MINNESOTA DEPARTMENT OF NATURAL RESOURCES

Operation Dry Water targets impaired boating during July 4 weekend

Brad Dokken — Wed, 02 Jul 2025 22:00:00 GMT

Enforcement agencies across the country, including the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources and the North Dakota Game and Fish Department, will participate in “Operation Dry Water” over the coming Fourth of July weekend.

The national campaign aims to increase knowledge about the dangers of boating under the influence of drugs and alcohol. Participating enforcement agencies will target intoxicated boaters and drivers July 4-6 as part of the effort. In Minnesota, the State Patrol, county sheriff’s offices and other state public safety agencies also will participate, the DNR said in a news release.

In recent years, as many as half of boating fatalities in Minnesota involved alcohol, the DNR said.

“Shared waterways mean shared responsibility, and it’s up to every boater to make sure they’re keeping themselves and other boaters safe,” the DNR said.

The goal is to reduce the number of accidents and deaths associated with alcohol and drug use on state waterways.

While educating boaters about the hazards associated with boating while under the influence of alcohol or drugs is a year-round effort, the North Dakota Game and Fish Department said wardens during Operation Dry Water weekend will focus on the water, informing boaters about safe boating practices and removing impaired operators from the water.

Game and Fish offers these tips for staying safe on the water, not only what promises to be a busy long holiday weekend but throughout the boating season:

Boat sober: Alcohol use is the leading contributing factor in recreational boater deaths. Alcohol and drug use impair a boater’s judgment, balance, vision and reaction time. Wear your life jacket: 85% of drowning victims nationwide were not wearing a life jacket. Take the online boating safety education course: 71% of deaths nationwide occurred on boats where the operator had not received boating safety instruction.

More information about Operation Dry Water can be found online at www.operationdrywater.org.

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Dokken: Rescued Kittson County bear cubs are doing well at wildlife rehab facility

Brad Dokken — Sat, 28 Jun 2025 12:00:00 GMT

Earlier this month, I wrote about two orphaned bear cubs that were rescued in Kittson County by Minnesota Department of Natural Resources conservation officer Bobby Stringer, Thief River Falls, and Kittson County sheriff’s deputies.

The cubs’ mother had been shot and left in a ditch between Lake Bronson and Lancaster, Minnesota.

As often happens with rescued animals, the bears were taken to Wild and Free, a wildlife rehabilitation center in Garrison, Minnesota, which specializes in rehabilitating animals for eventual return to the wild.

I reached out to Wild and Free staff for an update at the time I wrote my column about the rescue, but didn’t hear back before my deadline and a week’s vacation.

Grace Frickenstein, Wild and Free’s Wildlife Program coordinator, got back to me with an update while I was gone.

In a nutshell, the cubs are doing well, she said, and are now in a 1.3-acre pen with nine other bears.

Wild and Free also has a second pen, which it is preparing for use, she says.

“There is some clean-up and fence patching required every year,” Frickenstein said. “They are messy and like to dig.”

The cubs, which weigh about 25 pounds each, are being fed a mixture of goat’s milk and other milk replacers, as well as dry dog food and lots of fresh produce.

They get upwards of 8 gallons of goat’s milk every day “and are just living their bear lives,” Frickenstein said Thursday, June 26 in a follow-up phone interview. They’re also eating a “ridiculous” amount of produce every day, she said – two to three 5-gallon buckets worth.

“They love watermelons, strawberries and corn on the cob,” Frickenstein said. “We continue feeding them through the summer, and by late August, we begin feeding them exclusively apples and acorns. We have individuals from across the state who pick up acorns from their properties and bring them to us for the bears, and it is much appreciated.”

Staff are “very happy” with how the cubs are doing, Frickenstein said.

“We see them up in the trees pretty consistently and they scare (the daylights) out of everyone because they’ll climb all the way up to the tippy-top of the branches and be swaying in the wind, and we’re like, ‘What are you doing?’ ” she said. “They are definitely growing into their feet – they’re getting a lot bigger.”

By Halloween, they stop feeding the bears, Frickenstein said, and the combination of colder temperatures, less daylight and less available food lets them know it is time to hibernate. Wild and Free provides den boxes, which the bears fill with dirt and tree leaves and spend the winter.

Each pen has two boxes, but they all tend to squeeze into one box, she says.

“We'll see if having 11 of them out there changes things,” Frickenstein said. “The boxes comfortably house about four or five bears, but we’ve had upwards of seven in the same box at one time.”

In late March or early April, the DNR comes and, with assistance from Wild and Free staff, tranquilizes the bears, takes measurements and hauls them in culvert traps “to undisclosed locations in areas where the black bear population is lower and their chances of interacting with humans are minimal,” Frickenstein said.

All of the bears are fitted with DNR ear tags so they can be identified if harvested during hunting season or hit by a vehicle.

“We typically do not hear about them once they are gone, which is good news in our book,” Frickenstein said.

