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ND Private Land No Trespass Bill SB2315

NDGuy

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Attention all Sportsman who love enjoying the outdoors in North Dakota!! This bill will be headed to the final vote soon. This bill will reverse current ND law and make ND a zero tolerance no trespass state, currently people can hunt & fish on private land as long as it is not posted. The system works great and due to a few bad eggs and the ND pipeline fiasco awhile back some Ranchers and big money are pushing this bill hard.

If you care about keeping things as in with ND in regards to posting land write a short email to these ND legislators to vote no on this bill. One great thing about my state is the ample opportunity for all to enjoy the outdoors. This will further destroy that heritage and ability for those to enjoy tradition with their families. North Dakota is 93% private land (Source https://gf.nd.gov/private-lands ) and it will not be a benefit to mimic MT or MN law where they have a much higher percentage of public land. The people most likely to be affected by this are those that pursue badlands game in Western ND as well as ALL waterfowlers and upland hunters. A lot of landowners leave the land unposted because they don't want to be bothered and/or they don't care about people shooting a rooster out of their tree row.

Take 5 minutes out of your day and send emails to the ND reps below. I mocked up a short email if you want to just copy and paste but feel free to put your own words in the email:

As an avid sportsman and resident of the state of ND I would like to express my opposition to this bill. ND has a longstanding heritage of freelance hunting and that is due to the nature of our current trespass laws. A hunting heritage that brings lots of money to our state and provides a wealth of hunting opportunities to those willing to go out and find them. Locking up those opportunities because of a few bad apples would be a devastating blow to our states sportsmen and women. I have had heard of issues with trespassing on friend and family’s hunting land (posted with signs), and can honestly say that the only thing that will prevent that is more law enforcement and stricter penalties. But the fact is most of us hunters and anglers are respectful of those property rights and the system works very well as is.
Let’s keep a positive mindset and promote hunting in our great state. Work on enforcement in problem areas and create programs to help bridge the gap between hunters and landowners. A no vote on SB 2315 will be a bright future for hunting and fishing in North Dakota!

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If this passes, my pheasant plans for November may change...
Make sure to shoot an email out, talk about you being a nonresident spending x$ per year coming here to hunt and stay.

This is also detrimental to small towns that depend on the non-residents staying at a hotel, filling their gas tanks, eating etc. People won't come here if they can't get on anywhere but PLOTS that has been trampled down to the dirt by cattle or fighting with dozens of others over who's walking CRP today.

My mindset would be completely different if we weren't 7% public land here. To be honest this won't affect me a whole lot due to me having my contacts for bowhunting, pheasants, geese etc.

BUT EVENTUALLY we all need to cut it out with the "oh well I got mine" attitudes and stand together as sportsman or it will all be dissolved.
 
My group has traveled to ND for the pheasant opener nearly every year for the past 8 years, hunting mostly private un-posted land. I sent my comments to the local legislators yesterday with very similar talking points to those suggested above. If this passes we'll have to go elsewhere; hello South Dakota.
 
My group has traveled to ND for the pheasant opener nearly every year for the past 8 years, hunting mostly private un-posted land. I sent my comments to the local legislators yesterday with very similar talking points to those suggested above. If this passes we'll have to go elsewhere; hello South Dakota.
You are welcome in SD anytime! Just an FYI, all private property is no trespassing, even if not posted. You can look forward to an enjoyable hunt here in SD.
 
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I have never hunted ND, yet anyway, and was planning to in the future. My family and friends have told me how well the current system works for them when waterfowl hunting up there. So, I wrote a letter as a nonresident. It's always hard to tell if that matters or not when they mostly listen to their own residents. Best wishes!
 
You are welcome in SD anytime! Just an FYI, all private property is no trespassing, even if not posted. You can look forward to an enjoyable hunt here in SD.
Understood, but if access is tough might as well go where bird numbers are high.

It is being debated now:
 
I received an email this passed this morning. Hopefully it is incorrect otherwise a lot of hunting opportunity was just lost.
 
I received an email this passed this morning. Hopefully it is incorrect otherwise a lot of hunting opportunity was just lost.

The info you received is incorrect. The vote took place about 40 minutes ago. Section A passed, which basically keeps things the way they are as far as hunting access. Section B failed which had all of the poorly written portions pertaining to hunting access.

This bill is still not entirely dead but I believe sportsmen dodged a bullet with today's House vote.
 
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I heard from a buddy that ND G&F didn’t do sportsmen any favors on the bill.

For pheasants you are better off somewhere else anyways. Their numbers out in the Mott area are decimated in comparison to what they once were. A whopping 1% of deer tags to NR’s, and they give average Joe residents the shaft on elk tags while absolutely catering to landowners on elk.

I grew up there, had some great times and saw populations of game almost out of control some years then a fraction of what they were years later. With the loss of CRP, low amounts public land, high percentage of posted land, harsh winters, springs that are too wet or too dry; it is a place that shouldn’t be on the top of your list to hunt.
 
