500,000 acre habitat program

[Fritz the Cat]

Would be nice to see most of this put toward preserving wetlands and associated upland habitat around them. Keep low spots from getting farmed, have buffer strips around water, etc. 5 acres here, 10 acres there. Gotta think that's going to be our best bang for our buck and would have the most impact.

A farmer let us hunt a 20-acre slough. In wet years it would claim ground and in dry years it would recede. Cattails grew well and so did Canada Thistle. The cattails provided us with a great place to hide.

One year it was especially dry and the farmer disced everything down. Barren no natural blind. I understood why he did it. The Thistle always had big fuzzballs providing a forever reservoir of seed.

We improvised and built a blind out of plywood and covered it with mud. Setting it next to the water it resembled a muskrat hut. Could have caught waterfowl with a butterfly net.

 

[Fritz the Cat]

Press conference from the Governor's page. The Governor called it early. We need landowners to buy into this program. Feasibly and economically, what makes sense to them.

Speakers Kelly Amstrong Governor
Doug Goehring Department of Ag
Jeb Williams Game and Fish
Rhonda Kelch Soil Conservation Districts
They all did a good job in this role out.

However, look at the photo ops. Keith Trego ND Natural Resources Trust positioned himself between the Gov. and Ag Commissioner.

If everyone wants this to work, unload that grifter.

 

[zoops]

A farmer let us hunt a 20-acre slough. In wet years it would claim ground and in dry years it would recede. Cattails grew well and so did Canada Thistle. The cattails provided us with a great place to hide.

One year it was especially dry and the farmer disced everything down. Barren no natural blind. I understood why he did it. The Thistle always had big fuzzballs providing a forever reservoir of seed.

We improvised and built a blind out of plywood and covered it with mud. Setting it next to the water it resembled a muskrat hut. Could have caught waterfowl with a butterfly net.

That's nice.

 

[Migrator Man]

A lot of hay sits until it rots, anyway. I’m not sure why they go to the trouble of bailing it at all.

Seems crazy to me when you have ranchers who pay crazy money for a bale of Alfalfa in WY. If you have that much extra hay you should be raising more beef! Screw crops

 

[Tymurrey]

The thing I don't like about this program and most of the other programs is they only apply to cropland and not enhancing all habitat. I am biased with that i'm sure. I'll use my example. I have a 20 acre chunk of pasture that i fenced off to plant trees on and i put a couple food plots in. It was marginal pasture, lots of short grass prairie so not even worth haying really and not great cover throughout the year. I could get cost share to plant the trees but nothing to offset the cost of losing the pasture and not the same amount of cost share if it was cropland. By planting trees i lose out on guaranteed income on land that i'm paying taxes on if i would have left it in grazing land along with the maintenance, time, and cost to maintain the trees. I have about 15 of those 20 acres that I wanted to put into native tall grass prairie for winter cover and nesting cover. I could get cost share on seed but thats it. Programs like this provide continued support if it were cropland to help offset the lost income and expenses to maintain. There is no way to break even financially or even come close by planting habitat anymore and if i decide to eat the cost i'm treated like an evil a-hole by many on sites like this because i'm a landowner who might not let others hunt. At this point my plan is to break it up, maybe break up some more of the pasture ground, collect crop rent or plant oats and hay it for a few years and maybe put into habitat then or say screw take the rent money and use it to hunt out of state.

 

[NDSportsman]

The thing I don't like about this program and most of the other programs is they only apply to cropland and not enhancing all habitat. I am biased with that i'm sure. I'll use my example. I have a 20 acre chunk of pasture that i fenced off to plant trees on and i put a couple food plots in. It was marginal pasture, lots of short grass prairie so not even worth haying really and not great cover throughout the year. I could get cost share to plant the trees but nothing to offset the cost of losing the pasture and not the same amount of cost share if it was cropland. By planting trees i lose out on guaranteed income on land that i'm paying taxes on if i would have left it in grazing land along with the maintenance, time, and cost to maintain the trees. I have about 15 of those 20 acres that I wanted to put into native tall grass prairie for winter cover and nesting cover. I could get cost share on seed but thats it. Programs like this provide continued support if it were cropland to help offset the lost income and expenses to maintain. There is no way to break even financially or even come close by planting habitat anymore and if i decide to eat the cost i'm treated like an evil a-hole by many on sites like this because i'm a landowner who might not let others hunt. At this point my plan is to break it up, maybe break up some more of the pasture ground, collect crop rent or plant oats and hay it for a few years and maybe put into habitat then or say screw take the rent money and use it to hunt out of state.

