October 5, 2007 - TOP STORIES
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Hunters’ birds seized at Canadian border
MPCA searches for culprit after computers dumped in lake
DNR moves against new invasive species in Minneapolis lake
DNR to begin dock & pier removal from public accesses
State agencies trying to break down barriers to hunting
Hunters’ birds seized at Canadian border
Border agents seize hunters’ birds amid Canada bird flu scare
“After a week in Saskatchewan and a very successful waterfowl hunting trip, we were surprised and saddened to find out we could not bring our cleaned birds back across the border. We were forced to donate our game to local food shelves or give to Canadian residents. This seems very unfair, not very practical or a reasonable solution to the outbreak.”
- Scot Hanson, Shoreview, MN
“We’ve talked to a handful of Minnesota hunters that were forced to give up their birds at the border and they are rightfully upset. While we understand the intent of the decision by USDA, this ruling clearly had unintended negative consequences. Unfortunately, Midwestern waterfowlers paid a high price for this oversight. Our office has been in contact with USDA officials to determine what caused this confusion and have strongly urged them to take hunters and migratory birds into consideration in these types of rulings. We also stressed the importance of better communicating their decisions to those who may be affected in order to avoid problems like this in the future.”
- Luke Friedrich, Minnesota Press Secretary, U.S. Senator Norm Coleman
ST. PAUL (AP) – U.S. Customs officials in Minnesota and North Dakota seized more than 4,100 birds from hunters re-entering the United States from Canada following an outbreak of avian flu at a commercial chicken farm near Regina, Saskatchewan.
Mike Milne of U.S. Customs and Border Protection said the birds were confiscated at entry points in Warroad and Portal and Pembina, N.D.
On Thursday, Sept. 27 the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Animal Plant Health Inspection Service banned all imports of poultry and unprocessed bird products and customs agents were told the ban included hunter-killed birds.
Agriculture Department officials rescinded the order on hunter-killed birds late Saturday night after reviewing their protocols.
But the move came too late to save the game birds seized from coolers of returning hunters over three days. Milne said the birds were confiscated from hunters in 88 vehicles, each carrying three or four hunters.
“We’ve had to order extra (garbage) trucks,’’ he said.
The confiscated birds were sent to landfills. Birds also were confiscated at border crossings in Montana and at Canadian airports.
One of the hunters caught by the rules was Mike Borchert, 70, of Le Sueur. He and four friends were returning from a week of hunting in Saskatchewan on Friday when agents confiscated their 215 waterfowl at a North Dakota crossing.
“We asked the U.S. custom agents where they were taking them, and they said, ‘To the landfill,’’’ Borchert said. “We were dumbstruck.’’
Not only was the USDA ban disappointing, but one man who was hunting in Saskatchewan at the time called it pointless.
“Biologically, it makes no sense whatsoever,’’ said Michael Chamberlain, a professor at Louisiana State University. “They were saying you can’t transport a hunter-killed bird across the border, when millions of birds are migrating across the border already?’’
While the Saskatchewan avian influenza is not the H5N1 virus that has caused worldwide alarm, USDA officials said the H7N3 virus is a considerable threat to commercial poultry farms.
“It’s better to act with an abundance of caution,’’ said Karen Eggert, spokeswoman for the USDA’s Animal Plant Health Inspection Service.
MPCA searches for culprit after computers dumped in lake
ST. PAUL (AP) – A year after they pulled a boat full of discarded computer equipment from the bottom of a Stearns County lake, Minnesota officials are trying to figure out who dumped it there and why.
In spring 2006, computer monitors started bobbing to the surface of Rice Lake and washing ashore. By fall, authorities had discovered a boatload of personal computers, printers, monitors and other equipment resting in 20 feet of murky water.
“It was intentional, and it was criminal,” said Jeff Connell, manager of compliance and enforcement for the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency.
In all, 64 computer units were traced to the lake. Each contained metals and hazardous pollutants such as lead, cadmium and mercury.
“It would take a long time for these materials to leach out of where they are, but left there long enough, that would happen,” said Connell. He said the heavy metals eventually would have found their way into the food chain. Panfish, walleye and northern pike are just some of the fish found in Rice Lake.
