In this episode of NDO Podcast Casey and Cayla sing their way through the highlights of 2025 in an off-tune rendition of the “Twelve Days of Game and Fishmas.”
(Intro music)
Cayla: Welcome to episode 87 of the NDO podcast. This episode is airing on Christmas Eve. So, um, in order to a little bit play on that, um, we're doing the 12 days, 12.
Casey: Things, 12 things, game and fish things of the year.
Cayla: Yeah. Game and fish.
Casey: Game and fish.
Cayla: Um, so just kind of a year in review, but we picked, uh, 12 numbers of things that, uh, represent things that happen this year, um, whether good or bad.
Casey: So there might be a little singing in this one.
Cayla: Yes, there might be a little singing.
Cayla: Regrettably, regrettably.
Cayla: I found myself singing too often here.
Casey: Christmas, Christmas song time.
Cayla: I just mean at the department. I sing all the time at home, but somehow I get roped into too much singing.
Casey: Yeah.
Cayla: So yeah, I think we'll just get. It's just Casey and I, um. So I think we'll just get, we'll start with, with one. So, um, so it's a lonely sage grouse hen.
Casey: And we only had one sage grouse hen detected on our lek counts this year. Um, which is a little bit of a downer for the Christmas season, but yeah, realistically, the department has kind of exhausted all means possibilities. Looking at sage grouse and North Dakota, which is a very small sliver of the state. That very western southwestern side of the state. And for a long time we've kind of felt like we were a spillover area from the better core type of sage grouse habitat and sage grouse populations. And that's kind of showing itself as we tried transplants and everything else, to to bolster sage grouse populations. And they just haven't been able to hold on or take in North Dakota, as sage grouse populations around us start to reduce.
Cayla: They just need like so much contiguous sagebrush. Right. Which just yeah, there's not a lot of here. Yeah. So, um, but kind of like you said, I feel like we put some, like, some efforts in, but, um, I think, like, the more responsible message to take from it is to just not let you know it wasn't ever one of our stronghold species. So to not let the same sort of story be true for some of our other.
Casey: Right? Those those that we drive the population more so in North Dakota. You know, obviously our our sage grouse area is important for other things other than sage grouse in North Dakota. And so we want to keep that intact. And and other states like Montana, Wyoming are working on those, those probably core more dense populations where we would get that spillover effect. So it's kind of that, you know, maintain what you've got so you can stay ready and reap those benefits if that happens.
Cayla: Right. Okay. Yeah. Uh, 2000 fish tags.
Casey: That was pretty good.
Cayla: I got it now.
Casey: Yeah. So we tagged over just well, 2400, um, fish this year between. What is that all walleyes or does that include our paddlefish tags that we put in?
Cayla: Uh, yeah. It's just fish tags returned. So, yeah, it was seemingly based on the graphs. Mostly the prairie walleye studies was contributing to, like most of that 2000. But yeah, I suppose there's a few straggler other ones, but.
Casey: So yeah, really, really pushed that walleye tagging stuff pretty hard to see really. They're trying to tease out more information will come out on this as they wrap that up. But tease out angler use population size what's happening in some of these small lakes. You know, um, we've kind of been on the side of like especially these small lakes are kind of use them or lose them walleyes, they get to a certain age and you get a winter kill and kills them all off. So you might as well catch them. Um, but so yeah, looking at demographics of the walleye populations and those stockings that we do.
Cayla: So I think it's is it episode two that Paul.
Casey: Could have been. Yeah. It's talked about.
Cayla: It's one of the first. Yeah. He talked about the Alkaline one. So I think it's just like some of these popular prairie lakes. It's like seemingly like how can they sustain like the one of the lakes with the most return tags was Horsehead. So it's kind of like, you know, you've seen the chaos at Horsehead. Like, can this really keep being good? But like the alkaline study, at least, I mean, Horsehead will have its own data set, but was. Yeah, it's we're still only we're not taking too many or like the five walleye limit wasn't. There's still plenty of fish left in alkaline.
Casey: Still a lot of fish. Yeah. We haven't got all the tags back anyway. Yeah. Yep. Um, so yeah, it'll be interesting to see. And of course, Horsehead had a couple things. Big tagging project, brand new boat ramp put on it with accessibility increased. And so yeah, how does that all play into how we manage our fishery. And that's what they're trying to figure out.
