North Dakota
North Dakota Game and Fish to stock adult yellow perch into Devils Lake next spring
The North Dakota Game and Fish Department is planning to stock adult yellow perch into Devils Lake next spring as part of a “trap-and-transport” effort to boost populations of the tasty panfish, which are a popular draw for anglers on the big lake, especially in the winter.
According to Greg Power, fisheries chief for Game and Fish in Bismarck, moving egg-laden adult perch from lakes with too many stunted fish has worked well in creating new perch fisheries in small prairie lakes, but has rarely been tried on a scale as large as Devils Lake.
Contributed / North Dakota Game and Fish Department
The window of opportunity isn’t open very long; perch are early spawners.
“The critical thing is to get the nets in (the water) right at ice out, and move them to the new lakes before they spawn,” Power said. “That really has provided tremendous dividends.”
Less successful, he says, has been stocking adult perch into lakes with already established populations.
“The results of that are a little more mixed,” Power said.
The upcoming trap-and-transport effort comes on the heels of a perch population that has lagged behind historic averages the past couple of years. Based on results from Game and Fish summer netting surveys, Devils Lake perch numbers have declined from 18.3 fish per net in 2021 to 8.8 fish per net in 2024. Much of that, Power says, is due to the cyclical nature of perch reproduction specifically and fish populations in general.
“Every prairie lake out there for every species, it’s all about ebbs and flows, peaks and valleys, and that’s certainly been the case at Devils Lake,” Power said. “Is it that bad right now? No – I mean, the last two years, it’s been below the long-term average.
“If you go back just four or five years ago, it was above it considerably.”
Game and Fish personnel, including department Director Jeb Williams, met with Devils Lake tourism interests over the summer to talk about the status of the perch fishery.
“The locals there at Devils Lake – in particular the guides and outfitters, but I think anybody that likes perch fishing – are concerned with where we’re going with the population,” Power said. “They requested us to do something more, so we’re going to re-look at moving adult perch into Devils Lake next spring.”
Brad Dokken / Grand Forks Herald file photo
Mark Bry, a Devils Lake fishing guide and owner of Bry’s Guide Service, participated in the meetings last summer and said the Game and Fish Department’s willingness to stock adult perch was appreciated.
“We’re just trying to stay proactive,” Bry said. “I’ve learned a lot about perch in the last five-six months. The numbers are probably not as strong as they have been, but I think this is fairly common. A couple of years ago, we had really good perch fishing – 12- to 13-inch perch were kind of everywhere. We still have some big perch in the system, but I think they just want to try and enhance it a little bit more.”
Perch favor flooded vegetation for spawning, and when the wet cycle that raised Devils Lake by upwards of 20 feet began in 1993, the influx of water created ideal spawning conditions, Power said.
“What we got was just tremendous back to back to back year-classes of perch, which is very atypical, but that’s what happened,” he said. As lake levels stabilized and began declining, quality perch spawning habitat also became less abundant.
“Occasionally, we get a decent – maybe not a great, but a decent – year-class,” Power said. “It helps sustain a fishery for a while, then it falls off. And the last year or two, it’s been falling off.”
Contributed / North Dakota Game and Fish Department
As part of the upcoming stocking effort, department fisheries crews also plan to tag perch next spring in Devils Lake, Power said.
“We’re going to come up with a population estimate if we can get enough fish, to know where we sit for a while, and whether or not we’re adding enough (prespawn) fish to make a difference,” Power said. “Then we’ll monitor that for a few years thereafter.
“That population estimate is going to be critical to see where we’re sitting exactly for what’s out there and how much (stocking) can help this along.”
Still to be determined, he says, is where the adult perch being moved to Devils Lake will come from and how many fish Game and Fish crews can collect. Reproduction in many perch lakes across the state has declined, Power said, along with water levels in many of the new prairie lakes.
“To be honest, it’s going to be a lot more challenging for us to move enough perch because we just don’t have as many sources as we once had,” Power said. “It was pretty easy when we had a lot of perch lakes to move perch. It’s tougher now; we just don’t have surplus perch like we did 15 years ago.
“I think we’ll find a few lakes (from which) we can move fish, see if they can bring off a year-class and probably do that for a few years.”
Also on tap is a plan to raise the white bass limit from the current limit of 20 daily and 40 in possession to 30 daily and 60 in possession.
“We’re at a point where we can increase our white bass daily limit to more than what it is,” Power said. “There’s probably some interaction with perch and white bass predation (and) competition, but that might help a little bit.”
