By Joe Albert Staff Writer Walker, Minn. — Brad Walhof, the mayor of Walker, says he’s finally able to admit Leech Lake has a problem, and that the lake is “sick, very ill.” “I’ve been a very positive person about Leech Lake…” he said. “(But) it’s like a person that is really ill and has a disease. We are finally…
By Joe Albert Staff Writer Bemidji, Minn. – While Red Lake supports what officials call a surplus of spawning-sized walleyes, both the DNR and Red Lake Band of Chippewa plan to play it safe in terms of allowable harvest, at least right away. The state will allow anglers to harvest 108,000 pounds of walleyes between May 13 and Nov. 30….
By Joe Albert Staff Writer Nicollet, Minn. — While water isn’t flowing out of Swan Lake as fast as officials hoped, it is progressing nonetheless. The water’s going down about one-quarter inch per day, and is down in total about 7.5 inches. “We were a little discouraged by the flow progress of the drawdown,” said Ken Varland, DNR regional wildlife…
By Joe Albert Staff Writer St. Paul – For the first time in more than 100 years, Mendota Mdewakanton Dakota Community members netted in the place where they believe they were placed on earth. That place: The mouth of the Minnesota River, where it flows into the Mississippi River within Fort Snelling State Park. The net: One 200-foot gill net,…
By Tim Spielman Associate Editor Fridley, Minn. — Officials in the metropolitan city of Fridley are afraid their residents may be just a bit too friendly when it comes to geese and ducks. Incessant feeding of the waterfowl has made the feathered critters congregate in public areas, leaving behind a maze of droppings, along with the litter geese and ducks…
Plus, a million breeding ducks By Joe Albert Staff Writer St. Cloud, Minn. — Nearly a year after discussions about it began, the DNR has released an ambitious plan to restore ducks and duck hunting in Minnesota. Officials unveiled the draft plan to recover ducks, wetlands, and shallow lakes last Friday at the annual roundtable meetings. The plan is as…
By Glen Schmitt Contributing Writer St. Paul — Warm weather, snow, slush, thin ice, and fewer anglers have captured headlines during the ice fishing season. Although January is nearly half over, ice conditions remain unpredictable in most areas of the state. Ice always is, but this year has provided a wide range of varying ice conditions rarely encountered by anglers…
By Joe Albert Staff Writer Duluth, Minn. – Anglers and other users of Lake Superior in general have signed off on a DNR plan to discontinue the stocking of chinook salmon, as well as reduce lake trout stocking, according to Don Schreiner, the agency’s Lake Superior area fisheries manager. The comments about the DNR’s draft Lake Superior Management Plan, which…
By Joe Albert Staff Writer St. Paul – Pheasant and deer hunters in the state this fall had success nearly unparalleled by previous years’ seasons, at least according to preliminary reports and numbers. The total deer harvest likely will be the third-highest in the state’s history, said Lou Cornicelli, DNR big game program coordinator. And pheasant hunters likely surpassed the…
By Joe Noble Contributing Writer While 2005 started with debate over the new CREP 2 bill and other more contentious political issues, such as an Legislative Commission on Minnesota Resources overhaul, the year witnessed a coming together of waterfowl hunters, environmentalists and conservationists at the April duck rally. The year saw several new record fish, an abundance of pheasants and…
By Joe Albert Staff Writer Bloomington, Minn. – It was just a month ago the state’s duck season ended, but waterfowl hunters with duck-talk withdrawal are in luck. The duck discussions are just about to heat up. In the next four months, three events are scheduled in Minnesota that are totally or in part about issues surrounding the plight of…
By H. Josef Hebert Associated Press Washington (AP) – The long fight over whether to drill for oil in an Alaska wildlife refuge is nowhere near an end. But attempts to open the refuge to oil development – one of President Bush’s top energy priorities – received another setback last week as the Senate refused to include the drilling measure…
By Tim Spielman Associate Editor St. Paul – While disappointed in the discovery of what’s likely bovine tuberculosis in a wild deer, Minnesota DNR officials last week weren’t particularly surprised. Further, they hope to act quickly to head off a disease whose prevalence in the wild herd is believed to be low. According to the DNR, a deer harvested this…
By Joe Albert Staff Writer Nicollet, Minn. – The DNR’s decision to draw down Swan Lake met with little resistance at a public meeting last week. The drawdown began Dec. 6, two weeks after a DNR Fisheries crew electroshocked a three-pound carp from the famed 10,000-acre shallow lake. The water-level reduction is meant to kill any remaining carp and will…
By Tori J. McCormickt Contributing Writer Madison, Wis. – A federal grant has been awarded for restoration efforts of the Driftless Area. The $192,500 Multistate Conservation Grant will help with planning and other activities in restoring the watersheds of the four-state region as part of the Trout Unlimited Driftless Area Restoration Effort (TUDARE), said Laura Hewitt, Midwest conservation director for…
By Joe Albert Staff Writer Bloomington, Minn. – A plan to double the amount of money spent for wetland conservation and acquisition is moving ahead. The Emergency Wetlands Loan Act of 2005 would allow the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to spend $800 million over the next 10 years from the Migratory Bird Conservation Fund. Based on receipts from sales…
By Joe Albert Staff Writer Bemidji, Minn. – Upper Red Lake walleyes and northern pike are getting an extra measure of protection next year. DNR Fisheries managers in the Bemidji area had recommended a two-walleye limit (daily and possession) with a 17- to 26-inch protected slot limit, and one over that size; and a three-pike limit with a 26- to…
By Tim Spielman Associate Editor Duluth, Minn. – A proposed plan that would guide a multitude of activities in and around Lake Superior in Minnesota includes – among a host of other items – a proposal to increase the number of lake trout harvested by commercial netters, according to Don Schreiner, DNR area fisheries supervisor in Duluth. That portion of…
By Joe Albert Staff Writer Ottawa, Ontario – As Canada works to honor its climate change commitments under the Kyoto Protocol, ducks could be a main beneficiary, says a major conservation group. Ducks Unlimited Canada, with $2.7 million over three years from three agencies of the Canadian government, is researching the extent to which wetlands and grasslands reduce greenhouse emissions…
By Todd Richmond Associated Press Madison, Wis. (AP) – Hunters could still carry as many shells as they want, campers could still drink, and boaters could race along more stretches under scaled-back conservation plans for the upper Mississippi River federal wildlife officials released Saturday. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service’s new plan represents the latest version of shifting strategies for…
By Joe Albert Staff Writer St. Paul – When it’s all said and done, the state’s deer harvest this fall will be in the top three or four of all time. Lou Cornicelli, DNR big game program coordinator, predicted the final kill would be between about 235,000 and 240,000. Firearms seasons have ended, but muzzleloader hunters can be afield through…
