Bottom line is for you Nodakers is, the good old days are done!
Price of land is not conducive to much wildlife habitat being born.
I forsee it getting worse in the future.
Truly feel for you guys and the recruiting of new hunters.
Deer don't eat dirt.
Yep! Without a place to survive winter, tag numbers and distribution won't matter a tinkers damn. Loss of shelter belts, drain tiling fields, burning sloughs, building houses in every patch of trees and along the river valleys, grazing pastures and public lands to within and inch of their lives, cutting and baling supposed conservation areas, and other habitat destroying activities all result in lowered carrying capacity of the land. In the face of most human activities, deer and other critters LOSE. It takes DECADES to create good thermal cover for critters, but only hours to destroy it. Unfortunately, those folks interested in doing the work to create habitat are an ever shrinking percentage of the population. Many folks want to appear to be concerned about habitat while at the same time actively working to destroy it and justify it with words like "It's only 5 acres.", "Those trees are such a mess." or "That slough just fills with snow, is full of weeds, and creates mosquitoes." Sad, but there it is. In the end, it will be pay to hunt, travel to hunt, take what you can get when you go hunt here in ND, or hang it up altogether and go fish. Even if you buy some land and build the habitat, you will have to patrol it like a fiend to keep azzholes from trespassing and hunting it anyway. I know, I've done it. Sorry about the Debbie Downer post, but I can't see any other truth without MASSIVE efforts from across the state to reverse direction and with the current economy, I don't see habitat creation or conservation getting in the way of the pursuit for the the almighty dollar. The whole thing makes me want to start drinking. It's depressing as hell. Carry On!!