34-year-old eagle

In keeping with the wildlife theme, I recently received a text message from Northwest Angle fishing guide Lisa Marvin about a banded bald eagle that has become a fixture on the Ontario side of Lake of the Woods.

Herald photographer Eric Hylden photographed the eagle in August 2023 at a secluded island shore lunch spot while the two of us were fishing with Marvin for a story. I didn’t notice the leg band until I saw Hylden’s photo, but I was able to read the band number and reported it to the federal bird banding lab at bandreports@usgs.gov.

In October 2023, I received a reply from the banding lab that the eagle had been banded in June 1991 as a nestling on the Ontario side of Lake of the Woods by Jim Grier, a professor emeritus of biological sciences at North Dakota State University. Grier, who retired in 2006, banded some 1,400 eagles over 40 years in northwestern Ontario, including Lake of the Woods.

Based on info from the band report, the eagle was 32 years old when we saw it at the shore lunch spot.

Marvin saw the eagle several times last summer, too. And in early June, she saw it again.

“Had the first spotting of the eagle this summer – made it through the winter,” she said in a text message.

Grier, of course, was thrilled with the news; the eagle now is 34 years old.

“It might be the oldest known living bald eagle in the wild,” Grier said in an email. “It will be good to keep following it. I hope to, sooner or later, get up there to check it out.”

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After the storm, life goes on as usual in the natural world

Brad Dokken — Fri, 27 Jun 2025 12:00:00 GMT

Last Saturday morning, June 21, in the aftermath of a storm that ripped through the Bemidji area with straight-line winds up to 120 mph, leaving a path of destruction in its wake, Blane Klemek stepped outside for a firsthand look at the damage.

Birds were singing, and the swans were swimming in the small, shallow lake behind his house, said Klemek, Northwest Region wildlife manager for the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources in Bemidji.

Just like any other summer morning.

“They were there, just like they always are,” said Klemek, who lives near Becida, Minnesota, about 12 miles northeast of Itasca State Park. “And I thought, ‘How the hell did you guys make it through the night like that?’ ”

No doubt, the June 20-21 storms that cut a swath of devastation from western North Dakota to northern Minnesota affected thousands of people’s lives. But what about wildlife such as birds, deer and other critters?

How do they manage to escape – and hopefully survive – Mother Nature’s wrath when such events occur?

“Animals feel that pressure ahead of time and in some cases, they might have a better warning system than we do,” said Doug Leier, outreach biologist for the North Dakota Game and Fish Department in West Fargo. “But at the same time, when (people’s) houses are getting completely destroyed, so are theirs.

“So, there’s going to be specific mortality.”

Inevitable casualties

Nestlings are especially susceptible, Klemek says.

“There will be a lot of nestlings that didn’t survive this onslaught, no doubt about it,” Klemek said. “Just walking around my own property assessing damage, I’d come across a robin nest here and there and those sorts of things laying on the ground. When you think about it, that’s played out across a vast landscape so lots of birds don’t make it.

“Lots of birds do, though – most survive.”

Wildlife such as deer also likely fared OK in the storm-ravaged areas near Bemidji, Klemek says.

“There’s going to be no doubt an unfortunate one that happens to get crushed by a fallen tree,” he said. “That certainly is possible, but I think it’s rare for things like that to happen.”

As the storm approached, wildlife likely headed for low areas, “the leeward side of things,” just like humans would do to escape the elements, Klemek says.

The swans on the small lake by his yard, probably “just went into the thick cattails and waited the storm out,” he said.

“I don’t know if this is the case with all wildlife, but they do seem to have a sense that gives them the ability to maybe anticipate impending weather events and begin preparing for that,” Klemek said. “So, I think they’ve got a one-up on us in some respects.”

Widespread tree damage

The damage to trees is perhaps the most obvious sign of the storm’s wrath and its impact on natural resources in the Bemidji area, Klemek says. Thousands of massive, stately red pine and white pine trees were wiped out, snapped like giant matchsticks or uprooted completely.

Photos don’t do justice to the devastation, Klemek says.

“Bemidji will never look the same,” he said. “I don’t have any giant white pine and red pine (in my yard). I have a lot of young white pine and red pine, but none of them sustained damage. But some of the big ash, big oak and lots of aspen were just completely uprooted and came crashing down.

“It’s shocking, when you walk about and drive around and see the carnage. It’s just hard to comprehend until you see the scope of the damage plus the expanse of it.

“It’s heartbreaking.”

Assessing the aftermath

In a Tuesday phone interview, Adam Munstenteiger, regional forestry manager for the DNR’s Northwest Region in Bemidji, said the immediate priority was getting service restored to DNR offices and clearing forest roads and trails affected by the storms, both in Bemidji and surrounding areas, and north of Fourtown, Minnesota, where a tornado touched down Sunday night, affecting access to some forest roads and trails in Beltrami Island State Forest.

