North Dakota Gov. Kelly Armstrong signed a bill into law that will allow hunting over bait on private property.

Senate Bill 2137 prevents the North Dakota Game and Fish Department (NDGF) from banning deer hunting over bait. North Dakota has never had a baiting ban as anyone can place supplemental feed out for deer, but previous laws dictated that people could not hunt over bait in a hunting unit with a CWD detection, or within 25 miles of a detected unit. The bill now allows hunting around feed in the once-restricted units.

SB 2137 reads: “Hunting big game animals using supplemental feed not prohibited or restricted. The department may not adopt a rule or implement a policy prohibiting or restricting the use of supplemental feed on private property for hunting a big game animal.”

SB 2137 passed the North Dakota Senate with a 31–15 vote and was subsequently approved by the House without amendments. The bill was filed with the Secretary of State on April 17, 2025.

“The abundance of the testimony for SB 2137 was based around the fact that the people of ND can already place feed for wildlife anytime, anywhere, and any amount yet we couldn’t hunt over the feed in a ‘detected’ unit because of CWD. So, does hunting spread CWD? This is what the regulation said, doesn’t it?” said Dusty Backer, who testified in support of the bill. “North Dakota has tested 51,000 deer in 27 years of testing. There are 122 ‘detections’ and out of that total, possibly ONE has been confirmed (necropsy) with CWD. That is a prevalence rate of .00002%. This means 99.99998% of the deer tested in ND did not detect for CWD. For this absolute minimal number, the people of ND were being restricted in method of take, which has nothing to do with CWD.”

A similar bill introduced in 2023 failed to pass.