Four White-tailed Deer Shot in Emmons County, Warden Seeks Information

North Dakota Game and Fish Department district game warden Erik Schmidt is searching

for answers in the illegal shooting of four white-tailed deer in Emmons County during opening weekend of pheasant hunting season.

Schmidt said two mature bucks, one a 4x4 and the other a 5x5, were found in a bean field 1.5 miles east of Strasburg. A doe and fawn were found in a stubble field 5 miles southwest of Linton. It is believed all four were shot late evening Oct. 11, or early morning Oct. 12.

Anyone with information is asked to call the Report All Poachers telephone number at 800-472-2121, or contact Schmidt at 701-220-7160. RAP is offering a $1,000 reward.

The RAP line offers rewards for information that leads to conviction of fish and wildlife law violators. Reporting parties can remain anonymous.

Related articles

• 4 deer illegally shot and killed in Emmons County (bismarcktribune.com)

North Dakota Deer Management Meetings Announced

The State Game and Fish Department has scheduled eight public meetings in February

to discuss deer management in North Dakota.

Department officials will present an overview of the current deer population and prospects for the future, and look for input on possible options for changes in the way deer licenses are allocated.

“We’re all aware that the state’s whitetail and mule deer populations have declined considerably in recent years,” said Game and Fish Department wildlife chief Randy Kreil. “In 2013 we had approximately 40,000 hunters who applied for a deer gun license and didn’t get one. We’re looking at some ideas that might help get more hunters in the field if deer populations remain similar to what they are now.”

In the long term, Kreil said Game and Fish’s strategy is to build deer numbers to a point that would provide a reasonable chance for anyone who wants to hunt to be able to get some kind of license. “Right now we have a high public interest in deer hunting in North Dakota,” he said. “We’re hoping to come up with some solutions to help us maintain that.”

Each meeting will begin at 7 p.m. local time.

• Feb. 17 – Devils Lake, Lake Region Community College Auditorium
• Feb. 17 – Casselton, City Fire Hall
• Feb. 18 – Dickinson, Ramada Grand Dakota Lodge
• Feb. 18 – Anamoose, Community Center
• Feb. 24 – Tioga, Farm Festival Building
• Feb. 24 – Fordville, Community Center
• Feb. 25 – Bismarck, North Dakota Game and Fish Department
• Feb. 25 – Jamestown, The Bunker

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North Dakota Nonresident Any-Deer Bow Licenses

The North Dakota Game and Fish Department will have 172 any-deer bow licenses

available to nonresidents in 2014.

The deadline for applying is March 1. A lottery will be held if more applications are received than licenses available. Any remaining licenses after March 1 will be issued on a first-come, first-served basis. Applicants can apply together as a party. A separate check is required for each application.

The nonresident any-deer bow application is available at the Game and Fish website, gf.nd.gov. The application must be printed and sent in to the department.

The number of nonresident any-deer bow licenses available is 15 percent of the previous year’s mule deer gun license allocation. The Game and Fish Department issued 1,150 antlered mule deer licenses in the 2013 deer gun lottery.

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North Dakota Deer Lottery Scheduled for Last Week in July

The North Dakota Game and Fish Department will conduct the 2013 deer gun

lottery the last week in July.

Licensing manager Randy Meissner said several thousand paper applications need to be entered into the system before the lottery is held. “In the past we were able to run the lottery once all regular gun applications were entered, but with the new law it looks like the end of July will now become the normal time period for holding the deer lottery,” Meissner said.

The 2013 state legislature passed a law that requires gratis applicants interested in receiving an any-legal-deer license to submit the application before the regular lottery application deadline.

“Therefore, both regular gun and gratis applications submitted by paper have to be entered manually before the lottery can be run,” Meissner said.

Applicants who applied online and submitted an email address will receive notification once the drawing has been held. Others can access the Game and Fish Department’s website at gf.nd.gov to find individual results, or to sign up for email/text alerts.

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North Dakota: PLOTS Guide Available Online

The North Dakota Game and Fish Department’s Private Land Open To Sportsmen Guide for 2012 is now available online at the Department’s website, gf.nd.gov. In addition, PLOTS Guides will be available at most license vendors throughout the state in late August.

The guide will feature about 840,000 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.

Hunters can also view the guide, and find a list of vendors where guides are available, on the 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 free, and available at county auditor offices and license vendors in the state; by walk-in at the Game and Fish Department’s Bismarck office; and at district offices in Riverdale, Harvey (Lonetree), Williston, Dickinson, Jamestown and Devils Lake.

