North Dakota Code § 20.1-01-02

Definitions
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In this title, unless the context otherwise requires:
1. "Afield" means being away from one's home or camp. The term does not include 
driving or being in actual physical control of a motor vehicle in violation of section 
39-08-01 or equivalent ordinance.
2. "Any part thereof" or "the parts thereof" includes the hide, horns, or hoofs of any 
animal specified and the plumage, skin, and every other part of any bird specified.
3. "Aquatic nuisance species" means any nonindigenous, obligate aquatic species of 
plant or animal which is injurious to native and desirable aquatic species or which has 
a negative effect on aquatic habitats, environment, or the economy of the state.
4. "Associated equipment" means:
a. Any system, part, or component of a boat as originally manufactured or any 
similar part or component manufactured or sold for replacement, repair, or 
improvement of such system, part, or component;
b. Any accessory or equipment for, or appurtenance to, a boat; and
c. Any marine safety article, accessory, or equipment intended for use by a person 
on board a boat; but
d. Excluding radio equipment.
5. "Big game" means deer, moose, elk, bighorn sheep, mountain goats, and antelope.
6. "Boat" means any vessel:
a. Manufactured or used primarily for noncommercial use;
b. Leased, rented, or chartered to another for the latter's noncommercial use; or
c. Engaged in the carrying of six or fewer passengers.
7. "Confiscate" or "confiscated" means to hold subject to the order of a court of 
competent jurisdiction.
8. "Consideration" means something of value given or done in exchange for something of 
value given or done by another.
9. "Crops" means any plant that has been harvested, collected, or stored as livestock 
feed, fodder, or fuel.
10. "Day leasing" means the practice of an outfitter entering a short -term lease agreement 
that is intended to and does last less than twenty-four hours.
11. "Department" means the game and fish department.
12. "Depredation" means damage to or destruction of private property.
13. "Deputy director" means the deputy director of the department.
14. "Director" means the director of the department.
15. "Disabled veteran" means a veteran who has a one hundred percent 
service-connected disability as determined by the department of veterans' affairs or 
has an extra-schedular rating to include individual unemployability that brings the 
veteran's total disability ratio to one hundred percent as determined by the department 
of veterans' affairs.
16. "Endangered species" means any species whose prospects of survival or recruitment 
within the state are in jeopardy due to any of the following factors:
a. The destruction, drastic modification, or severe curtailment of its habitat.
b. Its overutilization for scientific, commercial, or sporting purposes.
c. The effect on it of disease, pollution, or predation.

