Hunters wore orange shirts to the Capitol on Jan. 17, 2025, in support of a bill to end restrictions on using bait to hunt deer. (Michael Achterling/North Dakota Monitor)
(Jeff Beach – North Dakota Monitor) – Orange-clad hunters herded into the North Dakota Capitol, calling for lawmakers to pass a bill that would end restrictions on using bait for deer hunting.
Senate Bill 2137 is only eight lines of text, saying that the state can’t restrict using feed for hunting a big-game animal.
Several landowners and hunters testified that restrictions by the North Dakota Game and Fish Department are an overreaction to the threat of chronic-wasting disease, or CWD, to deer in the state.
Matt Seykora of Bottineau is in an area with baiting restrictions because of a CWD detection. He testified in favor of a similar bill that failed in 2023.
He said the Game and Fish Department sold the threat of CWD — which can be fatal in deer — as an epidemic. But Seykora said the numbers don’t bear that out.
“They have gone against their own regulations, and they’ve gone against their own hypothesis-based science,” Seykora said of Game and Fish.
Gabe Thompson of Antler said Game and Fish has not properly managed deer populations, leaving hunters to appeal to the Legislature.
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