Reasons for The Nature Conservancy's Policy on Hunting and Fishing in North Dakota

Waterfowl, Davis Ranch
© Layne Kennedy

To protect the ecological integrity of native ecosystems or sensitive native species
The most common reason for allowing hunting and/or fishing on Conservancy preserves is to maintain or restore the integrity of sensitive species and biological communities. At many of our sites, populations of non-native animals like feral pigs and of native animals like deer can grow well beyond the ability of the natural communities to withstand their effects. In those situations, we sometimes employ carefully managed hunting as a tool to reduce populations in order to reduce the damage that they cause, allowing natural communities to recover their full vigor and diversity.

Respect for the practices of human communities
The Nature Conservancy is increasingly aware that we cannot carry out our work in a vacuum - we must be sensitive to the human communities located in and around the sites where we work. In many cultures, subsistence hunting and fishing are both an historical fact and a practical necessity. In others, they have been integral to the fabric of family and community life for generations. In these places, we sometimes allow the continuation of traditional hunting and fishing practices after we have acquired new properties in order to avoid disrupting the local economy or stimulating unnecessary anger and resentment among our new neighbors. In these situations, we allow hunting or fishing only after we are confident that they will not threaten the conservation targets that we are trying to protect. We continue to monitor these sites so that we can be certain that the long-term effects on the local biota are benign.

To facilitate land transfers that will benefit long-term conservation
Occasionally, those who give or sell property or conservation rights to The Nature Conservancy make the transaction contingent on the continued availability of the property to them for hunting or fishing. Again, we allow hunting or fishing only after we are confident that they will not threaten the conservation targets that we are trying to protect and we continue to monitor these sites so that we can be certain that the long-term effects on the local biota are benign.

Also, the Conservancy has acquired millions of acres of conservation land for subsequent transfer to state, federal, and local governments. In many cases, these transfers help to create or extend wildlife and game management areas that are required by statute to provide recreational opportunities, including hunting and fishing.

In all cases, Conservancy programs that allow hunting or fishing do so only after carefully evaluating the biological and sociological effects of that choice, usually involving thorough site planning processes through our strategic tool of Conservation By Design which helps us develop conservation strategies for the protection of the plants, animals and natural communities.

Open to Legal Public Hunting
Brown Ranch (Ransom County) 1,531 acres
Davis Ranch (Sheridan County) 7,017 acres
Pigeon Point (Ransom County) 572 acres

Open to Public Deer Hunting by Permit, closed to all other Hunting and Trapping
Permits are issued on a first come-first serve basis by the Cross Ranch Preserve Manager at (701) 794-8741.
Cross Ranch (Oliver County) 4,953 acres
John E. Williams Preserve (McLean County) 1794 acres.