North Dakota
Doug Leier: R3 – Recruiting, Retaining and Reactivating – hunters and anglers is crucial to conservation
WEST FARGO – I wouldn’t be surprised to find out kids who grew up on the beaches of California are more likely to surf than a kid from North Dakota. Fair is fair. If you were raised in the Midwest, I’d suggest your odds of growing into hunting and fishing are more likely than those from Laguna Beach.
Around these parts, even if you don’t buy a hunting and fishing license, it’s likely someone in your family or your neighbor does. The numbers prove it.
In North Dakota, 23% of all residents over the age of 16 bought a fishing license. That’s 141,712 North Dakotans who went fishing, plus an estimated 50,000 kids who don’t need a fishing license yet. That’s well ahead of the national average of about 15% of Americans who fished. Of that percentage, 73% of those anglers were male, and 27% were female, lagging behind the national average of 31% female, but nevertheless, fishing continues to rise in popularity among women.
Before we leave the statistical data, consider 152,414 hunters – 16.5% of North Dakota’s 16-plus age bracket – bought a hunting license, compared with just 6% as a national average.
As a department, Game and Fish wants to ensure this strong outdoor heritage continues. Thus, the department tracks the stats, and develops strategies to recruit, retain and reactivate hunters and anglers where appropriate – R3, for short.
Recruit new hunters and anglers. Retain the current and reactivate those who have, but have not taken part recently.
Hunting in the United States was built upon the principle that wildlife is a public resource owned by all, regulated by law, managed by science and funded by those – hunters and anglers – with skin in the game.
The Federal Aid in Wildlife Restoration Act of 1937 – known as the Pittman-Robertson Act – placed an 11% excise tax on firearms and ammunition and allocated those funds to wildlife habitat restoration, improvements and research.
The act was shortly followed by a mirrored effort for fisheries management – the Dingell-Johnson Act.
Around the same time, state wildlife agencies were formed to carry out these tasks, primarily funded through the sale of hunting and fishing licenses, including our very own North Dakota Game and Fish Department, founded in 1930.
As of 2020, North Dakota has received over $182 million from the Pittman-Robertson Act alone. These dollars are directed toward state-owned or -managed wildlife management areas, habitat restoration projects, public shooting ranges, our beloved and strong Private Land Open To Sportsmen (PLOTS) program and to fish stocking and boat ramps from Dingell-Johnson dollars.
From 2011 to 16, the U.S. lost 2.2 million hunters nationwide amidst population increases.
Here in North Dakota, we were one of four states that did not experience per capita hunting license decreases during that time. However, almost all our hunting and fishing license sales reflect declines in people ages 17 to 44.
Thus, we may not be seeing declines yet, but they’re coming if we don’t change the tides.
Furthermore, if we want secured advocacy for the things we care about – wildlife conservation, public land access, soil health, the list goes on – we need people on our side from all walks of life.
We need natural resource issues to transcend political parties, genders, races and ages.
That’s why the North Dakota Game and Fish Department is joining the growing effort across the country devoted to R3 – recruiting, retaining and reactivating the next generation of hunters, anglers and conservationists to carry on our legacy.
Learn more about R3 efforts on the Game and Fish website at
gf.nd.gov/r3.
Doug Leier is an outreach biologist for the North Dakota Game and Fish Department. Reach him at dleier@nd.gov.
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.”
North Dakota
Fargo woman convicted in North Dakota fraud case now faces charges in Minnesota: A deeper dive
FARGO, N.D. (Valley News Live) – A North Dakota woman who was sentenced to 180 days in jail in Cass County for defrauding healthcare providers and Medicaid programs is now facing additional fraud charges in Minnesota.
Christine Marie Pryor, 55, pleaded guilty in November 2024 to theft by deception involving more than $50,000. She was sentenced to first serve 180 days with a 3-year sentence suspended. She received credit for 44 days already served.
Pryor was ordered to pay $82,584.78 in restitution to Southeast Human Services in Fargo, where she worked between 2018 and 2019.
How the scheme unfolded
According to court documents, Pryor worked at multiple healthcare facilities in North Dakota and Minnesota between 2018 and 2023, using the identities and credentials of three licensed professionals without their knowledge. She submitted fraudulent Capella University diplomas and transcripts to gain employment.
Investigators say Pryor admitted she searched state licensing websites for therapists who shared her first name, then used those therapists’ last names and license numbers when applying for jobs.
At Southeast Human Services, where she worked as a Licensed Addiction Counselor, Pryor earned $55,584.82 while providing therapy services to approximately 150 patients. She also opened her own counseling center, NIAM Brain Injury Center, in Fargo between 2020 and 2021, and worked at The Lotus Center in Moorhead, Minnesota, from 2021 to 2023.
Court documents say the three licensed professionals whose identities were used told investigators they had no knowledge of Pryor’s actions and did not give her permission to use their information.
Two additional charges against Pryor in North Dakota, unauthorized use of personal identifying information, were dismissed on motion of the state.
Additional charges in Minnesota
Pryor is also facing charges in Minnesota. Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison announced on Tuesday charges against Pryor in Clay County District Court for six theft offenses and six identity theft offenses related to defrauding Minnesota’s Medicaid program of more than $150,000.
According to the Minnesota complaint, Pryor claimed to provide psychotherapy and alcohol and drug counseling services to Medicaid recipients despite having no license or credentials to do so. Prosecutors allege she used the credentials and identities of three licensed professionals while claiming to provide Medicaid-funded services to 169 clients.
The Minnesota charges were filed as part of National Health Care Fraud Takedown Day, a joint effort involving the Department of Justice and more than 40 state Medicaid Fraud Control Units.
Copyright 2026 KVLY. All rights reserved.
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