September 14, 2007 - TOP STORIES
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New hunting rules on Upper Miss take effect
DNR proposes using lottery to pay for Lake Vermilion park
Pheasant count remains at highest level in two decades
Birds few early and never again on day 1 of Early Goose Season
New hunting rules on Upper Miss take effect
The new regulations are effective immediately, although most provisions will not have an actual effect on the 240,000-acre, 261-mile-long refuge on the Mississippi River floodplain in Minnesota, Wisconsin, Iowa and Illinois until the start of the 2007-08 hunting season.
MADISON, Wis. (AP) – Federal wildlife authorities on Friday, Sept. 7 began implementing a new set of hunting regulations for the Upper Mississippi River National Wildlife and Fish Refuge.
The entire regulation package will be in effect by 2009. All in all, the rules will leave about 22 percent of the refuge closed to hunting, up from about 20 percent currently, refuge manager Don Hultman said.
Hultman said refuge users should keep an eye out for new orange-tipped signs signaling rule changes in a particular area.
The changes are part of sweeping rule revisions the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service approved for the Mississippi refuge last October. The changes caused an uproar with river lovers and Republican legislators in Wisconsin, who felt the moves were too draconian.
The federal Wildlife Refuge Improvement Act of 1997 requires national refuges be managed according to their mission to protect fish, wildlife and plants. The act calls for every national refuge to have a plan by 2012.
The upper Mississippi refuge runs about 260 miles from southern Minnesota to northern Illinois. It’s the largest national refuge in the Midwest and serves as home to hundreds of fish and bird species, including bald eagles, ducks and swans.
Leaflets and pool-by-pool maps explaining the new regulations are available at any refuge office, or you may call (507) 452-4232 and request a copy. The leaflets and maps, along with the entire rule, the full CCP and other information is also available online at http://www.fws.gov/midwest/UpperMississippiRiver/
The changes include:
• Increasing areas closed to hunting to give waterfowl resting areas from 15 zones totaling 44,500 acres to 24 zones totaling 43,683 acres.
• Increasing areas closed to hunting for safety reasons, such as protecting trails, from 8 zones totaling 3,500 acres to 12 zones totaling 4,060 acres.
• Closing the Wisconsin River delta to duck hunting beginning Nov. 1. That 1,400-acre area has always been open to season-long hunting.
• Prohibiting hunting from boats on 4,000 acres off Wisconsin’s Grant County.
• A requirement to use nontoxic shot for turkey hunting, and clarifying existing rules for temporary blinds, use of dogs, hunting equipment, camping, campfires, and vehicle use.
• The new rules also phase out the use of permanent waterfowl hunting blinds or structures in the parts of the refuge where they are still allowed. Permanent blinds will no longer be allowed in Pool 12 beginning with the 2007-2008 waterfowl hunting season; Pool 14 after the 2007-2008 season; and Pool 13 after the 2008-2009 season.
DNR proposes using lottery to pay for Lake Vermilion park
ST. PAUL (AP) – Lottery proceeds could be used to help pay for a new state park on Lake Vermilion, the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources proposed Sept. 4.
The complex proposal would dedicate $6 million a year from the state’s Environmental Trust Fund. That money comes from lottery sales, and it would be used to cover the debt payments on more than $97 million in state bonds.
DNR Commissioner Mark Holsten said about $48 million of the borrowed money could be used to buy and develop the 2,500 acres of potential park land from U.S. Steel. The DNR won’t know the exact price of the land until January, he said.
The other half of the borrowed funds would be used to acquire other lands across the state for use as wildlife management areas, state forests, parks and for other recreational purposes.
While lottery proceeds have long been used to fund natural resources projects, the state has never used them to repay a loan as the DNR proposed.
“What’s new and different here is trying to be a little bit creative in how we manage the Environmental Trust Fund, to use that to pay off those future bond debts, to leverage those dollars today, put those dollars in the system today so we can go out and make major investments,” Holsten said.
The commissioner said legislators will be under great pressure next session to address many state needs in a bonding bill in the wake of the I-35W bridge collapse and flooding in southeastern Minnesota. He said the plan would help the DNR reduce its borrowing request.