Hope it doesn’t pass. My grandfather and father used to freelance up there in the 80s and 90s for waterfowl and upland, and I started going in the 2000s and up. I can’t tell you how much money weve spent in those small towns on hotels, beer, food, etc. I hope to be able to take my children up there one day
 
Thank you to Tomahawk for providing the link above. I listened to some of this. I would like to see what the language is in written form for Section A that passed and Section B that failed. What I don't understand is why the landowners that are so wound up about this bill don't just post their land if they don't want people hunting on it. A couple people talked quite sternly regarding locking off hunting access to their land if this bill wasn't passed. I'm no attorney or politician but it seems to me that those landowners that don't want hunters on their land could accomplish the same thing with a couple boards, paint and a couple 8 penny nails. :unsure:
 
Not sure I understand. Isn’t private land private. Just ask permission?

Can’t take someone’s car without permission or go in their house?
 
I'm glad you do not live in ND.
You failed to answer my question. I am not arguing for or against just trying to understand why people think they should be able to use land they don’t own without permission. We as sportsman have a responsibility to know where are are hunting.
 
You failed to answer my question. I am not arguing for or against just trying to understand why people think they should be able to use land they don’t own without permission. We as sportsman have a responsibility to know where are are hunting.

North Dakota is filled with many small parcels of land owned by different individuals. Often those individuals don’t live anywhere near the land and sometimes live in other states. Much of the land is production agricultural crop land. Given the ownership information and the large amount of migratory birds that travel through North Dakota, many landowners don’t want to be bothered with countless hunters asking permission from mid August thru December.

When I first moved to ND from MT I asked permission to hunt all land whether posted or not. It didn’t take long and I was scolded twice by landowners (on the same day) for asking to hunt non posted land. They made it clear to me they don’t post their land for a reason. That reason being they don’t want to be bothered by hunters. Once a farmer told me I was the eleventh person so far that day to ask for permission to hunt a posted stubble field for geese. That has to get old for landowners.

My North Dakota native in-laws choose to post their land due to cattle often being present. I recently had a discussion with my FIL and he stated that posting his land is not a burden to him and even if all land was considered posted, he’d probably keep doing things they way he always has.

The North Dakota law is different from any other state I’ve hunted but the current law has been in place for many decades and the system works. Many landowners don’t have a problem with the current law and most hunters are respectful of private property whether posted or not. Just because the land isn’t posted doesn’t mean the hunter doesn’t know where they are. A responsible hunter checks thoroughly to ensure the land is or is not posted before entering or asking permission.
 
I understand what your typing belshawelk, but as a landowner in ND I believe that half section I have 12 miles from home is not my car or my backyard as some like to say. If I wish to keep people off what I farm or control the numbers I can post those qrtrs, but if I don't care if your out there bird hunting or deer hunting I can just leave it open, I don't care for phone calls and I'm not big on conversation when I'm working, I only post whats around the yard and across the road from the neighbors, always seems to be some idiot that has to try and jap a deer right out there driveway, the 5 percent that screw the rest of us good hunters.
 
I am a ND native (SW corner), moved to MT in 2001 but still travel back home at least a couple times each year to hunt. The unposted private land has been such that you do not permission to hunt on those lands (crops excluded) and it has been this for decades because it flat out works. It falls onto the landowner to post their property if they chose to do so at some point in the future. Every year I go back there is more posted land from the previous year. A large portion of these newly posted lands has less to do with the long time land owners having enough and deciding to post but rather this dramatic increase in posting is largely due to new owners of the land which are often not from the area and also guides are purchasing some land as well as leasing up the hunting rights in a lot of country which in turn gets posted.

Which ever poster stated above that ND is a shcitty state to hunt, to that I say you must be right and you should stay home. No doubt the pheasant numbers are in the tank compared to a few short years ago but I can promise/guarantee that there are still enough birds to fill a bag limit and the only caveat is that you will be walking a lot more to find those birds; but is that really a bad thing?
 
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You failed to answer my question. I am not arguing for or against just trying to understand why people think they should be able to use land they don’t own without permission. We as sportsman have a responsibility to know where are are hunting.

And I am glad I do not live in Oregon.
 
Fair enough. Sounds like a great system. I am both a private land owner and public land hunter. Oregon and Colorado laws are very different and very few allow hunting without permission. I allow hunters to hunt mine as long as they follow rules both state and my basic take care of it like it was your own. I just found a dead bull elk that was shot out of season by trespassers. They took the head and most meet but it pisses me off. My land is not posted on all sides but is gated with a sign and fenced entirely. I wish I could say everyone is respectful. I find candy wrappers, water bottles and soda cans all the time. I live 5 hrs away so I can’t monitor.
Good for you guys.
 
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