d. Other natural or manmade factors affecting its prospects of survival or 
recruitment within the state.
e. Any combination of the foregoing factors.
The term also includes any species classified as endangered pursuant to the 
Endangered Species Act of 1973, Public Law 93-205.
17. "Established road or trail" means any public highway or road, improved or otherwise, 
dedicated for public ingress or egress, or any other road or trail normally used for 
travel but does not include temporary trails across cultivated land used for agricultural 
purposes.
18. "Fur-bearers" includes mink, muskrats, weasels, wolverines, otters, martens, fishers, 
kit or swift foxes, beavers, raccoons, badgers, wolves, coyotes, bobcats, lynx, 
mountain lions, black bears, and red or gray foxes.
19. "Game birds" includes all varieties of geese, brant, swans, ducks, plovers, snipes, 
woodcocks, grouse, sagehens, pheasants, Hungarian partridges, quails, partridges, 
cranes, rails, coots, wild turkeys, mourning doves, and crows.
20. "Guide" means an individual who is employed by or contracts with a licensed outfitter 
to help the outfitter furnish personal services for the conduct of outdoor recreational 
activities directly related to the conduct of activities for which the employing outfitter is 
licensed.
21. "Gun dogs" includes any dog used to hunt protected wildlife.
22. "Harmful wild birds" includes blackbirds, magpies, English sparrows, and starlings.
23. "Harmless wild birds" includes all wild birds not defined herein as "harmful wild birds" 
or "game birds".
24. "Hunt" or "hunting" means shooting, shooting at, pursuing, taking, attempting to take, 
or killing any game animals and game birds; searching for or attempting to locate or 
flush any game animals and game birds; luring, calling, or attempting to attract game 
animals and game birds; hiding for the purpose of taking or attempting to take game 
animals and game birds; and walking, crawling, or advancing toward wildlife while 
possessing implements or equipment useful in the taking of game animals or game 
birds. The term does not include possessing or using photographic equipment.
25. "Hunt through the internet" means to hunt wildlife in real time using internet services to 
remotely control actual firearms and to remotely discharge live ammunition allowing a 
person who is not physically present to take wildlife. The term includes using any 
remotely controlled device to hunt the animal such as a hand -held communication 
device, cellular telephone, or global-positioning device.
26. "Immediate area" means the surrounding area within one hundred yards 
[91.44 meters] of the big game animal.
27. "Indian land" means land within the exterior boundaries of an Indian reservation held in 
trust by the federal government for the benefit of an Indian tribe or an Indian and land 
within the exterior boundaries of an Indian reservation owned in fee by an Indian tribe 
or an Indian.
28. "Introduce" means to place, release, or allow the escape of a non-native species into a 
free-living state.
29. "Manufacturer" means any person engaged in:
a. The manufacture, construction, or assembly of boats or associated equipment.
b. The manufacture or construction of components for boats and associated 
equipment to be sold for subsequent assembly.
c. The importation into the state for sale of boats, associated equipment, or 
components thereof.
30. "Motorboat" means any vessel propelled by machinery, whether or not the machinery 
is the principal source of propulsion. The term does not include a vessel having a valid 
marine document issued by the bureau of customs of the United States government or 
any federal agency successor thereto.
31. "Motor-driven vehicle" means any land vehicle, with or without wheels, that is 
propelled by any motor.

32. "Native aquatic species" means an animal or plant species that is naturally present 
and reproducing within this state or which naturally expands from its historic range into 
this state.
33. "Non-native species" means a species that is not a native species.
34. "Operate" means to navigate or otherwise use a motorboat or a vessel.
35. "Outfitter" means a person that holds the person's business operation out to the public 
for hire or consideration; provides facilities or services for consideration; maintains, 
leases, or otherwise provides compensation for the use of land and which receives 
compensation from a third party for use of that land; or otherwise uses equipment or 
accommodations for consideration for the conduct of outdoor recreational activities, 
including hunting animals or birds and fishing on lakes, reservoirs, rivers, and streams. 
An outfitter may act as a guide. The term does not include a person holding title or an 
equitable interest in business operations if the purpose of the business operation is to 
provide food or lodging to the general public, chamber of commerce activities, travel 
agencies, or others that offer free information to attract outdoor and recreational use of 
their communities.
36. "Owner" means a person, other than a lienholder, having the property in or title to a 
motorboat. The term includes a person entitled to the use or possession of a 
motorboat subject to an interest in another person, reserved or created by agreement 
and securing payment or performance of an obligation, but the term excludes a lessee 
under a lease not intended as security.
37. "Passenger" means every person carried on board a vessel other than:
a. The owner or the owner's representative.
b. The operator.
c. Bona fide members of the crew engaged in the business of the vessel who have 
contributed no consideration for their carriage and who are paid for their services.
d. Any guest on board a vessel which is being used exclusively for pleasure 
purposes who has not contributed any consideration, directly or indirectly, for that 
person's carriage.
38. "Person" includes every partnership, association, corporation, and limited liability 
company. No violation of this title may be excused because it was done as the agent 
or employee of another, nor because it was committed by or through an agent or 
employee of the person charged.
39. "Personal watercraft" means a motorboat that is powered by an inboard motor 
powering a water jet pump or by an inboard or outboard marine engine and which is 
designed to be operated by a person sitting, standing, or kneeling on the craft, rather 
than in a conventional manner of sitting or standing inside a motorboat.
40. "Possession" means control, actual possession, and constructive possession of the 
article or thing specified.
41. "Private fish hatchery" means a body of water, whether natural or artificial, and any 
other facilities used, maintained, or operated by any private person, firm, corporation, 
or limited liability company for the propagation and production of fish for sale or 
planting in other waters. Except in the case of trout, walleye, northern pike, and 
crappie, which may be raised in a private fish hatchery without the director's approval, 
the director may, by rule, regulate the species of fish which may be raised in a private 
fish hatchery. No waters stocked by any state or federal governmental agency may be 
considered a private fish hatchery.
42. "Public waters" means waters to which the general public has a right to access.
43. "Resident" means any person who has actually lived within this state or maintained 
that person's residence therein for at least six months immediately preceding the date 
that residence is to be determined. A person's residence is the place where the person 
remains when not called elsewhere for special or temporary purposes. A resident can 
only have one residence and a residence cannot be lost until another is gained. A 
residence or home is a permanent building or part of a building and may include a 
house, condominium, apartment, room in a house, or mobile home. A rental property, 
vacant lot, or house, cabin, or premises used primarily for business or recreational 

