By: Brad Dokken, Northland Outdoors
GRAND FORKS, N.D. -- The North Dakota Game and Fish Department is drafting new deer license goals for the next five years, and fewer deer gun tags likely will be the reality for the foreseeable future.
The days when Game and Fish offered more than 100,000 tags--while still achieving the 70 percent success rate that is the benchmark for deer hunting in the state--are history.
The current goals, in place since 2009, call for a deer population high enough to accommodate 124,000 gun licenses.
"License goals will be lower," said Jeb Williams, wildlife chief for the North Dakota Game and Fish Department in Bismarck.
Williams and Game and Fish Director Terry Steinwand offered an update on the license goal process Monday night during the department's spring advisory board meeting for District 4 of northeast North Dakota. Game and Fish is mandated to hold the meetings twice a year in each of the state's eight advisory board districts.
About 30 people attended Monday night's meeting in the UND Memorial Union.
Key indicators
Williams said the department uses five key indicators--five-year average harvest rates, regional license densities, regional aerial survey data, regional hunter observation rates and biological/social factors such as disease and deer-vehicle collisions--to set license goals.
The challenge, he said, is to set license numbers at a level that maintains the 70 percent success rate North Dakota hunters have come to expect. Habitat loss resulting from expiring Conservation Reserve Program contracts, more land being developed for agriculture and the oil boom out west means the landscape no longer can support as many deer as it could in the early 2000s, when Game and Fish routinely issued more than 100,000 deer gun licenses.
Last year, Game and Fish offered 48,000 deer gun tags statewide, the lowest number since 1980.
"Most hunters would like to see more deer," Williams said. "Seventy percent has been determined by the public. We could go to 60 percent and give more opportunities, but there would be more unhappy people.
"Some of the units are going to be managed at a lot lower level because that's what they can sustain."
Elusive goal
Even with fewer deer tags available, hunter success hasn't reached 70 percent since 2009, Williams said. In Unit 2B of eastern North Dakota, Game and Fish last year issued 1,100 any antlered licenses, and hunters had 63 percent success. There were 900 antlerless tags available in 2B last year, and 66 percent of hunters filled their tags.
The goal, by comparison, is to achieve 70 percent with 5,000 buck licenses and 5,000 antlerless licenses in 2B, Williams said.
Those numbers no longer are realistic.
"We haven't determined license numbers for this year, but I can tell you this--it's going to be lower than last year," Williams said.
Responding to a question about closing the season for a year to let the deer herd rebuild, Steinwand, the department director, said the idea has been discussed, but it's an unlikely scenario.
"We want to manage (the season) for people," Steinwand said. "Deer licenses are our biggest revenue. We've lost at least $1 million a year the past few years" because of license reductions.
"It's not always about the killing," he added. "It's about the opportunity to go out with friends and family."
In hindsight, Steinwand said the department was too aggressive in killing deer in years such as 2010, when depredation complaints soared to nearly 500. He said the department was under considerable pressure from the Legislature to reduce deer numbers--or else.
The strategy coincided with a series of severe winters to produce the bleak deer population scenario hunters face today.
"I wish we would have backed off and taken a hit from the Legislature," Steinwand said. "We were too aggressive."
Williams said wildlife staff will have a better handle on 2015-19 deer license goals by this fall. Given the habitat challenges, managing for more deer on the landscape isn't a likely scenario.
"We'll have to see where this does end," he said. "I don't think anybody really knows."
Other topics
The first part of Monday night's two-hour meeting was devoted to questions from the audience, and topics included everything from the lack of winter aerial deer surveys because there wasn't enough snow, to coyotes, trapping and the lack of prairie chicken management in Grand Forks County.
There also was the annual question of why Game and Fish doesn't implement protected slot limits on walleyes in an effort to produce bigger fish.
Randy Hiltner, northeast district fisheries supervisor for Game and Fish in Devils Lake, said surveys have shown 84 percent of anglers would rather catch five 15-inch walleyes than two 20-inch walleyes.
Studies have shown a 16- to 20-inch slot limit would only increase the number of 20 inch walleyes by 5 percent to 10 percent, he said.
"There are a lot of consumptive anglers out there who like to eat those small walleyes," Hiltner said. "The real question is why do you want a slot limit imposed on you if you don't need it?"
