The second supporting question, “what has threatened wildlife in North Dakota over time (both past and present)?” helps students use sources to unwrap the context of the time and topic being examined. Beginning with the first explorers to the area in the late 1700s and early 1800s, decades of the fur trade, unrestricted hunting, and the development of farms and cities beginning in the 1860s, the wildlife and game animal populations of the northern Great Plains had been decimated by the early 1900s. Some game animals including bison, pronghorn, and mule deer nearly disappeared. Elk and moose did disappear. Even whitetail deer, once so abundant, experienced major population losses until severe and lengthy restrictions on hunting allowed the population to rebound. Facilitate group or classroom discussions about historic and modern threats to wildlife populations in North Dakota. How do we know? Complete the following task using the sources provided to build a context of the time period and topic being examined. Students may need to find additional sources to complete this task.
Formative Performance Task 2
Using evidence from the sources and additional research as needed, identify historic and contemporary threats to the health of North Dakota’s wildlife populations. Are there game animal populations experiencing decline? Which game animals might be conservation priorities? Why? Why is this important? Can adjustments in hunting laws prevent further decline? What birds are listed in the 1917 laws for which there is no current season in ND? What is the status of those birds today? When the 1917 Game Bird law refers to cranes of any variety, what might be included in that group? Are there hunting seasons on those birds today? Create a graphic organizer that captures and depicts these threats using evidence from the sources to support their arguments.
Featured Sources 2
Study featured sources A-J closely for evidence of what kind of threats to wildlife populations have existed in North Dakota over time. Have any of these threats changed or been mitigated in any way? In a group or as a class, answer the following questions: What type of sources are these (letters, photos, maps, diaries, etc.)? What kind of information do they contain? Who created them? Who was the intended audience? Why were they created? When were they created? How do we know? What else can you find?
| Source A |
Deer Whitetail deer have long been a favorite game animal for hunters. They are difficult to hunt because they are smart, and their coloring makes it easy for them to hide in grass or brush. They also provide tasty and nutritious meat for the hunter’s family. Whitetails are native to North Dakota. They have adapted well to the farm fields and suburban areas of the state but are most comfortable in the riparian (riverbank) areas where the trees provide lots of shelter and food is abundant. During the 1870s and 1880s hunters pursued whitetail deer for sport, food, and for commercial markets. However, by the 1890s, the deer population had already begun to decrease noticeably and seriously. Hunters began to speak of increasingly longer hunts in the river bottoms of the West River country to find any game. In 1883 (according to a report in the Bismarck Tribune on October 19, 1903), the Marquis and Marquise de Mores hunted 7 days with a party near Medora and killed 34 deer, 2 antelope, and a mountain sheep. On November 12, 1900, the Tribune reported two men returned from a hunt with 5 of the 8 deer they had killed. On November 23, 1901, the Tribune reported the return of a group that had hunted near Fort Buford. They had killed 14 deer; each man got at least one and one man shot 3 deer. By 1901, many North Dakotans were becoming concerned about over-hunting of deer. By then the bison were gone, and seasons on other big game animals were closed, but deer hunting was still open with a limit of 5. Some legislators were concerned that deer might be exterminated in North Dakota if hunters continued to kill deer in such numbers. Representative Simpson offered HB18 which proposed closing deer hunting until January 1905. The debate over the bill was fierce. When the bill reached the Senate, Senator LaMoure opposed it saying that its intent was to keep residents of the Red River Valley counties, the “real taxpayers” as he called them, from hunting in the western part of the state. Senator Wolbert suggested that the bill would not be enforced and that West River hunters would continue to hunt throughout the year in defiance of the law. The bill did not pass, but game laws were tightened that year. It became illegal to hunt wild animals for market purposes (in accordance with the federal Lacey Act); duck hunting was limited to fall and winter months; and hunters could no longer use dogs to hunt deer. The 1903 legislature again tried to close deer hunting for a time. The situation was becoming more serious, but still the legislature could not agree on a solution. Once again, a bill did not pass, and the bag limit remained at 5 deer per hunter. Licenses cost 75 cents. Soon hunters were complaining about a shortage of deer, and the Tribune accused game wardens of not enforcing game laws (December 22, 1903). In 1905, the limit on deer was reduced to 4 per hunter. In 1913, the legislature closed hunting of both whitetail and mule deer until 1916. That date was moved back again and again until 1931 when a deer season opened again. That year, hunters could take one antlered deer in the 10-day season. A resident license cost $5. Deer hunting was still prohibited in all or part of 19 counties, mostly on the western and northern edges of the state. Deer hunters had to wear red caps. After 1931, the legislature allowed deer hunting every other year. The law limited hunters to shooting bucks, which allowed does to reproduce and increase the population. It was not until after World War II (1946) that deer hunters could again hunt every year.
