Public input sought for Minnesota’s Lac qui Parle WMA plan

When Europeans settled the area that’s now Lac qui Parle Wildlife Management Area in western Minnesota near Madison, bison, antelope, elk, mule deer, and eastern gray wolves roamed free throughout the region. Even the occasional grizzly bear occupied the prairie landscape.
But settlement changed everything over time, including the region’s wildlife composition.
“Cultivation, fencing, and uncontrolled hunting were responsible for the reduction in number and elimination of some mammals from the Lac qui Parle vicinity.”
That quote comes from the 1997 Lac qui Parle WMA master plan, the last time the Minnesota DNR updated the document that guides management efforts on the sprawling WMA.