Outdoor Insights: Public pushback makes impact in Minnesota DNR’s ‘splash duck’ limit decision

The Minnesota DNR surprised me last week by announcing that it will not pursue the “Tier 2” any-duck, three-bird bag limit option for the 2027 duck-hunting season.

The public comment period on the proposal, which would have existed in addition to a regular (presumably six-duck) bag, drew more than 1,000 public comments. They tilted slightly against the idea.

Given the public opposition and a fair amount of confusion about the concept among those who weighed in, the DNR decided not to pursue a “splash-duck” limit in the near term. The idea could swing around again after 2031 if the feds permanently approve it for the flyway.

I say “surprised” above because usually the DNR pitches dramatic changes like this one because it supports the idea. That said, we saw strong backlash, especially from older hunters concerned that we’re dumbing down hunting by allowing more leeway on identifying birds.

This administration generally has defaulted to liberalizing regulations in the name of recruiting new hunters, but this controversial proposal didn’t make the cut. A small plurality of posts on the Outdoor News Facebook page and other digital comment boards suggest the DNR got this one right.

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A SPECIAL AGENT. Condolences to the family of Richard Dickinson, a past contributor here at Outdoor News, who passed away last week at the age of 81.

A retired U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service special agent, Richard shared some of his amazing and sometimes humorous stories about natural resources law enforcement in this publication for several years.

Before he began stimulating readers with astronomy observations, my dad also worked for the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service in refuges and pulled some law-enforcement stakeouts with Dickinson. Last week, he reminded me about a case from the early 1980s. He’d joined Dickinson for some late-night surveillance of an area that had seen some trespassing after hours on refuge properties in the Mississippi River Valley near Winona, Minn.

“A young couple drove into the refuge after dark with no headlights. We almost had a collision with him before we got the car stopped. The kid had an old shotgun shell in the door handle. Dick really read him the riot act about that!” Dad recalled. “As I remember, the kids were both underage, so we let them off with a good ass-chewing. I had to laugh afterwards when Dick said he’d never seen a guy with a worse case of ‘terminal hickey!’”

Dickinson had a million stories like that, and his columns documented many far more nefarious than disoriented lovebirds. He never mentioned it to me, but his obituary said he was a Vietnam vet.

This scribe appreciates his military service and all those years he spent working late nights protecting the region’s natural resources. Thank you to the hundreds of state and federal natural resources law enforcement officers who are working nights now in cold duck marshes. Show them respect and patience this autumn.

AMBLER ROAD. In August, I wrote a lengthy story outlining my opposition to the proposal to build the 211-mile Ambler Road parallel to the Brooks Range in Alaska. However you feel about the (terrible) idea, the first comment period affecting the project remains open until Nov. 2 via https://www.arcticmineeis.com.

For great information about the project, including maps, its potential impacts, a Q&A, and 3-D details, visit the Ambler Road webpage at Morethanjustparks.com.

Last week I interviewed the guys behind that website, Jim and Will Pattiz (my apologies for the interview’s length), and right as that edition hit, they posted their Ambler Road content.

What they created is incredible. Check it out at https://morethanjustparks.com/ambler-road