North Dakota
Dokken: Black bear sightings rise in North Dakota as population expands
If there’s one thing I’ve learned in nearly three decades of covering the outdoors, it’s that wildlife sightings or encounters that are beyond the ordinary get people’s attention.
Such was the case Oct. 18, when multiple trail camera photos of as many as five black bears converging on a bait pile set for deer east of Grafton, North Dakota, showed up on social media. As of Thursday morning, Oct. 24, the posting had been shared more than 1,000 times – just from that site.
In this age of trail cameras and social media, it’s hard for critters to hide.
No doubt bear sightings in North Dakota have become more common in recent years, a trend that should come as no surprise, given strong black bear populations just across the Red River in northwest Minnesota.
Growing up in northwest Minnesota, I remember when bear sightings were a relatively uncommon occurrence. Over time, though, bears became more abundant as the population expanded west from more heavily forested areas in northern Minnesota.
Now, bears are common in northwest Minnesota – and a similar story may be playing out in North Dakota.
Stephanie Tucker, Game Management Section leader and furbearer biologist for the North Dakota Game and Fish Department in Bismarck, said she has seen the Grafton trail camera photos and confirmed they’re legitimate.
“As I mentioned to the reporting party, bears are notorious for taking advantage of a free meal, and large bait piles can attract multiple bears because they are pretty tolerant of one another when food is not in short supply,” Tucker told me in an email. “We highly encourage folks to remove any food attractants for at least two weeks if they don’t want bears around.”
Not that many years ago, the thought was that North Dakota didn’t have a known breeding black bear population –
the Game and Fish Department still says as much on its website
– and that any bears seen in the state were simply passing through.
No more, Tucker says.
“Actually, we have confirmed breeding on our side of the (Red) river, not to mention bears are definitely over-wintering in our state,” she said.
Game and Fish tracks bear and other furbearer sightings through an
online reporting feature
it launched a few years ago. So far this year, the department has received more than 20 reports of bear sightings, of which more than 15 were verified.
Only a couple of those reports turned out to be unfounded.
The number of black bear reports Game and Fish received between July 1, 2023, and June 30, 2024, was up from previous years, as well, Tucker says.
Contributed / North Dakota Game and Fish Department
“Each bear can – and typically does – get reported multiple times, so the graph is not necessarily a reflection of the number of bears present,” Tucker said. “For example, we’ve had at least two black bears (maybe more) that were wandering around western North Dakota this summer and fall, which were reported to us at least eight times.”
So far, at least, the department doesn’t have any plans to launch a formal research project to learn more about bear populations in the state, Tucker says. Nor –
as she told me last year about this time
– are there any plans to establish a hunting season.
“I’m not convinced we need to let some hunters harvest some bears to find out more about them in North Dakota,” Tucker told me in a story I wrote in September 2023. “They are pretty conspicuous and with the prevalence of trail cameras, we have a pretty good idea of what is going on.”
And while no formal study is on the horizon, Tucker says she encourages the public to report bear sightings, either with the
online reporting feature
or by contacting the department through more traditional means.
“We really, really appreciate any (and) all information the public has been – and hopefully continues – to provide us about bears in their area,” Tucker said.
gf.nd.gov/wildlife/id/carnivores/black-bear
bearwise.org
North Dakota
North Dakota Supreme Court reverses dismissal of contractors’ lawsuit against city of West Fargo
WEST FARGO — A lawsuit against the city of West Fargo will continue after the North Dakota Supreme Court on Thursday, June 25, reversed a 2025 dismissal.
In December, the Associated General Contractors of North Dakota and the American Concrete Pavement Association–North Dakota Chapter, Inc. appealed the dismissal judgment filed in favor of the city of West Fargo.
The North Dakota Supreme Court determined in its Thursday, June 25, ruling that the district court made an error by
dismissing these claims as “moot,”
with the reasoning that the construction project is completed and can’t be undone, and the court additionally erred by denying the plaintiffs the opportunity to amend their complaint “on grounds the association lacks standing to challenge a city ordinance.”
The dismissal was reversed, so the case will continue. The attorney for the plaintiffs/appellants, Nicholas Surma, said his team is very pleased with the outcome.
“(We) look forward to a decision on the merits whether the city can continue to substitute itself for private contractors or whether projects must be competitively bid to achieve the law’s intended purpose — allowing the free market to provide the best quality at the best price for West Fargo’s taxpaying citizens,” Surma said in a written statement.
David Samson / The Forum file photo
Rachel Richter Lordemann, director of communications for the city of West Fargo, said the city doesn’t comment on ongoing litigation.
The plaintiffs, collectively referred to as the “association,” originally filed a claim against West Fargo in May 2025, arguing the city violated competitive bidding requirements for a public improvement project by delegating some tasks to city staff rather than putting them up for bid.
North Dakota Century Code at the time stated the threshold for bidding the construction of a public improvement project was $200,000, according to Thursday’s Supreme Court ruling. The project in this case was expected to exceed that cost.