pursuits may not be considered a residence. A "nonresident" is any person who has 
not actually lived within this state or maintained that person's residence within this 
state for at least six months immediately preceding the date that residence is to be 
determined.
44. "Resident species" means any species nearly all of whose individuals in this state are 
located within this state for at least three-fourths of annual cycle of the species.
45. "Retrieve" means to have taken possession and made ready for transportation.
46. "Sell" and "sale" means any sale or offer to sell, or possession with intent to sell, use, 
or dispose of, the article or thing specified, contrary to law.
47. "Shooting preserve" or "preserve" means any privately owned or leased acreage 
[hectarage] on which hatchery -raised game birds are released to be hunted for a fee 
over an extended season.
48. "Sinkbox" or "sunken device" means a raft or any type of low floating device having a 
depression that affords a hunter a means of concealing that person below the surface 
of the water.
49. "Slow or no wake speed" means the slowest possible speed necessary to maintain 
steerage.
50. "Small game" includes all game birds and tree squirrels.
51. "Species" includes any subspecies of wildlife and any other group of wildlife of the 
same species or smaller taxa in common spatial arrangement that interbreed when 
mature.
52. "Threatened species" means any species which is likely to become an endangered 
species within the foreseeable future and includes any species classified as 
threatened pursuant to the Endangered Species Act of 1973, Public Law 93-205.
53. "Transport" means to cause or attempt to cause a species to be carried or moved into 
or within the state and includes accepting or receiving the species for transportation or 
shipment. The term does not include the unintentional transport of a species while on a 
specific water of the state or to a connected water of the state where the species being 
transported is already present.
54. "Undocumented vessel" means a vessel which does not have a valid marine 
document as a vessel of the United States.
55. "Vessel" means any watercraft, other than a seaplane on the water, used or capable of 
being used as a means of transportation on water.
56. "Waterfowl" includes all varieties of geese, brant, swans, ducks, rails, and coots.
57. "Waters" when not qualified means waters not open to the general public.
58. "Waters of the state" means all waters of this state, including boundary waters. This 
title extends to and is in force and effect over, upon, and in all such waters.
59. "Wildlife" means any member of the animal kingdom including any mammal, fish, bird 
(including any migratory, nonmigratory, or endangered bird for which protection is also 
afforded by treaty or other international agreement), amphibian, reptile, mollusk, 
crustacean, or other invertebrate, and includes any part, product, egg, or offspring 
thereof, or the dead body or parts thereof. Wildlife does not include domestic animals 
as defined by section 36-01-00.1 or birds or animals held in private ownership.

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