Game and Fish department seeks targeted funds for habitat, pond liners and staffing; highlights special‑fund model

Jeb Williams, director of the North Dakota Game and Fish Department, told the Government Operations Division that his agency’s budget request seeks to preserve the department’s core, special‑fund operations while addressing habitat, access and capital maintenance needs.

“The Game and Fish Department is a special fund agency,” Williams said, noting the department receives revenue primarily from license sales and federal Pittman‑Robertson and Dingell‑Johnson grants; he emphasized the department does not draw from the state general fund.

Administrative services division chief Brian Hozik walked senators through program lines and decision packages. The department reported a governor’s executive recommendation of about $115.6 million for the 2025‑27 biennium, the House recommended $114.5 million, and its legislative base stood at $104.7 million. Hozik said decision packages total roughly $9.7 million, with about $6.6 million of that expected to be federal funds.

Major items and priorities explained during testimony included:

- Private lands / PLOTS and habitat: the department highlighted a continued emphasis on its private lands access program (PLOTS) and associated habitat investments. The department said its goal is to secure 1,000,000 acres of public hunting access; as of the hearing it reported about 830,000 acres enrolled. The administration sought $2 million to expand PLOTS landowner payments, $2 million to expand a rangeland legacy mid‑term conservation agreement program, and $1 million for habitat development (several of these requests included high federal match rates).

- Deer depredation and related support: the department keeps a dedicated deer‑depredation allocation and indicated roughly $1,100,000 is targeted for depredation response in the line item tied to PLOTS/habitat work. Staff clarified the program focuses on prevention and mitigation (scare tactics, working with landowners, hay‑yard management), not direct payments to landowners for crop or feed losses.

- Fisheries pond liners and hatchery partnerships: the department manages 40 ponds (used in conjunction with federal hatchery infrastructure); 15 of those are currently lined and the testimony requested continued funding for additional pond‑lining and pumps (an $1.8 million capital ask for liners was highlighted).

- Infrastructure and IT needs: the department sought IT funding—video asset management, a customer relationship management (CRM) solution aligned with NDIT work, and continued support for a mobile app (roughly 58,000 users reported). It also requested extraordinary repairs (for example, the Bauchle/Noonan dam riser pipe repair) and regular equipment replacement cycles to preserve trade‑in values.

- Seasonal staffing: the House removed $265,000 for temporary salaries in one optional package; testimony described workforce pressures for seasonal hires (campus students and field staff) and argued competitive pay was necessary to recruit summer employees used in fisheries, aquatic nuisance inspections, noxious‑weed control and other field operations.

Williams and Hozik reiterated statutory constraints and federal match dependencies (Title 20.1 and related provisions, and annual federal license certifications required to preserve federal matches). They reminded the committee the department must maintain a statutory reserve (current statute requires no less than $15,000,000) and that fund balances vary with license sales and weather conditions; they reported the department’s fund balance was roughly $18.5 million and projected the reserve could decline under current projections, motivating a license fee bill now under consideration to stabilize revenue over the next decade.

Committee members asked about enforcement and wardens (the department said it employs about 40 enforcement staff), Lone Tree Reservoir operations (managed for wildlife; roughly 32,000 acres), work with USDA Wildlife Services (for predator control and depredation situations), and the scale and makeup of federal PR/DJ funding that underpins many projects. Williams said many of the federal grants are formula based, require a 25% match for wildlife restoration grants and are contingent on historical excise taxes that fund the federal programs.

The department provided a list of potential land acquisitions and confirmed that First Stop and other IT projects would continue to be implemented over multiple years with carry‑forward authority where needed. Williams and Hozik closed by describing the department’s multiple public programs (shooting sports grants, aquatic invasive species work, boating safety grants) and asked the committee to consider the House funding recommendation as the matter proceeds.