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North Dakota Senate passes bill to protect deer baiting on private property

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North Dakota Senate passes bill to protect deer baiting on private property


BISMARCK — The North Dakota Senate voted 31-15 Wednesday to pass a bill preventing the North Dakota Game and Fish Department from restricting the use of supplemental feed on private property to hunt big game – commonly referred to as baiting.

Senate Bill 2137 still needs to pass through the House and receive the governor’s signature before it becomes law.

Supporters of the bill say that baiting bans infringe on private property rights and are based on needless fears over the spread of Chronic Wasting Disease. CWD is a brain disease that affects deer, elk, moose and other cervids. The disease always leads to death, and there is no treatment or vaccine for it.

Sen. Keith Boehm, R-Mandan, said 49,596 deer have been tested over 22 years resulting in 105 detections of CWD. He said that detections do not equate to disease — that a deer must be necropsied for confirmation of the disease. He said one deer in North Dakota has been confirmed to have died from CWD.

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Boehm said that while deer numbers are declining in the state, it is not a result of CWD.

The Game and Fish Department could not immediately be reached to comment on Boehm’s contentions. The agency has published information since 2009 — the year the first case was detected in North Dakota — on 105 positive cases of CWD identified through its hunter-assisted surveillance program. The department also has previously commented on one documented case of a natural deer death due to the disease — a whitetail found dead and emaciated by a landowner near Williston in February 2019.

Senate Bill 2137 would prevent North Dakota’s Game and Fish Department from banning baiting on private property.

Contributed / Matt Neibauer

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Boehm said baiting bans do not make sense when landowners are allowed to feed deer year-round and it only becomes illegal when a deer is killed over the feed piles.

Sen. Paul Thomas, R-Velva, said that the baiting is crucial for elderly and disabled hunters, and bow hunters, who need to bring deer in close to have a chance at harvesting one.

“Bait has been used for a long, long time as that tool that allows that person to at least have a chance,” Thomas said. “Many landowners have that opportunity … because we have certain areas that naturally attract deer. Unfortunately many sportsmen across this state do not have that opportunity. We cannot take that opportunity away from them. I urge you to vote green (yes).”

Opponents of the bill say it strips the Game and Fish Department of an important tool in its mission to mitigate the spread of diseases passed between game animals by close contact.

“I don’t think we should decide this issue on the basis of property rights,” Sen. Michael Dwyer, R-Bismarck, said during the floor session. “This is an issue of CWD, as the carrier said. The Game and Fish Department is trying to balance the concern over the disease with the attempt to provide as many hunting opportunities as possible. I think we should let the Game and Fish Department do their job and vote red (no) on this bill.”

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Sen. Michelle Axtman, R-Bismarck, questioned the bill carrier on what the repercussions would be if a new highly contagious disease is discovered in the next season and Game and Fish is no longer able to institute baiting bans.

Sen. Randy Lemm, R-Hillsboro, said he does not think the bill would have an effect in the event a new disease is discovered.

The bill has a sunset clause that was added in committee which means that should it become law it would be rendered ineffective after July 31, 2029. Lemm said this was done so the topic can be revisited after further research on CWD has been conducted by Game and Fish.

The bill received a 5-1 do-pass recommendation out of committee. Its committee hearing was a marathon event with a plethora of testimony on both sides of the issue, forcing the committee to change chambers to accommodate all who wished to testify.





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North Dakota

North Dakota House votes to repeal 'discriminatory' HIV law

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North Dakota House votes to repeal 'discriminatory' HIV law


BISMARCK — The criminal charge associated with knowingly infecting someone with HIV could change in North Dakota after lawmakers voted Wednesday, Feb. 19, to downgrade the crime from a felony charge to a misdemeanor.

According to

state law,

HIV is the only infectious disease that carries a felony charge if it is knowingly transmitted to another person.

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Those found guilty of doing so face 20 years in prison and a $20,000 fine, while knowingly infecting someone with any other sexually transmitted disease is punishable by a fine up to $1,000.

House Bill 1217

would move the penalty for spreading HIV to the same misdemeanor class as other sexually transmitted diseases.

Bill sponsor Gretchen Dobervich, D-Fargo, said in a House Human Services hearing on the bill that the existing law, which was enacted in the 1980s, is discriminatory against people with HIV.

Dobervich added that in 35 years of the law being in effect, no one has been prosecuted.

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“There has been a lot of discussion on this bill, and one of the things that keeps coming up is that HIV can be terminal. And it can — so can a lot of other infectious diseases,” she said. “This bill reflects the tremendous body of evidence that modernizing HIV laws decreases the risk of HIV, as people who are at risk of HIV are more likely to seek testing.”

There was no further discussion on the House floor before lawmakers passed the bill with a 50-43 vote, sending it to the Senate for consideration.

The state Department of Health and Human Services, American Civil Liberties Union and representatives of two health care clinics voiced support for bill in its hearing. There was no opposing testimony.

Peyton Haug joined The Forum as the Bismarck correspondent in June 2024. Reach Peyton at phaug@forumcomm.com.
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Could a state icon bring more attention to North Dakota?

