Natalie Ryder

Sitting on a treestand near Duluth in mid-September, Samantha Ewald finally saw what she had been waiting to see emerge from the brush behind her – a bear.
“I stayed very still. … It actually sniffed around my tree a lot and then kind of was like sniffing up in the air. I was getting ready in case I was going to get a good shot on it,” Ewald said. 
She waited and watched from her perch about 20 feet above the ground as the bear fiddled with the bait less than 100 feet away. 
“It was taking its sweet time getting there,” she said. 

As moose-hunting season draws closer for the Bois Forte, Fond du Lac, and Grand Portage Ojibwe bands in mid- to late-September, harvest limits on moose may range from six to 30 across northeast Minnesota reservations.

The moose-hunting season for the bands is likely to be another average one, with enough permits for those who are interested in the opportunity to kill a moose this season. The Fond du Lac Band of Lake Superior Ojibwe offered 70 permits to members this season, capping harvest at 30 bull moose.

Wil Goetsch caught a glimpse of the big bear on his trail cameras twice before seeing him emerge through rows of corn as he sat perched in his hunting stand.
“He came in upwind of me, to the north, and fixated right up on me in the stand, smelled for me. You could see him processing,” Goetsch said.
Goetsch, his bow drawn, let an arrow fly, hitting the bear.
“It wasn’t until I shot him that I realized how big he was.”