# Statistics on Res. and NR waterfowl licenses in ND?



## jpallen14 (Nov 28, 2005)

Does anyone know where I can find statistics on the number of resident and non-resident license sold or Res. vs. NR hunters that pursued waterfowl each year for the last 15-20 years in ND? Thanks


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## Dick Monson (Aug 12, 2002)

Best bet would be to talk to the licensing department at NDGF.


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## jpallen14 (Nov 28, 2005)

Sounds good. Thought this day in age they would have available somewhere online, but I can't find it. I'll give them a call. Just want to compare NR waterfowl number increases in the last 20 years to possible decline in Resident waterfowl hunters in ND. Thanks


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## dakotashooter2 (Oct 31, 2003)

I did find some numbers online a while back but it took quite a search to find it then it only listed datea untill 2009. Unfortunatly I don't remember where I found it.


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## templey_41 (Jul 19, 2008)

jpallen14 said:


> Sounds good. Thought this day in age they would have available somewhere online, but I can't find it. I'll give them a call. Just want to compare NR waterfowl number increases in the last 20 years to possible decline in Resident waterfowl hunters in ND. Thanks


 How are you going to be able to show a correlation between increase in NR hunters with a decline in res hunters? are you trying to prove that the reason res hunter #'s declined is due to the non res hunters increasing?


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## jpallen14 (Nov 28, 2005)

I believe it is one of several factors that is leading to the decline in resident waterfowl hunters in ND. This is not the only thing I'm looking at causing a decline.


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## slough (Oct 12, 2003)

The ND Outdoors magazine publishes the numbers every year...the latest issue had last year's and the NR waterfowl licenses was 23,000-some.


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## Chuck Smith (Feb 22, 2005)

You also need to look at the decrease in Population of ND. That could be a direct reason why NR licenses increase. Think about it. A 21 year old moves to a different state but has family still back in ND. He comes back to hunt. Bang...NR license increase.


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## mntwinsfan (Oct 8, 2010)

Very true, but having a ton of NR hunters isn't helping the situation. With the rules regarding hunting unposted land, it must get pretty frusturating for a resident hunter at times. Thats why I am glad to be living in the bottom Dakota... restricting NR numbers is the smartest thing that our state agency has ever done. Unfortunately, there are bills presented every year to increase NR numbers. Luckily, the wildlife groups in SD have gotten these bills shot down in the last few years.


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## jpallen14 (Nov 28, 2005)

I having trouble finding just the amount of resident waterfowler hunters in North Dakota. Per your game & fish and the magazine it just breaks down resident small game, general hunting and combination license sold. Does anyone have an idea where I could find the just the number of resident waterfowl hunters? Do you guys sell state migratory stamps?


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## templey_41 (Jul 19, 2008)

jpallen14 said:


> I believe it is one of several factors that is leading to the decline in resident waterfowl hunters in ND. This is not the only thing I'm looking at causing a decline.


What is your statistical analysis that you are going to use? What will your P value be to show a correlation? Just because NR hunter numbers went up and Res numbers down doesn't mean that one caused the other.

It's going to be impossible to show a correlation mostly because it's based on ones judgement as to why they quit. You would have to do a survey in order to find out why the decline. It's a choice to quit hunting or to give it up and its almost comparing apples to bananas. I would say a survey sent to people who hunted 10 years ago and don't today would be the best way to show this. IF they all stated that it was due to increased NR then yes you have a valid point. Otherwise I think you are just looking for a straight man at a gay pride parade.


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## 9manfan (Oct 22, 2008)

mntwinsfan said:


> Very true, but having a ton of NR hunters isn't helping the situation. With the rules regarding hunting unposted land, it must get pretty frusturating for a resident hunter at times. Thats why I am glad to be living in the bottom Dakota... restricting NR numbers is the smartest thing that our state agency has ever done. Unfortunately, there are bills presented every year to increase NR numbers. Luckily, the wildlife groups in SD have gotten these bills shot down in the last few years.


I think that's our problem in Mn, too many NR coming from the Dakota's and shooting our ducks, I'm sure that's why our hunter numbers are falling also.... oke: ..... :beer: :beer: ,

But seriously, the numbers of kid's getting into the sport is falling every year, obviously alot of our problem in Mn can be attributed to lack of habitat which translate's to a lack of ducks, but the kids just have too many other things they can do with alot less work, duck hunting can be alot of work.

I ask some older guys that come into my shop why they quit duck hunting, too much work , alot of them say, easier getting up at 8 bells and go shoot a rooster, soo there are problems at all age's I guess, but I don't see a big rush of new hunters anytime soon.


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## slough (Oct 12, 2003)

jpallen14 said:


> I having trouble finding just the amount of resident waterfowler hunters in North Dakota. Per your game & fish and the magazine it just breaks down resident small game, general hunting and combination license sold. Does anyone have an idea where I could find the just the number of resident waterfowl hunters? Do you guys sell state migratory stamps?


