North Dakota
December has come again. The season started with such promise, full of aspirations for massive antlers fitting perfectly in the empty space on the wall. A winter of deer steaks and chili enjoyed while retelling the story of conquest, of trials and tribulations that lead to the meal before you. A summer spent practicing with your rifle and optics, buying the newest “must have” gear, and watching every Mule Deer hunting video on the internet lead to a September full of deliberate scouting and combing the fields and sage flats for your target buck in anticipation of opening day.
The Bass Pro shops, and Cabela’s outdoor fund grant was generous enough to award the Mule Deer Foundation $250,000 that we can leverage with an additional $1.4 million in funds from other partners and internal sources. By combining these funds, we are implementing more than 27 projects on working lands and ranches across the Great Plains states resulting in improvements to over 55,000 acres of wildlife habitat.
The Mule Deer Foundation (MDF) is excited to announce the approval of a $750,000 grant from the North Dakota Industrial Commission’s Outdoor Heritage Fund. This generous grant will support our efforts to enhance big game connectivity and reduce habitat fragmentation in western North Dakota. The commission approved this funding as part of the Outdoor Heritage Fund matching grants program, which is entirely funded by oil and gas production tax revenue.
The plains appear tame as a saddled horse and wild as a mustang in the same instant. Looking out over rolling hills and grazing deer everything seems possible and notching your tag appears a certainty. Hours later on your tenth blown stalk of the day, out of water, and running from a rattling sound under a rock, you are suddenly surrounded by the wild land Hugh Glass crawled across after being mauled by a grizzly 200 years ago.
Armadillo eggs are a time-honored traditional appetizer of the Southwest. At the Mule Deer Foundation, we like to think of this appetizer as a great use of the excess mule deer grind left over at the end of the butchering day. For this Mule Deer Armadillo Eggs recipe we like to mix in 30% pork fat with our grind but whatever you have left over after your brats, or your summer sausage mix can work just as well. In fact, the more unique your blend of fat content and spices the better this appetizer becomes truly yours.