“Folks that are recreating out in those areas can expect to encounter either roads that are closed or impassable,” Munstenteiger said. “It will just take us some time to get things opened back up again.”

State forest road closures are available on the DNR website at dnr.state.mn.us/trailconditions/listing.html.

DNR staff were scheduled to fly the storm-affected areas Friday, June 27, to assess forest lands affected by the storm and where timber can be salvaged, Munstenteiger said.

“Once we have some data to make decisions from, we kind of start to triage things,” he said. “We try and figure out: How big were the trees? Were they merchantable? Were they mature? Is everything down, or is it just a scattered tree here and there? Is it a big enough blowdown that it would make sense for a logger to move equipment into? It’s got to be a couple of acres, typically, to make sense for somebody to move equipment in there.”

There’s also the question of access, and whether the sites are reachable in the summer or only in the winter when the ground is frozen.

In the case of pine trees, time is of the essence, Munstenteiger said. Once they’re down, they’re susceptible to “blue stain,” a fungus-driven discoloration that makes the logs less marketable. Blue stain can set in within a month or less, depending on weather conditions, Munstenteiger said.

“In my experience, loggers and mills, being stewards of the forest, they will reprioritize whatever they’re doing to come in and assist when there’s salvage sales in the forest, so they’re really good partners that way,” Munstenteiger said.

Even so, he says, the DNR won’t be able to salvage more than “a fraction of the acres” of trees affected by the storm.

“It’s over such a broad landscape, and we’ve got to focus on larger areas that are blown down, where it makes sense for loggers to work,” Munstenteiger said. “There’s always going to be those patches of (downed trees) on the landscape. We just can’t recover it all.”

Forestry also will work with DNR wildlife personnel and staff at Lake Bemidji State Park to assess how downed trees on wildlife management areas and state park lands will be managed, he said. Each DNR division has its own playbook, be it state, policy or unit plans for how to address affected areas.

Meanwhile, life goes on in the natural world, said Klemek, the DNR regional wildlife manager.

“It doesn’t look normal around here, but wildlife, they’re still doing their thing,” Klemek said. “And I imagine, in their way, they’re assessing damage, too.”

On the web:

facebook.com/MinnesotaDNR

facebook.com/mnstateparksandtrails

dnr.state.mn.us/trailconditions/listing.html

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Dokken: DNR officer, Kittson County deputies rescue orphaned bear cubs

Brad Dokken — Fri, 13 Jun 2025 12:00:00 GMT

KITTSON COUNTY, Minn. – Authorities had been trying to catch the two orphaned bear cubs for several days after their mother was shot and killed, but the cubs had other ideas, recalls Bobby Stringer, a conservation officer for the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources in Thief River Falls.

Joining in the rescue effort at various times were deputies from the Kittson County Sheriff’s Department and personnel from DNR wildlife.

“Multiple folks went in there to try and find these cubs,” Stringer said.

It all started in late May, Stringer recalls, when the DNR received a report that a female bear was dead in a ditch in Kittson County between Lake Bronson and Lancaster.

The bear had been shot, but that wasn’t readily apparent at first, he says.

Turns out the bear also had two cubs, which had remained in the vicinity of their dead mother.

“We didn’t even know there were cubs around it to begin with,” Stringer said in an interview. “And then people that were driving up and down the road basically saw the cubs.”

Stringer says he visited the site three different times to try and rescue the cubs, but “they were just elusive.”

They tried setting cage-style raccoon traps, but the cubs were too big, he said. The cubs also managed to elude cage traps large enough to hold a coyote.

On Tuesday, June 3, Stringer returned to the site yet again.

“I walked the woods and I couldn’t see the cubs anywhere,” he said.

As Stringer was walking back to the road, some Kittson County deputies pulled up with the same idea. They were standing on the road talking when the cubs walked up to a cage trap.

Perfect timing.

“One of them got caught, and then the other (cub) was sitting there,” Stringer said.

To catch the second cub, Stringer figured getting it to climb up a tree would allow him to try and grab it with a catch pole, basically a long pole with a loop at one end that tightens when pulled.

About that time, the cub that was in the trap decided to break free.

“So then I had two cubs that were trapped up in the trees probably 20 feet apart from each other, so I was playing musical chairs trying to snatch them down,” Stringer said. “Myself and several deputies worked on it, and we were able to get them down.

“The plan just kind of fell into place while we were standing there. … They literally climbed down the tree right, basically, into our hands almost.”

Stringer figures they were probably last year’s cubs, weighing “not even 25 pounds.”

“Personally, I don’t think they would have made it much longer,” he said. “They wanted to fight once I got the catch pole on them, but when they were in the trees, they were barely holding on. Initially, they went way up in the trees and then just basically came down because they couldn’t hold themselves up there at all.

“They were pretty weak. Cubs will go up in a tree and they’ll stay up there all day if they feel threatened. It’s kind of unusual for a cub to climb down the tree while you’re standing there.”