“They’re going to have to do some creative management and they need ideas like this to accomplish it,” he said.
The Legislative-Citizen Commission on Minnesota Resources, which oversees the trust fund, is expected to decide whether to approve the DNR’s proposal by Oct. 30. The Legislature must then approve the commission’s project recommendations.
Pheasant count remains at highest level in two decades
DNR News
The Minnesota Department of Natural Resources’ (DNR) pheasant index remained near its highest level in 20 years, thanks to favorable weather and habitat conditions in portions of the state’s pheasant range.
The pheasant index (107 birds per 100 miles of survey driven this year) topped 100 for the third consecutive year. In each of the past two years, hunters harvested nearly 600,000 roosters, the most since 1964. Last year’s index of 115 birds per 100 miles driven was the highest in 20 years.
“Strong pheasant populations are the result of favorable weather and abundant habitat,” said Dennis Simon, DNR Wildlife Management Section chief. “As we approach next year’s 25th anniversary of the pheasant habitat stamp, it’s important to recognize that our abundant habitat is in part the result of support from groups like Pheasants Forever, Ducks Unlimited, the Minnesota Waterfowl Association and many others who continue to make grassland habitat conservation a priority.”
The best opportunities for harvesting pheasants will likely be in the southwest, where observers reported 223 birds per 100 miles of survey driven. Good harvest opportunities might also be found in the west central and south central regions, where observers reported 118 and 121 birds per 100 miles driven, respectively.
Mild winter weather boosted hen counts to 56 percent above the 10-year average. The number of broods was also well above average, but the number of chicks per brood was below average, despite apparently favorable spring weather, said Kurt Haroldson, DNR wildlife research biologist. “The combination of high hen and brood numbers compensated for small brood size,” he said. “The result is a high pheasant population in Minnesota.” Furthermore, a cock index 57 percent above the 10-year average will contribute additional birds to the fall population.
Gray partridge, cottontail rabbit, and white-tailed jackrabbit indices were also similar to 2006, whereas mourning dove indices decreased from last year, but remained similar to the 10-year average and the long-term average.
One key to increased pheasant populations is grassland habitat, Haroldson said. Within the state’s pheasant range, protected grasslands account for about 6 percent of the landscape, the highest number since the mid 1990s. Farm programs make up the largest portion of protected grasslands in the state.
Sign-ups for the Minnesota CREP II, targeting enrollment of up to 120,000 new acres of environmentally sensitive cropland in the Red River, Lower Mississippi, Missouri and Des Moines River watersheds, have been lower than hoped. Although progress continues on CRP and CREP II, the potential expiration of a large proportion of existing CRP contracts beginning this fall is still a major concern for future wildlife populations.
“If Minnesota is to avoid a drastic decline in pheasant and other farmland wildlife populations, hunters, landowners, wildlife watchers and conservationists must make the case for farm programs,” Simon said. “CRP is being debated by congress right now and could be decided by the end of the year. Conservation organizations like Pheasant Forever, Ducks Unlimited and many others can help hunters and wildlife enthusiasts stay informed of the latest developments.”
The DNR is a major partner the Farm Bill Assistance Partnership to expand the habitat base through marketing of farm bill conservation programs in partnership with Minnesota Board of Water and Soil Resources, Pheasants Forever, and county Soil and Water Conservation Districts. In addition, DNR is continuing a focused habitat effort to develop large grassland-wetland complexes through a “Working Lands Initiative” with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and other partners.
The annual roadside survey, which began in the late 1940s, was standardized in 1955. DNR conservation officers and wildlife managers in the farmland region of Minnesota conduct the survey during the first two weeks in August. This year’s survey consisted of 170 routes, each 25 miles long, with 151 routes located in the ring necked pheasant range. Observers drive each route in early morning and record the number and species of wildlife they see. The data provide an index of relative abundance and are used to monitor annual changes and long term trends in populations of ring necked pheasants, gray partridge, eastern cottontail rabbits, white tailed jackrabbits and selected other wildlife species.
The 2007 August Roadside Report and pheasant-hunting-prospects map can be viewed and downloaded from http://www.dnr.state.mn.us/hunting/pheasant/index.html
Minnesota’s pheasant season is Oct. 13-Jan. 1. The daily bag limit is two roosters with a possession limit of six. Shooting hours are 9 a.m. to sunset.