Cayla: Mhm. All right 3000 events.
Casey: Nice.Uh so yeah we had uh over 3000. Um, you call them events with game wardens, that's essentially, uh, written reports where they get something in the system, checked hunters, and whether they gave them a warning or a ticket or whatever that might be. Um, gets to the point where they put it in the system and it's reported. And so, yeah, our wardens, you know, are out there. They cover a big area. They do talk to a lot of people. Um, it can't be everywhere for everyone, but they do an excellent job of getting out there, especially during the the big seasons, the big opening weekends and that kind of stuff when they're all hands on deck.
Cayla: Yeah. And like, like you said here, um. Winkelman said events include check stations, investigations. I think those are pretty obvious, but, um, yeah, I don't know that they always get credit for the assisting other agencies too a lot of. Yeah, not super wardens like, uh, rescues and.
Casey: Yeah, rescues. Search and rescue. Uh, they help with Missouri River patrol. They work in conjunction with Burleigh County and and Bismarck PD on that. And so, yeah.
Cayla: Um, and I guess a little precursor on our next episode will be a deep dive. Yeah. Yep. Um, but yeah, he also said additionally, um, fortunately, there's not 35 days of Christmas, but 35,000 resident field contacts and just under 12,000 nonresident field contacts. So it's nice to have that system that just kind of works. But, um, that's a lot of.
Casey: Yeah, that’s a lot of chit chat and yeah.
Cayla: And then for a total of and these were all polled, so they're gonna be a few days shy, but 2345 citations, which, um, you know, again, just looking at how many total, what's 35, 47,000 field contacts and only 2000 citations. So there's a lot of just, you know, positive encounters there. Not that always that don't always result in a citation.
Casey: But yeah.
Cayla: $4 million. Are you gonna sing the whole thing though when I
Casey: I will. Maybe I should start at five and go up.
Cayla: Okay.
Casey: Um, no, $4 million. Uh, Grant that was just received through that process for the governor's legacy Soil Health and habitat program. So that program will be out and running hopefully this spring. Um, we'll have to do some work with the OHF board and that process of getting some contracts in place and working with a few other partners as things line up on that program. But the pilot was funded for that. So it's going to be kind of a it's a new program that we've never it's kind of outside the box thinking with this, um, some grass plantings, habitat plantings really targeted towards those unproductive acres for folks. Um, and there's some unique things with it, even digging into, um, risk management, um, crop insurance type of benefits to landowners if they do some of this stuff. And so a lot of partners involved a lot of ag groups, um, you know, contacted, presented to information gathered from them on how a program may or may not work for the folks that they represent. And so yeah, it was a it'll be interesting to see how it moves forward. But I think it's that outside the box thinking that next, um, step that we probably needed to do to try to bolster habitat in the state.
Cayla: Yeah. And like you said, just a lot of buy in and pretty big, pretty big win that it was fully funded. Um, I think I think the pilots 10,000 acres.
Casey: Yep. That's the goal.
Cayla: Um, yeah. So then we'll see from there if it how that goes and.
Casey: See how and you know, the idea is this is a pilot. So, um, if the kinks can get worked out and that kind of stuff and the acres get on the ground, um, then the next step will be trying to figure out how do you, how do you make this bigger than just a pilot program so that that's yet to come?
Cayla: And we did another great job naming it. So it's just a nice, sweet, simple acronym, the Governor's Legacy Soil Health and Habitat program.
Casey: So yeah. So I don't know if there's an acronym that goes well with that or not, but we'll find out. Um, but yeah, speaking of those OHF dollars, that wasn't the only project that got funded. There was actually quite a few, um, really good projects that went through there. Another one was, uh, um, Forest Project, um, to kind of help maintain our forests in the northeast, native forests that we've got up there, the aspen, poplar, um, type of forest and some management within those forests and so on, private property so.
Cayla: And some wetland restoration on PLOTS.
Casey: Yep.
Cayla: Um, yeah.
Casey: Yep. So yeah, some interesting habitat programs that have come out of that OHF around this time.
Cayla: Are you singing?
Casey: You want me to do it with you this time?.
Cayla: Okay, five pheasant chicks.
Casey: Oh I just want to keep going.
Cayla: Yeah I know we'll do it at the end.
