United Sportsmen of North Dakota
UNITED SPORTSMEN OF NORTH DAKOTA (USND) SURVEY
February, 2009
All legislative items that we are following can be found at: USND Legislation
Youth Hunter (Age) Issues
HB 1167 Relating to youth deer hunting season - Section 1 provides for North Dakota youth who will be 14 years of age by the opening date of the deer gun season to hunt deer.
Do you approve of North Dakota 14 year-olds be permitted to be licensed to hunt deer by the opening of the deer hunting season?
Additional Comments:
-I think 14 is too young to be deer hunting but take them along and they will want to hunt even more the next year and the year after. Plus they will gain a lot of knowledge in that time.
HB 1227 Relating to hunting licenses - Section 2 provides for 12 year-olds to be permitted to be licensed to hunt deer.
Do you approve of North Dakota 12 year-olds be permitted to be licensed to hunt deer? 32% said "Yes" 67% said "No"
-The way the bill is presented, if you’re going to let a 12 year old hunt, let them hunt at 12 and 13 or leave it at 14 years of age, too much bull, let them hunt one year and not the next doesn’t make sense.
-As a hunter safety instructor I feel that a 12 year old should not be hunting deer with a rifle.
-As a Hunter Ed Instructor, most of the kids I teach are at 11 years old are not mature enough to hunt deer and I don’t think they will be one year later.
SB 2165 Relating to hunter education requirements - Section 2 allows for a one-time, non-hunter-education certified, 16-year-old, accompanied-by-an-adult-hunter, an apprentice hunting license.
Do you approve of the apprentice hunter validation? 53% said "Yes" 47% said "No"
-The majority of Hunter Ed is handling a firearm safely. I would not want to be the Adult Hunter in the field with someone who has never handled a gun before. Also your need to practice shooting skills before hand, otherwise the hunt will be disappointing due to misses and crippled game.
-If they do not pass the hunter safety they should not be allowed to hunt.
SB 2189 Relating to game and fish license fees - Section 2 exempts all resident hunters and anglers under the age of 18 from paying appropriate license fees.
Do you approve of exempting residents under the age of 18 from paying hunting and fishing fees?
37% said "Yes" 62% said "No"
-The purchase of a license is the inexpensive part of hunting and the game and fish gets matching funds for youth licenses sold. It also keeps track of hunter numbers and pays the expenses for printing of licenses.
Nonresident Hunter Issues
HB 1216 Relating to nonresident small game hunting licenses - Section 1 changes the current license periods to hunt for any period of 14 days or any two three of seven five consecutive days.
Do you agree with this new accommodation to nonresident hunters?
58% said "Yes" 40% said "No"
-Yes, I don’t believe it’s going to affect that many hunters though, most are still going to hunt 1 week and not come back, except the few that live along the border states.
HB 1246 Relating to nonresident small game hunting licenses - Section 1 changes the nonresident small game hunting periods for any period of up to fourteen consecutive days or any two in periods of seven at least three consecutive days each.
40% said "Yes" 59% said "No"
-Not enough info on this bill. They can only go home with a 4 day limit in there position what are they going to do, waste the extra birds they shoot?
SB 2264 Relating to nonresident small game hunting licenses and fees. - Section 1 provides $40 for the PLOTS program and Section 2 puts the special season-long nonresident small game hunting license at $125 (from which the $40 would be taken).
Do you approve of the special season-long nonresident hunting license accommodation?
53% said "Yes" 43% said "No"
-No but I do think the $40.00 should be spent on PLOTS
-Make the fee $165.00 and the $40.00 out of that money. Stop catering to the out of stater. Stop listening to the ND Tourist Department.
Additional Non-Resident Comments:
-Why do you punish our N.D. sons and daughters who live out of state by limiting hunting periods and high priced licenses?
-I’m a non-resident small game hunter and a member of this organization. I prefer the season long small game license over any of the multi-period options for simplicity of rules and regulations. It may even raise monies for PLOTS, a worthy program. If the original idea behind the 2-seven day periods was to raise money, I’m guessing this would more than match any additional license revenue currently being generated.
-I am not crazy about catering to out of state hunters as there are too many.
Baiting
SB2351 Relating to hunting big game over bait and penalties - Feeding of big game and hunting big game over bait prohibited - Application -Penalty. It is unlawful for an individual to engage in the feeding of big game and it is unlawful for an individual to hunt big game over bait. As used in this section, bait includes grain, seed, mineral, salt, fruit, vegetable, nut, hay, or any other natural or manufactured food placed by an individual. As used in this section, baiting does not include agricultural practices; gardens; wildlife food plots; agricultural crops; livestock feeds; fruit or vegetables in their natural location, such as apples on or under an apple tree; or unharvested food or vegetables in a garden. This section does not apply to wildlife management activities by and under the direction of the department. An individual who willfully violates this section is guilty of a class B misdemeanor for the first offense and a class A misdemeanor for a subsequent offense.