Birds few early and never again on day 1 of Early Goose Season
By Dennis Anderson
Star Tribune
MINNEAPOLIS (AP) – The geese, three flocks numbering a dozen or more each, showed themselves early, at dawn’s first blush, adjacent initially to a distant water tower, then closer, over a subdivision, and finally, lower still, over a few hundred apartments. Or perhaps they were condos.
Such are the types of questions that await metro goose hunters. Are the birds flying over apartments or condos? Also: Will we awaken nearby residents when we shoot? And: With so many restaurants nearby, where will we eat breakfast after the hunt?
Minnesota’s early goose season opened Saturday (Sept. 1) a half-hour before sunrise, and six of us pondered these and other important matters. Don (Duckman) Helmeke and Wendell Diller were our leaders, with Christy Hurley, 31, and Nicholas Flesland, 12, the newcomers. My son Cole, 11, and I tagged along.
Had we been sufficiently prepared, the geese that overflew us at dawn would have taken some losses. Close enough that their necks could be seen craning side to side, the birds would have been easy pickings.
But we weren’t quite ready.
In our defense, Canada geese typically don’t fly at sunrise. Often they wait an hour or more past that time to take wing and look for food. So even with the lost opportunity that the morning’s first geese presented, we were confident more birds would come, and perhaps more still.
At least that’s what Duckman – hunting mentor to Christy, a Department of Natural Resources fisheries section employee, and Nicholas, the son of one of Christy’s co-workers – passed on to his eager students.
Wendell and Duckman are among the relative handful of sportsmen and women concerned enough about the decline in hunter numbers to attempt to reverse the trend. Their call to the DNR for names of wingshooting novices who would like to try goose hunting on the season’s first day yielded those of Christy and Nicholas, and a date for Saturday was made.
“I hunted turkeys once in the DNR youth program,” Nicholas said. “I really like hunting.”
Similarly, Christy had hunted deer with her dad and her husband, Jim. But never birds.
“It seemed like fun and something I wanted to try,” she said.
Thursday, Wendell, Duckman, Christy and Nicholas met at Metro Gun Club in Blaine for a little target practice. Because we would hunt Saturday near condos (or whatever), we would use Wendell’s “long guns,” or shotguns outfitted with 7-foot-long barrels.
Heavily ported, the barrels hush a gun’s report, making it sound more like a loud handclap than a typical 12 gauge blast.
The barrels aren’t heavy, and the guns swing easily. Christy and Nicholas would have no problems.
“You guys want doughnuts?”
This was about an hour or so into Saturday’s hunt, and Duckman was braying to Wendell, Cole and me from a nearby blind.
Veteran wingshooters know that while duck or goose hunting, Doughnut Eating should be paced such that a group’s allotment of bismarcks, long johns, crullers and fritters lasts the duration of an outing.
Experienced sportsmen also know the exercise of eating these pastries and also pouring coffee can be used as a feint, or attempt to trick game as yet unseen into believing the hunters are distracted and therefore passage near them can be made safely.
In waterfowling, this is high-wire brinksmanship in which hunters pit their brains against those of birds, occasionally prevailing.
Saturday morning, responding to Duckman, Wendell and I played along.
“Sure, we’ll have doughnuts,” I said, setting up, we hoped, a scenario in which we not only got breakfast but in which geese would suddenly appear.
If that occurred, our doughy snacks would be discarded for the ruses they were, and our guns shouldered.
But alas, we ate only doughnuts, drank coffee and talked.
About hunting, yes. And life.
In Wendell’s case, and Duckman’s, these can be one and the same. Excellent callers, with decades of experience developing and marketing everything from guns to camouflage to decoys that move with the flick of a switch, they honk, quack and speak with alacrity.
Sharing Duckman’s home in Maple Grove, the two, it could be said, are waterfowling’s version of Felix Unger and Oscar Madison. Decoys clutter their living room. Here the world’s mysteries are distilled through a prism that divides people into those who appreciate the natural world, and those who don’t.
We shot no birds Saturday morning.