The rescuers put the cubs in a dog kennel, and DNR conservation officer Sarah Jahn of the Thief River Falls East station took them to Wild and Free, a wildlife rehabilitation center in Garrison, Minnesota, that specializes in rehabilitating animals for eventual release back to the wild.

“Those cubs were so hungry that it was like, ‘Well, let’s just feed them some watermelon and some milk and let’s get some energy back in them real quick,’ ” Stringer said. “They seemed to be doing fine after that.”

With the cubs now safe and in good hands, the investigation to determine who shot the mother bear is ongoing, Stringer said. Anyone with information on the incident is asked to call the Turn in Poachers (TIP) hotline at (800) 652-9093 or #TIP on a cellphone. Rewards of up to $1,000 are available for anyone who reports a violation that leads to an arrest.

“Whoever shot it, shot it right off the road there,” Stringer said. “It doesn’t seem like the neighboring property owners had complained about bears. I don’t know if it was just somebody driving down that road and saw it and was like, ‘here’s a good opportunity,’ or what.

“But they did orphan two cubs.”

It’s been a busy spring for bear activity, says Stringer, who also was involved in a May 29 encounter with a bear in Thief River Falls. After being reported walking down Main Avenue North in Thief River Falls at 4 a.m., the bear spooked and went up a tree, resulting in a lengthy standoff. Authorities eventually were able to tranquilize the bear and get it out of the tree. After being checked by veterinarians, the bear was hauled out of town in the back of a DNR truck to a safer location about 2:30 that afternoon.

“It seems like I’ve been doing nonstop bear work,” Stringer said.

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Minnesota DNR to offer 4 elk tags for 2025 hunting season

Brad Dokken — Tue, 10 Jun 2025 22:00:00 GMT

ST. PAUL – The Minnesota Department of Natural Resources is offering four elk licenses this year – down from 10 in 2024 – and the tags will be limited to the Caribou-Vita area of northeast Kittson County, the DNR said Tuesday, June 10.

Minnesota hunters have through Thursday, July 3, to apply for one of the four elk licenses, the DNR said.

“We are reducing opportunities for elk harvest this year to make sure Minnesota’s elk populations continue to thrive,” Kelsie LaSharr, Minnesota DNR elk coordinator, said in a statement. “The number of permits available is based on the lower-than-expected number of elk we counted during our 2025 aerial flights and recent trends in population growth.

“The DNR will continue to work with Tribal Nations, local landowners, agricultural producers, legislators, local government officials and state agencies to manage Minnesota’s elk sustainably.”

The Red Lake Nation in March announced that it will offer 20 tribal elk tags in northwest Minnesota this year – double the number offered last year – for a season that will begin Sept. 15. Much of northwest Minnesota falls within an area covered by a treaty that Red Lake tribal leaders signed with the U.S. government on Oct. 2, 1863. As part of the 1863 Old Crossing Treaty, the Pembina and Red Lake bands of Ojibwe ceded some 11 million acres of land in northwest Minnesota and eastern and northeastern North Dakota to the U.S. government.

There are currently three recognized herds in northwest Minnesota: Grygla, Kittson Central and Caribou-Vita. The Grygla area zone remains closed to state-licensed elk hunters, and this year, the Kittson Central zone will also be closed to state-licensed hunters.

The Red Lake Band, meanwhile, will offer 10 “either-sex” tags good for either a bull or a cow elk and 10 “antlerless” tags, Jay Huseby, wildlife director for the Red Lake DNR, told the Herald in March. The band won’t be taking any elk from the Grygla herd, which has lagged below management goals for more than a decade, Huseby said.

Winter survey findings

The Minnesota DNR tallied 63 antlerless elk and 12 bulls in the Kittson Central herd near Lancaster in early January during its annual winter aerial survey. By comparison, the DNR counted 50 antlerless elk and 25 bulls in the Kittson Central herd during the 2023 survey.

The DNR didn’t fly the elk survey in 2024 because there wasn’t enough snow to accurately spot elk from the air.

All of the elk in the Caribou-Vita survey block, where the herd ranges between northeast Kittson County and Vita, Manitoba, were on the Canadian side of the border during the January 2025 survey. The DNR counted 128 antlerless elk and six bulls on the Manitoba side of the border. That was down from 227 elk – 96 in Minnesota and 131 in Manitoba – during the 2023 survey, but the DNR only surveyed the first 4¾ miles of Manitoba this year, LaSharr told the Herald in a February story, an area that represented about 25% of the Manitoba survey block.

The DNR counted 18 antlerless elk and six bulls in the Grygla herd, down from 18 antlerless elk and 11 bulls in 2023.

Application info

Minnesota hunters can apply for one of two seasons:

Two licenses are available to harvest either a bull or antlerless elk in the Caribou-Vita (Zone 30) during the A season, Saturday, Sept. 13, through Sunday, Sept. 21. Two licenses are available to harvest an antlerless elk in the Caribou-Vita (Zone 30) B season, Saturday, Sept. 27, through Sunday, Oct. 5.