Walleyes are by far the most abundant species in the Game and Fish test nets, routinely accounting for upwards of 50% of the total catch.
“They’re going to have to balance walleye stocking, too,” Power said. “Walleye obviously are a predator. In the end, everybody wants the same thing – more walleye, more perch, big perch, big walleye; it just doesn’t happen that way.”
With stocking on the horizon, the 2025 perch hatch on Devils Lake also looks promising, Power says. Spring conditions “weren’t anything outstanding,” he says, but Devils Lake fisheries crews tallied a “respectable” perch hatch in 2025, based on results from the department’s annual young-of-the-year fish survey.
If those young perch make it through the winter, they could provide a natural boost to the population in a few years.
“I think we’ll be good,” said Bry, of Bry’s Guide Service. “Not every year can be a home run, and I think that’s just the thing people need to understand. You may not catch as many perch this winter – and we don’t know that for sure – but I think the future looks pretty good.
“I think it’s just kind of how this goes – the ups and downs of perch cycles; you get a couple of good years and a couple of average years.”
Stocking adult perch into Devils Lake isn’t unprecedented, but it’s been 20 years since the last effort. According to Game and Fish records, adult perch – anywhere from 2,000 to 7,000 – were stocked into Devils Lake in 1970, 1974, 1975, 1978 and 1992, a year when the fisheries crews also stocked 6.7 million perch fry.
More recently, Game and Fish stocked 76,000 adult perch into Devils Lake, along with 110,000 fingerlings, in 2005. That was followed by nearly 1.4 million fingerlings in 2006 and 931,000 fingerlings in 2007.
Contributed / North Dakota Game and Fish Department
The fingerlings stocked during those three years were marked with oxytetracycline, a chemical that shows up in the ear bones when viewed under a microscope, to determine the survival and success of the stocking effort.
“Out of the three years stocked, 2007 produced a year-class that contributed to the fishery in later years,” Power said. “However, the large majority of the 2007 year-class originated from natural reproduction, as only 9% of the fish came from stocking.”
In other words, there are a lot of unknowns with the upcoming adult perch stocking, Power says – especially on a body of water the size of Devils Lake.
“If it was easy, it would have been done a long time ago,” he said. “But we’ll see what we can do.
“And to be fair, the group up there at Devils Lake, they totally understand that. They just would like us to do something, and they recognize there’s absolutely no guarantees.”
FARGO — Drivers can expect to see a slight uptick in gas prices as a result of the Iran conflict.
As of Monday, March 2, the average for North Dakota is $2.65 a gallon. While that is a $0.13 increase from a month ago, it is significantly lower than prices a year ago.
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GRAND FORKS – The Study ND, formerly Humanities North Dakota, has received $15,000 from the National Endowment for the Arts for a statewide theater and humanities initiative in recognition of the 250th anniversary of the founding of the United States.
This commemorative investment is meant to bring historical events and figures – such as the framers of the U.S. Constitution – to life through virtual and live performances that celebrate the nation’s history.
The grant, along with funding from private sources, has made it possible for The Study ND to host “America 250” activities after the organization sustained a considerable cut in funding from the National Endowment for the Humanities last year, according to Brenna Gerhardt, The Study ND executive director.
“We absorbed a 50% budget cut, resulting in a loss of $467,645 in funding,” Gerhardt said. “As a result, we had to significantly scale back our American 250 initiatives focused on American history and civics education.”
Funds received from the National Endowment for the Arts will be used to present public readings, theatrical portrayals and guided discussions to encourage audience members to reflect on the nation’s founding in 1776 and on its democratic ideals, while engaging in contemporary conversations about civic life.
All of the programming in the series organized by The Study ND, titled “American Heroes,” will be livestreamed statewide.
In the grant application submitted to the National Endowment for the Arts, “we framed the project around a simple idea: democracy requires more than information, it requires citizens who can think historically, listen well, and argue in good faith,” Gerhardt said.
“This series uses living history performances to bring consequential figures into the room, then turns the room into a civic space through moderated dialogue and related public events. We define ‘heroism’ as civic courage under pressure, the willingness to contend with hard truths, and the capacity to enlarge a community’s moral imagination,” she said.
“The project does not ask audiences to agree on a single interpretation of a figure. It invites them to grapple with complexity together, and to connect the past to the responsibilities of the present.”
