Feb. 28, 2023



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*Minnesota DNR News
*




*FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
*

Feb. 28, 2023




*For more information:*
Contact the DNR Information Center
by?email <[email protected]>?or call 888-646-6367.





In This Issue

* DNR Fish and Wildlife Almanac [ #link_1491411839600 ]
* Tribal CWD surveillance contributes to statewide effort [ #link_1491411977526 ]
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DNR Fish and Wildlife Almanac

"A weekly list of news briefs about fish, wildlife, and habitat management."

Turkey hunting licenses on sale March 1

Turkey hunters can buy their licenses for the spring 2023 season starting Wednesday, March 1. Licenses may be purchased online [ [link removed] ] (mndnr.gov/buyalicense), by telephone 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.

For research purposes, license agents will be asking hunters which permit area they plan to hunt, so hunters are advised to know which permit area they plan to hunt when they buy their license. The information is useful to the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources in managing 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 DNR?s turkey hunting page [ [link removed] ] (mndnr.gov/hunting/turkey). Permits to hunt the popular Carlos Avery and Mille Lacs wildlife management areas in the A-C time periods, and Whitewater WMA in the A-B time periods,?were distributed already by lottery only for firearms hunters 18 and older. The lottery application deadline was Feb. 17 and results are available on the turkey hunting page of the DNR website.

DNR webinars cover turkey reintroduction, prairie chickens

The DNR invites people interested in wildlife and outdoor skills to tune in to upcoming webinars that will feature discussions about the turkey reintroduction success story and prairie chickens.

The first webinar is at noon Wednesday, March 1. DNR staff will be talking about the 50th anniversary of the reintroduction of wild turkeys in Minnesota and how people can get involved in mentored turkey hunts that happen across the state.

The second webinar is at noon Wednesday, March 8. Greg Hoch, DNR prairie habitat team supervisor, will discuss the history of prairie chickens in Minnesota, their population numbers and habitat requirements, where to see prairie chicken spring courtship dances, and hunting opportunities.

The webinars are part of the DNR?s Minnesota Outdoor Skills and Stewardship Series. The webinars are free, but registration is required. More information is available on the outdoor skills and stewardship page of the DNR website [ [link removed] ] (mndnr.gov/discover).

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Tribal CWD surveillance contributes to statewide effort

DNR sampling efforts uncover two CWD-positive deer in deer permit area 184

The Minnesota Department of Natural Resources and tribal nations are working closely together to respond to the threat of chronic wasting disease.

?Like the DNR, tribal nations are concerned about CWD,? said Tanya Roerick, Leech Lake Band of Ojibwe wildlife biologist. ?Deer are a culturally important species and a main source of meat for many tribal members.?

The Leech Lake Band of Ojibwe, Red Lake Nation and White Earth Nation have been conducting CWD testing for the past few deer hunting seasons and have not detected any positive CWD deer. These tribes plan to continue CWD testing for the foreseeable future.

Red Lake Nation, Leech Lake Band of Ojibwe and White Earth Nation are near or within CWD surveillance or management zones in the northwestern part of the state, where the disease has been detected in cervid farm deer and wild deer. These tribes are playing a critical role in CWD surveillance and fund their efforts through grants from the U.S. Department of Agriculture-Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service and U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.

The Red Lake Band of Ojibwe has been conducting CWD sampling of deer taken on tribal lands by tribal hunters on and off since 2007. Fond du Lac and Grand Portage tribes, as well as the 1854 Treaty Authority, also conduct testing on tribal lands in Minnesota. For the past two years, Leech Lake Tribal College students have assisted DNR staff at CWD sampling stations in the Bemidji area. There is also a large effort by many tribes across the nation to coordinate CWD sampling efforts.

?CWD surveillance is important to our tribal partners,? said Blane Klemek, DNR northwest region wildlife manager. ?They conduct their own sampling, engage their hunters and communicate their findings to the DNR wildlife health program.?

This past deer hunting season, tribal biologists collected 298 total samples from deer submitted for sampling by Red Lake, Leech Lake, and White Earth tribal hunters. To date, CWD has not been detected in any of the deer sampled, though some results are still pending. However, DNR sampling efforts in the surveillance area that includes deer permit areas in parts or all of Beltrami, Cass, Clearwater, Hubbard, Itasca, and Koochiching counties resulted in two detections out of 1,472 deer tested for CWD. Two adult males, 6 miles apart, in the southern part of DPA 184 south of Bemidji tested positive for the disease.

In response to these positive cases, the DNR is following the CWD Surveillance and Management Response Plan [ [link removed] ] (mndnr.gov/cwd/cwd-response-plan.html). The goals of the management response to CWD detection are to: 1) act aggressively to eliminate the disease, if possible, 2) prevent or minimize disease spread, 3) collect adequate samples to monitor disease prevalence and spread, and 4) engage stakeholders and provide accurate and current information about CWD to agency personnel, tribal partners, stakeholders, the public and legislators.

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