Changing North Dakota

[Southern Heritage]

First off this post is about changes in waterfowl hunting in ND . I can’t help but not like them but curious what others think.
So ive been hunting North Dakota for 13 years. Me and 3 buddies bought a house up there 5 years ago so we have a place to stay and rent it to other hunters we know when we aren’t there.
I say that to say I’m pretty familiar with how waterfowl and land access works up there.
However things are changing and seem to be changing fast.
More and more land is posted. From my understanding ND now allows them to put permanent signs they don’t have to replace and they don’t require the farmers information.
I also see they may be going to app where signs are irrelevant. They can mark there land via a app to no hunting or hunting.
I used to get 10 yeses to 2 no’s when asking for permission and now it’s easy 10 no’s to 1 yes.
Most don’t even pick up with caller ID.
I see the wet lands changing drastically. I have 20-30 holes that are dried up and agriculture now.
These where always knee deep ponds that grew a lot of vegetation but farmers (who I can’t blame) either drain them some how or take advantage of dry years to raise the soil level. But none the less takes habitat.
I’ve also noticed a huge increase in hunters. I’m honestly 100% fine with it. If anything it keeps the birds moving around. I’m not ok with getting yelled out for being in someone’s hole. I’m not okay with people bringing out no trespassing signs and posted a field them selves.
I’m not ok with the trash I find in fields and pond edges clearly from hunters.


So what can I do? I still cook a big spread and feed 1/2 the town at the local bar. Always a great time.
I’ll still clean up after other hunters and our selves. I still have a great time hanging out with freinds and family each year riding dirt roads and telling stories.

What’s heavy on my heart and mind is my kids and my buddies kids. Will this still be a resource for them?
We have even considered selling our house up there and buying one in south Louisiana to fish and duck hunt out of. It be about 15 hrs closer.

None the less is anyone else seeing this? Am I over anaylizing? What else can be done if needed?

 

[Superdoo]

Well my friend…I live here and have the exact same experiences.
To your point about “e-posting.”
It takes effect this year and you have to go into game and fish’s website map to determine what is and isn’t posted. Neither @onX Hunt or @BaseMap will have a layer that will show you what lands are electronically posted. Perhaps they will chime in with more on that.

We are in a wretched drought this year. If you’re worried about the waterfowl season just imagine how my Pudelpointers and I feel about the upland season.
Literally anything that can be hayed is being hayed. WPAs have bails sitting on them and others are being cut. The corn didn’t grow so it’s being chopped.
Water is extremely scarce.

All you can do is what I do…
It’s the same thing that Ana sings about in Frozen 2, “do the next right thing.”

This year is going to suck, but my attitude will still be one of appreciation for the limited time I have to enjoy the fields. It will get better and this too shall pass.

 

[Southern Heritage]

Well my friend…I live here and have the exact same experiences.
To your point about “e-posting.”
It takes effect this year and you have to go into game and fish’s website map to determine what is and isn’t posted. Neither @onX Hunt or @BaseMap will have a layer that will show you what lands are electronically posted. Perhaps they will chime in with more on that.

We are in a wretched drought this year. If you’re worried about the waterfowl season just imagine how my Pudelpointers and I feel about the upland season.
Literally anything that can be hayed is being hayed. WPAs have bails sitting on them and others are being cut. The corn didn’t grow so it’s being chopped.
Water is extremely scarce.

All you can do is what I do…
It’s the same thing that Ana sings about in Frozen 2, “do the next right thing.”

This year is going to suck, but my attitude will still be one of appreciation for the limited time I have to enjoy the fields. It will get better and this too shall pass.

Yeah I knew this year was going to be worse then normal. I remember back in 16 or 17 they had permission to hay the crp field due a drought and I lost most of my favorite Phesant fields. Now there AG.
Ive been fortunate enough to hunt all over. ND farmers seem to have it the worst when it does go bad.

 

[KurtR]

Talking to my friends up there last year was really bad with Canada being closed. Plus with not as many water holes birds will be more concentrated and as long as no one busts the roost should be lots of good field hunts. Would be better if everyone just left the boats at home. Nice thing about Sodak is we have limits on how many nr can hunt waterfowl so it’s not that busy and every one here doesn’t even really care about them all they say when I ask is don’t mess with the deer or pheasants shoot all the ducks and geese you want.

 

[FLATHEAD]

Is waterfowl season going to suck everywhere due to the drought up north?

 

[KurtR]

Is waterfowl season going to suck everywhere due to the drought up north?

The duck production is down so there will be less young birds but I think it’s still going to be good. Our goose season starts next weekend and it’s going to be really good. We have a lot of local geese this year

 

[FLATHEAD]

A bunch of geese just showed up down here near the Gulf.
We usually have a lot of resident geese but seems like they disappeared
for most of the summer, and just now showing up. I don know where they went.
Also starting to see some Whistling Ducks.

 

[onX Hunt]

Well my friend…I live here and have the exact same experiences.
To your point about “e-posting.”
It takes effect this year and you have to go into game and fish’s website map to determine what is and isn’t posted. Neither @onX Hunt or @BaseMap will have a layer that will show you what lands are electronically posted. Perhaps they will chime in with more on that.

We are in a wretched drought this year. If you’re worried about the waterfowl season just imagine how my Pudelpointers and I feel about the upland season.
Literally anything that can be hayed is being hayed. WPAs have bails sitting on them and others are being cut. The corn didn’t grow so it’s being chopped.
Water is extremely scarce.

