# This morning's newspaper



## indsport (Aug 29, 2003)

The New York Times

November 24, 2006
Havens | Wishek, N.D.
Farmlands Becoming Grounds for Hunters
By GREG BREINING

THE countryside around Wishek, N.D., has everything a bird hunter could want. To the east lies a 50-mile-wide swath of of glacial lakes and wetlands known as the Prairie Potholes, the backbone of the Central Flyway and a breeding ground for millions of ducks and geese. To the west and the south, closer to the Missouri River, are the brushy draws and grain fields that sharp-tailed grouse and pheasants favor. Trees line the watercourses and shelter the farmlands, but mostly the view of rolling grasslands and crops stretches to the far horizon.

This town of farmers and small-business owners, mostly of German and Russian descent, has struggled as farms consolidate and farmers leave the land. The town's population, now 1,000, has slid more than 10 percent since 2000, according to the United States Census Bureau. The counties around it have had a similar exodus.

With few local buyers, you can purchase a two-bedroom house in town for less than $20,000. Or outlying farmland for $300 an acre, including buildings. But in a fading region, who's buying?

Out-of-state hunters with out-of-state incomes, that's who, said Robert Meidinger, an agent for Weisser Real Estate. Mr. Meidinger, who sells in Wishek, which sits 70 miles southeast of Bismarck, and nearby Ashley, said he had recently sold property to hunters from North Carolina, Virginia and Alaska. "I think the good agricultural land will probably go down," he said, "and the recreational land will go up."

As farmers sell, a few savvy hunters are buying bargain vacation homes and hunting grounds. The same is true throughout much of the region, according to area real estate agents. "This is where the flyway is, this is where the potholes are, this is where the birds are," said Virginia Benz, who owns Prairie Rose Realty in Steele, about 40 miles east of Bismarck, the state's capital. Ms. Benz specializes in farmland and ranches. With grassy hills and wetlands, "it's the sort of thing hunters dearly love," she said.

There's no need to persuade Ray Munson. A hunter from the outskirts of the Twin Cities, about 375 miles southeast in Minnesota, Mr. Munson, 49, has bought three parcels near Bowdon, 65 miles northeast of Bismarck. "I love North Dakota - it's my favorite place on earth," he said. "I love the wide-open spaces. I love the prairie. I love to be able to go out and hunt with my brother, and for us to be the only ones on the wetland."

Mr. Munson owns an animal feed business in Howard Lake, Minn. He grew up hunting, and shot ducks with his family in North Dakota. But he never considered buying there until a business acquaintance and avid hunter told him about about the area.

A real estate agent pointed him toward hills and a lake near Bowdon, 70 miles northeast of Bismarck. "It was just covered with redheads, canvasbacks, bluebills, buffleheads," Mr. Munson said. "You shouldn't buy a place based on how many ducks are on it in one year. But I kind of did."

He bought the land in 1998, paying $145,000 for a four-bedroom farmhouse, an old dairy barn, several outbuildings and 640 acres with wetlands and grassland that he rents to a rancher. (Since then, he said, prices have about doubled.) "I get my bison meat from this guy who grazes his bison on my pasture," he said. Now the farmhouse is his headquarters as he hunts his property for waterfowl, pheasants and sharp-tailed grouse.

Mr. Munson has since bought a second parcel, 160 acres of hilly grassland for $45,000. And this year he bought a third property: 640 acres with two lakes south of Bowdon for $265,000. With water and a cattail marsh, it promises to be his best duck-hunting property. He also plans to build a cabin that overlooks the water. The interest in hunting is probably driving up prices of marginal land, Mr. Munson said. "People like me are willing to pay more than what the land is worth," he said. "We want a hunting spot we can call our own."

That also motivated Gaylin Olson, 61, a retired Tupperware executive who lives in Orlando, Fla. "We wanted a fair amount of land you could roam," said Mr. Olson, whose search focused on North Dakota.

"The area was ideal," said his son, Travis, who did the scouting. "North Dakota had the ideal pheasant range. Grouse were within that range. Ducks were within that range."

Seven years ago, Gaylin Olson bought the first of two properties he owns near Braddock, about 40 miles southeast of Bismarck - 480 acres of hilly pasture and farm fields, for about $300 an acre. He remodeled the barn as a hunting lodge, complete with a decoy room, game-cleaning room and a deck for relaxing (and shooting clay pigeons).