Casey: So yeah. Five pheasant chicks per brood just over this year, which is a little lower than the 2024, but we had more pheasants on the landscape. So it's kind of a question of like, we probably had more young birds in the field because we had that many more broods on the landscape.
Cayla: Yeah. Yeah, a little down from last year, but above the ten year average. Um, and that was following some high growing counts, like you said. So good survival out of the winter. We've had a couple easy winters on them. But then I think the hypothesis is just some of those bad summer storms or poorly timed rains and hail.
Casey: In some areas that got hit, like up by Crosby, had some pretty good hailstorms that went through up there, and that seemed to, um, decrease chick survival a little bit. But there was still a lot of people that said there was a lot of pheasants around.
Cayla: I kind of feel like in my experience, we didn't make it up to the Crosby area, but like hunting from your area all the way to like southeast. It's just really pocket y. Like, there's some areas I've kind of been whining about that. It's like, man, these areas were good back when it wasn't good. And they're kind of don't seem that great this year.
Casey: Or did anything change in those areas?
Cayla: Like not really.
Casey: Big enough swath to look.
Cayla: Um, but then there's other areas that have been like, wow, it is really good. So I don't know, it's just kind of been weird pockets, I feel like. But overall, I think there's still like a a highlight among our wildlife populations. So like, you can't really complain that you mostly.
Casey: Yeah, you could go you could go shoot a pheasant this year. It wasn't. Yeah. Wasn't super hard. Now, It might have been a little tougher to get all three in a day, but.
Cayla: Mostly if you shoot like me. But there were some spots that were so good that even.
Casey: Even you got three. Yeah.
Cayla: That's saying something.
Casey: Yeah. So that was and there's still some of that going on. You can still pheasant until what. What's the end date?
Cayla: January 4th. Yeah I'm like 99.9% whatever that Sunday is. But yeah, because the first.
Casey: First Sunday after the first of the year. So. Yep. So yeah.Still time to get after it and we'll see what the harvest shows after we get all the wing data and and harvest surveys back. So see where we're at.
Cayla: Okay. This one's tricky. Six nonresident zones.
Casey: That was fast. That wasn't even I didn't even catch up.
Cayla: Six geese a laying is that normally six kind of six Canada geese zones.
Casey: Yeah, right. Uh six waterfowl zones. So yeah non resident waterfowl zones. They got changed this year to the ear of some. But um you know we a couple things that happened legislatively the statewide license went away. So we had before we had a statewide license and a zone license you could buy. Well the zone license was always this way. You had to pick seven days in a zone, and you could run your two, seven days concurrently if you wanted to. Or in the past. You buy the statewide license and skip all the zone stuff. Well, the statewide license went away. Um, and then the zones that we had were strange zones at best, three, three zones, two little tiny ones, and just over 90% or more of the state was zone three. And so we needed to make those a little more usable. Um, going into the future and in the present. And so we created six zones across the state of approximate equal size, really based on as close as we could to how we survey waterfowl on some of our brood runs and things like that, and so that we can use that information to inform those areas as we move forward with whatever happens. Um, and so, yeah, there'll be some more information coming out about how that all went down. Um, overall sale numbers are about the same. Um, and so where everybody went and how they split up and things is going to be a question in the future. But.
Cayla: Do you have any? Like I forget, if there was some advisory board, it sounded like I. I've heard some people say they did feel like it distributed things. And then obviously.
Casey: I think there's areas.
Cayla: Change is hard.
Casey: Yeah, change is hard. You know North Dakota is a no change state. Typically no change people. We don't like change. Um, but you know, and of course you can't change anything without somebody ox getting gored.
Cayla: Yeah.
Casey: Reindeer. Maybe I should have used reindeer gored for Christmas time.
Cayla: But that's a little bleak.
Casey: Yeah. So so, you know, obviously there's a subset of people that, um, didn't like this change. Um, I'm sure those are the same people that didn't like when it went from no regulations to 14 days either. Um, at some level. But, you know, our residents have have really kind of been pushing back on some of the pressure and some of the, um, Opportunities. You know, that they're they feel like they're getting pushed out of. And so, um, I think this was one step forward into starting to figure that out. It didn't figure it out. Yeah. Um, but it's one step forward into getting some good information so that maybe an educated decision at some level, wherever that is made, can be made. So.
Cayla: Mhm. All right.