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Could a state icon bring more attention to North Dakota?


BISMARCK — A

state icon

could help North Dakota promote itself to the rest of the country and possibly bring in more visitors, a tourism leader says.

More than 5,200 people have voted for one of two state icons that could represent the Peace Garden State. Voting began last week and runs through the end of the month.

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Voters who go to

surveymonkey.com/r/StateIconPress

can choose between two options: a circular icon that features an American bison in the Badlands or a sunset icon inside the letters ND.

The results could be revealed as early as mid-March, North Dakota Tourism and Marketing Director Sara Otte Coleman told The Forum on Tuesday, Feb. 18. The state icon will help North Dakota promote itself to potential visitors, she said.

“We not only wanted to help educate and raise awareness for the state, but we also really wanted to create some in-state pride and have it be something that people would want to buy and wear and tout,” she said.

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The state icon will complement the state’s

“Be Legendary”

brand, Coleman said. North Dakota changed its logo in 2018 as a way to bring its 57 brands under one unifying logo.

North Dakota’s current “Be Legendary” logo.

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The rebrand attracted criticism and controversy. The state changed its longtime black-and-white logo and “Legendary” slogan, opting for a simpler font with color.

Lawmakers and others questioned why

North Dakota didn’t bid out the logo project.

Instead, the state hired Kara Ellefson, a longtime marketing executive at Great Plains Software from Hawley, Minnesota, for $9,500 to create the logo. Then-North Dakota Gov. Doug Burgum knew Ellefson — he was the CEO of Great Plains before he sold it to Microsoft in 2001.

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The threshold for bidding a North Dakota project is $10,000, meaning the transaction was legal. The governor’s office said Burgum did not suggest Ellefson for the project.

NDLegendary_logo_FINAL_BW_cmyk (1).jpg

North Dakota’s previous state logo.

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The North Dakota Department of Commerce asked for bids to design the state icon, Coleman said. Four companies submitted proposals, and The Good Kids, a design studio in Bismarck, won with a bid of about $23,000, she said.

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Other states have icons, like Minnesota’s blue and green “MN.” Some states have multiple symbols, Coleman noted.

There could be tweaks to the proposed icons before a final one is announced, she said.

“This is something to build on,” she said. “It’s not the do-all, end-all. … It’s just kind of a fun marketing metric.”

North Dakota has used different visuals in the past to promote the state, including the pioneer logo used for the Centennial Celebration in 1989 and imagery of Lewis and Clark.

The state proposed themes to include in the icon designs, Coleman said. People praise the state’s “beautiful sunsets, landscapes and blue skies,” she said.

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State tourism leaders also encouraged “ND” to be a part of the logo, she said.

“I think they’re fun,” she said of the proposed icons. “I’m excited about them. I think either one of them could work well.”

The state has limited recognition in the U.S., Coleman noted. A 2022 study showed that only 22% of respondents were familiar with North Dakota, according to the request for proposals that sought bids for the icon. North Dakota is largely seen as a flyover state with few attractions.

North Dakota Tourism expanded advertising in recent years. TV promotions used Minot native and actor

Josh Duhamel

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to highlight attractions like Theodore Roosevelt National Park.

It seems to have paid off. About 3.6 million people visited the state tourism website last year, up 30% from 2023, she said. Several visitor metrics, such as the number of people flying into the state and Canadian border crossings into North Dakota, were up about 10% each last year, she said.

Other metrics, including hotel occupancy rates and Theodore Roosevelt National Park visits, remained flat, Coleman noted.

“We’ve had great results with the work that we do, considering we have one of the smallest budgets in the country,” she said.

North Dakota has in the past underfunded its marketing budget, Coleman said, but it is making progress in telling its story.

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“Hopefully, next time we do that national survey, we will show a higher number than 22%,” she said.

The survey doesn’t have a comment section, but input on the icons can be sent to

tourism@nd.gov.





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Arctic air sweeping south over Plains shatters record temperatures in North Dakota

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Arctic air sweeping south over Plains shatters record temperatures in North Dakota


BISMARCK, N.D. — North Dakota felt more like the North Pole on Tuesday as lows broke records in the state capital of Bismarck and other parts of the state that had stood for more than a century.

Bismarck hit minus 39 on Tuesday, breaking the record of minus 37 (-38.3 C) set in 1910 for the same date, said National Weather Service Meteorologist James Telken in Bismarck. And late on Monday, Bismarck set a record of minus 35, shattering a 150-year-old record of minus 30 for the date of Feb. 17.

Much of the Midwest including Iowa, Minnesota and Nebraska also is gripped by low temperatures double digits below zero.

People should make sure to bundle up with hats, jackets and other winter gear even if they are outside for only a few minutes in such subzero cold, and they should bring pets indoors, Telken said. Warm clothing is especially important for drivers should they become stranded, he added.

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A gradual warmup is expected with lows on Wednesday night across most of North Dakota forecasted to be in the minus 10s to minus 20s. By Thursday, lows are projected to be in the single digits above and below zero.

Forecasted highs for Monday are in the 50s for parts of southwestern and south-central North Dakota, he said.



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