ND doesn't require any special licensing for resident waterfowl other than small game (same thing you need for upland game). About the only thing that may be tracked is HIP registration, which is required only for migratory birds, and I would think the game and fish would have data on it but I can't say I've seen it published.


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## KEN W (Feb 22, 2002)

Chuck Smith said:


> You also need to look at the decrease in Population of ND. That could be a direct reason why NR licenses increase. Think about it. A 21 year old moves to a different state but has family still back in ND. He comes back to hunt. Bang...NR license increase.


Latest figures show ND is increasing in population,not decreasing.


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## dakotashooter2 (Oct 31, 2003)

I'm just doing this by memory from data I found a while back, but probably 7-8 years ago the non-resident smallgame/waterfowl numbers peaked at just over 40K About that time talk started about capping the number of non resident hunter (30 K ?). shortly after, the number of non-resident hunters began to slide and leveled out somewhere in the mid 20Ks. Through all of this resident numbers steadily declined. If I recall resident numbers peaked in the mid 80s right around 50K with non resident numbers around 15K. A drought following that peak cut those resident numbers just about in half in the course of 8-10 years and those numbers have remained about the same since. That would almost indicate that we lost a gereration of hunters during that time period (no new recruitment). Overall the total of resident and non resident small game/waterfowl hunters is probably shy of what it was at it's peak with the non-resident numbers (even at their highest) slightly under or equal to residents. So even if the non-resident numbers are up the total number of hunters is no more than it ever has been. Thats why I don't get the big beef about non resident hunters. All they have done is fill in the gap of lost resident hunters. If anything it seem the loss of resident hunters has opened the door for non-resident hunters not vice versa. Again if I recall the data I had seen correctly, except for a couple years we lost residents faster than we gained non residents.


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## slough (Oct 12, 2003)

I remember the NR licenses topping out around 30K, not 40, but you could certainly be correct. Another thing to keep in mind is that until just a few years ago the NR waterfowl license was just a $10 add-on to the small game license so certainly some guys bought it just in case they found some ducks while pheasant hunting that don't buy it now that it's $85 or whatever it is.


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## dakotashooter2 (Oct 31, 2003)

I think your right on the non-res numbers. If I recall the G&F wanted to cap at 30k which was just slightly under the number of licenses being sold at the time and the hunter groups wanted it at 20K which is slighlty under what it ended up at on it's own.


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## jpallen14 (Nov 28, 2005)

Thanks just wanted the numbers for a small scale study on decreasing waterfowl hunters in the Dakota's. That is crazy to me that ND does not track the number of resident waterfowl hunters.


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## duckp (Mar 13, 2008)

Access,cost,urbanization,technology,family disintegration,destruction of rural economies,social attitudes,aging population,and on and on as far as factors go.Impossible to link anything to license sales between res/non-res IMO.
SoDak GFPs recently hired an 'expert' to 'look into' this I think. :-?


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## Chuck Smith (Feb 22, 2005)

> Chuck Smith wrote:You also need to look at the decrease in Population of ND. That could be a direct reason why NR licenses increase. Think about it. A 21 year old moves to a different state but has family still back in ND. He comes back to hunt. Bang...NR license increase.
> 
> Latest figures show ND is increasing in population,not decreasing.


Good so you could start to see a shift. But for about 20 years it has been the opposite.


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## Dan Bueide (Jul 1, 2002)

The information referred to is readily available through NDG&F. Paul Shadwald there used to be the best source, but maybe he retired? From a 30 year historical period, the rise/fall of NR and R hunter numbers over the last 10-15 years are inversely related. What there is less detailed info about is total hunter days or better yet hunter hours, which is the real measure of "pressure". Anecdotally, the NR pressure of the last almost decade now is not only hugely different historically in raw hunter numbers, but also because of the effects of how/when the average NR hunts as compared to the average R. Never before have we had so much M-F pressure, and never before have we had so much pressure from big water rigs.


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## Augusta (Feb 2, 2011)

Dan Bueide said:


> The information referred to is readily available through NDG&F. Paul Shadwald there used to be the best source, but maybe he retired? From a 30 year historical period, the rise/fall of NR and R hunter numbers over the last 10-15 years are inversely related. What there is less detailed info about is total hunter days or better yet hunter hours, which is the real measure of "pressure". Anecdotally, the NR pressure of the last almost decade now is not only hugely different historically in raw hunter numbers, but also because of the effects of how/when the average NR hunts as compared to the average R. Never before have we had so much M-F pressure, and never before have we had so much pressure from big water rigs.


Dan, do you have any of the above info in more detail that you could post? Thanks


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## dakotashooter2 (Oct 31, 2003)

I would disagree that we have more pressure. Some specific areas might have an increase in pressure but when I go out I see/hear less hunters than I did in the late 70s-mid 80s.

I kind of depends on what you call pressure. Many areas of the country would laugh at what we call pressure....................


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