This is a once-in-a-lifetime hunt for Minnesota residents. Successful applicants who choose not to purchase a permit will be eligible for future elk hunts and receive an application point toward their 10-year application history preference. Given the reduction in available state permits this year, no tags will be available for the 10-year application history pool or for eligible agricultural landowners who reside within elk range, the DNR said.

Hunters must select a season and can apply individually or in parties of two at any license agent, online at mndnr.gov/buyalicense or by telephone at (888) 665-4236. There is a nonrefundable application fee of $5 per hunter. Total license cost for selected applicants is $288. Successful hunters must present the animal within 24 hours of harvest for registration and collection of biological samples to screen for diseases or other health-related issues.

In 2024, 4,307 individuals or parties (up to two people) applied for one of the 10 state-issued elk licenses, DNR statistics show. If a similar number of individuals or parties apply this year, the odds of drawing a tag would be about 0.093%, or 1 in 1,077.

On the web:

More information is available on the DNR’s elk hunting webpage at mndnr.gov/hunting/elk. For more on Minnesota’s elk, check out the DNR’s elk management webpage at mndnr.gov/elk.

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New law requires boating permits in Minnesota starting in July

Ryan McNamara — Tue, 03 Jun 2025 03:12:50 GMT

DETROIT LAKES, Minn. — For the first time in Minnesota, people older than age 17 will be required to have a permit to operate a motorboat or personal watercraft.

A new boater education law goes into effect on July 1, requiring Minnesota residents 21 or younger to obtain an operator’s permit or be supervised by someone who has one. People from ages 12 to 17 have had to have a valid watercraft operator’s permit for quite some time in order to operate watercraft.

“It will help the right folks, and it will help everyone else, too,” said Brady Baxter of Baxstar Fishing and Outdoor.,

William Landmark, a conservation officer with the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources, said the law is intended to improve safety.

“It’s in effect just to make everybody on the water safer, better operators safer when operating among traffic and on some of the bigger waterways that we have in the state that do require knowledge of navigation laws, how to read buoys, that sort of thing,” Landmark said.

Landmark said the number of boaters increased after the COVID-19 pandemic, which made water safety more urgent.

By July 1, 2026, the permit requirement will expand to residents 26 and younger. In 2027, it will include anyone 31 or younger, and by 2028, all boaters 41 and younger will need a permit.

“We recognize that we’re not going to be able to get to them all in one year, so we're slowly rolling it out,” Landmark said. “The nice benefit to it is a lot of youth under the age of 21 likely already do have a boater safety stick if they’ve been operating PWCs (personal water craft) in Minnesota.”

The required online course will take six to eight hours and costs $35. It includes lessons on rules of operation, navigation and more. Test-takers can take the exam as many times as needed.

Baxter, a Detroit Lakes-based fishing and outdoor guide, said the permit system is a welcome move.

“There are times when you see some pretty obvious violations that it’s, you know, of concern. And I’m out on the water quite a bit, so I do see these things,” he said.

“A lot of the wake boats that are out there have got additional regulations that come with them, and some of those regulations are very obviously not being followed,” he added. “But, you know, even those fishermen that think they know it all, it’s going to be good for them, too.”

Landmark emphasized that the focus is on education rather than punishment.

People certified by the U.S. Coast Guard, those who have completed Canada’s permit program, or visitors from out of state are exempt.

Minnesotans can find the course and register at https://www.dnr.state.mn.us/safety/boatwater/education.html.

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Trees killed by caterpillar outbreak helped fuel recent Minnesota wildfires

Jimmy Lovrien — Fri, 23 May 2025 18:23:00 GMT

BRIMSON, Minn. — As wildfires spread north of Duluth earlier this month, updates from fire officials on the largest two — Jenkins Creek and Camp House fires — often included a line noting the fire was burning through “a landscape heavily impacted by the spruce budworm.”

A large outbreak of the eastern spruce budworm — a caterpillar native to the region that feeds off balsam fir and white spruce trees — is defoliating the trees and stressing or killing them, which can then help fuel wildfires.

Last year, the budworm affected some 712,000 acres, or 1,100 square miles, of Minnesota forests, almost all in the state's Arrowhead region, the largest area since 1961, according to Eric Otto, a forest health specialist for the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources in northeastern Minnesota. If you look at the last four years, it’s affected almost twice that area, according to the DNR’s most recent Forest Health Annual Report.

“Spruce budworm, currently, is probably one of our biggest forest health issues, especially in regards to the amount of acres it damages each year,” Otto said.

In its caterpillar form, the spruce budworm eats away at the needles of white spruce and balsam fir. (Despite its name, it prefers — and does the most damage to — balsam fir.) Then, as a moth, it lays its eggs on the needles of those trees.