The plaintiffs asked the court to enter a judgment saying the city can’t self-perform any public improvement that exceeds $200,000, and violated state law by doing so in the Improvement District No. 2290 mill and overlay project. They also asked the court to prohibit West Fargo from self-performing work on that project and future projects required to be publicly bid on under state law.
West Fargo approved a contract for the project in June 2025, and the project was completed in September. After the project was finished, the city adopted an ordinance allowing the city to self-perform routine street maintenance with available funds, regardless of the estimated value, if the city feels it’s in its best interest to internally handle the job.
After the ordinance passed, the plaintiffs filed a motion to amend their complaint to include, among other things, a request for a declaration that the ordinance is invalid. The district court allowed the case to be put on hold while the plaintiffs gathered information, but denied their challenge of the ordinance.
“The court reasoned the association lacked standing to challenge the ordinance because the association had not alleged ‘an actual or threatened injury stemming from action under the ordinance’ or that ‘the City has exercised authority under the ordinance,’” the Supreme Court ruling said.
After oral arguments, the claims were dismissed without prejudice or costs awarded to either party.
Dismissals without prejudice can rarely be appealed, since plaintiffs can simply refile their case, however, the Supreme Court found an appeal was appropriate because the association has no ability to seek the relief it was when originally filing the case. The project can’t be undone.
The Supreme Court determined the public interest exception to mootness applies in this case, because “competitive bidding laws are designed to protect the public, and a decision will guide public officials administering political subdivisions across the state.”
The Supreme Court also disagreed with the district court’s ruling that the association had no ability to challenge the ordinance. It said the association has alleged facts that demonstrate the ordinance presents a threat to the interests of its members.
GRAND FORKS — A North Dakota composer’s dream is turning into a statewide invitation.
Williston-based musician Emily Black-Driscoll was chosen as the North Dakota Music Teachers Association’s commissioned composer for 2026. She’s preparing an original composition that will premiere in August.
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North Dakota
Challengers declare victory after ND Supreme Court rules against Legislature’s attempt to alter term limits
BISMARCK — A constitutional ballot measure to amend the state’s term limits law as proposed by the Legislature will not appear on November’s ballot, the North Dakota Supreme Court ruled Thursday, siding with petitioners who argued the Legislature exceeded its authority and violated the state constitution in proposing the changes.
“The people’s voice was heard,” Grand Forks County Commissioner Terry Bjerke said in reaction to the news.
Bjerke was a member of the sponsoring committee behind the successful 2022 effort to pass a term limits initiative, which amended the state constitution by capping legislative term limits to eight years in the House and eight years in the Senate. The amendment, which became article XV of the state constitution, also included a clause barring the Legislature from making constitutional changes to term limits.
During the 2025 session, however, lawmakers narrowly approved Senate Concurrent Resolution 4008, in which the legislature proposed Constitutional Measure 1, a ballot measure to amend the term limits language to allow legislators to decide in which chamber they want to serve their 16 years, and to repeal the clause limiting the legislative assembly’s authority to propose an amendment to alter or repeal term limits.
Bjerke and former Minot legislator Oley Larsen brought the lawsuit challenging the validity of the Legislature’s action in January, and the state Supreme Court
heard oral arguments in the case
this spring.
“Those term limits may only be altered by a measure proposed by the people rather than the Legislative Assembly. And yet a few years later, the Legislative Assembly is doing what they are prohibited from doing,” attorney Zachary Wallen argued on Bjerke and Larsen’s behalf.
Tanner Ecker / The Bismarck Tribune
The Legislature’s attorneys argued the clause prohibiting legislative proposals to alter the constitutional term limits language “infringes on our republican form of government” by “limiting the people’s ability to vote on amendments proposed by their elected officials.”
Justice Jon Jensen seemed skeptical of that argument during the April 2 hearing, questioning whether a second vote was appropriate.
“The public did speak on this. The public spoke on it when it passed the original constitutional amendment and they said, ‘Legislature, you don’t even get to propose a change.’ They have already spoken on it,” Jensen said. “You want a second shot, or a second bite at the apple, not a first one, a second.”
In Thursday’s ruling, all five justices sided with Bjerke and Larsen.
“We … conclude the Legislative Assembly’s adoption of S.C.R. 4008 violated N.D. Const. art. XV … and declare S.C.R. 4008 and Constitutional Measure 1 void … We enjoin the Secretary of State from placing Constitutional Measure 1 on the November 2026 general election ballot,” the ruling said.
Bjerke thanked the legal team that worked on behalf of their lawsuit, and said he was grateful the court reached the conclusion it did.
“I’m thrilled that what the people voted on and approved has been validated,” Bjerke said.
He added that the Legislature had “multiple opportunities” to address term limits prior to 2022’s initiated measure and chose not to, and gave a nod to the country’s coming milestone and the process by which voters expressed their support for term limits.
“We’ve lasted 250 years,” Bjerke said. “I have two words for those elected leaders who think they aren’t: everyone’s replaceable.”
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