By Nick Simonson Continuing recent uptrends, the North Dakota Game & Fish Department’s (NDG&F) Private Lands Section added nearly 45,000 acres of public access to its Private Land Open to Sportsmen program (PLOTS) ahead of the fall 2026 hunting season. With a goal set in 2023 of returning to 1 million or more PLOTS acres on the landscape by 2030, NDG&F Private Lands Section Leader Kevin Kading explains that the department is well on track to meet that mark, sitting at 925,000

Improving habitat and soil health has been shown to help wildlife. Ranchers provide this valuable habitat in much of North Dakota. In Western ND, near Alexander, Diamond E ranch is using yaks to graze their grasslands. You may ask, “What do yaks and improving wildlife habitat have to do with one another?” Why yaks? Ashley, owner of Diamond E along with her husband Cody, explains, “Yaks tend to graze differently than cattle and can be lighter on the land, especially when gr

TAKE ACTION: Defend North America's Duck Factory North Dakota's Prairie Pothole Region is known as North America's "Duck Factory." These millions of wetlands produce the majority of the continent's ducks, support countless other wildlife species, and sustain our hunting traditions and outdoor economy. Today, these irreplaceable wetlands face an urgent threat. Last Friday, July 24th, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service opened a 14-day public comment period on regulations gov

By Nick Simonson Despite some progress in the mule deer populations in North Dakota, the state’s whitetail herd has struggled to recruit new animals into the herd over the past four years. As a result, hunters noticed yet another drop to modern lows for firearm deer tags this fall, with a reduction of 3,200 licenses statewide including a few units not offering antlerless tags at all for the annual lottery which closed June 3. While a tough winter in 2022-23 and outbreaks of E

By Nick Simonson Last year’s tallies in the North Dakota summer upland bird roadside survey were a telling portent for the fall hunting seasons, as drops in numbers – from slight downward ticks in pheasant counts to bigger ones for grouse and partridge – reflected the changes hunters saw in the field almost exactly. Overall, hunters harvested three percent fewer pheasants, 24 percent fewer sharptailed grouse, and 25 percent fewer Hungarian partridge in the fall of 2025 compar

There is so much happening in today’s world it’s hard to keep up. Some may choose to simply ignore, but for hunters and public land users, it is essential to stay informed about legislative developments that could impact access to public lands. One such development is the North Dakota Trust Land Completion Act, which has recently moved out of the House Natural Resources Committee, and will soon be heading to the House Floor for a vote. The North Dakota Trust Lands Completi

Today, the U.S. House passed the Farm, Food, and National Security Act of 2026, a major step toward a bipartisan, five-year Farm Bill and renewed stability for farmers, ranchers, and rural communities. At the heart of it: reauthorizing the Conservation Reserve Program (CRP) through 2031, one of the most important tools we have for supporting working lands while conserving habitat for upland birds and wildlife across the country. Next stop: the Senate. Congress now has an opp

The grasslands were formed by disturbance. Grazing by large herbivores (bison), large scale fires, and extreme weather patterns (drought, low precipitation averages, high wind events) create the perfect environment for our prairie ecosystem. Generations of humans have been drawn to the great plains for hunting opportunities and agricultural uses. Current uses of the grasslands such as livestock production, tourism (which includes hunting, biking, hiking, horseback riding,

By Nick Simonson Following some heavy snows and a windy week in the seven days leading up to opening morning of the 2026 turkey season on Sat. Apr. 11, hunters are apt to find good hunting for North Dakota’s largest upland bird, according to RJ Gross, Upland Game Biologist with the North Dakota Game & Fish Dept. (NDG&F). “They’re strutting pretty good. The next couple of weeks is pretty much peak breeding in North Dakota and they’re going to have one thing on their mind, they