http://www.digitalhorizonsonline.org/digital/collection/uw-ndshs/id/3687 and http://www.digitalhorizonsonline.org/digital/collection/uw-ndshs/id/3688
The Game and Fish Laws booklet printed the laws related to hunting and fishing exactly as they appeared in the ND Century Code. In 1925, Section 34 concerns Deer Hunting, which had been illegal since 1913, and remained closed until 1931. In 1941, deer season was open for 10 days in November. The law specifically still excluded moose, elk, Rocky Mountain (bighorn) sheep and goats (mountain goats), and antelope (pronghorn) from legal hunting. In 1941, the Game and Fish commissioner doubted that there would ever again be a season for these animals. However, pronghorn season opened in 1951; a very limited season opened for bighorn sheep in 1975; and a moose season opened in 1977 with only 12 permits available. Elk were restored to North Dakota’s badlands in 1941, and a season opened for them in 1984. While the legislature, Game and Fish administrators, and hunters struggled to find a good solution to the problem of protecting game and satisfying the interests of hunters, eventually they succeeded in restoring most populations to adequate numbers. In 1950, the Game and Fish Department offered less than 20,000 deer licenses, but by 2008, the Game and Fish Department offered 149,400 licenses for whitetail and mule deer, both antlered and antlerless. Research the most recent statistics available for wild game populations and hunting licenses issued. What do these numbers indicate about the health of the population now? |
| Source B |
This photo shows a badlands hunting camp in 1896. The hunters have several deer and bighorn (or mountain) sheep. SHSND C0119. |
| Source C |
This photo taken near Underwood, 1906, show the results of a legal deer hunt for 3 men. The game includes 5 bucks, 2 fawns, and 7 rabbits. SHSND 1032-02. |
| Source D |
This photo was taken in the 1930s when deer hunters could take only 1 buck and season was open every other year. The Game and Fish commissioner praised this hunt as a good example of hunting with game conservation in mind. SHSND C1295. |
| Source E |
Game Birds Pheasants are natives of Asia. They are considered excellent game birds and a few different varieties had already been introduced in other states by individual hunters and sportsmen’s clubs decades before they came to North Dakota. On September 26, 1909, the Bismarck Tribune printed the headline: “New Game Birds.” The article stated that the board of fish and game control was considering introducing Chinese ring-necked pheasants and Hungarian partridges in forest habitats in the Turtle Mountains where it was expected that they would “thrive wonderfully.” The Game and Fish commissioner released 75 birds in 1910 in the northern part of the state. The birds were stocked again in 1915. In 1917, 28 birds were released in Dickey County. This last group was successful in reproducing and adapting to the grasslands and wheat-growing farmlands. ND opened its first pheasant season in 1931. Each hunter was allowed three rooster (male) birds per day. In 1932, with the pheasant population climbing in Dickey, Sargent, and Richland counties, Game and Fish agents trapped 15,460 birds to release in 45 other counties. This process continued until the pheasant population was well-established throughout North Dakota, especially in the southern part of the state. Today pheasants are well-adapted to North Dakota’s grasslands and farm fields, and they have overtaken the prairie chicken’s place as a favorite game bird of hunters. Harsh winters can be hard on them, but the birds have become a familiar sight and a boon to the economy of several western North Dakota towns that benefit from the influx of hunters every fall.
A Greater Prairie Chicken, or broad-tail grouse, is known for its colorful booming and dancing during mating season in the spring. It was a favorite upland bird of hunters until the seasons closed in 1945. SHSND 0800-037. Prairie chickens, once a popular game bird in North Dakota, migrated to the northern Great Plains in the 1880s along with farmers. However, as farmers turned over the wild grasses, and hunters pursued them, prairie chicken populations entered a decline that appeared unstoppable. The same 1909 Tribune article that announced the first pheasant release complained that the “prairie chicken crop in North Dakota is getting woefully small.” The board considered closing the season on prairie chickens for a few years to allow populations to rebound to their formerly high numbers again. During the time that pheasant populations where being established, the population of prairie chickens continued to decline. They did not close the season or reduce the 5-bird bag limit for another 35 years, in 1945, and it was thought then that there would never be another one. By the 1960s, there were only a few thousand prairie chickens nesting in the sandhills of southeastern North Dakota. Prairie chickens are still here, though far fewer in number than in 1900. They had nearly disappeared from North Dakota altogether, but small populations now exist in the grasslands of the northern Red River Valley and the sandhills of the state’s southeastern counties thanks to scientific management practices of the Game and Fish Department and a growing awareness on the part of hunters that hunting laws help to maintain healthy game populations. In 2006, following a 45-year effort by the Game and Fish Department to stock birds and provide adequate habitat, the department opened a brief and very limited prairie chicken season.
http://www.digitalhorizonsonline.org/digital/collection/uw-ndshs/id/3689, http://www.digitalhorizonsonline.org/digital/collection/uw-ndshs/id/3690, and http://www.digitalhorizonsonline.org/digital/collection/uw-ndshs/id/3691 The Game and Fish Laws booklet specified legal game birds, seasons, and bag limits. Note that pheasants and partridge are listed in the 1917 laws, though North Dakota hunters had not yet had a season on those birds. When this law states that placing birds in cold storage is against the law, it is probably referring to the Lacey Act, a federal law of 1900 that prohibited the interstate transportation of game animals hunted for commercial purposes. Cold storage in private homes was uncommon in 1917. The second document concerns game bird provisions for 1931, the first year that pheasant hunting was legal. With the bag limit set at 3 roosters, it appears that pheasants had become plentiful by 1931. The 1945 law shows that pheasants and Hungarian partridge (both introduced birds) have become plentiful enough to have a 5-bird bag limit. Prairie chickens are still included though this was the final year of a prairie chicken (pinnated grouse) season. |
| Source F |
These two men had a formal portrait taken after a hunt in Nelson County in the 1890s. Their bag includes 2 hawks, 17 sharp-tailed grouse, 1 jack rabbit, gulls, a weasel, and about 30 prairie chickens. SHSND D0511. http://www.digitalhorizonsonline.org/digital/collection/uw-ndshs/id/3698 |
| Source G |
This group of Minot hunters enjoy their success in September 1908. Automobiles were part of a great change in technology that contributed to the decline in some game animals. Hunters could easily go to the game in an automobile. SHSND 0765-004. |
| Source H |
0175-017. In 1913, hunters were limited to 25 ducks per day each. These hunters have not yet gotten their limit, and the day has just begun. |
| Source I |
This woman, using a modern shotgun and an automobile has had a successful upland game hunt (sharp-tailed grouse or prairie chickens). SHSND 0745-001. |
| Source J |
Pheasants added a new dimension to hunting when the season opened in 1931. SHSND 0056-264. |