All you can do is what I do…
It’s the same thing that Ana sings about in Frozen 2, “do the next right thing.”

This year is going to suck, but my attitude will still be one of appreciation for the limited time I have to enjoy the fields. It will get better and this too shall pass.

ND Electronic Posted Land is currently available in the onX Hunt app so you can see where all of those are.

 

[Superdoo]

ND Electronic Posted Land is currently available in the onX Hunt app so you can see where all of those are.

Great to hear!!!!
Thanks for verifying!

 

[Southern Heritage]

ND Electronic Posted Land is currently available in the onX Hunt app so you can see where all of those are.

Thank you!

 

[Blue Skunk]

I will have to check out the e-posting.

Our group has been going out to ND for 15 years. The area we hunt has seen changes, but not as dramatic as what you are reporting.

We typically hunt Ducks/Geese in the morning and switch over to Pheasants in the afternoon.

Will see how this severe draught has impacted the area.

 

[WRM]

I'd imagine it will become like most places I'm familiar with--money. Access to land is a money maker. Why give it out for free when you can charge for it? Given the boorish behavior of a lot (leaning towards most) of people, I wouldn't let anyone on any land I owned for any reason whatsoever (ok, fire dept to put out a fire). If I did, I'd charge them handsomely for the privilege so they had the proverbial "skin in the game". I'm surprised it's taken this long to catch up with that area. Probably trails the insane pressure increases I have seen in SD.

Pardon my ignorance, but it's the first I've heard of eposting. What's the one sentence on that? Can an owner who leases to farmer epost without farmer's consent?

 

[Wallace]

I hunted NoDak for 4 or 5 years, last year I went was 2012. I saw the changes happening back then, and I've heard it's gotten worse. I hate to say it, but if I had to guess, your kids won't know what a real duck hunting experience in North Dakota is, like people who have hunted it over the last 20 years know.

 

[WRM]

I hunted NoDak for 4 or 5 years, last year I went was 2012. I saw the changes happening back then, and I've heard it's gotten worse. I hate to say it, but if I had to guess, your kids won't know what a real duck hunting experience in North Dakota is, like people who have hunted it over the last 20 years know.

^^^This. Same virtually anywhere you go now.

 

[wind gypsy]

Stretched a 4 year education into 6 at NDSU 2005-2010 mostly because I hunted or scouted waterfowl more days than I didn't. Stayed a resident there for a little while after. Got real spoiled. The juice stopped being worth the squeeze for me circa 2014ish when i was on the road working elsewhere. The stress of finding a field and trying to win the rat race to permission and beat others to fields ruined the experience.

Even when I was a NR student I thought it was stupid how easy they make it for NR to hunt there. They should have put caps on NR hunters like SD long ago.

 

[WCB]

My dad and his friend have been hunting ND since the 70s and stayed with a local farmer (still friends with the family and hunt some of that land today) We bought a place out there in 2000. Most calendar years I spend probably 30 days or so ND between fishing, hunting, or just out taking care of our place and hanging out. Between the 4 of us that use the place there are probably 4 or 5 weekends all year that someone isn't there.

We are lucky at this point we have made enough contacts with farmers we don't have to worry about permission waterfowl hunting. But we still feel it on the amount of posted land when upland hunting or bowhunting.

They ARE going to an App not probably. If you think you lost sloughs out there in the past you should see it this year. I've been out there 3 times this summer water is a scarcity. Still not as dry as it used to be or as dry as I have seen it in the past 20 years but it is getting there.

As to the more hunters. The last year and probably this year pushed farmers over the top since guys couldn't go to Canada. I know the farmers we talked to were not happy about it. We actually ran into a couple posting land 3 days into season that had never been posted. They were already pissed at guys just dong what they pleased and driving where they shouldn't have. They however told us no problem don't even ask just hunt there land since they recognized us.

Also, you said you bought a place and rent it out....That is part of the problem. A ton of NRs are doing this. Don't rent your place out. The #1 cause of more hunters have been the availability of houses and rooms for rent specifically for hunters besides it being publicized everywhere. We are in an area 45minutes away from any hotel or motel. Hardly saw anyone and now farmers are building bunk houses and NRs are buying places in town and are renting them out when they aren't there.

 

[WRM]

WCB-Be glad you had access in the "good ol days".

 

[NDGuy]

Neither @onX Hunt or @BaseMap will have a layer that will show you what lands are electronically posted.

OnX came out with the layer last week.

Edit: I see this was addressed. Nevermind

 

[NDGuy]

Welcome to the show, we are going the direction of everywhere else in the states. Land being locked away unless you have $ or a good network built up. Sadly no time to complain, I'd be making the contacts and getting in good graces of people while you can. They tried passing the no trespass law here and we have 95%+ of the state is privately owned. It's coming, they are chipping away at it.

We need to work for and advocate that more land be put into plots, crp, wpa etc.

It is sad that the golden years for hunting are well behind all of us no matter where you live.

 

[WRM]

^^^ Truly spoken, sadly.

I couldn't even get ranchers to let me pay a trespass fee in SD to get to landlocked public land to hunt. And I had been talking with them for years. After being taken advantage of for years before that, they just didn't want to do it anymore. I couldn't blame them one bit. Super nice folks, regardless.