When Gerhardt and her colleagues received the application for grant proposals from the National Endowment for the Arts, “we were already planning a line-up of America 250 events and it fit perfectly with what we were already planning, so then we just wrote the grant,” she said.
Private funds, including matching funds from the Bismarck-based Tom and Frances Leach Foundation, have also been provided for this project.
Details about all the events will probably be posted on the website
www.TheStudyND.org
in March, Gerhardt said.
The America 250 events, which are planned to take place at Bismarck State College, are 5-6 p.m. July 8, “Reading of the Declaration of Independence, with John Adams,” and 6-7:30 p.m. July 9, “Alexander Hamilton Speaks,” both performed by William Chrystal.
The Living History programs are planned for 7-8:15 p.m. Sept. 17, “Thomas Paine,” performed by Doug Mishler, and Oct. 6, 7-8:15 p.m, “Frederick Douglass,” performed by Nathan Richardson. Both will be moderated by Susan Frontczak.
The performers Chrystal and Richardson live in Virginia, Frontczak in Colorado,and Mishler in Nevada.
Another program, “Hemingway and Gellhorn,” is set for Sept. 16-18 at Bismarck State College, Gerhardt said. “It is part of our broader Chautauqua/living history programming connected to America 250 … (and) will feature performances and discussion centered on Ernest Hemingway and Martha Gellhorn, using their lives and writing as a way to explore major questions about American identity, war reporting, public memory, and the stories we tell about freedom, conflict and responsibility.
“What I am excited about with this event is that it gives us a way to approach America 250 beyond founding-era material. In other words, it helps us show the American story is not just about 1776, but also about the generations that followed and how Americans wrestled with democracy, power, truth and moral courage.”
This program “expands the initiative beyond commemoration into reflection, dialogue and interpretation, which is where the humanities are especially valuable,” she said. “It helps us reach audiences who may be drawn in through literature, journalism and performance, not only traditional history events.”
The Hemingway and Gellhorn program fits in with America 250 in that “it broadens the frame and adds depth to the larger effort.”
Gerhardt is hoping that these activities will give participants “a better understanding of all the debates and issues going on when our country was founded, and how those debates are continuing today,” she said, “and just to be more thoughtful and informed citizens.”
College students and members of the general public will also be invited to participate in a workshop aimed at teaching participants how to build a living history performance from primary sources and historical research.
Last year, The Study ND lost a substantial amount of funding – nearly $468,000, about half of its annual budget – from the National Endowment for the Humanities for its fiscal 2025 year.
The loss of that much funding was discouraging, Gerhardt said. “Very much so, because we had a lot of activities planned for America 250 and we had to cancel a lot of them, or – like in this case – seek other funding, which we were lucky to get.”
The Study ND currently has four full-time employees, she said. “We eliminated a part-time marketing position after the cuts.”
A nonprofit organization, The Study ND provides civics, arts and cultural education programming. The organization’s programs – which include online classes, book talks, lectures and more – reached about 24,000 people in 2024, Gerhardt told the North Dakota Monitor in April 2025.
During the summer, the organization hosts a civics education program for high school and middle school social studies teachers, she said.
On this day in 1943, two North Dakota army officers, Second Lieut. Arthur B. Kuntz and First Lieut. Bernard A. Anderson, were killed in separate medium bomber training crashes in Florida and Georgia.
Here is the complete story as it appeared in the paper that day:
Army Plane Crashes Kill Two N. D. Men
Two North Dakota officers in the army air forces were killed Sunday in bomber crashes during training flights, Associated Press dispatches revealed Monday.
Second Lieut. Arthur B. Kuntz of Harvey (Wells county) was killed with 10 others from the Avon Park, Fla., army bomber base when two medium bombers collided during a routine formation flight. Both planes crashed and there were no survivors.
First Lieut. Bernard A. Anderson of Warwick (Benson county) was one of six killed when a medium bomber from MacDill field, Tampa, Fla., crashed near Savannah, Ga. Lieutenant Anderson was co-pilot of the plane.
None of the other victims of either accident was from the Dakotas or Minnesota.
Lieutenant Kuntz, son of Mr. and Mrs. Roy Kuntz of Harvey, was graduated from the army air force navigation school at Hondo, Texas, as a second lieutenant last October, and received his wings as a navigator.
Kate Almquist is the social media manager for InForum. After working as an intern, she joined The Forum full time starting in January 2022. Readers can reach her at kalmquist@forumcomm.com.
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