Changing snow trends raise some wildlife concerns during Minnesota winters

Wet flakes kept flying during the first big snowfall in west-central Minnesota this past November.
It was the kind of heavy snow that lays down grasslands, and in this case, even cattails. That initial blast of snow and then the on-and-off thawing and freezing over the month of December laid some of the smaller sloughs in this area nearly flat, making some cover almost useless for pheasants that typically use cattails in big numbers at this time of year.