Metro-area Canada goose populations are believed to be lower this year than last, because of a poor hatch, and we saw no geese after those early flocks.
Christy and Nicholas, therefore, learned nothing about tracking and dropping winged fowl.
But with luck they picked up on something equally important about the hunt: That good times afield among people of shared interests needn’t be defined solely by the amount of game killed.
“We’ll get you out again,” Wendell said to Christy and Nicholas. “Next time, there will be more geese.”
Curiosity catches the angler
One-third of state’s managed dove fields are located at the Lac qui Parle WMA
DNR News
On August 18, State Conservation Officer Jeff Johanson of Osakis was making a routine check near the Lake Osakis public access. Fishing success had been especially good in the last month or so, so he wanted to check boats coming in to see if they were abiding by the fish limit laws.
But what started as a routine check found one angler 119 panfish over the limit.
“I noticed that two boats had come in to the dock to load up and I went down to check the boats to see if they had any fish,” Johanson said. “I checked the first boat and found that they hadn’t kept any fish. The second boat had two occupants and I recognized them from previous checks on the lake.”
Occupants of the second boat said the fishing was good when queried by the officer: a legal limit of sunfish for both men.
Johanson let the two go on their way. He had checked both fishing for sunfish a number of times in the past and they often came off the lake with their limit of sunfish.
“These men were accomplished fishermen and based on their success and daily activity further investigation was warranted,” Johanson said. So he made the decision to pay the fishermen a visit at their homes.
“Daily and possession limits are the same,” Johanson offered. “That means any fish they had at home needed to be included in their daily limit. From past experience I’ve learned that additional fish are often cleaned and stored in home freezers, which can account for an overlimit.”
A visit by conservation officers to a residence near St. Joseph was uneventful, but that wasn’t the case for Galen R. Donabauer, 49, of Avon.
While Conservation Officer Keith Bertram of Sauk Centre and Johanson searched the home in St. Joseph, CO Chad Thesing of Albany visited the Donabauer residence in Avon.
“CO Thesing called me and told me that he had made contact with Mr. Donabauer at his residence, and Donabauer had allowed an inspection of the fish stored on the property. The inspection revealed about 40 sunfish over the limit,” Johanson said.
Johanson and Bertram thanked their suspect for his cooperation and drove to Donabauer’s house to meet with CO Thesing, who explained that Donabauer, his wife, and two children lived at the residence. Thesing allowed each of the individuals living there to possess a limit of sunfish, but that Donabauer still had about 40 sunfish too many.
While Johanson went out to his patrol vehicle to grab some paperwork, he instructed CO Thesing and CO Bertram to ask Donabauer if he had any more freezers at the residence and to inspect those as well.
“When I came back inside the house, CO Thesing, CO Bertram, and Donabauer were all downstairs looking in a large chest freezer. I watched as CO Bertram located several more containers of fish. Since the fish were frozen it was hard to tell if they were sunfish or crappie, but Donabauer admitted that most of them were sunfish because that is what he likes the best,” Johanson said.
A search of the large chest freezer found 16 containers of fish.
“Mr. Donabauer agreed with us and said that he had too many sunfish and that he was over the limit,” Johanson said. Donabauer also admitted that most of the fish came from Lake Osakis.
The officers did allow Donabauer to keep the 20 sunfish that he had just caught on Lake Osakis, however the rest of the fish were seized for an accurate count. The following day the officers counted a total of 219 panfish fillets. With the 20 sunfish that they had left with Donabauer at his residence, that brought the total number of fish possessed to 239. The legal personal possession limit of sunfish in Minnesota is 20, which the officers counted for the four residents of the house. That brought the number of fish down to 159 over the limit.
“Since we knew a small number of the fish were crappies, we also gave the Donabauer residence a possession limit of crappie as well (10 fish each for 4 people – 40 fish). This additional 40 fish brought the number of fish down to 119 panfish. We concluded that Donabauer was 119 fish over the limit,” Johanson said.
Donabauer was charged with possessing a gross overlimit of sunfish in Stearns County Court. He faces a $3,000 fine, 3-year license revocation, and forfeiture of a boat/motor.
© 2007 Outdoors Weekly Corporation