It was a sunny morning in early June when I visited Jeb Williams, director of the North Dakota Game and Fish Department, at its headquarters in Bismarck. While we talked, we saw outside the spacious window of his office a young family walk to a trail near the parking lot. Some of them were carrying fishing poles.

I inquired about it, and Williams told me that Game and Fish manages a pond it stocks with fish on the property and families come to use it often during the summer months. He said I should check it out after our meeting. I said I would, but first we had other things to discuss.

It’s not the first time that Williams and I have met like this. We try to meet once every few weeks to catch up on news and events from the department and the outdoors community. This time, he spoke about the advisory meetings Game and Fish held this spring across the state and some of the things that came out of the meetings.

One item is talk of possibly proposing a bear season, a first for North Dakota.

It would be in the Walhalla area, where Williams said people are seeing more of the animals to the point “where landowners might like to harvest a bear,” he said. “Individual hunters are also seeing enough of them that they’re starting to feel maybe it’s time.”

He said the department will take time this summer to do its due diligence in determining if a bear season would be positive for North Dakota.

“We’re a data-based agency that likes to have more than anecdotal stories when it comes to setting seasons or regulations, those types of things, and I think the public expects that of us. I think having some baseline information is important and the responsible thing for us to do, and so we’re going to be doing that this summer and discussing it with the public this fall and next spring for a potential bear season in fall 2027.”

Williams also addressed the Governor’s Soil Health and Habitat Program, a $6.5 million, state-funded initiative designed to improve soil, create wildlife habitat and support farmers. It also will benefit hunters. The program, funded by the Outdoor Heritage Fund and through in-kind donations, was developed with input from agricultural and conservation partners and is administered through North Dakota Association of Soil Conservation Districts. The North Dakota Game and Fish Department serves as a co-applicant.

The pilot program provides five-year contracts to approved private landowners who put habitat on their property, who will then be compensated in the form of annual rental payments, cost-share for grass establishment, and a first-of-its-kind $10 per acre crop insurance credit for unproductive cropland converted to grassland habitat. Producers who enroll acres into the North Dakota Game and Fish’s Private Land Open To Sportsmen (PLOTS) program receive additional incentives. The department provides the crop insurance premium reduction for converting marginal, unproductive cropland into perennial grass habitat.

Williams said not all agricultural land is productive, and those lands that are not could become important areas for conservation. “There are pieces of land that can be utilized in other ways — improving the soil health and putting habitat and grass on the landscape. Any time you can put habitat on the land in the form of grass and wetlands and trees, those are features that wildlife respond to.”

Williams said there have been a lot of conversations about the program since it was announced by Gov. Kelly Armstrong during a press conference in late January, and those discussions will continue. It’s good to clear the air.

“It’s not like us taking a township and putting it all in grass,” Williams said. “It’s taking chunks that a particular producer or landowner looks at as being unproductive acres and turning it into productive wildlife habitat for pheasants and other animals.”

Williams is excited about the initial response for the program and said Game and Fish and its partners are working on ways to keep the program funded for the years ahead.

As our meeting wrapped up, we saw more people in the parking lot heading to the trail that would take them to the pond. Williams said sometimes on days when things haven’t gone as well as he had hoped, and he sees young people and their parents show up to use the pond, it brightens his mood. It reminds him of the department’s overall mission.

He said, “that’s what we’re here for” — to provide natural resources to North Dakota residents, now and into the future.

As promised, once I left Williams’ office, I walked to the pond and encountered a prairie snake on my walkabout. Soon, I met up with the fishing family we saw from his window — Christy Hosek, of Bismarck, and seven of her 15 children. She said they visit the pond every week, and most every time the kids catch fish. While I was there, 10-year-old Cole caught a small walleye. He held it up so I could take a picture of him with the fish before he released it back into the water. The pond is a catch-and-release-only water.

For those who have the need or interest in visiting the Game and Fish headquarters, a modern building in a quiet area on the outskirts of Bismarck, check out its catch-and-release pond. It’s a pleasant spot with a mowed grassy trail around it and some wildlife to view as well. There’s even a picnic area at the trailhead where parents and their young anglers can relax with a sandwich and drink. Visitors must bring their own lunch, of course.

As I began my walk back to my car, I heard shouting from the pond. Another young angler caught a white bass.

Do you have a story idea or outdoors news tip? Reach out to Andrew Weeks, outdoors editor for the Grand Forks Herald, at aweeks@gfherald.com.

Andrew Weeks is an award-winning journalist who has reported for newspapers and magazines. Prior to joining the Grand Forks Herald as its outdoors editor, Weeks was editor for several years of Prairie Business, a publication of the Grand Forks Herald and Forum Communications Co. Before that role, he was outdoors editor for a daily newspaper in Idaho.

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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.

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.