BISMARCK – The North Dakota Legislature holds a session every two years and every two years there are a number of bills introduced regarding outdoor issues. The Legislature is in session now and, somewhat surprisingly, the number of outdoor bills is less than usual.

“We’re down a little bit. Maybe that’s because of the electronic format, the uncertainty of how that works. Maybe that kept the numbers down,” said Scott Peterson, North Dakota Game and Fish Department deputy director. “In terms of quantity we’re down a bit and even more now that some are falling off the table.”

Every two years Peterson spends several hours a week at the Capitol, monitoring the progress of various bills and sometimes offering information to legislators or testifying before committees. This session is different though, due to coronavirus. Peterson says he has watched some hearings on his computer at the Game and Fish, which he says is a convenience at times but nevertheless isn’t quite the same as seeing legislators in person.

“You can’t really read any body language,” remarked Peterson.

Outdoor related bills sometimes are just not practical. Many are introduced for personal or emotional reasons and don’t stand up to scrutiny. Others result in lively debate in the Senate or House.

Senate Bill 2118, brought up at the request of Game and Fish, never got out of the Senate. It failed on a 21-26 vote. SB 2118 would have increased fines for certain Game and Fish violations – Class 1 noncriminal offenses from $50 to $100 and Class 2 noncriminal offenses from from $25 to $50.

Scott Winkelman, NDGF chief game warden, told the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee he was requesting a “Do Pass” recommendation, noting that current fees have been in effect since 1985 and “do not reflect the inflation level to today’s economic value.”

Also testifying in favor of an increase in fines was John Bradley, executive director of the North Dakota Wildlife Federation. Bradley told the committee “it’s past time there is a rise in the fines to better align them with other state agency fines and to serve as a better deterrent.”

“It’s not a huge thing but apparently the Senate didn’t see it the same way we did,” said Peterson.

A bill that appeared dead on arrival passed the Senate. The “moose bill”, SB 2172, would allow residents 75 years of age or older to have two entries in the annual lottery for once-in-a-lifetime moose licenses.

“What’s really, really strange is that it received a unanimous do not pass out of committee but passed the floor vote,” said Peterson.

The Senate vote in favor of passage was 27-20 and the bill has been forwarded to the House for further consideration. Peterson said a second entry in the moose license lottery won’t always make a big difference in success in the drawing. As an example, he said, if a person had two chances rather than one in the 2020 lottery for a bull moose in Unit M9 the probability of being selected would have only increased from 1 1/2% to 2 1/2%.

A proposed bill, SB 2184, to reward hunter education instructors with deer licenses and bighorn sheep, elk, or moose licenses was crushed in the Senate 6-41. The bill was opposed by Game and Fish.

“I have to say we value our volunteers and can’t get by without them, but we already reward them in various ways,” said Peterson. “It was a nice gesture but with a lot of unintended consequences. It only relates to part of our volunteers.”

Mike McEnroe, Bismarck, who has been a hunter education instructor for 29 years, told the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee that “hunter education instructors volunteer because they want to teach” and “do not volunteer in order to receive license preferences.”

Game and Fish utilizes volunteers for fishing programs and other endeavors throughout the year. Additionally, with over 800 hunter education instructors, a great number of deer tags would be taken away from the general public. The bill proposed that deer licenses be issued to hunter education instructors “who provided instruction within the preceding calendar year” and that Big 3 licenses, which are coveted by sportsmen and very limited in number, be issued to “five year” instructors.

SB 2143 passed the Senate 43-4 and is headed to the House. The bill would allow big game hunters to wear “camouflage daylight fluorescent orange or fluorescent pink garments.” Currently big game hunters are required to wear solid fluorescent orange only. The bill was introduced by District 27 Senator Kristin Roers, Fargo.

In committee Roers testified that when she went shopping for clothing to wear for deer hunting “the only clothes that were cut for a female body were in blaze pink”, which she purchased, only to learn later that blaze pink is not legal attire for hunting big game in North Dakota.

“Here’s our take on this,” said Peterson. “If it is proven as visible to the human eye as orange we don’t really have a reason to oppose it. It is legal in some states such as Minnesota, but not in Montana. Our only concern is safety.”

HB 1120 proposes disabled veterans be “entitled” to purchase a deer license and be eligible to hunt “during the five days preceding the youth deer hunting season and during the deer gun season.” The bill has been heard at the committee level but not yet voted on in the House.

The Senate passed by a 45-2 margin SB 2036, the electronic posting bill. The bill calls for an expansion and “evaluation of the electronic land access database” developed during the previous legislative session. Three counties were selected as “trial” counties in that study. The expansion for the next two years will include all 53 counties in North Dakota.

HB 1411 which allows the use of an artificial light with a power source of not more than six volts while hunting coyote, fox, raccoon, or beaver at any time day or night. The bill has stirred up some emotions.

District 33 Representative Bill Tveit, Hazen, told the House Energy and Natural Resources Committee that the bill “is not a hunting bill, it is about predator control” and passage was necessary to correct “intentional misinterpretation by the Game and Fish Department” over previous legislation.

Stephanie Tucker, NDGF furbearer biologist, countered Tveit’s views by saying, “the legislature has already given people flexibility with NDCC 20.1-07-04 to shoot those depredating furbearers at night, any time of the year” and that if some “clarifying language” needed to be added, Game and Fish would support those adjustments.

Lawmakers revised the language of the original bill as presented in the House. A similar bill in the Senate, in all likelihood, will be set aside in favor of the House version that already has had considerable scrutiny.

The date for introducing new bills has passed so legislators now know what bills they must act upon. Feb. 26 is “crossover,” the day in which any bill that passes one chamber is forwarded to the other for its consideration. Legislators will be in recess March 1-2 and return to the 67th legislative assembly March 3.