Casey: Yeah. We also had the $5 habitat restoration stamp which wasn't just a non resident thing. That was every waterfowl hunter thing. Um so and uh we'll see how that, that pans out. That really just lets us know exactly how many resident waterfowl hunters we have. Um, and so yeah, when waterfowl season isn't over. So we could still sell some more so.
Cayla: Sort of I still bought it, but I stood gun less in a slough one time.
Casey: That was it?
Casey: It was weird. Uh, the ducks didn't show up in some areas of the state that they normally do. My country, I, I didn't even shoot a duck this year. Like it was crazy. Um, snow Guy showed up and they stayed for a month and a half, which is longer than I've ever seen him stay in a long time. But, um, so yeah, it was an interesting year. But one thing about waterfowl, there's some somewhere.
Cayla: Yeah, yeah, I just held on to the young pup while he whimpered all morning. And then as we were walking out, a grouse just flew over our heads and shot that.
Casey: Oh, there you go. Hey, that's the best part about waterfowl hunting is the grouse that shows up over the decoys.
Cayla: I thought it was a duck because it's kind of like we were probably taking off too early, but it was one of those really clear, sunny days. And so it was kind of in the sun. And I was like, here comes one. And then we were both like, yeah, grouse?
Casey: We used to laugh. You could set up goose decoys to track, at least get the grouse to come over the shooting lane, because it seemed like they flew right over the goose decoys every time.
Cayla: Okay, 7000 Acres. 7056 acres of new grass in the PLOTS program. Um, you said their goal was 6000 a year for the next.
Casey: Yeah. So when I was the wildlife chief and Bill Haase was the assistant chief, him and I, uh, challenged the private lands staff to get us back to a million acres. And at that time, it was, um, 40,000 acres a year, with 6000 of that being new, new planted grass. And so that two years in a row now they've hit that. And so, um, they're doing a great job and, and things are improving. And as you can see, they even exceeded it by a thousand, little over a thousand acres. And, and anybody who's done any, any grass plantings or, or that habitat manipulation at, at that level, it's expensive and it's time intensive and it, you know, and there's a lot of coordination that goes on, especially if you're, you know, working with this is all on private land. So it's not just a matter where we go. We'll bring the tractor, our tractor there, we'll fill the seeder, we'll go some of it's lining up Soil Conservation District to help with the seeding and and keeping everybody on the same page as you move forward and get that habitat work done. So it's a pretty, pretty heavy lift and they've done a good job.
Cayla: I feel like grass is the theme here. More grass? Yeah. More grass.
Casey: More grass, more grouse or pheasants. Right.
Cayla: Okay.
Casey: So the next one 800 archers.
Cayla: So there's actually a thousand bullseye archers in the tournament. But I had to fudge some numbers. Not fudge, but like fix get us to the eight. So 800 3D archers 1000 bullseye archers in the tournament. This which is in March every year. Um, but yeah, just kind of a that program just keeps getting bigger and bigger and bigger. And I think I don't know, I guess we could ask before this, but uh, it's getting to the point where they might have to start doing something it splitting it or, um,
Casey: A new facility maybe. I don't know if there is one.
Cayla: I don't think there is one bigger. Yeah. So just like maybe having to do some sort of qualification, um, just because it's, it's getting so big, but it's, it's pretty cool to to see all those kids up there and just. Yeah. How the fact that it just kind of runs seamlessly is pretty impressive runs itself. Yeah.
Casey: Yeah. And so for those that don't know, that's the national archery in the schools program. And so it's a it's a program that we're involved in. And uh, we help well we run kind of the state shoot, but a lot of times it's the small schools in there, um, trained coaches that have these groups of kids that are shooting archery equipment and, and, uh, getting pretty dang good at it, too. With the standardized bows, you know.
Cayla: Yeah.
Casey: I wouldn't say they're anything fancy, you know
Cayla: Some of them, they get their custom wraps and their custom arrows and
Casey: Yeah, there's some things they can tweak and some things they can't.
Cayla: Yeah.
Casey: Mhm. So yeah we're right on.
Cayla: 9 million walleyes.
Casey: Walleye you said.
Cayla: I said well apparently grammatically it's walleye I don't know that I like it, I like walleyes. When I catch walleyes I catch.
Casey: I catch lots of walleye.
