Doug Leier: North Dakota’s public lands have specific regulations for all

WEST FARGO – Final week, I wrote concerning the North Dakota Recreation and Fish Division’s Non-public Land Open to Sportsmen (PLOTS) program, which supplies walk-in entry to hunters on 1000’s of acres throughout the state. The PLOTS Information, which options these walk-in tracts, additionally contains public land looking entry info, together with greater than 200 wildlife administration areas totaling about 220,000 acres.

The division WMAs have particular guidelines and rules to steadiness and scale back potential conflicts, which might and do happen when areas appeal to crowds, or individuals attempt to pre-empt house.

This time of 12 months, one of many extra relevant guidelines pertains to placement of tree stands or floor blinds for deer looking. The stands have to be moveable and be recognized with the proprietor’s title, metropolis and phone quantity, or a singular identification quantity issued by the division. All gear left on a WMA in a single day, together with floor blinds, recreation cameras and traps, should have this identification.

House owners can generate an gear registration quantity of their account on the Recreation and Fish web site, gf.nd.gov. You solely want to do that as soon as, and the registration quantity can be utilized on all gear requiring identification.

I believe most hunters are conscious of those guidelines, but it’s shocking what number of tree stands and path cameras – dozens per 12 months – Recreation and Fish employees wind up eradicating as a result of individuals don’t retrieve them by the Jan. 31 removing deadline.

Tree stands and floor blinds additionally don’t pre-empt looking rights of others within the neighborhood, however definitely there’s a degree of courtesy concerned that claims when you’re pheasant looking and see somebody sitting in a tree stand within the space, you give them a large berth. The opposite aspect is somebody in a tree stand on a public looking space can’t count on they’ll have the realm to themselves, which may embody others placing up stands close by – and even somebody sitting in your stand.

Listed here are another WMA guidelines and rules to recollect. An entire itemizing of all rules is on the market on the Recreation and Fish web site.

• Motor autos: Until in any other case designated, motorized autos are restricted to constructed roads, established trails and parking areas usually utilized by passenger vehicles.
• Firearms: Use of firearms is, after all, allowed, besides in a reckless or indiscriminate method, and as in any other case posted at public street entry factors.
• Baiting: Inserting bait to draw wildlife for any objective is prohibited.
• Littering: As it’s in every single place else within the state, littering is prohibited.
• Industrial enterprise: Industrial enterprise is prohibited. Cropping, haying or grazing are allowed by allow solely from the Recreation and Fish Division.
• Tenting: Tenting for longer than 10 consecutive days is prohibited. Some WMAs are closed to tenting altogether, whereas others have additional restrictions.
• Group actions: Group actions involving greater than 25 individuals require a allow from the Recreation and Fish Division.
• Drones: Use of drones, or any unmanned radio-controlled plane, is prohibited until approved by the Recreation and Fish director.