More Public Land Available

North Dakota Outdoors - Hunters will find more land open to the public this fall, the Game and Fish Department's Private Lands Project recently met it's goal of a million acres.

Tom Jensen tells us more in this week's segment of North Dakota outdoors...

" One of the only complaints the Game and Fish Department ever received about the Private Lands Open to Sportsmen program was that there were too many hunters and not enough land

Now with more than a million acres registered in the project it will help ease that cramped feeling Casey: "It'll help spread hunters out hopefully so you don't get too crowded in some areas." Chances are you've driven by some PLOTS acres at one time or another and maybe you didn't know what they were this is what to look for Casey: "When you're driving out in the countryside you'll see these triangle yellow signs." If you're planning a trip though, and don't want to drive willy-nilly thru the countryside looking for triangle yellow signs you need one of these the 2007 PLOTS guide

Each hunting area has a designed page each page defines which areas are open to public hunting if you learn to read the guide you'll even be able to tell which sections will meet your particular hunting needs Casey: "And you'll be able to tell by looking at the guide which ones are working lands, which ones are habitat plot or CRP tracts, which ones were taken just for waterfowl hunting." Meeting that million acre goal is a real milestone for the PLOTS program..but the biologists have no intention of stopping there

In fact, there's a good chance hunters and sportsmen could see improvements in some of the tracts that are already signed up in the project?

Casey: "Some of the tracts that we have in, we've created a relationship with those landowners and there's chances to create more habitat on some of those pieces." Anderson stresses that, even though this is land open to public hunting it is still private land

Pick up your litter be courteous and respectful and if you happen to run across the landowner give him a pat on the back for signing up some of his acres into a project that will help solidify the future of hunting in North Dakota

Tom Jensen in the North Dakota Outdoors"

The new PLOTS guides are available at license vendors or any Game and Fish office...or you can find individual pages available in a printable format on the Game and Fish website at gf.nd.gov