In This Issue
A weekly list of news briefs about fish, wildlife, and habitat management.
Walk-In Access lands open Sept. 1
Beginning Friday, Sept. 1, hunters can access 29,000 acres of private land across 41 counties in western and south-central Minnesota through the Walk-In Access program, which pays landowners to allow public hunting on their property.
Hunters with a $3 Walk-In Access validation can access these lands from a half-hour before sunrise until a half-hour after sunset during open hunting seasons between Sept. 1 and May 31. No additional landowner contact is necessary. All Walk-In Access sites are shown in the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources Recreation Compass (mndnr.gov/maps/compass). Digital maps for individual Walk-In Access sites, along with more information for hunters, can be found on the Minnesota DNR website (mndnr.gov/walkin).
The Walk-In Access program began in 2011 and funding sources include a grant from the Natural Resources Conservation Service of the U.S. Department of Agriculture, a surcharge on nonresident hunting licenses and donations from hunters.
Reminder: Deer lottery application deadline is Sept. 7
The Minnesota Department of Natural Resources reminds firearm and muzzleloader hunters who want to harvest antlerless deer in a deer permit area designated as antlerless permit lottery this hunting season to purchase their license by Thursday, Sept. 7. Hunters who purchase their license on or before this date are automatically entered into the lottery for the deer permit area or special hunt area they declare.
Successful applicants will receive a postcard in the mail authorizing them to take an antlerless deer using their regular license in that antlerless permit lottery area. No application is needed to take antlerless deer in permit areas with either sex, two-deer limit, three-deer limit or five-deer limit designations.
Hunters who want to participate in special firearm or muzzleloader deer hunts also need to apply for permits that are issued through a lottery. That application deadline is also Sept. 7.
More information about designations and regulations for deer permit areas, as well as details about special hunt opportunities, are available on the Minnesota DNR website (mndnr.gov/hunting/deer) and in the 2023 Minnesota Hunting and Trapping Regulations Handbook, which is available online and in print by late August wherever DNR licenses are sold.
Minnesota DNR webinars focus on deer season, Minnesota State Fair
The Minnesota Department of Natural Resources invites people interested in wildlife and outdoor skills to check out the summer program schedule for the Minnesota Outdoor Skills and Stewardship Series.
In a webinar on Wednesday, Aug. 23, Todd Froberg, Minnesota DNR big game program coordinator, will discuss regulations and changes for hunters in the 2023 deer season. Froberg will also discuss deer hunting opportunities, important dates and deadlines, deer populations statewide, an overview of the deer population goal setting process, and chronic wasting disease regulations. Additionally, the webinar will include information about the Offal Wildlife Watching Project with the University of Minnesota Extension, a citizen science and research project aimed at better understanding what Minnesota wildlife species are attracted to and eat the organ meats (offal) in gut piles left from hunters field dressing deer and how offal affects wildlife food webs.
In a webinar on Wednesday, Aug. 30, the Minnesota DNR will broadcast live from the Minnesota State Fair. During the webinar, check out the DNR fish pond, visit with the DNR fish pond manager, get a behind-the-scenes view of the fish tanks, and peruse the Minnesota State Parks and Trail Center.
The Minnesota Outdoor Skills and Stewardship Series webinars are free and offered year-round, though registration is required. Visit the Outdoor Skills and Stewardship webpage of the Minnesota DNR website (mndnr.gov/discover) for the registration portal, more information about upcoming webinars and recordings of past webinars.
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Collared bears provide important management data?
The Minnesota bear hunting season opens Friday, Sept. 1, and the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources is once again asking hunters to avoid shooting marked research bears. These bears are marked with distinctively large, colorful ear tags and wear radio collars.
Researchers with the Minnesota DNR are monitoring 35 radio-collared black bears across the state, especially in bear hunting zones 27, 45, and parts of the no-quota zone. Most of the radio-collared bears live in or near the Chippewa National Forest, Camp Ripley Military Reserve, the Pillsbury State Forest, and the Brainerd/Baxter area. However, the bears also range widely from these sites.?