GRAND FORKS, N.D. -- The North Dakota Game and Fish Department is drafting new deer license goals for the next five years, and fewer deer gun tags likely will be the reality for the foreseeable future.
The days when Game and Fish offered more than 100,000 tags--while still achieving the 70 percent success rate that is the benchmark for deer hunting in the state--are history.
The current goals, in place since 2009, call for a deer population high enough to accommodate 124,000 gun licenses.
"License goals will be lower," said Jeb Williams, wildlife chief for the North Dakota Game and Fish Department in Bismarck.
Williams and Game and Fish Director Terry Steinwand offered an update on the license goal process Monday night during the department's spring advisory board meeting for District 4 of northeast North Dakota. Game and Fish is mandated to hold the meetings twice a year in each of the state's eight advisory board districts.
About 30 people attended Monday night's meeting in the UND Memorial Union.
Key indicators
Williams said the department uses five key indicators--five-year average harvest rates, regional license densities, regional aerial survey data, regional hunter observation rates and biological/social factors such as disease and deer-vehicle collisions--to set license goals.
The challenge, he said, is to set license numbers at a level that maintains the 70 percent success rate North Dakota hunters have come to expect. Habitat loss resulting from expiring Conservation Reserve Program contracts, more land being developed for agriculture and the oil boom out west means the landscape no longer can support as many deer as it could in the early 2000s, when Game and Fish routinely issued more than 100,000 deer gun licenses.
Last year, Game and Fish offered 48,000 deer gun tags statewide, the lowest number since 1980.
"Most hunters would like to see more deer," Williams said. "Seventy percent has been determined by the public. We could go to 60 percent and give more opportunities, but there would be more unhappy people.
"Some of the units are going to be managed at a lot lower level because that's what they can sustain."
Elusive goal
Even with fewer deer tags available, hunter success hasn't reached 70 percent since 2009, Williams said. In Unit 2B of eastern North Dakota, Game and Fish last year issued 1,100 any antlered licenses, and hunters had 63 percent success. There were 900 antlerless tags available in 2B last year, and 66 percent of hunters filled their tags.
The goal, by comparison, is to achieve 70 percent with 5,000 buck licenses and 5,000 antlerless licenses in 2B, Williams said.
Those numbers no longer are realistic.
"We haven't determined license numbers for this year, but I can tell you this--it's going to be lower than last year," Williams said.
Responding to a question about closing the season for a year to let the deer herd rebuild, Steinwand, the department director, said the idea has been discussed, but it's an unlikely scenario.
"We want to manage (the season) for people," Steinwand said. "Deer licenses are our biggest revenue. We've lost at least $1 million a year the past few years" because of license reductions.
"It's not always about the killing," he added. "It's about the opportunity to go out with friends and family."
In hindsight, Steinwand said the department was too aggressive in killing deer in years such as 2010, when depredation complaints soared to nearly 500. He said the department was under considerable pressure from the Legislature to reduce deer numbers--or else.
The strategy coincided with a series of severe winters to produce the bleak deer population scenario hunters face today.
"I wish we would have backed off and taken a hit from the Legislature," Steinwand said. "We were too aggressive."
Williams said wildlife staff will have a better handle on 2015-19 deer license goals by this fall. Given the habitat challenges, managing for more deer on the landscape isn't a likely scenario.
"We'll have to see where this does end," he said. "I don't think anybody really knows."
Other topics
The first part of Monday night's two-hour meeting was devoted to questions from the audience, and topics included everything from the lack of winter aerial deer surveys because there wasn't enough snow, to coyotes, trapping and the lack of prairie chicken management in Grand Forks County.
There also was the annual question of why Game and Fish doesn't implement protected slot limits on walleyes in an effort to produce bigger fish.
Randy Hiltner, northeast district fisheries supervisor for Game and Fish in Devils Lake, said surveys have shown 84 percent of anglers would rather catch five 15-inch walleyes than two 20-inch walleyes.
Studies have shown a 16- to 20-inch slot limit would only increase the number of 20 inch walleyes by 5 percent to 10 percent, he said.
"There are a lot of consumptive anglers out there who like to eat those small walleyes," Hiltner said. "The real question is why do you want a slot limit imposed on you if you don't need it?"
