Schmidt Bottoms WMA (Morton County)

North Dakota Game & Fish (wildlife management areas)

Researched — The record is detailed and internally consistent, and the coordinates land where the managing agency says this site is.

Free primitive camping authorised by BINDING RULE, not by a listing: NDAC 30-04-02-01 & -11 (ndlegis.gov/information/acdata/pdf/30-04-02.pdf) + gf.nd.gov/wma (WMA Regulations, last updated August 2026). Both sources were downloaded and read in full on 2026-08-16 (this fire), not inherited from an earlier fire's notes. 30-04-02-01 grants open public use with no licence/pass/entrance-fee precondition; 30-04-02-11 (amended eff. 2024-04-01) permits camping up to 10 consecutive days, bans leaving equipment set up when not in use, bans mowing for campsites, and creates NO camping fee -- every dollar figure in the chapter (50/100/250) is a noncriminal-offence penalty, see 30-04-02-19. gf.nd.gov/wma (last updated August 2026) states 'Most WMAs are ideal for nature study, hiking and primitive camping'; its camping-prohibited and Thursday-Monday-only WMA lists were downloaded raw and string-matched locally, never via a search summary. STAY LIMIT 10 consecutive days. SEASONAL: no seasonal closure is published for WMA camping, but access trails are unplowed and gumbo when wet. FIRE: campfires are allowed and downed wood may be gathered, subject to any county burn ban in force -- check before you light one. Boundary/acreage/county from the ND state ArcGIS Wildlife_Management_Areas layer (gis.dmr.nd.gov/dmrpublicservices/rest/services/OilGasPublicMapDataVectorTiles/Wildlife_Management_Areas/FeatureServer/0), re-pulled live this fire: 1318 ac, 1 parcel(s), largest parcel used. Coordinate: representative interior point (centroid), asserted point-in-polygon against the unit boundary, WGS84. NOT a surveyed campsite. WATER: not recorded -- there is no stated potable supply on these units and any surface water present must not be assumed drinkable. NEAREST TOWN: not determined this fire. Ingest 2026-08-16 08:46:47 (fire 790, ND thin-state fill). --- NIGHT-SHIFT REVIEW 2026-08-18 (reviewer nightshift-verified) --- Every source below was re-fetched and read IN FULL this fire; nothing inherited. (1) NDAC ch. 30-04-02, https://www.ndlegis.gov/information/acdata/pdf/30-04-02.pdf -- 30-04-02-01 (all WMAs open for 'public hunting, fishing, and trapping, or other compatible public use', no licence/pass/entrance-fee precondition) and 30-04-02-11 Camping (>10 consecutive days prohibited; trailers/campers/tents may not be left unless used for daily lodging; mowing vegetation for campsites prohibited; CAMPING PROHIBITED WHERE POSTED AT PUBLIC ROAD ENTRY POINTS; $100 noncriminal-offence fee) both verified word-for-word against what this row already recorded -- they match. 30-04-02-19 confirms the 50/100/250 dollar figures are penalties, not camping fees. 30-04-02-08 confirms 'Gathering of downed wood for campfires is permitted.' (2) https://gf.nd.gov/wma -- 'Wildlife Management Areas - Regulations (Last updated August 2026)'; still carries 'Most WMAs are ideal for nature study, hiking and primitive camping.' Its camping-prohibited list and its Tuesday/Wednesday-closed list were re-transcribed verbatim this fire. (3) https://gf.nd.gov/wma-listing -- 'WMA Listing'. SOURCE NOT USED BY THE INGEST FIRE. It gives the agency's own per-unit county, acreage and directions, and it carries PER-UNIT camping notes that the regulations page's summary lists do not fully reproduce. 243 unit records parsed. (4) ND DMR ArcGIS Wildlife_Management_Areas layer, https://gis.dmr.nd.gov/dmrpublicservices/rest/services/OilGasPublicMapDataVectorTiles/Wildlife_Management_Areas/FeatureServer/0 -- re-pulled live (374 parcel polygons, 236 distinct unit names). UNIT: found in the live GIS layer as 1 parcel polygon(s), largest 1318 ac, parcel sum 1318 ac. AGENCY LISTING: 'Schmidt Bottoms', Morton County, 1318 ac. PER-UNIT CAMPING NOTE in the listing: none -- the listing states no camping restriction for this unit. COORDINATE: point-in-polygon against the live unit boundary = PASS -- the recorded lat/lon is inside the unit. DUPLICATE CHECK (by coordinate, never by name): no published or approved ND camp lies within 1.0 mi of this coordinate, and no published/approved ND camp point falls inside this unit's boundary. Not a duplicate. DECISION: APPROVED. The legal basis, the unit's existence, its boundary, its acreage and its coordinate all check out against the agency's own sources today, and no camping restriction applies that the public field_note does not already state. WATER: unchanged and still not asserted -- no potable supply is published for these units and no natural water here may be assumed drinkable.

US DOE Alternative Fuels Data Center station locator, snapshot 2026-09-16. Straight-line miles to the nearest public, open, unrestricted station; restricted and planned units are shown but never counted.

On the agency's books. The land manager inventoried this site, so its existence is not in question — current conditions are. Nobody from here has camped it recently.