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Eric Morken

Eric Morken is a writer and web editor for Outdoor News who lives in west-central Minnesota with his wife and two daughters. Morken graduated with a journalism degree from Augustana College (now Augustana University) in Sioux Falls, South Dakota in 2007. He has worked in the journalism field ever since, and his outdoor work has been in print and digital publications across the country. When not writing about the outdoors, Morken is an active participant in them. He can be found doing some casual fishing in the summer and chasing turkeys in the spring, but his passion is centered around bowhunting whitetails. It’s a year-round commitment of scouting and hunting different regions of Minnesota and surrounding states on public and shared-private lands every chance he gets. Contact Morken at emorken@outdoornews.com. Follow him on Twitter @EricOutdoorNews or on Instagram @elmorken.

Want to try winter camping? Here’s the must-have gear and knowledge to make it a great experience

Featured, Featured, Featured, Features, Fishing, Fishing, Fishing, Fishing, Fishing, Fishing, Fishing, Fishing, Home Page News, Hunting, Hunting, Hunting, Hunting, Hunting, Hunting, Hunting, Hunting, Illinois, Iowa, Michigan, Minnesota, National Fishing, National Hunting, Nature Page & Night Sky, New York, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Wisconsin /

Outdoor users in Minnesota may know Blane Klemek as the northwest region wildlife manager with the state’s Department of Natural Resources.

That job with an emphasis on wildlife and the outdoors certainly fits with how Klemek lives his life. He’s a passionate adventurer focused on fishing, hunting, and camping. For 25 years he has gone on winter camping trips, usually with about five other friends in the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness of northern Minnesota.
“Sometimes it can be an absolute challenge with cold temperatures and snowfall,” Klemek said. “But with experienced people, many hands make light work.”

Want to try winter camping? Here’s the must-have gear and knowledge to make it a great experience Read More »

A quick chat with wild turkey expert Dr. Michael Chamberlain

Home Page News, National Hunting, Quick Chats /

Back in 2011, wildlife researchers began noticing a trend: declining wild turkey numbers in parts of the country. The initial concern focused on southern states and the southern Midwest.
“Originally that’s where the concerns kind of blossomed,” said Dr. Michael Chamberlain, a National Wild Turkey Federation distinguished professor at the University of Georgia Warnell School of Forestry and Natural Resources. “But I think the evidence is pretty clear that since then there’s a growing recognition that populations are declining in a number of other states, including some of the northeastern states and some of the Upper Midwest states.”

A quick chat with wild turkey expert Dr. Michael Chamberlain Read More »

Four reasons you aren’t having the bowhunting success you want

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My wife and I were in our kitchen almost 15 years ago on a summer Sunday afternoon when I brought up deer hunting, a subject she’d heard me mention frequently.
“I want to get really good at bowhunting whitetails,” I said.
“OK,” she responded, barely looking up from the task she was tending to.
“I don’t think you understand,” I told her. “What I have been doing isn’t working. I’m not seeing the results I want, and it’s going to take me committing to this far more than I have been.”
Archery humbles a person every season, but big-buck sightings and deer kills in general have grown substantially since making real changes after that conversation.

Four reasons you aren’t having the bowhunting success you want Read More »

Gear items that will add to your efficiency this bowhunting season

Features, Gear & Gadgets, Hunting, Hunting, Hunting, Hunting, Hunting, Hunting, Hunting, Hunting, Hunting, Illinois, Iowa, Michigan, Minnesota, National Hunting, New York, North Dakota, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Wisconsin /

One thing that helps get me through the heart of a bowhunting offseason is analyzing gear for my mobile hunting style. 
This mobile approach has helped me shoot a lot more deer, but it can become a mental grind during certain times. It helps to have an efficient system dialed in to effectively hunt this way during what can be 95 degrees and mosquitoes during the early season and 20-below zero temperatures in December.

Gear items that will add to your efficiency this bowhunting season Read More »

Video: Scouting for whitetails after storm alters years of intel

Featured, Features, Home Page News, Hunting, Hunting, Hunting, Hunting, Hunting, Hunting, Hunting, Hunting, Illinois, Iowa, Michigan, Minnesota, National Hunting, New York, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Wisconsin /

This summer has featured some destructive storms in parts of the Upper Midwest. 
Eric Morken has bowhunted a river-bottom system for whitetails for seven years and spends a weekend scouting out there in August each year. This past weekend on that annual scouting/camping trip, he quickly realized a storm that came through in June had completely altered most of his favorite locations.

Video: Scouting for whitetails after storm alters years of intel Read More »

Should you shoot single-bevel broadheads? Here’s what to consider

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It’d been a frustrating start to the whitetail rut in 2024, but anyone who has hunted long enough knows that fortunes can change quickly in November.
Time in the woods pays off. That’s what I was telling myself on the morning of Nov. 14 when setting up in a tree adjacent to a thick bedding area where multiple trails converge. About 10 a.m., a buck trotted out of the bedding area and went directly to a scrape 15 yards from me.

Should you shoot single-bevel broadheads? Here’s what to consider Read More »

Outdoor Heritage Council’s habitat tour shines light on importance of funding for Minnesota’s outdoors

Featured, Fishing, Home Page News, Hunting, Minnesota, National Fishing, National Hunting, National News, Nature Page & Night Sky, News /

A group of about 30 people stood in knee-high prairie grass high atop a peak amid rolling hills that overlooked Lake Christina in west-central Minnesota on a sunny June 24 afternoon.
Shawn Papon, a wildlife biologist with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, and Daryl Peterson, with Minnesota Land Trust, held a map that detailed thousands of protected acres within the Lake Christina Prairie Core.

Outdoor Heritage Council’s habitat tour shines light on importance of funding for Minnesota’s outdoors Read More »

Provision to sell federal public lands pulled from Senate’s reconciliation bill

Home Page News, National Fishing, National Hunting, National News /

Outdoor organizations on Saturday were celebrating what they called a major victory for hunters and anglers after Senator Mike Lee (R-Utah) pulled his proposal from the Senate’s budget reconciliation bill that would have sold millions of acres of public land.
The original proposal announced in mid-June would have mandated the sale of as much as 3 million acres of federal lands in 11 western states under the pretense of helping to balance the federal budget and providing more affordable housing.

Provision to sell federal public lands pulled from Senate’s reconciliation bill Read More »

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