An outbreak in a specific area can last 6 to 10 years, which is about as long as the trees can withstand the budworm’s feeding, according to the DNR.

Otto said that when that food source is gone, the budworms move to an adjacent area, causing an outbreak there. After a 30-to-60-year cycle, they’re back at that first area.

That’s about as long as it takes the balsam fir in the understory to mature, replacing the trees that died in the last outbreak, and for the budworm population to take over again, said Anna Stockstad, an extension educator focused on forest ecosystem health with the University of Minnesota Extension.

Otto said the region last saw an outbreak in the 1990s.

Too much balsam fir

Budworm or not, balsam fir is good at spreading fire thanks to its flammable needles, low branches and resinous bark, Otto said.

Those properties act as a ladder fuel, spreading flames from the forest floor to the canopy, where trees otherwise resistant to low-intensity fires can catch fire.

“Even if we didn’t have this spruce budworm outbreak, with the way the forest is composed, we would probably still have these fires,” Otto said, noting the fires were likely human-caused, during exceptionally dry and windy conditions.

But, Otto said, the budworm outbreak probably altered the fire behavior, as dead balsam fir are particularly dry in the spring, some 5 to 8 years after dying from budworm. It isn’t until 10 years or so after the balsam firs die that they start to decompose, increasing their moisture content.

There’s now an overabundance of balsam fir, the budworm’s preferred meal, thanks in part to fire suppression during the 20th and 21st centuries, Stockstad said.

Without regular, low-intensity fires clearing a mature forest’s underbrush, where shade-tolerant balsam firs thrive, the tree species can build up.

“So this means we have a lot of dense mature balsam fir on the landscape, which is just like candy for spruce budworm,” Stockstad said. “And so when we have more of the food source for spruce budworm, we’re going to see higher population in spruce budworm itself.”

As the region’s paper mills have shrunk or closed, so too has the market for balsam fir in northeastern Minnesota.

The closure of Duluth’s Verso paper mill in 2020 left UPM Blandin in Grand Rapids as the last mill buying fir in the region, but it’s too far from the budworm outbreak, Otto said.

While some loggers can bring balsam chips to Minnesota Power’s Hibbard Renewable Energy Center in Duluth, which burns wood waste to produce electricity, Chris Dunham, the Nature Conservancy’s associate director of resilience forestry in northeastern Minnesota, said that “doesn’t match the demand in any way, shape or form.”

Still, Stockstad said landowners should consider removing dead balsam, which could be chipped, piled to make wildlife habitats, or, under the right conditions, burned.

Then, landowners can start to consider planting other species of trees.

Striving for a diverse forest

Foresters don’t want to eliminate balsam fir — or even budworms — altogether. Instead, they want more of a variation of tree species, particularly those that can survive low-intensity fires and withstand a warming climate.

Dunham and the Nature Conservancy, which partners with government agencies and private landowners, are in the midst of planting 2.5 million trees in northern Minnesota this year. Species include red oak, bur oak, white cedar, yellow birch, tamarack, black spruce and white pine.

“Diversity is the superpower of the forest,” Dunham said. “That’s what enables us to hedge our bets against what is likely coming down the pike. We want to be diverse so that if there’s something that affects another species, we’re not just putting all our eggs in one basket.”

But planting millions of trees is just the first step.

Dunham said crews then must monitor and maintain planting sites for 7 to 10 years to make sure they survive, by pruning for blister rust, clearing brush and guarding against deer.

White pine and white cedar are “absolutely beloved by deer,” Stockstad said, making it hard to establish those species without fencing and other protection. Meanwhile, balsam fir is not a preferred browse species for deer, allowing the tree species to flourish.

“We can’t just cut it and walk away,” Dunham said. “It’s going to take some intervention and investment.”

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Ever hike up a fire tower? This one in Pequot Lakes is worth the climb

Nancy Vogt — Wed, 21 May 2025 10:00:00 GMT

PEQUOT LAKES, Minn. — Wow, what a spectacular view!

There's no doubt that phrase, or something similar, has been uttered countless times by those who make it to the top — or even near the top — of the fire tower at the Paul M. Thiede Fire Tower Park in Pequot Lakes to take in the panoramic view from high above the treetops.

It's a decent uphill hike along a steep path to get to the tower, and then a 135-stair climb 100 feet up to the tower's cab. Even on a day with just a slight breeze, the tower seems to sway the closer you get to the top.

You'll find the fire tower park off County Road 11, just east of the Highway 371-CR 11 roundabouts and toward Breezy Point. Crow Wing County developed the park that officially opened in June 2020 and now maintains it.

But the fire tower has a long history.

Pequot Lakes fire tower

The fire tower was built in 1935 by the Civilian Conservation Corps, and it is listed on the National Register of Historic Places.

Art Savage is one ranger who staffed the fire tower. He lived in the three-bedroom cabin under it with his wife and three children from 1939-47.

