The three-legged stool comprising more than a century of America ’ s hunting heritage has been formed by the existence of , a ), huntable wildlife sustained through management by state and federal agencies , b ), habitat that holds those animals and allows for their continued presence on the landscape , and c ), access to those spaces for hunters to pursue the birds and game , both big and small , creating the patchwork quilt of an autumn afield , from the humid days of late August and early September , through the chill of December .

While habitat has always been at the top of the trio , the existence of rolling grasslands , forested river bottoms and small sloughs pocketing the Dakota landscape has dwindled in the past two decades . From a high of more than 3 million acres of set-aside land under the Conservation Reserve Program ( CRP ) in the early 2000s

throughout North Dakota , to now around 1 million acres in the federal program .

This decrease in the biggest and most notable conservation package for landowners and operators has been felt across the board by hunters the past several seasons . Additionally , the tiling of wetlands and the removal of sloughs from the landscape in favor of row-cropping has taken these micro-ecosystems off the map , where once they were the homes to various breeding waterfowl and provided winter cover to upland birds , deer and other game , giving hunters places worth checking on any weekend outing . The loss of these acres of habitat has had not only a noted impact on animal populations , but has also greatly impacted the other leg of the three-legged stool -- access .

With incentive programs on top of CRP by state agencies to open access to boundless

acres of grasslands and other set-aside spaces , like the North Dakota Private Land Open to Sportsmen ( PLOTS ) program , private land managers had their pick of the choicest acres to discuss with landowners for enrollment in a contract two decades ago . Now , with more than two-thirds of those prospective acres for access gone from the landscape , pickings are slimmer , with many of those remaining and willing landowners already locked into agreements for PLOTS to allow seasonal access to the reserve acres .

What ’ s more , efforts to restrict and remove access to public acres continue to be underway in Washington ahead of the election . In a bill sponsored by North Dakota Senators John Hoeven and Kevin Cramer and Representative Kelly Armstrong , entitled the North Dakota Trust Lands Completion Act , these delegates would allow the state to turn