HEy everyone. Fetch asked me to stop by here, and I finally have had time to. My name is Tom Jones, and I just moved to Jamestown and took the job of Private Lands Biologist, which means I am in charge of the PLOTS program in SE ND. Dont pull any punches, I want to hear the bad stuff, but let me state a couple of things will you?
1. Always remember that the people who run G&F are resident sportsman as well. What is good for them is good for you. So they are trying to do the right thing.
2. I just moved here from SD and none of you know how good you have it. SD has a NR cap of 6000. What does this mean? No guiding except along the Missouri River, resident duck hunting that borders on complete apathy, and if my brother in law comes to visit he cant hunt, cause he did not apply in June. On the landowner side, you have no trespass law. Do you know how much that means???? Sure there are 10 times as many posted signs, but where there aint there aint!!!! I called Ed Shultzes show one day back when I was farming during the Pheasant CRISIS and told him the same thing. We can all shoot ourselves in the foot. You cap NR too low, the landowners will get there poop in a group and pass a tresspass law. If the leasing keeps getting worse, resdents will put a cap on NR pheasants as well.
3. PLOTS is going to grow, and big time for next year. This program has been run in the spare time of department personnel in the past. With the addition of dedicated personell to the program. this is going to explode. If we can keep funding coming, we could see growth from the current 224,00 to a million acres in the near future. I know that sounds ambitious, but it could be real.
4. You guys all need to know how cheap your liscences are. i bought mine last week, and it was exactly half of what i paid for the same thing in SD.
5. I knwo nothing yet of management on the WMA's, but many of the ones I have seen could benefit from some grazing. In the long run grazing stimulates productivity, producing better nesting cover. Was this a State of Federal peice. My degree is actually in Range, so I would be interested in this.
None of what I write is official on here, and I will not speak out professionally again, but if anyone has concerns or suggestions, post em up, I will be watching and will answer. Tom