Savage worked in forest protection and management in Pequot Lakes for 40 years, from 1939-79, battling fires and educating people about forest management and wildfire prevention.

Read all about Savage’s service as a forest ranger on a kiosk at the base of the fire tower.

Keith Simar, of Pequot Lakes, took over and manned the fire tower when Savage retired. He said Savage would climb the fire tower, spot a fire and then climb down to put out many fires himself.

According to information on the kiosk, Savage used his own vehicle to chase fires. As needed, he enlisted the help of the Pequot Lakes High �� Forest Fighting Crew.

Simar spent 40 years with the Department of Natural Resources in a variety of positions before retiring in 2010.

The tower closed for a while for safety reasons before being restored and reopened to the public in 2012. Simar worked with the Paul Bunyan Scenic Byway Association to reopen the tower to visitors.

In spring 2015, Simar again took on fire detection duties as a volunteer. He manned the fire tower on high wildfire danger days, carefully scanning the horizon from above the treetops for smoke. He could see about 20 miles in any direction.

Only about a half dozen fire towers in Minnesota remained in use at the time, including the tower in Nimrod.

The DNR closed the tower to the public again in spring 2017 because of vandalism and maintenance costs.

Soon after, former Pequot Lakes resident and former Crow Wing County commissioner Paul Thiede had the idea to turn the historic Pequot Lakes fire tower and surrounding land into a county park.

An integrity study found the tower was stable and simply needed maintenance work.

Other county commissioners agreed with Thiede, and Crow Wing County acquired the tower and surrounding 40-acre property from the DNR in November 2018 to preserve and protect the tower while also opening it back up for public use.

“This is a great honor. I am flabbergasted that, at my young age, I’d have a park named after me,” Thiede said with a touch of humor at the June 2020 grand opening for the property christened the Paul M. Thiede Fire Tower Park in honor of Thiede's vision and leadership to protect the fire tower located in the commissioner district he served.

What the park offers

The fire tower park offers much more than a historic fire tower.

Find three miles of walking trails — with interpretive signs — on 10 acres that meander through canopies of majestic trees. Two trails lead to the fire tower — a 0.3-mile Fire Tower Trail and a 0.4-mile Wildlife Loop.

Dogs are welcome, with two Mutt Mitt stations for people to clean up after their dogs.

Interpretive signs along the crushed granite walking path to the fire tower share information about the history of the park and of fire towers, Minnesota landscapes, and fires and firefighting.

There are kiosks and map signs outlining the trail loops; kiosks listing species of trees in the park, which include paper birch, red oak, jack pine, etc.; kiosks with information about foresters; and benches to rest and admire nature's beauty.

At the park entrance is a pavilion with picnic tables and grills, and kiosks with information about fighting forest fires and the state’s biggest forest fires.

The picnic shelter at the park entrance is dedicated to the late Don Nelson, called “the road man of Sibley Township.” An interpretive sign acknowledging Nelson says he served Crow Wing County, Sibley Township and Pequot Lakes as an employee and volunteer.

There's a vaulted toilet that is compliant with the Americans with Disabilities Act in the parking lot.

Despite some nearby highway noise, you'll feel like you’re in the middle of nowhere walking the paths. No motorized activity is allowed in the park.

The park is open year-round from dawn to dusk, with minimal maintenance (snowplowing) during the winter months. The fire tower is closed in the winter for safety.

The park has become a destination not only for the thrill of climbing the fire tower and the view, but for outdoor enthusiasts who like nature and hiking.

What people say

A callout on Facebook elicited the following responses about the fire tower park.

Kim Churack, of Pequot Lakes, said: "I've climbed the tower many times for the view, but walking the trails is my go-to for a respite from 'life' and 'Into the forest I go, to lose my mind and find my soul' (John Muir)."

Churack shared a photo she took walking up to the tower in October 2020.

"A 'pandemic' walk. I call it my 'Stairway to Heaven,'" she said, noting she has a huge canvas print of that photo in her entryway.

Sarah Bowman, of Breezy Point, regularly walks the park's trails.

"I love how wooded it is. Last week when I was out there, I saw a rabbit and a couple of deer," Bowman said. "Plus the variation in elevation makes for a great workout. When friends and family come to visit, it's always a fun adventure to bring them to the top of the fire tower!"

Frank Haggerty, a former area resident, said: "I went up there. Great view!"

Tammy Meyer Larsen, of Pequot Lakes, said: "My annual goal is to climb it spring, summer and fall and see how much it changes!" Pat and Deanne Trottier, of Breezy Point, said: "As regular hikers in the lakes area, greater Minnesota and beyond, we enjoy having the Pequot Lakes fire tower nearby and have been thrilled with the expansion of the trail system. It is rare to find one location that combines a fire tower, multiple hiking trail loops, forestry educational signage and even history of the fire tower and wildfires in Minnesota. Walking the hilly terrain is a good workout! We are lucky to have this historic fire tower park in our community."

