February 23, 2007 - TOP 5 STORIES
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MN DNR concerned about invasive spiny water flea
Some 10 miles of Red Lake reservation trails closed
Deer herd having another easy winter - so far
Oak Ridge Archery - Helping Kids to Pros
Snowmobile makers struggle
Polaris and Arctic Cat adapting to wimpy winters
By Joshua Freed, AP Business Writer
MINNEAPOLIS (AP) – Here is an ironclad rule for selling snowmobiles: You need snow.
Warmer weather and thin snowfalls since the late 1990s have melted sales at Polaris Industries Inc. and Arctic Cat Inc., the only two U.S. snowmobile makers. After one more wimpy winter in a long string of them, some dealers say they’re struggling to clear out last year’s sleds, let alone sell out of this year’s. Some gave up months ago.
“When there was nothing here indicating that we were going to have a winter, by the first of October, there was a business decision. Pull the cork,” said Dick Tschida, who sells sleds in Forest Lake, a suburb of Minneapolis.
Tschida returned more than 50 Arctic Cat snowmobiles and all-terrain vehicles and is switching to boats instead. The returns cost him about $7,000, but that’s a far cry from the $250,000 loss he figured he’d take by the time he discounted them enough to sell.
A late-season storm that socked parts of the Northeast came far too late for dealers like Tschida – and for the companies.
“The industry has been down for basically a decade straight,” RBC Capital Markets analyst Edward Aaron said. This year was “probably the toughest of any of those years.”
Polaris snowmobile sales have dropped by more than half, from $373 million in 2001 to $157 million last year. Its 2006 profits dropped 22 percent to $107 million on revenue of $1.7 billion.
Arctic Cat snowmobile sales have been more stable over the past five years, but still dropped to $238 million during the year that ended March 31, 2006, down more than 5 percent from the previous year, and profits were battered by incentives to move sleds off dealer floors. Arctic Cat’s earnings of $23.7 million for the year that ended March 31, 2006, were a 16 percent drop from the previous year, even as revenue rose 6 percent to $732.8 million.
For years, Polaris and Arctic Cat seemed like twins, synonymous with Minnesota’s snowy far north. The first Polaris snowmobile was built by Edgar Hetteen and some relatives at his derrick and hoist company in the mid-1950s. He left what was by then Polaris Industries in 1960, and a year later started the company that became Arctic Cat at a time when dozens of fledgling snowmobile entrepreneurs were building snow vehicles with tracks in the back and skis in the front.
Arctic Cat’s Thief River Falls, Minn. headquarters is only about 60 miles from Polaris’ main plant in Roseau, and the two companies are now the only snowmobile makers in the U.S. Japan’s Yamaha Motor Co. and Canada’s Bombardier Recreational Products also make snowmobiles.
But demand for their sleds has been shrinking. Worldwide snowmobile sales peaked at 260,000 sleds in 1997, but are expected at around 160,000 this year, according to the International Snowmobile Manufacturers Association.
The two companies have reacted in very different ways.
Polaris added Victory motorcycles and has tried to strengthen ATV sales to the military. It cut production of its 2007 snowmobiles by 40 percent to give dealers a shot at clearing out inventory. Last year snowmobiles were less than 10 percent of Polaris sales.
Arctic Cat has stuck with the snowmobiles-in-the-winter and ATVs-in-the-summer formula, and snowmobiles remain about a third of its sales. Arctic Cat cut snowmobile production far less, just 4 percent. Another weak winter made that look like a mistake. Early this month, it announced plans to lay off 65 workers, and in January it cut its full-year profit forecast to $1.07 to $1.15 per share, down from $1.13 to $1.19 per share.
A bright spot for both companies has been growth of utility ATVs where the riders sit side-by-side – think of a golf cart with a roll cage and off-road tires. Polaris added its Ranger ATV in 1998 and has said it believes sales of a new, sportier version of the vehicle can add sales of $150 million over the next three years. Arctic Cat added a side-by-side ATV in 2005.
Aaron, the analyst, said Polaris was also quicker to expand international sales.
“Arctic Cat is just starting to dabble with that,” he said. “Polaris has been faster and more aggressive in terms of its diversification.”
Another Polaris attempt at diversification didn’t work out. The company set up a partnership with Austrian dirt-bike maker KTM Powersports AG and said it expected to eventually buy all of KTM. Instead, KTM stayed independent and Polaris has said it will sell most of its KTM shares this year.
