserve Program is also hugely responsible for abundant game bird numbers in the tri-state region. It’s unquestionably the finest federally funded conservation program in history. Every hunter, or person who is interested in seeing this wildlife prosperity continue, should contact their legislators and let them know how important CRP is. Don’t leave it up to someone else to work to maintain your hunting at the level you currently enjoy.
