Streams of Thought: Litterers, vandals ruin access opportunities on a Minnesota Wildlife Management Area

Some old DNR friends of mine used to joke that before they erected shiny news signs on state lands, they considered first taking them to a gun range to “pre-emptively” put a round of bird shot into ’em. You know, save someone the trouble of doing it for them after the signs went into the ground.

Pelleted signs, however, are often the least of the problem when it comes to state lands – wildlife management areas, in particular – abuses. Every wildlife manager in this state has a horror story or two, as do the responsible users of said lands.

And while those among us sometimes are to blame, it’s just as likely that those who litter, vandalize, or create other state lands havoc are people who have no interest whatsoever in fish or game.

Another sad reminder came my way recently, when a reader of this publication called to report the closing of a boat-access road in central Minnesota. He wondered why, so I checked.

The access in question is located on a WMA in central Minnesota – the Rice-Skunk WMA (Rice Lake Unit), southeast of Little Falls. There, the reader told me, an access road to Rice Lake (basically a widening of the Platte River) had been open “for 50 years.”

This spring, he said, he arrived to find the short gravel trail to the access had been gated. The DNR’s website for the WMA now has a “visitor alert” posted: “Beginning in June of 2025, due to history of frequent vandalism, road damage, dumping, and other illegal activity, the primitive water access is only open to motor vehicles from Sept. 1 through Nov. 30 each year. During the road closure, vehicles may park along the DNR access road and walk past the locked gate to access the tract.”

The reader makes some good points – that there’s a dedicated group of folks who either angle or spear (mostly northern pike), or target common carp, who are left without a lake access, and that closing the access inconveniences folks with disabilities.

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Beau Liddell, the DNR’s area wildlife manager in Little Falls, whose job it is to manage the WMA, has a host of reasons the road to the access has been closed for a portion of the year. The road, he said, is just under 1,000 feet in length. It leads to a rather remote location on Rice Lake, which is roughly 3-1⁄2 feet deep and primarily a waterfowling destination (thus the opening of the road in late summer and fall).

Liddell said he and his staff have, over the years, picked up garbage that’s ranged from hydraulic fluid to tires to hazardous materials to drug paraphernalia and bicycles. “Quite honestly, we have better things to do with our time,” he said.

Like managing wildlife.

Liddell also mentioned vandalism to a water-control structure and damage to the road itself. Both, potentially, could result in spendy fixes – at the expense of wildlife management, of course.

I’ve been around long enough to have developed an impressive array of pet peeves. The dumping of someone’s crap or otherwise damaging state lands is way up on that list. So yeah, I understand the DNR’s actions entirely. But also, I get the frustration of the reader, and others who used the road and access.

It’s too bad there are so many jerks in this world.