Despite the snowmobile problems, Polaris said it’s a key part of their business. Polaris President and Chief Operating Officer Bennett Morgan said the production cut last year means the business is ready to grow again if the snow flies.
“We took some tough medicine. A lot of the other manufacturers chose not to,” he said. “Surprising as it may seem, we feel much better about our snowmobile business today than we did in April.”
He said Polaris has never considered spinning off its snowmobile business, despite the downturn in recent years.
“It is our heritage,” he said. “It is the heart and soul of this company.”
Arctic Cat, which didn’t make an executive available for this story, has taken some of Polaris’ snowmobile sales away. But entering new markets isn’t cheap and can take years to pay off, said Raymond James analyst Joe Hovorka.
“When Polaris entered the motorcycle market it cost them a lot of money over a long period of time. Arctic Cat has been in the ATV business now 10 years or so, and they’re still less than 10 percent market share,” he said.
Tschida says his days of selling snowmobiles are over. Too many people, he says, are hesitant to spend money on a toy they may not be able to use.
“They’re more apt to spend on a new aluminum boat to go fishing, because they know they can go fishing from at least the first of May until the end of September,” he said. “I can’t say that about four-wheeling or snowmobiles or any of the other winter sports.”
MN DNR concerned about invasive spiny water flea
INTERNATIONAL FALLS, Minn. (AP) – Biologists are concerned that spiny water fleas found in Rainy and Namakan lakes could mean significant changes for the Lake of the Woods ecosystem and the bait industry in northwestern Minnesota.
Gary Montz, aquatic invertebrate biologist for the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources, said spiny water fleas, an invasive species, were detected in the lakes – part of the Rainy River watershed – last summer.
Since spiny water fleas rely on the current for transportation and can’t swim upstream, it’s probably just a matter of time before they wash down the Rainy River into Lake of the Woods.
“It’s very likely that if they’re not already in Lake of the Woods, that they’ll be there shortly,” Montz said.
Spiny water fleas interrupt the food chain by eating native zooplankton that young fish rely on for food. They also ball up on fishing line and other gear, causing headaches for anglers.
Native to Europe and Asia, spiny water fleas first were detected in the Great Lakes in the 1980s after hitching a ride in the ballast water of ships. Named for their spiny tails, spiny water fleas measure one-fourth to five-eighths inch in length.
The DNR says they now inhabit about a dozen Minnesota waters, including Lake Saganaga, another border water.
While adult fleas are fragile and will die out of water, Montz said the eggs resist drying, freezing and extreme temperatures. They even pass through the digestive tracts of fish and birds without harm.
“It’s a very effective dispersal mechanism,” he said.
Spiny water fleas and their eggs also can spread to other waters on boats, bait buckets or fishing gear.
Montz says it’s too soon to say what impact spiny water fleas will have on the ecosystem of Lake of the Woods and the other infested lakes.
“It’s really hard to predict,” he said. “Real tiny fish won’t eat them because they have those spines coming off their tail barb. It’s a problem with little fish, but bigger fish will feed on them heavily. They may end up being just part of the ecosystem up there.”
There’s no way to eradicate them, he says.
“You look at the size of Rainy and Lake of the Woods and the interconnected lakes,” Montz said. “There is no control for that. It’s out there in the system, and it’s going to be there unless the natural system decides it shouldn’t.”
But Jay Rendall, Invasive Species Program coordinator for DNR Ecological Services, said the agency is readying a “multi-pronged” response to the spiny water flea outbreak on the border lakes. The effort will focus on the area from Lake of the Woods and east to Rainy and Namakan, Rendall says, and also Upper Red Lake. It will include an educational campaign and stepped-up inspection of watercraft on the infested waters.
Rendall said the goal is to prevent the spread of spiny water fleas into non-infested waters.
“We want to make sure that people are aware of the issue and not moving them to Red,” Rendall said. “A lot of people go to fish both Lake of the Woods and Red.”
Education efforts will include billboards, signs at boat landings and local media spots, he said.
The DNR now is going through the state’s formal rule-making process to designate lakes in the Rainy River basin as “infested waters,” Rendall said. Those rules, which will apply to the infested lakes and all connected waters, are being finalized and will take effect within a month or two, he said.
That will impact the area’s bait industry, as state statute prohibits taking bait from infested waters. Millions of native emerald shiners, a popular bait choice, are trapped from the Rainy River each fall.
