North Dakota Game and Fish Department to offer 54,500 deer licenses this fall

N.D. to offer more deer licenses

BISMARCK-North Dakota deer hunters will have better odds at drawing a deer license this fall.

In a news release, the Game and Fish Department said 54,500 licenses will be available for this year's deer season, an increase of 5,500 from last year. License applications for the regular deer gun, youth, muzzleloader and resident gratis licenses now are available online at gf.nd.gov, and paper applications will be at vendors throughout the state in the next few days. The deadline for applying is June 7.

Nonresidents only can apply for licenses through the Game and Fish website.

The number of licenses available for 2017 includes 2,750 for antlered mule deer, an increase of 200 from last year; 1,022 for muzzleloader, an increase of 94 from last year; and 245 restricted youth antlered mule deer, an increase of 20 from last year.

Game and Fish will issue mule deer doe licenses in units 4B and 4C for the first time since 2011. However, for the sixth consecutive year, there are no mule deer doe licenses available in unit 4A because of higher winter mortality, which caused a slight decline in numbers from 2016.

North Dakota's 2017 deer gun season opens at noon Nov. 10 and continues through Nov. 26.

A new law passed by the North Dakota Legislature allows youth who turn age 11 before the end of the calendar year to receive a whitetail doe license valid for only the youth deer hunting season. Therefore, 10-year-olds who turn 11 in 2017 are eligible to receive an antlerless whitetail license. Hunter education is not required until young hunters turn 12.

State law requires residents age 18 or older to prove residency on their application by submitting a valid North Dakota driver's license number or a North Dakota nondriver photo identification number. Applications cannot be processed without this information.

Gratis applications received on or before the June 7 regular deer gun lottery application deadline will be issued an any-legal-deer license. As per state law, gratis applications received after the deadline will be processed based on licenses remaining after the lottery; generally, only antlerless licenses remain.

Total deer licenses are determined by harvest rates, aerial surveys, depredation reports, hunter observations, input at advisory board meetings and comments from the public, landowners and department field staff.

-- North Dakota Game and Fish Department

NAWCA fares well in spending bill

WASHINGTON, D.C.-Despite earlier numbers that called for cuts, key conservation programs received adequate-and in some cases, increased-funding in President Trump's omnibus appropriations bill funding the government through fiscal year 2017.

Of special significance was a $3 million increase for the North American Wetlands Conservation Act, which was appropriated $38.145 million through the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.

"We thank Congress and the president for recognizing the importance of conservation provisions benefitting sportsmen and women around the country in the omnibus spending package," Dale Hall, Ducks Unlimited CEO, said in a statement. "Ensuring programs like the North American Wetlands Conservation Act and the Great Lakes Restoration Initiative receive adequate funding is imperative to provide wildlife with the habitat they need and deserve. These investments aid in clean water practices that benefit not only wildlife, but people too."

NAWCA conserves North America's waterfowl, fish and other wildlife resources while also producing a variety of environmental and economic benefits that sportsmen and women depend on nationwide. Its success is driven by partnerships involving federal, state and local governments, nonprofit organizations such as DU and community groups. Every federal dollar provided by NAWCA must be matched by at least one dollar from non-federal sources. Since its inception, more than 2,644 NAWCA projects have contributed to the conservation of more than 33.4 million acres of habitat across North America.

Other conservation initiatives in the bill include:

• A fully funded Great Lakes Restoration Initiative program with $300 million authorized through the Environmental Protection Agency.

• $400 million for the Land and Water Conservation Fund (LWCF) for the rest of the fiscal year.

In the 115th Congress, more than 175 bipartisan members of the House of Representatives showed their support for NAWCA by signing a Dear Colleague appropriations letter for the 2018 fiscal year. The Senate NAWCA Dear Colleague letter is open for signatures and continues to gain momentum but will close May 22.

-- Ducks Unlimited

NDGF offers bait reminder

BISMARCK-The North Dakota Game and Fish Department reminds anglers that live white suckers are not legal baitfish anywhere in the state, except for the Bois de Sioux and Red rivers.

Although anglers can use live white suckers on the Bois de Sioux and Red rivers and tributaries up to the first vehicular bridge, they are illegal elsewhere. Fathead minnows, sticklebacks and creek chubs are the only legal live baitfish outside of the Bois de Sioux and Red rivers. Dead white suckers that have been preserved by freezing, salting or otherwise treated to inactivate reproductive capabilities are legal bait.

Live baitfish or other live aquatic bait such as leeches cannot be transported from another state into North Dakota.

-- N.D. Game and Fish Department

DNR: Leave deer fawns alone

ST. PAUL-As it does every year, the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources is asking people to leave newborn deer fawns alone.

"Fawns do fine even if they look abandoned or fragile," said Adam Murkowski, DNR big game program leader. "People can give them the best chance of survival by leaving them alone."

Most fawns are born in late May and mid-June and do not attempt to evade predators during their first few weeks of life. Instead, they remain still to avoid being seen and are camouflaged with white spots. During these times, fawns are learning critical survival skills from their mothers. Bringing fawns into human environments separates them from their mothers.

"We understand people often mean well when they move fawns. But one way or another, once fawns are moved these young animals usually end up dead," Murkowski said.

Murkowski encourages people to resist the urge to assist wildlife in ways that may be harmful, and he offered these tips:

• Deer and moose nurse their young at different times during the day and often leave their young alone for long periods of time. These animals are not lost. Their mother knows where they are and will return.

• Deer normally will not feed or care for their young when people are nearby.

• Deer fawns can lose their natural fear of people, a fear that can be essential to their survival.

• Keep domestic pets indoors, leashed or fenced in. Dogs can kill fawns and other baby animals.

More info: bit.ly/orphanedwildlife.

-- Minnesota DNR

Did you know?

• Mark Thelen caught a 64¾ inch sturgeon, and Ron Lindberg caught a 67-inch sturgeon to take big fish honors on the first and second days, respectively, of the 11th annual Sportsman's Sturgeon Classic Tournament held May 5-6 on the Rainy River near Sportman's Lodge north of Baudette, Minn. More than 100 sturgeon were caught by nearly 200 anglers in 60 boats who fished the 1.2-mile stretch of river in tournament boundaries. The big fish winners each day went home with $2,420 in cash, while daily second-place winners landed $1,035.

• Confiscated hunting and fishing equipment will be sold beginning at noon May 20 at the North Dakota Wildlife Federation's Report All Poachers auction in Minot. The auction will be held in the North Dakota State Fair Center's 4-H hall. More information, including a comprehensive list of items for auction, is available by visiting the Wildlife Federation's website at northdakotawildlifefederation.org.

• The DNR is initiating the sale of leases for state-owned metallic minerals in Beltrami, Itasca, Koochiching, Lake of the Woods and St. Louis counties covering a total of 195,324 acres.The lease sale involves nonferrous minerals, which are all metals except iron ore and taconite. Examples of nonferrous metallic minerals are copper, nickel, platinum, palladium, gold, silver, cobalt, chromium, zinc, lead, bismuth, tin, tungsten, tantalum and niobium. More info: mndnr.gov/lands_minerals/leasesale/index.html.

-- Compiled by Brad Dokken