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Rob Drieslein

Outdoor Insights: Reflecting on deer hunting opportunities in Trempealeau National Wildlife Refuge

Featured, Featured, Home Page News, Hunting, Hunting, Minnesota, National Hunting, Opinion, Opinion, Wisconsin /

Elsewhere in this edition of Outdoor News, you’ll see details on a U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service pilot program that will pay hunters who choose not to use lead ammo on seven national wildlife refuges.

The USFWS last month confirmed it’s implementing the program this fall “to test voluntary, incentive-based efforts to increase the use of lead-free ammo by hunters on USFWS lands.” The plan doesn’t include any Minnesota refuges, but it does have a property near and dear to my heart just across the Mississippi River.

Outdoor Insights: Reflecting on deer hunting opportunities in Trempealeau National Wildlife Refuge Read More »

Outdoor Insights: A new coalition for outdoors advocacy forming in Minnesota?

Featured, Fishing, Home Page News, Hunting, Minnesota, Opinion /

When the Minnesota Outdoor Heritage Alliance disbanded during the summer of 2023, it left a void for St. Paul advocacy among outdoors organizations and conservation clubs. The umbrella group had represented dozens of organizations on statewide public policy matters since its founding in 1994. Among its victories, MOHA led the charge in passing Amendment 2, the so-called Right to Hunt and Fish ballot initiative in 1998, and it also played a key role in passing the Legacy Amendment sales tax dedication a decade later.

Outdoor Insights: A new coalition for outdoors advocacy forming in Minnesota? Read More »

Outdoor Insights: A $235 million plan to kill half a million barred owls to save spotted owls

Featured, Home Page News, Minnesota, Nature Page & Night Sky, Opinion /

Every Minnesota hunter has heard the barred owl’s distinctive “who cooks for you!?” call. This week’s Beyond Minnesota section details a federal plan to kill barred owls in an attempt to save endangered spotted owls in the Pacific Northwest.
More aggressive and adaptable than spotted owls, barreds compete for the same food sources and habitats, thereby displacing their already imperiled West Coast cousins.

Outdoor Insights: A $235 million plan to kill half a million barred owls to save spotted owls Read More »

Outdoor Insights: Here are the details of the closure of Minnesota’s Hill Annex Mine State Park

Featured, Minnesota, Nature Page & Night Sky, Opinion /

Outdoor News devoted ample space to the transfer of Upper Sioux Agency State Park to the local tribal community in February, so to be consistent, I couldn’t let the recent press release from the Minnesota DNR regarding the closing of Hill Annex Mine State Park go without asking some follow-up questions.
The agency announced last week that the state is de-authorizing the 625-acre property between Grand Rapids and Virginia as a state park, and it will again become a working, privately-operated mine.

Outdoor Insights: Here are the details of the closure of Minnesota’s Hill Annex Mine State Park Read More »

Outdoor Insights: Is a tripling of the pintail bag limit in 2025 really likely?

Featured, Home Page News, Hunting, Hunting, Minnesota, National Hunting, North Dakota, Opinion, Opinion /

News headlines quickly amplified by social media a couple weeks ago suggested that a 300% increase in pintail bag limits across North America was a foregone conclusion for 2025 waterfowl hunting seasons.
A commentary in Outdoor News last week clarified what’s actually happening. The good news: A jump from a one-bird pintail limit to a three-bird limit next year could happen. Minnesota hasn’t seen a three-bird pintail limit since the 1990s. The reality: Unless water conditions in prairie Canada change dramatically between now and then, a tripling of the pintail bag isn’t likely.

Outdoor Insights: Is a tripling of the pintail bag limit in 2025 really likely? Read More »

Pheasants Forever initiates restart with Minnesota’s Red River Valley chapter

Featured, Home Page News, Hunting, Minnesota, National Hunting, National News, News /

Pheasants Forever management notified its Red River Valley chapter in Minnesota this past winter that it was halting the chapter’s activities and implementing a “restart.”
Rebooting the Grand Forks-area chapter means replacing its officers and refocusing it on “The Habitat Organization’s” core mission. The shakeup comes after the chapter has received several honors from PF National in recent years.

Pheasants Forever initiates restart with Minnesota’s Red River Valley chapter Read More »

Outdoor Insights: Here’s why it will soon be legal to sell wild game body fat in Minnesota

Featured, Home Page News, Hunting, Minnesota, National Hunting, Opinion /

Among the laws that passed during the recent Minnesota legislative session, one struck me as deserving more scrutiny. It’s a simple, two-word addition to state statute 97A.512 that addresses the sale of inedible portions of game animals. The two words? “Adipose tissue,” or what we commonly refer to as body fat.
For background, there’s a reason the venison burger you receive from your meat processor has been stamped “Not For Sale.”

Outdoor Insights: Here’s why it will soon be legal to sell wild game body fat in Minnesota Read More »

Jumbo perch are thriving on Minnesota/Wisconsin waters of the Mississippi River

Featured, Featured, Features, Fishing, Fishing, Home Page News, Minnesota, National Fishing, Wisconsin /

A few years ago, while fishing with my kids on a Mississippi River backwater near Winona, Minn., my dad and I got into a mess of yellow perch, big ones. After an hour of the jumbo frenzy, I asked, “Where’d all these perch come from?”
Fishing the Mississippi in the 1980s, my buddies and I targeted walleyes, northern pike, and catfish, in that order. Panfish were not a priority, and I rarely remember even seeing a perch on the Mississippi or its backwaters.
Thanks to improving water clarity and more vegetation, something amazing happened. Perch rebounded, big time.

Jumbo perch are thriving on Minnesota/Wisconsin waters of the Mississippi River Read More »

Outdoor Insights: No evidence CWD has jumped the species barrier, but don’t take foot off the gas in CWD management, proper venison handling

Featured, Hunting, Minnesota, National Hunting, Opinion /

News stories erupted nationwide based on a 376-word scientific journal abstract by the American Academy of Neurology on April 9. It suggested there might be a connection between a couple of people who died (the study didn’t say where) of sporadic Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease, a prion-based illness, and chronic wasting disease.

Outdoor Insights: No evidence CWD has jumped the species barrier, but don’t take foot off the gas in CWD management, proper venison handling Read More »

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