Rendall said the DNR has notified bait dealers in the area that a ban on trapping bait from the infested waters is imminent. Such a ban would go into place when the emergency rules take effect, he said.
“We’ll be talking to see if there might be some solution, but currently, it looks like there’ll be a ban,” he said.
Some 10 miles of Red Lake reservation trails closed
RED LAKE, Minn. (AP) – About 10 miles of snowmobile trails in the Beltrami Island State Forest and Lake of the Woods County have been closed by the Red Lake Band of Chippewa until re-routes are made, the state Department of Natural Resources said last week.
The action severs some, but not all, snowmobile routes in the Lake of the Woods and Beltrami area, said Tim Browning, DNR northwest regional Trails & Waterways manager. Alternate routes on other local trails will still provide connections to the Warroad, Baudette, and Lake of the Woods areas.
The DNR is working with local clubs to re-route the trails before the 2007-08 snowmobile season.
Due to the sovereign status of the Red Lake Band, tribal lands are private. The trails are not marked in a unique way, but snowmobile riders who cross tribal lands without permission from the tribe could be cited with trespassing, the state said.
“While we work through the re-routes over the next year, we are asking riders to stay off Red Lake tribal lands,” Mike Carroll, DNR northwest regional director, said in a statement. “Make sure you know where you are when riding in the vicinity of the reservation and tribal lands and treat those lands just like you would private property.”
For more information, contact the Red Lake Band Department of Natural Resources at (218) 679-3959. For more information about the trails impacted, see the DNR Web site at www.dnr.state.mn.us or contact the Thief River Falls DNR office at (218) 681-0889.
Deer herd having another easy winter - so far
DNR News
The Department of Natural Resources annual “winter severity index” for white-tailed deer in Northeastern Minnesota indicates 2006-2007 is well below the long-term average. Snowfall has been significantly below average in the Tower area (northern St Louis and Lake Counties). Temperatures through the first week in January were very mild, however, since January 8th, we have had 34 days that have been zero or well below zero degrees Fahrenheit.
The DNR has conducted the Winter Severity Index (WSI) for the past 40 years to statistically analyze our winters. The WSI is measured by combining the number of days of zero or below zero with the number of days with 15 inches or more of snow on the ground. These measurements are taken throughout northern Minnesota and compiled at DNR Wildlife offices. An “average” winter in the Tower area would total about 125 WSI points by the end of April.
As of February 13, 2007 Tower has 46 WSI points, Isabella 36, Snowbank Lake 35, Brimson 32, and Eveleth 28 —all of which are “temperature” days. Currently, we have 6-8 inches of snow across the Tower work area. Last year at this time we had a WSI of 34 with 14 inches of snow on the ground. The total WSI for the winter of 2006 was 88. Ten percent of the deer herd typically dies in an average winter.
Wildlife managers will continue to monitor deer populations and WSI as the winter progresses. The winter of 1995-1996 had the highest WSI recorded in Tower/Ely with 202. Records show that our deer have the ability to withstand very cold temperatures. However, when extended periods of cold temperatures combine with deep snow, especially in mid to late winter, deer mortality will occur. Fawns and yearlings are the first to starve or be killed by wolves or other predators. They are the most expendable part of the herd. As the WSI increases to a level of 140 or higher, we expect to see increased buck mortality. The adult does are the best prepared to withstand a severe winter in the Northland. This is nature’s way of perpetuating the species.
With the lower than average snowfall in the Tower-Ely area, deer are utilizing bare south-facing slopes and other areas of less snow to feed and move about. We have also noted that the deer are more spread out across their winter range this year. Checking the bone marrow on some road-killed and predator-killed deer indicates that the deer have not been winter stressed thus far. If the winter of 2007 continues to be mild, deer numbers will not be significantly affected. However, as we all know, winter could be a long way from over. The WSI could drastically change with prolonged cold temperatures and one major snowfall. What happens from now thru April will determine how our deer fare this winter.
For more information, contact Dan Litchfield, Tower Area Wildlife, 650 Hwy 169, Tower, MN 55790, 218-753-2580 x242.
Oak Ridge Archery - Helping Kids to Pros
By Mike Yurk
Staff Columnist
KASOTA, Minn. - With over half a century of experience, Donald Fromm knows archery. His archery shop, Oak Ridge Archery, in this quiet small town north of Mankato, is home for him when he is not hunting or shooting tournaments throughout the country.
