What’s Going On With Our Deer Population In North Dakota?

Does anybody even hunt deer in North Dakota anymore?

I was just telling my son recently how things have changed drastically in North Dakota during deer season. There was a time not that long ago, when it was almost scary to hunt waterfowl or pheasants during deer season. It was a sea of orange on the North Dakota landscape back then, especially in the first two weeks. It was a non-stop brigade of trucks traveling the gravel roads of our state road hunting, and to a lesser degree, hunters actually out pushing for deer.

I have to admit, I would get nervous when a swarm of deer hunters would watch us hunt pheasants with trucks on all four corners of the field, waiting for us to scare up a buck for them. This is something that happened numerous times back in the day.

Now, you likely may not even see a single deer hunter during the season while out chasing other game. That was the case for us again this year as we hunted ducks and pheasants without seeing much for blaze orange.

Where have all the deer hunters gone?

The obvious answer to why you don't see many deer hunters anymore across the state is that far fewer licenses are being issued each year. 42,300 deer licenses were handed out to North Dakota deer hunters in 2025. That's 7,800 fewer licenses given out compared to 2024, when 50,100 were awarded. Compare that to 2005 (20 years ago), when 145,600 licenses were issued. Over 100,000 more.

Why is our deer population struggling so much?

The North Dakota Game and Fish says the reason for the reduction of licenses is directly related to the deer population. The key factors include habitat loss, including high-quality deer habitat, specifically the loss of millions of acres of CRP land and the draining of wetlands.

This really hurts the recovery efforts for potential population recovery, with a lack of adequate winter cover to protect them from predators and harsh winters. The Game and Fish also say disease outbreaks like EHD have dramatically reduced white-tailed deer populations, especially in south-central North Dakota along the Missouri River and many of the western counties of the state.

(SEE ALSO: EHD rearing its ugly head again in North Dakota)

Some North Dakota hunters are blaming the youth deer seasons for our declining deer population.

I've seen numerous posts on various social media forums of late complaining about the number of youth deer licenses handed out each year, specifically the number of does harvested each year, contributing to the lack of production in our deer population.

What's the answer? How do we fix this problem? How do we get back to the deer populations we saw 20 years ago? Is this even possible with our declining CRP habitat? Let us know what you think in the comments on our social media pages.