In This Issue
A weekly list of news briefs about fish, wildlife and habitat management.
Turkey hunting licenses are on sale March 1
Turkey hunters can purchase their licenses for the spring 2025 season starting Saturday, March 1. Licenses may be purchased online (mndnr.gov/buyalicense), by telephone at 888-665-4236 or in person wherever hunting and fishing licenses are sold. Hunters can hunt statewide and buy licenses for any time period (A-F) over the counter.
Hunters will be asked which permit area they plan to hunt, so hunters are advised to know that information when they buy their license. The Minnesota Department of Natural Resources will use this information for research purposes to help inform management of the state’s turkey population. Importantly, hunters who identify their permit area when purchasing their license will not be restricted to hunting in only that area.
Season dates and hunt rules can be found on the Minnesota DNR’s turkey hunting webpage (mndnr.gov/hunting/turkey). Permits for firearms hunters 18 and older to hunt the popular Carlos Avery or Whitewater wildlife management areas in the A season were distributed already by lottery. The lottery application deadline was Feb. 21 and results are available on the turkey hunting webpage (mndnr.gov/hunting/turkey) of the DNR website. While a license is required for all seasons, hunters do not need a permit to hunt Carlos Avery or Whitewater WMAs during the B, C, D, E or F seasons. In addition, this year a permit will no longer be required for firearms hunters during any season to hunt Mille Lacs WMA, but a license is still required.
Minnesota DNR announces spring webinars
The Minnesota Department of Natural Resources invites people interested in wildlife and outdoor skills to check out the spring program schedule for the Minnesota Outdoor Skills and Stewardship webinar series.
Spring series webinars are scheduled about poison ivy and other noxious plants, ticks, bluebird recovery in Minnesota, canoe fishing in the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness, trout fishing in southeast Minnesota, preparing a harvested turkey for the table, exploring spring ephemerals, Minnesota’s Scientific and Natural Areas, state fish hatcheries, how to be Bearwise, agates, and otters.
Next up on Wednesday, Feb. 26, Bryan Wood, executive director of Osprey Wilds Environmental Learning Center, will teach the concepts of how to read a landscape, from making observations about the patterns and outliers people see, to thinking through the possible factors at play, including human and natural disturbances and ecological changes.
Then, on Wednesday, March 5, Emilie Justen, a noxious plant expert with the Minnesota Department of Agriculture, will discuss poison ivy and a few other plants that can make a day out in nature unpleasant if people encounter them. Justen will share how to identify and avoid these plants and things to know about controlling or managing them.
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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Anglers will find these and other changes in the 2025 fishing regulations booklet
Minnesota will have newly established limits for several species when the new fishing license year begins on March 1.
The Minnesota Fishing Regulations for 2025 will include daily and possession limits for American eel, yellow bass, whitefish, cisco, and burbot. Those and other changes are available starting on page 13 of the regulations book.
“We remind anglers to check the regulations book for what’s new this year,” said Bethany Bethke, fisheries rules and regulations coordinator. “In addition to the newly established possession limits, there are numerous other regulations changing that apply to individual waters.”
The Minnesota DNR added limits on whitefish, cisco and burbot to protect their populations from over-exploitation. In past years these fish had been classified as rough fish and had no limits on how many could be kept. For American eel, which are rare in Minnesota, there is no harvest allowed, reflecting their rare status and need for protection. Finally, for yellow bass, the limit for this game fish is set at 30, which is a combined limit between yellow bass and white bass, because many anglers may not be able to tell the difference between them. In some instances where yellow bass are proliferating, special regulations with higher bag limits may be used.
Other new regulations
Other new regulations for 2025 include those for several species in the St. Croix River downstream of the Taylors Falls dam, and those regulations can be found starting on page 74 of the regulations. In Canada-Minnesota border waters, there are several portions of rivers now included in the border waters regulations, and those regulations can be found starting on pages 60-64 and page 67.
Additionally, there are new and modified regulations in effect for 14 other waters, located in Chippewa, Cook, Lake, Lac qui Parle, Olmsted, Otter Tail, Stearns and Todd counties.
Anglers are advised to check the regulations book for updated regulations available March 1 on the Minnesota DNR website (mndnr.gov/fishing). Printed copies will also be available by March 1 anywhere Minnesota fishing licenses are sold.
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March is that time of the year when the sun is higher in the sky, the snow is melting, and plants are getting ready to come back from dormancy. These are indications that tree saps are starting to flow, which means it’s maple syrup season. Five Minnesota state parks are offering programs to introduce people to the history of maple syrup and sugar making, as well as the equipment and procedures used.
Participants will learn how to identify and tap the right kind of tree as well as how to boil the sap until it is sweet enough to serve on pancakes, waffles or ice cream.
Programs will be offered at the following state parks:
- Fort Snelling State Park, March 2, 9, 16, 29 and 30
- Lake Bemidji State Park, March 22
- Nerstrand Big Woods State Park, March 15, 16, 22, 23 and 29
- Whitewater State Park, March 1, 8, 15 and 22
- Wild River State Park, March 22, 29, April 5 and 12
The program at Wild River State Park on April 5 will feature a Sugarbush Sound Garden put on by the park’s artist-in-residence James Everest. The program will take place from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m.
Due to space limitations, some programs require advance registration. For the complete schedule with program details such as start times, plus more information about how to tap trees and make maple syrup, visit the DNR website (mndnr.gov/maplesyrup).
The maple syrup programs at Minnesota state parks are free, but vehicle permits are required to enter the parks ($7 for a one-day permit or $35 for a year-round permit). Permits can be purchased online in advance (mndnr.gov/permit), or at the park’s ranger station during open hours.
Minnesota is home to five native species of maple trees, and all produce sap that can be made into maple syrup. Sugar maples are the preferred tree for maple syrup as the sap from sugar maple trees has the highest concentration of sugar. Typically, the best time to collect tree sap has been between mid-March and mid-April, when temperatures are in the high 30s to mid-40s during the day and below freezing at night. It usually takes 30 to 40 gallons of tree sap to produce one gallon of pure maple syrup.
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