Although the property holds shallow ponds in wet years, water and ducks disappear during drought. As Mr. Olson said, "We are diehard duck hunters." So five years ago, he bought 965 acres for $300 an acre on an alkaline lake called Stink Lake near Braddock. The family built nesting platforms for waterfowl there, and planted more belts of shelter for the birds.

The Scene

Wishek, in McIntosh County, resembles many towns in eastern North Dakota. Along Beaver Avenue, independent businesses sell Western wear, used cars and gasoline bolstered by local ethanol. Houses in the town's north end occasionally shudder as a freight train rumbles through on the Dakota, Missouri Valley and Western Railroad.

The Wishek Star reports the results of the high school girls' volleyball games. German is still heard on the streets, and the accordion is a common instrument at the high school. In the center of town, the town mascot, the Wishek badger, proudly stands near a sign that flashes time and temperature.

In autumn, camo-clad duck hunters and orange-capped pheasant hunters grab breakfast at Prairie Winds Restaurant (eggs, hash browns, sausage or bacon, toast and coffee for $7.88). Thermoses loaded with coffee for the day, truckloads of duck hunters drive east to the potholes. Pheasant hunters head west to upland grain fields.

Pros

Hunting, solitude and beauty. "The beauty - the water, the grass, there's wildlife galore," Mr. Munson said. The prairie's subtle appeal isn't apparent as you drive across it on Interstate 94. But sit in a duck blind at sunset, when the melancholy chill of autumn settles, and the region becomes one of the most profoundly beautiful places on earth.

Cons

No shopping or night life. Summers are hot, winters beastly, the winds fierce. According to the United States Geological Survey, North Dakota is the most blizzard-susceptible state on the Great Plains.

The Real Estate Market

From 1992 to 2002, as the market thrived in most of the country, the value of farmland and buildings in many North Dakota counties stalled or fell, according to the United States Department of Agriculture. The median price of a home in McIntosh County is $28,100, according to the Census Bureau, and $38,700 in nearby Wells County.

Jerry Brooks of Dallas was once a partner in a hunting lodge in the Prairie Potholes. But traveling back and forth was too demanding and he sold out to a partner. "I didn't want to live in North Dakota," he said. "I'm from Texas."

But he held on to two houses in Streeter, 70 miles east of Bismarck, which he rented. "We have a lot of Minnesota hunters that come over." Now he's selling. His asking price for a two-story, three-bedroom house with an attached garage: $10,500.

At the higher end is a five-bedroom, two-story house in Wishek that has new shingles, siding, windows and air-conditioning. The owner is asking $55,000.

Rural land sells for as little as $300 an acre. Recently, Prairie Rose Realty advertised 537 acres on Horsehead Lake in Kidder County, much of it under water, for $168,000. High ground brings a higher price. It has potential income from renting to farmers and from the Conservation Reserve Program, which pays landowners to plant erosion-prone or valuable wildlife land in grass rather than plow it for crops.

Lay of the Land

POPULATION The population of Wishek, typical of towns in and near the Prairie Potholes, was estimated at 1,000 in 2005, down from 1,122 in 2000, according to the census. In 2000, the population of counties in the region - Logan, Kidder, McIntosh and Wells - ranged from two to four people a square mile. From 2000 to 2005, each county is estimated to have lost 10 to 11 percent of its population.

SIZE Wishek covers about 1.5 square miles; McIntosh County is nearly 1,000 square miles.

WHO'S BUYING Farmers continue to buy high-quality farmland, but with machinery getting larger, they don't want rough or wet land. These, however, are the properties that out-of-town hunters, mainly from the Upper Midwest, are looking for.

LOCATION The Prairie Potholes exist across the Northern Plains of the United States and southern Canada. In North Dakota, the potholes lie in a broad band north and east of the Missouri River.

GETTING THERE Prairie Potholes are found off Interstate 94 in North Dakota midway between Bismarck and Jamestown. Fly into either city and rent a car.

WHILE YOU'RE LOOKING Bismarck has a range of chain-hotel accommodations, including a Holiday Inn and a Radisson. In Wishek, try the Prairie Winds Restaurant (1206 Beaver Avenue, 701-452-2495) for prime rib, soup, salad bar and choice of potato ($14.50). A cold Bud and homemade peach custard pie are extra.