Cayla: Five walleyes. Yeah not not really though I don't catch walleyes. It is usually walleye.
Casey: But we are stocking a lot of walleyes in the state. Yeah 9 million. Was it just over 9 million that we stocked?
Cayla: Um, Jerry just said about nine. Um, it might have actually been just under, but we have stocked more than nine. That's not our highest stocking year. But, um, just in general, we're pumping out a lot of walleyes is kind of the point, but, um.
Casey: Walleye are our king in North Dakota for the public. That's what they want. But, you know, one of the things is, is not every body of water that has fish in it is good to have walleyes in it. And so we have to work with some other species. And there's also a lot of us out there that like to catch something other than walleyes every once in a while.
Cayla: Or just like to catch something.
Casey: Yeah. Or just like to catch something. So if you throw some northern pike in there so I can catch something, I'm happy. But but yeah, we have a unique partnership with the Fish and Wildlife Service. Uh, the Garrison Fish Hatchery and Valley City Fish hatcheries are actually owned by the Fish and Wildlife Service. And, uh, we do, we supply them with the eggs, and they do the hatching. And then we take the fish out, hatching in the rearing, and then we take the fish out and and stock them into, uh, North Dakota waters.
Cayla: And so it felt kind of dumb last year that I didn't take a lot of fisheries classes, but that like that, obviously. I mean, it felt obvious after I, it clicked, but like that, that's all happening. That's those are the eggs that we just got a month ago or whatever a couple months ago. Yeah. That get brought to the hatchery reared and then hatched into little.
Casey: Fingerlings.
Cayla: Or whatever. Yeah.
Casey: Yeah. And so it's a it's definitely been a unique partnership. And of course there's also the two dams. How these hatcheries are built makes them very efficient energy efficient and things like that because they don't have to really pump any water. It's all gravity flow water. Um, and things like that. And so yeah, real, real unique I did anybody that wants to go through I know the Garrison Dam fish hatchery up there, we'll bring you through on a tour. And so if you're interested in that, in the summer they got tours that run, I don't know how many times a week, but it might be might be every day on the weekend or at least Fridays and Saturdays. But um, but really unique situation compared to a lot of other places. And the Garrison Fish Hatchery hatches and rears as many fish as a large number of other hatcheries put together. I can't say it's nationwide, but it's like I can't remember what they say. Some region like most of our neighboring states, that our one hatchery raises more than the rest of them combined.
Cayla: It's crazy. They got it down.
Casey: Mhm. Yep. So, uh.
Cayla: Next one. Okay. Ten bighorn sheep.
Casey: So we had ten bighorn sheep licenses in the state. That is the most we've had since 1977.
Cayla: Are they. It's closed. Are they all filled? Okay.
Casey: Uh, I don't believe they're all filled, but open till the 31st of December.
Cayla: Okay. Yeah. I feel like I've seen the big boy and then.
Casey: The white one
Cayla: Yeah, the white one.
Casey: There's a couple other, the kid from Texas, I know got his. We had one nonresident get drawn this year for bighorn sheep. Um, out of the big three, that's the only one that nonresidents are eligible for. Um, and that's based on how our funding comes in and all that kind of stuff. Uh, and how it's put in Century Code. But but yeah. So we had eight state tags that we gave out. And then, um, for those of you that don't know, we did a project with Three Affiliated Tribes, helped them get some bighorn sheep, um, from Rocky Boy tribe in Montana. And, uh, the three affiliated had some beautiful sheep habitat that Brett, our bighorn sheep biologist, had always talked about and wondered how we could ever get sheep established there because he thought they would flourish pretty well. And they have. Um, and so we worked with, uh, Tony at the three affiliated Game and Fish department and her crew and, and really kind of helped them get their legs under them with bighorn sheep and bighorn sheep management and, and help. We had the expertise and the veterinarian to help move those sheep across state lines and things like that. So we did that. And in that process, um, we get three of the hunting licenses here at the beginning of the, um, their sheep hunts. And so they're hunting them probably about as early as Brett would have expected, you know, to get them to those types of ages and things. And so they've really done well.
Casey: Uh, so we get three and we got so there's two given this year, one, two a tribal member and one through our lottery.
Cayla: Okay.
Casey: And they get to hunt those sheep there. Uh, well, in sheep we're almost at a record high. We're just under 500.