“I won my first state archery tournament when I was five” Donald said. “I won my last state tournament when I was 55 years old.”
In between those two tournaments, he has won hundreds of competitive shooting tournaments and in 2006 was rated as third in the country at the Archery Shooters Association Pro Am Classic Championship in the Pro Senior category.
Donald’s father, Chuck Fromm, started him in archery as a young boy. Today, Donald’s father is 87 and “we still hunt together,” he said.
One of his earliest hunting memories was killing a rabbit at age four with a bow. “All I had was a wooden long bow then,” he said. “When I brought the rabbit home my grandfather cleaned it and that night we had it for supper.”
From that humble beginning, Donald’s equipment has gotten far better and the game that he hunts is much larger. He hunts primarily for deer now, both whitetail and mule deer, and has a passion for hunting buffalo. He has bagged five buffalo with his largest being a 2,500 pounder that he took two years ago in North Dakota.
“Buffalo are one of the meanest animals out there,” he said. “I got him with one arrow and he ran twenty yards before dropping.” He used a 50 pound Bowtech bow, a Gold Top 5575 arrow and a Rocket Steelhead 100 broadhead. He has a elk hunting trip to Oregon planned for his next major hunting adventure.
Tournament shooting has taken Donald all over the country. “I’m always on the go,” he said. “I have been in almost every state of the union.” He has been shooting professionally for the last 20 years advancing from amateur status to semi pro to professional and now to senior professional. A couple of days after I spoke to him last week he was leaving for a tournament in Las Vegas. “It is one of the largest paper tournaments in the world,” he said.
“It is a sport that you compete first against yourself and then the other shooters,” Donald related. “You are shooting against the best of best all the time.”
His archery pro shop, Oak Ridge Archery, is his home when he is not hunting or shooting tournaments. He has owned the shop for the last 10 years although he has been working with bows over 20 years. He opened his shop so that “I could work with people,” he stated.
In addition to a complete line of archery equipment and services, Oak Ridge Archery has a 60 yard indoor practice range. “It is the largest in Minnesota,” Donald said.
On the day that I visited him, Travis Beck of Shakopee, Minn was practicing. I asked him what brought him all the way from Shakopee on such a cold February day to Oak Ridge.
“It is the only place I know of that I can shoot targets at 60 yards indoors,” he said.
The shop is open seven days a week. “It is not uncommon for me to spend a hundred hours a week here,” Donald said. He is married and has three boys: Daron, age 35, Jeremiah age 27 and Josh age 25. His wife, Bonnie, does not hunt or shoot archery but the three boys are all involved in archery. When Donald is gone she helps look after the shop. Also he has three staff shooters that help run the shop and provide the variety of services that the store offers. His staff shooters are Brett Wobschall of Mankato, Dean Summer and Steve Washena both from Owatonna.
“When you buy a bow from us you get free lessons,“ Donald related. Their services includes lessons and classes from beginners to advanced as well as all repair and warranty work. The have a wide selection of bows and accessories for hunting, practice and tournament shooting.
“Our advanced classes are designed to help people become pros,” Donald said. “We are producing some of the top shooters in the state right here.”
They provide league shooting every evening during the week. On Mondays through Wednesdays they have a 30- round league, on Thursday they have a 3D league shooting full body animal targets and on Friday they have a 600 round league at 60, 50, and 40 yards.
Open shooting is provided on the weekends when there are not any tournaments scheduled. Throughout the year Oak Ridge sponsors 14 to 16 tournaments. Also during warmer weather they have two outdoor ranges, a 50 yard bunker range and a 3D range.
But regardless of how busy his schedule gets “I always have time to work with kids,” Donald stated. “These kids are the next generation of archery shooters.”
On Sunday afternoons from 4 to 5 p.m. in January and February, Oak Ridge Archery sponsors a kids league. We have children from four years old to 13 shooting, according to Donald. They have from 14 to 20 young shooters participating in the league.
“One 10 year old girl comes with her father from 50 miles away to shoot in the league,” Donald said.
He also sponsors special kids classes during the winter to “teach them how to shoot.” Additionally he hosts four to five cub scout groups during the year.
Donald has one bit of advice for all shooters. “Shoot for distance at the range but shoot 20 yards or less when hunting.”
Editors Note: To contact Donald Fromm and Oak Ridge Archery call 507-931-5637 or by email at archerypro1@gmail.com
© 2007 Outdoors Weekly Corporation