Minnesota Wildlife

Moose habitat planning effort receives America the Beautiful Challenge grant

A new federal grant award will fund collaborative planning by the DNR to further large-scale moose habitat restoration in northeast Minnesota.

The award from the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation, through the new America the Beautiful Challenge, will provide $443,600 to the DNR for the planning effort, with a goal of an implementation plan for moose habitat restoration on three areas of 10,000 to 50,000 contiguous acres each.

Tribal, federal, county and non-governmental partner organizations helped develop the planning approach and signed letters of support for the DNR?s grant application, which was one of 55 chosen nationwide from more than 500 applications.

The patchwork of tribal, federal, state, county and private land in northeast Minnesota makes large-scale habitat restoration particularly challenging. The grant will fund a series of workshops with tribal, federal, state, county and non-governmental partner organizations in 2023 and 2024 to identify the challenges facing large-scale moose habitat restoration, find strategies to address the challenges, identify areas for large-scale habitat restoration and create an implementation plan for the restoration. The implementation plan will also identify potential sources of funding to complete the agreed upon large-scale habitat restoration.

CWD hunt begins Friday in select deer permit areas?

Deer hunters seeking additional opportunities will have the opportunity to harvest deer in a late-season chronic wasting disease management hunt in deer permit area 184 near Bemidji, and also in several deer permit areas in southeastern Minnesota and the south metro area.

This late-season hunt is Friday, Dec. 16, through Sunday, Dec. 18, in deer permit areas 184, 605, 643, 645, 646, 647, 648, 649 and 655. CWD sampling is mandatory for any deer 1 year or older harvested in this hunt. Hunters can get deer sampled at a DNR sampling station, at an approved sampling partner or use a mail-in kit. The mail-in kits are currently out of stock but hunters can still use kits if they ordered them earlier this year.

Staffed sampling stations will be open 9 a.m. to 7 p.m. Friday, Dec. 16, through Monday, Dec. 19, and self-service stations will be available any time that Friday through Monday. Hunters should plan ahead and check the DNR?s special hunts page for complete details about the hunt.