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## g/o (Jul 13, 2004)

> Jerry Brooks of Dallas was once a partner in a hunting lodge in the Prairie Potholes. But traveling back and forth was too demanding and he sold out to a partner. "I didn't want to live in North Dakota," he said. "I'm from Texas."


I don't think it was the traveling part.



> The other three men, Jeffrey Smith, Streeter; Charles R. Brooks, Cedar Hill, Texas; and Jerry D. Brooks, Midlothian, Texas, also pleaded guilty to illegally transporting deer from the reservation. They will be sentenced March 24, according to a release issued by the U.S. Attorney's Office.


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## northdakotakid (May 12, 2004)

Have you guys ever heard of " The Tipping Point" before... we are in it in North Dakota land buys.


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## Bagman (Oct 17, 2002)

uke:


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## Woogie_man (Nov 18, 2006)

it is good for the outta state guys that buy the land and then use it to hunt... but at the same time those SOB's wont let anyone hunt on there land.. or if they see land they wanna hunt they offer money to the land owner. That really tickes me off becaue i have lost more hunting land that way than anything else...

I just hate the fact that people come up for 3 weeks to hunt, then leave and want nothing else to do with the state.. I say go back from wence you came. Or come up here and live for real.


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## rap (Mar 26, 2002)

"Cons

No shopping or night life. Summers are hot, winters beastly, the winds fierce. According to the United States Geological Survey, North Dakota is the most blizzard-susceptible" LOL

ND=the new texas..... sad, sad times.... we'll just have to fish i guess..... hunting is going to total hell....... live it up while its still here boys.... or win the lottery i guess... too bad our legislature doesn't give a sh^t about the people who chose to live here for the outdoor opporturnities and cave in to outside interests and guides........ we are in the good old days and they are not going to last very long..... seriously, start investing in lottery tickets


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## Guest (Dec 1, 2006)

Don't worry guys there are plenty of nd (fargo) residents buying up the land too. I know several that bought around 2800 acres near bismark just to post no hunting and use it for themselves. nr's have no monopoly on that.


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## HUNTNFISHND (Mar 16, 2004)

r u dun,

Your right. The question is how do we stop it?

My solution would be an extremely high recreational property tax. The problem is how would you define land bought for recreation and rented out to local farmers or land bought simply as an investment.

Any other ideas?


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## apeterson (Aug 3, 2005)

HUNTNFISHND said:


> r u dun,
> 
> Your right. The question is how do we stop it?
> 
> Any other ideas?


Better get another job and buy up all you can... It has already happend here in MN with the lakes...


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## HUNTNFISHND (Mar 16, 2004)

apeterson,

Your solution just makes the problem worse. I'm trying to decrease the buying of land for recreation.

Has MN tried anything to decrease the lake property buyers?


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## Guest (Dec 1, 2006)

maybe the best thing to do is a little extra ($5.00) on each license sold and have the state direct that moneysolely into buying the land and manage it for open hunting. other than that I don't have an answer. good luck and I myself wouldn't mind paying an extra fiver if I knew it was going to more land access for the general hunter population. Greed being what it is you won't stop it.


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## hydro870 (Mar 29, 2005)

Actually, there is an up side to all of this. With the rising price of corn, and the low CRP payments, we are going to loose most of our habitat to rows of corn. Pheasant habitat and shallow wetlands will be a thing of the past within the next 10 years. The North Dakota landscape WILL look like the Minnesota landscape before you know it. Tile is going in like crazy. I work in the industry, and I am blown away by the dollars farmers are spending tiling fields. It's called $3 plus corn.

If hunters buy the land (non-resident or otherwise), it can be saved for habitat. From this standpoint, I think it is good. Of course, access is going to stink! But what is more important?

Bottom line, the future of hunting in ND is in trouble for many different reasons.


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## Dick Monson (Aug 12, 2002)

> Good luck and I myself wouldn't mind paying an extra fiver if I knew it was going to more land access for the general hunter population. Greed being what it is you won't stop it.


Can't be done. ND legislature basicly doesn't allow land purchases by conservation agencies. There is the no-net-gain law, can't pay more than appraised value law, and a purchase committee law (non-hunter friendly) that has to approve the transaction.  In their wisdom, the ND legislature didn't want ag assests moved into out-of-state control. So they provided an unlimited number of NR licenses which moves the assets into out-of-state control. :wink: As Laurel said to Hardy, "That's a fine kettle of fish."


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