Cayla: And we just collared some more?
Casey: Yep. We just we every year we put some new collars on to kind of track these sheep. Um, watch them. You know, there's, we kind of watch how they intermix with other groups. And we also have like a, a group south of Medora, south of the interstate that has a different pneumonia virus. So we try to pay attention to them and not let them get up into the sheep to the north. And so, so yeah, it's, uh, bighorn sheep is kind of an intensive management trophy animal, more so than a lot of the other species that we manage. Um, but yeah, we're getting some big state.
Cayla: Records.
Casey: Big rams every year. Um, and so, yeah, we've got, we've got a heck of a sheep population.
Cayla: All right. 11 species off.
Casey: Off of what Cayla?
Cayla: So this year we update our state wildlife Action plan SWAP, um, every ten years. So the last iteration of the plan was in 2015. So 2025 was, uh, new iteration of the state Wildlife Action plan. So, um, primarily, but I mean, department wide, but primarily the conservation section worked heavily on just evaluating where our species are at, working with partners, um, to figure out, uh, so a list of species, habitats, areas of concern, areas to work on, things that need to be done. But, um. Well.
Casey: They've gone from more of a there's a species list in there.
Cayla: Yes.
Casey: Yep. However, our state wildlife action plan is driven more on a landscape level. Conservation? Not necessarily. We need to plant these two species for this species of critter.
Cayla: Right.
Cayla: So on a bright side, 11 species were removed since the last plan 2015. I didn't list all 11, but some of examples of those are the bald eagle and the river otter.
Casey: Um, so those are those are two examples of different ways the swap works right there. So the bald eagle was on the endangered species list that's come off and it's done very well. And then it's come off of our swap. Well, the river otter wasn't on the endangered species list, but it was depleted in North Dakota to the point where it was one that we were kind of, you know, paying attention to and keeping our eyes on and put it in our swap. And whether it was the swap 15 years ago that did it or not. But we do have limited harvest on river otters now. And so that population has come back very nicely.
Cayla: So um, but also while some species were removed, we went from 115 species in 2015 on that list of, um. Well, it's species of conservation. Greatest conservation need. Um, now we have 232, but I guess they also added a category this year of species of greatest information need meaning like, we don't even know. Right. Like, uh.
Casey: And so what was happening is we were getting. And things trickled down through the Fish and Wildlife Service. When a species gets petitioned to be listed. Right. And so like we're getting rusty patch. Bumblebee. Yeah. That's the one we always use. It's like nobody knew there was another bumblebee, you know. And then when you start looking, there's like 25 different bumblebees. And so I don't know what I'm looking at anymore, but, um, but we don't know anything about any of those. Like, there hasn't been any, you know, long standing surveys of those types of critters. Um, also inverts that are in our water systems or things like that. And so, um, just kind of that, hey, if we ever get an opportunity to get information on these species or these species that are being chirped about as like, um, you know, threatened or endangered or, or, you know, reason for concern, it's like, well, are they we don't know who's been counting them. Nobody. Nobody knows. You know, and so so it's not it's not that we're going to go spend a whole bunch of money on rusty patched bumblebees or whatever, but when we get the opportunity to work with folks that are interested in that, we can we can help steer them in North Dakota, how that works and to best fit information needs.
Cayla: So yeah, just a lot more invertebrates in general this round. Just again, mostly it's like who knows, I don't know. But they do serve as pretty good indicators of some of our like water quality on the aquatic side.
Casey: And some of them are pretty important too. I mean, like those inverts are duck brood. It's the only way they survive. Duck broods on the water needs those inverts and a few bugs flying above the top of the water. But yeah.
Cayla: Okay. 12 already I know that seems fast.
Casey: It does.
Cayla: 12,000 subscribers.
Casey: Subscribers? That was a hard one.
Cayla: Oh, gosh. So, um. Yeah, our Game and Fish YouTube page, uh, has 12, well, 12.6 thousand subscribers. Um, a couple big videos over the year that just kind of like added, um, you know, some videos or Facebook posts, whatever it might be, might go by, not viral, viral. But yeah, blow up a little bit, but then it's, um, you know, it's rare for that to turn into an actual like subscriber or follower. But yeah, more so just representative of kind of all the platforms we've been on, uh, lately or just like efforts to, to get out there and engaged with different, um, media platforms, different demographics, like the podcast. Um, yeah, we've gone digital, we’ve gone commercial.