I agree with most of this except if you do eat the cost and do it on your own I have no issues with you posting it and limiting access. If you take money from the public to do it the public should get something in return, meaning access. ND needs more trees and tall grasses for winter cover. Hell anything is better then bare crop land or pasture. They shouldn't limit programs like this to just crop land it should include tree plantings, grass/crp, even slough set asides. Just allow access for the funding.

 

[Allen]

Section line right off the road. Looks like pretty easy access to me.

I just looked at OnX online and that east-west portion of 7th Ave is 880 yds north of the BLM stuff. Assuming 7th Ave NE is running east-west on a section line means that the BLM stuff is in the middle of the section, so there is indeed no access to the BLM land without permission of the surrounding private landowner(s).

 

[Allen]

A lot of hay sits until it rots, anyway. I’m not sure why they go to the trouble of bailing it at all.

No rancher knows exactly how much hay they will have available, or how many days they will need to feed their herd in a given year.

When hay is in short supply, and it is every few years, it gets damn expensive to buy and haul from those who have it in abundance, because it's rarely your neighbor.

Properly stored hay can still be of use a couple years after being cut. Yeah, the quality is lower with each passing day, but it will get your cattle through in a pinch.

 

[Lycanthrope]

maybe make it a requirement for landowners over X acres dedicated a % to habitat to qualify for federal subsidies, nationwide. Im thinking maybe 360 acres and 5% for habitat... Im sure the landowners will love that proposal! While were at it, lets quit funding ethanol also!

 

[Fritz the Cat]

No rancher knows exactly how much hay they will have available, or how many days they will need to feed their herd in a given year.

When hay is in short supply, and it is every few years, it gets damn expensive to buy and haul from those who have it in abundance, because it's rarely your neighbor.

Properly stored hay can still be of use a couple years after being cut. Yeah, the quality is lower with each passing day, but it will get your cattle through in a pinch.

Allen, I don't agree with you on much, I gave you a thumbs up.

 

[Tymurrey]

I agree with most of this except if you do eat the cost and do it on your own I have no issues with you posting it and limiting access. If you take money from the public to do it the public should get something in return, meaning access. ND needs more trees and tall grasses for winter cover. Hell anything is better then bare crop land or pasture. They shouldn't limit programs like this to just crop land it should include tree plantings, grass/crp, even slough set asides. Just allow access for the funding.

how many people would i have to let hunt? Can it be friends and family? Would it have to be wide open? Would the landowners around me for lets say 3 miles have to open up all of their land to hunting since we all know wildlife travel. This is where the argument about public money and private land falters. Wildlife needs a value to the private landowner and the neighbors and others usually also benefit from increased wildlife. I am wondering if the public benefits from the increased pollinators that my caragana's or other flowering trees bring in. How about any wildflowers or alfalfa plots i plant. What about maybe the native song birds that nest in the tall grass prairie. Habitat isn't a small picture item and most people are so blind sided by the jealousy and frustration that others have what they want they can't see the big picture that habitat isn't just deer and pheasants.

 

[Kurtr]

I have no problem giving money for habitat with out access. It’s a sum gain that is worth it

 

[NDSportsman]

how many people would i have to let hunt? Can it be friends and family? Would it have to be wide open? Would the landowners around me for lets say 3 miles have to open up all of their land to hunting since we all know wildlife travel. This is where the argument about public money and private land falters. Wildlife needs a value to the private landowner and the neighbors and others usually also benefit from increased wildlife. I am wondering if the public benefits from the increased pollinators that my caragana's or other flowering trees bring in. How about any wildflowers or alfalfa plots i plant. What about maybe the native song birds that nest in the tall grass prairie. Habitat isn't a small picture item and most people are so blind sided by the jealousy and frustration that others have what they want they can't see the big picture that habitat isn't just deer and pheasants.

If you take someone elses money to do it then I say they should be entitled to access it. I get what you're saying but I saw way too many people sticking their hand out for access on CRP land. It drove up the increase in fee hunting big time and ruined access for a ton of average folks whose tax monies funded those acres. I simply can't support that again. I'd rather see public money spent on public land than funding someone's private hunt club.