All of the equipment came from St. Paul’s Hamline University. Dan Loritz, the school’s vice president for university relations, said officials thought they had disposed of the equipment properly when they turned it over to a recycling contractor in the early 1990s.
“That was a surprise to us,” Loritz said. He said the school has given the MPCA the name of the recycling contractor so the agency can determine why the equipment was not recycled properly.
Hamline also paid to have the computers hauled away and recycled once they were recovered from the lake, and has since reimbursed the MPCA $32,500 for its expenses.
“We’re responsible for helping make this right,” Loritz said. Connell said under state law, the school was required to make sure that the materials were disposed of properly.
Connell said the MPCA has suspects in the case, but wouldn’t release the name of the recycling contractor. “Do we have people we’re circling in on? Yes, we do.”
But there’s another puzzle. Authorities have evidence there was yet another boat filled with old computer equipment, and it’s not in Rice Lake.
About the time the first five monitors floated to the surface of Rice Lake, a nearby resident took several photographs of a computer-filled boat parked on a trailer near the lake. When the sunken boat was located last year, authorities determined it was not the same boat.
Additionally, Connell believes not all the equipment Hamline turned over a dozen years ago has been accounted for.
“We certainly searched the whole bay of Rice Lake, and it’s not there,” Connell said. Connell said authorities don’t know whether the other boat and computers were sunk elsewhere in the lake, taken to another lake and scuttled, or simply hauled somewhere else.
“We need to find the person responsible” in order to find the other boat, he said.
DNR moves against new invasive species in Minneapolis lake
MINNEAPOLIS (AP) – Natural resources officials are hoping to eliminate a new invasive plant they’ve found in a Minneapolis lake before it can spread to others.
The Brazilian elodea, also known as giant elodea or Brazilian waterweed, appears to have already survived at least one winter in Powderhorn Lake, according to the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources. It has bright green leaves and stems that grow 6 feet long or more, forming large mats on the water’s surface that interfere with boating, swimming and native plants.
DNR scientist Chip Welling said the Brazilian invader is similar to Eurasian watermilfoil, which also grows rapidly on long stems and interferes with lake activities.
The source of the weed is likely a domestic aquarium, officials said. It’s commonly sold as an aquarium plant, although some of the countries and states where it’s spread to lakes have banned its sale.
The plant previously had infested areas with milder temperatures than Minnesota. “By comparison with Eurasian watermilfoil, we don’t think it’ll grow as abundantly in Minnesota,” Welling said.
“But we can’t say that with 100 percent certainty, and it would be ideal to get rid of it,” he said.
The DNR and the Minneapolis Park and Recreation Board plan to eradicate the plant from Powderhorn Lake by using herbicides, before it can spread to other lakes and streams. They’ll start this fall depending on weather conditions, with follow-up treatments this spring if needed.
Welling said people who want to empty their aquariums shouldn’t dump them into natural waters. He said the best way to dispose of aquarium plants is to either give them away or seal them in plastic bags and put them in the trash.
DNR confirms Eurasian watermilfoil near Erskine
ERSKINE, Minn. (AP) – Eurasian watermilfoil has appeared in Union Lake, the farthest northwest the invasive aquatic plant has spread, the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources said.
The plant chokes out native vegetation. Chip Welling, head of the agency’s Eurasian watermilfoil program, said it is “abundant” in the lake.
Before the plant was confirmed in Union Lake, Eurasian milfoil reports in the DNR’s northwest region were limited to Leech Lake near Walker and Lake Oscar near Glenwood.
Welling said the DNR will work to educate boaters and other recreational lake users on the need to remove aquatic vegetation from trailers and other equipment.
Boaters and simmers typically feel the biggest impact from the plant because of the thick mat it forms on the surface. Many parts of Union Lake are too deep to support Eurasian watermilfoil, Welling said, with most of the plant found in 9 feet of water or less. He said that meant impact on fish habitat should be minimal.