Casey: I mean, we needed to get on those. Um, and it's just getting information to the public, like, we're just trying to get as much information to the public as they can so they can be informed, um, you know, of opportunities, um, how to do things the right way, maybe, um, and stuff like that. So.
Cayla: Yeah, just meet people where they are. Some of our top, um, we're learning like some I mean, there's some videos that do well every year, like, people are always interested in, um, I don't know how. Yeah. Like the walleye spawning one just has a lot of cool videography in it. Or how our pheasant, how's the pheasant season going to be? But we just did one on how to clean a pheasant, which it's like, everyone knows this, but I don't know, people like to watch someone else do it, I guess.
Casey: Or or learn a new way. Like I've been doing it wrong this whole time.
Cayla: And then on the Facebook side of things, the behind the badges or warden stories have really been. And either of those or like we just had a recent one, but like a request for information on a poaching case, it's like those two people are very passionate about.
Casey: Yeah. What the the Goodrich.
Cayla: Goodrich Elk was the top one of the year, but this other one just last, uh, poached deer here out.
Casey: Out east. Yep.
Cayla: Um, also performed highly a lot. A lot of shares, which then just.
Casey: Yeah. Well, and hopefully that helps the wardens. Yeah. Figure out what's going on. And and, uh, either help put a stop to it or, or catch those folks that are doing it. So. Yeah, it's, uh, and what some of the other stuff we've got going on is our North Game and Fish app, uh, another digital platform that is I don't know how many users we have on that. We should probably look, but.
Cayla: Yeah.
Casey: It's pretty handy and I know a lot more people are using it.
Cayla: I it is decent. It's surprising. I know Hosek always bragging about that. It's older people that have the app and I've just I've ran into.
Casey: Because he built it and he's older. No I'm just kidding.
Cayla: I've ran into a few people this fall that are like, I didn't know you guys had an app. And it's like, oh man, I guess we gotta.
Casey: Yeah. So there's an app out there. It's easy to show your license, it's easy to buy your license. You don't. Once your license is downloaded into the app, you don't need service to show your license. So, uh, and then it's got, of course, links to all of the regulations links. There's a sunrise sunset table. Um, it's pretty handy. Weather. Yeah. Weather screen. That's pretty handy with wind direction and stuff like that. So based on your location of your phone.
Cayla: Yeah, it's just I feel like the most handy is just to show your license. It's, um.
Casey: Or my wife's license or my boys license when they're right, they're all in there.
Cayla: Pretty nifty.
Casey: So yeah.
Cayla: Hopefully we can nail the top. Yep. From the top. Not he 12 days of game and fishmas? The 12
Casey: I like 12 days of game and fishmas.
All: 12 days of game and fishmas. Mhm. All right. 12,000 subscribers, 11 species off, ten bighorn sheep, 9 million walleye, 800 archers, 7000 acres, six nonresident zones, five pheasant chicks, $4 million, 3000 events, 2000 fish tags, and a lonely sage grouse hen.
Casey: And hopefully that made your Christmas.
Cayla: Oh, gosh. That's actually the third time I've rewritten the 12 Days of Christmas. I don't know. Yeah.
Casey: For work?
Cayla: No, this is the first time for work.
Casey: Now you got paid to do it. It's like your dream. You're paid to write a Christmas song. Okay. Department droppings.
Cayla: Uh, free fishing weekend is. I feel like it's a little earlier. I don't know, December. Maybe that's on track December 27th and 28th. So if you've got, uh, something to do, looking for something to do over the Christmas break ish. Um, yeah.
Casey: A couple spots where fish are biting to.
Cayla: Really?
Casey: Yeah. I'll tell you later. Okay. Make everybody wonder.
Cayla: Okay.
Casey: So. Yeah. And our seasonal seasonal hiring, um, deadline is February 1st. We hire seasonals every summer, um, to help out in our fisheries division, our wildlife division. Um, and even the enforcement guys have a couple seasonal positions that are open. And so if you're interested in getting some experience, get your app in by February 1st.
Cayla: Other than that, just, uh, happy holidays.
Casey: Yeah, yeah. Now that we've dropped the reindeer droppings, you can get off the pot and get outdoors.
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