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

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North Dakota Deer Archery Season Opens Aug. 31

North Dakota’s deer archery season opens Friday, Aug. 31 at noon. Hunters must have an archery license to hunt during the bow season – there are no concurrent season deer gun licenses in 2012.

Bowhunters must follow all regulations of the managing agency when using tree stands on public hunting areas, including displaying the owner’s name, address and telephone number on tree stands left unattended on North Dakota Game and Fish Department wildlife management areas.

The Game and Fish Department annually receives inquiries from bowhunters regarding tree stands that are stolen, moved or tampered with. Tree stands are private property and theft constitutes a criminal violation that should be reported to the local sheriff's department.

Bowhunters are also reminded that hunting big game over bait is prohibited on both public and private land in deer units 3C, 3E1, 3E2, 3F1 and 3F2.

The archery season is open through Jan. 6, 2013. Hunters should refer to the 2012 deer hunting guide for season information and regulations.

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ND Tentative 2012 Season Opening Dates

Image via Wikipedia

To help North Dakota hunters make vacation plans and lodging reservations for hunting seasons in 2012, the North Dakota Game and Fish Department annually provides tentative opening dates for the coming year.

Some popular hunting seasons will have opening day arrive nearly a week later in 2012 due to the calendar change. For example, opening day of pheasant season is always the second Saturday in October, which in 2012 is Oct. 13. Therefore, nonresidents will not be able to hunt on state wildlife management areas or Private Land Open To Sportsmen acres from Oct. 13-20.

The opening day for deer, which falls on the Friday prior to Veterans Day, is tentatively set for Nov. 9, the second Friday of November. Veterans Day in 2012 is Sunday, Nov. 11.

Dates become official when approved by governor’s proclamation. Tentative opening dates for 2012 include:

Spring Crow	March 10
Spring Turkey	April 14
Fall Crow	August 11
Deer Bow, Mountain Lion	August 31
Dove	September 1
Sharptail, Hun, Ruffed Grouse, Squirrel	September 8
Youth Deer	September 14
Youth Waterfowl, Sandhill Crane	September 15
Early Resident Waterfowl	September 22
Regular Waterfowl	September 29
Youth Pheasant	October 6
Pheasant, Fall Turkey	October 13
Mink, Muskrat, Weasel Trapping	October 27
Deer Gun	November 9
Deer Muzzleloader	November 30

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North Dakota Mule Deer Production Lowest on Record

Image via Wikipedia

Aerial observations during the North Dakota Game and Fish Department’s fall mule deer survey indicated production was the lowest since the demographic survey began in 1954.

Bruce Stillings, big game supervisor in Dickinson, said observers who accompanied pilots in fixed-wing planes counted 1,055 (1,613 in 2010) mule deer in the October survey. While the buck-to-doe ratio of 0.47 (0.45 in 2010) was similar to the long-term average of 0.43 bucks per doe, the fawn-to-doe ratio of 0.59 (0.72 in 2010) was the lowest on record, and was well below the long-term average of 0.93 fawns per doe.

“Three straight years of record low production and another severe winter in the forecast makes additional license cuts likely in 2012,” Stillings said.

The fall aerial survey, conducted specifically to study demographics, covers 24 study areas and 306 square miles in western North Dakota. Biologists survey the same study areas in the spring of each year to determine a population index.

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North Dakota: Permit Required to Possess Road-Killed Deer

Image by Edith OSB via Flickr

North Dakota Game and Fish Department enforcement personnel reminds the public that a permit is required before taking possession, or any part, of a road-killed deer, including the skull with antlers.

Permits to possess road-killed deer are free and available from game wardens and local law enforcement offices.

In addition, hunters are reminded to properly dispose of dead deer. Harvested deer cannot be left on the side of a roadway or in a ditch.

North Dakota: Residents Only on PLOTS, State WMAs

Image via Wikipedia

Out-of-state hunters are reminded that state law does not allow nonresidents to hunt on North Dakota Game and Fish Department owned or managed lands during the first week of the pheasant season.

Private Land Open to Sportsmen acreage and state wildlife management areas are open to hunting by resident hunters only from Oct. 8-14. Nonresidents, however, can still hunt those days on other state-owned and federal lands, or private land.

The law applies to all small game, waterfowl, furbearer and big game hunting on PLOTS and state wildlife management areas during the first seven days of the pheasant season. Starting Oct. 15 this year, nonresidents may hunt on PLOTS and WMAs as long as the appropriate season is open.

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