DNR to begin dock & pier removal from public accesses
Beginning this month, the Trails and Waterways Division of the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources (DNR) will begin removing docks and piers from public accesses in the Northwest Region. According to Tim Browning, Trails and Waterways Regional Manager, there are approximately 350 structures in 12 counties that need to be removed. “We realize how popular and helpful the docks are,” says Browning. “However, because of the sheer number and distribution of the docks, we need to get started now, before the summer seasonal crews are released, in order to avoid the risk of icing.”
Although there is no daily schedule of the dock/pier removals, the process is expected to begin the first or second week of October and take approximately two weeks to complete.
For more information, please contact the DNR Trails and Waterways area offices: Bemidji (218) 755-2265; Brainerd (218) 833-8710; Fergus Falls (218) 739-7576 or Thief River Falls (218) 681-0889.
State agencies trying to break down barriers to hunting
My home state of Minnesota is attempting to break down barriers as fast as they’re erected - or so it seems
By Babe Winkelman
It’s been said that successful hunting is a lot like making a savvy real estate investment. It’s all about location, location, location.
When it comes to recruiting and retaining the next generation of hunters, you could say it’s all about access, access, access.
True enough. Access is a major-league sticking point for many state wildlife managers who are trying to increase youth-hunting participation across the nation. Where you have expanding urban and suburban populations, obtaining hunting access is difficult, because there’s more competition for open space. As a result, youth hunters - not to mention adult hunters - are often squeezed out.
It’s not too complicated a formula, when you think about it. Where you have ample access to hunting lands - be they public lands and/or lands enrolled in public access programs - you are more likely to see higher rates of youth hunting participation.
Of course, it goes without saying that having a parent or guardian who hunts is also vitally important. More often than not, parents who hunt are more likely to have kids who hunt. The tradition is handed down from one generation to the next, and so on.
Since the lion’s share of our conservation heritage is tied to hunting and hunters, it’s distressing to see hunter numbers slowly erode nationwide. Simply put, without a strong, vocal hunting constituency, the conservation of our land and waters will become increasingly more difficult as time goes on.
“You can’t talk about conservation without talking about the contributions of hunters,” said Terry Riley, conservation policy director with the Theodore Roosevelt Conservation Partnership (TRCP). “Hunters have always been on the front lines of conservation.”
Consider some numbers: New figures from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service show that the number of American hunters 16 and older declined by 10 percent between 1996 and 2006 -- from 14 million to about 12.5 million. The sharpest drop came in New England, the Rocky Mountains, and the Pacific states, which lost 400,000 hunters during that time frame. In Kansas, hunter numbers decreased about 5 percent in that time, from 291,000 to 277,000.
Why? The primary reason for the decline, according to the research: the loss of hunting lands to urbanization, as well as a lack of time and money hunting sometimes requires.
Truth is, you have to admire the work state wildlife agencies are doing to promote hunting and, by extension, conservation. My home state of Minnesota is attempting to break down barriers as fast as they’re erected - or so it seems.
The agency has expanded its youth hunts, reduced the price of youth deer licenses, become a leader in the Archery in the Schools program, launched an apprentice hunter program and is currently developing a new mentoring program. And that’s the Cliff Notes version of the agency’s advocacy campaign.
Perhaps more importantly, Minnesota is targeting women - adult women - to get more involved in hunting. For example, the Minnesota DNR’s Becoming An Outdoors Woman program hosted its first-ever deer-hunting clinic in August. In October, and thanks to a partnership with the Ruffed Grouse Society, there are plans for a women’s grouse hunt and upland bird biology seminar.
Fact is, more state and federal agencies need to start targeting non-hunting adults - male or female - as potential recruits. Think about it. Many non-hunting adults have been exposed to hunting but left the sport because of other commitments and priorities, such as college.
Now many of them have decent-paying jobs and are in position to take up hunting once again. My point is that while we’re doing a respectable job of breaking down barriers for potential youth hunters, we need to start ramping up our advocacy efforts for adults, who will require less overall instruction and training.
The good news is that hunting has strong political and public support. Many states have added hunting as a constitutional right. In addition, most surveys indicate that less than 25 percent of Americans oppose hunting. Just recently, President Bush ordered all federal agencies that manage public lands to look for more room for hunting.