?We are asking hunters to avoid shooting these valuable research bears,? said Andy Tri, Minnesota DNR bear research scientist. ?These collared bears give us much of the data we use in bear management and are most valuable to us when they are collared for multiple years. Thank you to hunters who have opted to not take collared bears in past years and hunters who will choose to not harvest collared bears this season.?
A key to the research is looking at year-to-year changes in natural food supplies and how those changes affect individual bears in terms of their habitat use, physical condition, denning, reproduction and interactions with people. This research is not designed to evaluate mortality from hunting. Trapping new bears every year to replace the ones killed cannot substitute for long-term data on individual bears.
All the collars the Minnesota DNR uses in this research have GPS units. The GPS coordinates are either uploaded to a satellite or stored in the collar and downloaded by Minnesota DNR researchers when they visit the bears in their dens. Each bear provides several thousand data points per year.
The bear?s coat often hides the collar, especially in the fall, and most of the collars are black.?But all collared bears have large (3 x 2 inch), colorful ear tags. The tags should be plainly visible on trail cam photos or when a bear is at a bait. Example photos of collared bears with ear tags and a summary of pertinent research findings can be found online under the link ?Importance of Radio-collared Bears? on the?Minnesota DNR bear management page (mndnr.gov/hunting/bear).
Minnesota DNR officials recognize hunters might not be able to see a radio collar or ear tags in some situations. For this reason, taking a bear with a radio collar is legal; however, pausing briefly to get a clear view of the bear?s head would reveal whether it has large ear tags, which indicates that it is collared.?
Most collared bears have a small, implanted heart monitor under the skin on the left side of the chest. It looks like a small, silver capsule that is approximately the width of a paper clip. This contains valuable information stored in memory. Hunters who take a collared bear and find this device while skinning the bear are asked to submit it with the collar.
Hunters may see bears with very small ear tags (1 x 1/4 inch). These bears are not collared and may be part of other ongoing research projects. It is legal to take a bear with small ear tags.?
The Minnesota DNR asks any hunters who do shoot a collared or ear-tagged bear to call the Minnesota DNR Wildlife Research Office in Grand Rapids at 218-328-8879 or 218-328-8874 to report it and coordinate the pickup or drop off of the collar and heart monitor, if applicable.
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Waterfowl hunting access will likely be a challenge this year on Lake Christina in Douglas County due to a lower water level than expected from a planned management drawdown followed by unforeseen moderate drought conditions. Significant rainfall will be needed between now and the waterfowl season openers to measurably improve access.
Access will be particularly difficult with a boat and motor. The best alternatives may be via canoe or small boat that can be carried to the water?s edge.
?While low water conditions will make it challenging, the lake has a fair amount of emergent plant vegetation that can provide good cover for hunters,? said Nicholas Brown, Wildlife Lakes/Red River Basin specialist with the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources.
Brown added that scouting could make the difference between a disappointing waterfowl opener and a successful one. Hunters are encouraged to visit Lake Christina ahead of time to check water levels, vegetation densities and bird use.
A portion of Lake Christina is a Migratory Waterfowl Feeding and Resting Area and drawdowns are part of an ongoing adaptive management approach for the lake.
?The purpose of periodic drawdowns is to increase the chances of winter die-off of unwanted fish populations that have negative impacts on water quality and aquatic vegetation,? Brown said. ?Drawdowns also allow more sunlight to get to the lake bottom, stimulating the growth of native plants that provide both food and protective cover for waterfowl and other species of wildlife.?
The Minnesota DNR reminds waterfowl hunters to review the Minnesota waterfowl hunting regulations (mndnr.gov/regulations/hunting) for new hunting opportunities and regulation changes.
For information on the management of Lake Christina or the drawdown operation, contact Nicholas Brown, DNR Wildlife Lakes/Red River Basin specialist, 218-671-7970.
For more information on shallow lakes management, visit the Minnesota DNR website (mndnr.gov/wildlife/shallowlakes).
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