Do you approve of SB 2351?
47% said "Yes" 51% said "No"
- I think owners of land should be able to do what they want on their own land. However, if leased to outfitters, then baiting should be outlawed.
- Any shooting of game over bait should be called harvesting and not considered hunting which should call for fair chase. Shooting game over bait is not hunting in my estimation.
- I disagree with the way they are trying to pass this bill by saying it causes disease. The natural winter movement of deer in North Dakota, yards up deer in high protein food source areas where they touch noses, and they have close contact with lots of deer. All the states around us that don’t allow baiting and they haven’t allowed baiting have CWD. North Dakota doesn’t have it yet. I would have no problem with the bill if they made it where there was no baiting at all. The problem with the way it is wrote is farmers can sit by a pile of grain or bales with no penalty but a normal hunter will be penalized.
- I believe small quantities (less than 1 bushel) of food/bait should be allowed for bow hunting.
- I think the amount of bait could be controlled if the G & F dept. thinks it’s getting out of hand. For example 5 gallons spread over a 10 ft square area. I have seen this in another state. I could also see limiting it to youth hunters and bowhunting. It helps to have some advantage for both. It sure makes a difference when I take my ten year old out bow hunting with whether or not we see deer. It adds to the excitement and thusly to the interest my son shows in getting involved in hunting. And it’s the bait that brings these deer by. It’s a big difference to a child to say “I saw five deer tonight!” compared to “we’ve hunted for five nights and still haven’t seen a deer.”
- I feel baiting is taking the hunting part of sportsmanship out of the picture, and should not be allowed.
- I own land and without baiting it would be completely worthless for bowhunting. It is rolling hills and a few trees, buckbrush and no place to really put a stand without bait. If I can’t hunt this kind of marginal land like many other do we will all be forced to hunt public land that has good trees and habitat. It will put more pressure on this land and will congregate hunters. I have a grandson that is just starting to get into bow hunting and if we have to go sit in a tree and hope for a deer to come by he will lose interest in hunting in a hurry. Right now he loves to go out and sit in the blind and look at the wildlife that comes in to eat. As far as congregating deer and spreading disease drive around now and all the deer are congregated in the winter. We are surrounded by states that don’t allow baiting and everyone has CWD or TB so stopping baiting isn’t going to stop the spread of disease. This law is completely ridiculous if you drive around now and into farmers yards many farmers are feeding deer and pheasants and this law isn’t going to get them to quit.
- I own a sporting goods store and I don’t think the NDG&F or very many people realize how many bowhunters and landowners are involved in baiting. I would estimate that at least 70% of my customers are baiting and many of these would have to quit hunting with a bow or move to river bottom areas where the deer can be patterned if they plan to continue bowhunting. Outfitters and landowners who charge for access could very easily continue baiting practices as they have in other states that have baiting laws and this would only hurt the little guy.
- I feel it is a good bill with one exception. The first sentence should read: It is unlawful for an individual to engage in the feeding of big game (3 weeks prior to any big game season and 2 weeks after seasons ending date).
- Unlawful for an individual to engage in the feeding of big game??? In town at a squirrel/bird feeder? What’s the fine for that? I am opposed to baiting for big game hunting.
- Hunting over a bait pile is no fair chase.
- I suggest that it be modified to allow baiting during the last 30 days of archery season. Bait quantities should be limited to five gallons of grain or 1 small square bale of hay.
- I think it’s restrictive.
- No scientific data to support this proposal, it will also put more hunting pressure on the public land that is open at this time. Texas has a huge deer herd and feeding of deer is common all over the state, they have no problem with any disease associated with feeding of their deer.
- Bait should only be used by bow hunters.
- This is a bad bill. All feeding would have to stop as you couldn’t separate big game from birds. I believe NDG&F is blowing the disease transmission thing way out of proportion. Deer naturally herd in the winter anyway.
-As long as there is an abundance of deer I see no problem with baiting.
-There are way more deer in one area when they are in farmyards eating off of hay stacks then there are on a bait pile. So why not worry about a bigger source first before a tiny bait pile. Allow 3-5 gallon buckets per bait pile. Deer will still cross state lines to swim or cross bridges. The Game and Fish said there was no cats in ND too!! Now there’s a season on them?
Other Comments:
-I see the “Outfitter” problem a real minus for those of us who like to just go out and hunt with our sons and grandsons. I’m 75, they have gobbled up some of our prime land that we’ve hunted the past 25-30 yrs.
-I see a bigger problem with posted land and the Harvest of deer not good because of it. Big buck syndrome is terrible.
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