What’s more, many nongovernmental conservation organizations - from Pheasants Forever to the Delta Waterfowl Foundation - go to great lengths to introduce kids into hunting through mentorship programs. To be sure, those hunts, coupled with the conservation message taught at them, are vitally important to recruiting and retaining the next generation of hunters.
As you can see, it’s all about access and opportunity. If we can create more of the both, the future of hunting - and conservation - will be in good hands.
Babe Winkelman is a nationally-known outdoorsman who has taught people to fish and hunt for more than 25 years. Watch the award-winning “Good Fishing” and “Outdoor Secrets” television shows on Versus, Fox Sports Net, WILD TV, WFN and many local networks. Visit www.winkelman.com for air times where you live.
DNR continues to reduce barriers to hunting participation
Here are some of the DNR’s new hunting recruitment and retention initiatives:
WOMEN’S GROUSE HUNT
In partnership with the Ruffed Grouse Society, the Becoming An Outdoors Woman program will offer upland bird biology seminar and grouse hunt on the Mille Lacs Wildlife Management Area on Oct. 6.
APPRENTICE HUNTER VALIDATION
The apprentice hunter validation enables an individual who is normally required to have a firearms safety certificate, but does not have one, to try hunting for a year under the supervision of a licensed hunter. The validation is available to Minnesota residents only. It costs $3.50. The apprentice hunter needs to purchase all licenses and stamps normally required for the hunt. This program was developed because many potential new hunters are not sure they will like it and therefore want to experience a hunt before committing to a firearms safety class. Apprentice hunters must be within sight and sound of their supervising hunter. Mentored hunts of this type are as safe as other hunts, according to data from the International Hunter Education Association.
WOMEN’S DEER CLINIC
The DNR’s Becoming An Outdoors Woman program hosted its first-ever deer-hunting clinic for women in August on a rolling and wooded farm in Kanabec County. More than 40 women signed up to get hands-on experience with rifles, shotguns and archery equipment. They also learned how to follow blood trails, hang tree stands, and were presented information on deer behavior and biology.
ARCHERY DRAW WEIGHT REDUCTION
The DNR reduced the minimum bow draw weight for taking big game from 40 pounds to 30 pounds. This change stems from research that indicated the 40-pound regulation was a barrier to women and youth who were long in heart but short in strength when it came to shooting a bow accurately. Industry and agency information indicates that a 30-pound draw weight is adequate to take Minnesota big game species.
YOUTH MENTORING
The DNR recently convened a “kitchen cabinet-style” meeting of selected stakeholders to strategize ways to implement a successful hunting and fishing mentoring program. The gathering included input from Big Brothers Big Sisters, Kinship Partners, Kansas-based Pass It On Outdoor Mentors, Inc., and representatives of the National Wild Turkey Federation, Pheasants Forever, Minnesota Deer Hunters Association and other hunting organizations.
OPPORTUNITIES FOR SOLDIERS
Minnesota military members who have served at any time in the preceeding 24 months in federal active military service outside the United States and who have been discharged from active service can take small game without a license (with official military discharge papers) and obtain one free deer license.
NATIONAL ARCHERY IN THE SCHOOLS PROGRAM
The DNR agreed last month to help fund a national study that, among other things, will determine if the students who participate in the National Archery in the Schools Program become target archers and hunters. During the last four years, more than 150 Minnesota schools have begun working with the DNR to teach archery as part of their physical education curriculum. More than 60,000 youth participate in this program each year.
FUTURE PHEASANT HUNTERS WEEKEND
Future Pheasant Hunters Weekend is Oct. 27-28. Together with Pheasant Forever chapters, the DNR encourages pheasant hunters to introduce a young person to hunting this weekend. Many youngsters will be hunting this weekend following mentoring sessions earlier in the year.
“Nationally, Minnesota ranks fifth in terms of hunting participation,” said Dave Schad, DNR Fish and Wildlife Division director. “Currently, 13 percent of the population hunts. While that is down from 15 percent in the 1970s, 80s and 90s, it is still at a level that exceeds most other states. Moreover, the total number of hunters continues to be stable. The 2 percent decline is actually a function of population growth rather than a decline in hunter numbers.” Minnesota has about 578,000 total hunters, of which about 80 percent hunt deer with a firearm.
© 2007 Outdoors Weekly Corporation