North Dakota
MDF Projects
P.L.O.T.S. (Private Lands Open To Sportsmen) Grant
2004 to Present
The North Dakota Game and Fish Department’s (NDGF) P.L.O.T.S. program is a habitat based access program. It provides financial and technical assistance to private landowners through grass plantings, wildlife tree/shrub plantings, forest management, wildlife water developments, and cooperative projects. This is funded with revenue from the sale of Habitat Stamps, hunting license fees, interest accrued from the Department's general fund balance, and from grants made by North American Wetland Conservation Act (NAWCA), Beginning Farmer/Rancher Program, Landowner Incentive Program (LIP), & Forest Land Enhancement Program (FLEP). In keeping with the mission of the Mule Deer Foundation, several ND chapters have partnered with the ND Game and Fish Dept. by making a grant to the P.L.O.T.S. program and will do so conceivably on an annual basis. The MDF knows that this program is very habitat oriented. Whether it involves habitat development or evaluating habitat that is already there, this access-based program benefits not only mule deer, but sportsmen and landowners as well.
This grant will continue to help the NDGF manage mule deer populations on the private landscape in mule deer country. Since over 90% of the land in North Dakota is privately owned, this is crucial to managing the state's mule deer herd. The expansion of this program into mule deer country has allowed more efficient habitat development to take place on private land as well as allowing sportsmen to access private land to obtain a more balanced harvest.
The grant made to the NDGF is used to pay portions of the habitat rental cost on the various programs that the NDGF has implemented under their P.L.O.T.S. program. The P.L.O.T.S. program is a habitat based hunter access program that has had success in enrolling over 1 million acres of land in the state. However, the lack of attention devoted to mule deer management through this program has caught the attention of the MDF and of both resident and non-resident sportsmen. With this in mind, the Northern Badlands Chapter (in Bismarck) of the MDF began making a grant on an annual basis since 2005 to help the NDGF manage mule deer populations on the private landscape. Since the inception of three additional chapters of the MDF in Minot (West Dakota Chapter), Fargo (Lake Agassiz Chapter), Dickinson (Teddy Roosevelt Chapter), & with the sale of the statewide mule deer tag raffle tickets, the MDF has been able to put thousands of dollars on the ground for mule deer through this PLOTS program ($35,643.13 to date).
The biologists employed by the NDGF are given the freedom to incorporate this grant into their respective districts in order to help fulfill the mission of the MDF. The P.L.O.T.S. grant partnership between the NDGF and the MDF results in a very cost effective means of managing wildlife and wildlife habitat on private land. In previous years, the grant has helped fund tracts of land in the program for as high as $9/ac., which is very cost effective. Recently, however, the money will go even farther, as the cost per acre to the MDF grant for the new tracts to be enrolled will be around $0.83/ac.