Lynn Sharenbroich, of Pequot Lakes, said: "The fire tower is a treasured site along the Paul Bunyan Scenic Byway. Now that it's part of the Paul M. Thiede Fire Tower Park, its popularity continues to grow. There's a fun information panel near the trailhead about the fire tower with a little Bunyan 'truth and lore' sprinkled in too." Nancy Waller, of Breezy Point, said: "My husband and I walk it often. It is a great workout as well as pretty. Won’t climb the tower. High places scare me!!" Cindy Couture Noyes, Pequot Lakes, said: My husband and son run there all the time. It helped my son prepare for a 25K trail run at Lutsen. For me — pretty sure it was one of the final nails in the coffin leading to total knee replacement! Absolutely a beautiful asset to our community. Lauren Nickisch, Pequot Lakes, said: My father, Jim Nickisch, as a Pequot Lakes High �� student in 1949-50, was hired by District Forester Art Savage to keep a lookout for fires from the 100-foot Pequot tower. Art lived in the cabin below the tower where he often played his violin when he wasn’t on duty. Jim enjoyed hearing the music during his work shifts in the tower, especially when Jim’s sweetheart, Marilyn, would climb the tower to visit him. Jim and Marilyn married in 1952. Over the years, their three children and extended family members have climbed the tower and continue to enjoy keeping a lookout for its shining silhouette above the tree line of Pequot Lakes. The historic fire tower is now part of the Crow Wing County Paul M. Thiede Fire Tower Park. Monetary gifts in memory of Jim have been dedicated to improving the park.
By the numbers 100 feet: That’s how tall the Pequot Lakes fire tower is. 135: That's how many stairs to the top of the tower. 2017: The year the tower was added to the National Register of Historic Places. 1993: The year the tower went on the National Historic Lookout Register. 1935: The year the Civilian Conservation Corps built the tower. 1927: The year the tower site was established by the Minnesota Department of Conservation Forest Service.
Park information Address: 5230 County Road 11, Pequot Lakes, approximately one mile east of downtown Pequot Lakes.

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Wildland fire claims 70 acres near Wilton

Annalise Braught — Sat, 10 May 2025 22:57:33 GMT

BEMIDJI — Low humidity levels and high winds have created dangerous fire conditions in the region, as was seen Friday afternoon when a wildland fire broke out near Wilton around 1 p.m.

According to Joe Rucinski, Bemidji area forestry supervisor for the Department of Natural Resources, the fire spread quickly due to the gusty winds, and damaged around 70 acres of forest land and timber roughly half a mile south of Pete’s Place West along the Soo Line Trail.

“We had the Bemidji Fire Department and multiple DNR forestry engines, tracked vehicles and dozers working on the fire,” Rucinski said. “As well as two water-scooping airplanes, a single-engine air tanker dropping retardant and one helicopter, all helping out.”

While there were several structures in the path of the fire, he said none were damaged as far as he knew. The primary damage was burning timber in a Norway pine plantation on Beltrami County land.

He said some observed fire behavior was crowning — when the fire spreads quickly through the tops of the trees due to high winds — and group torching — when multiple trees ignite and burn at the same time. Some flame lengths were estimated to be shooting 50-60 feet into the air.

The fire was primarily contained by 5 p.m. on Friday, and as of Saturday afternoon was in monitoring status.

“So we're checking it two, three times a day to monitor things, but overall, it's looking really good,” Rucinski said.

Rucinski also added that with the low relative humidity and high winds forecast for the coming days, residents should be extra cautious about avoiding any activity that could potentially start a fire.

The National Weather Service has issued a Red Flag Warning for much of Minnesota through Sunday for critical fire weather. Near-critical to critical fire weather conditions continue for Monday and Tuesday.

Temperatures are forecast to be in the high 80s to low 90s through Wednesday, with winds of 25 to 35 mph and gusts up to 50 mph on Sunday and relative humidity as low as 15%.

“Any fires that ignite will spread rapidly and become difficult to control. Outdoor burning is not recommended,” the NWS warning said. “Southerly winds will continue to increase over the weekend, with extremely warm temperatures arriving by Sunday. The hot temperatures, low relative humidity values, and strong southerly winds could bring critical fire weather conditions Sunday afternoon.”

Beltrami County Emergency Management Director Chris Muller also issued a caution for local residents as the department continues to monitor the weather situation.

"With persistent drought conditions, the unseasonably warm weather combined with strong winds and low humidity is certainly concerning for wildfire threat,” Muller said.

He added that Beltrami County has experienced numerous wildfires in recent years, and conditions are ripe for explosive wildfire growth.

“As was experienced on Friday, fire can quickly spread,” he continued. “We are fortunate to have numerous DNR resources that can quickly respond to wildfires. We are also thankful for our local fire departments that provide structure protection when flames get too close.”

Safety and preparedness tips Be extra cautious using outdoor equipment
Avoid equipment that creates sparks Check for dragging chains on vehicles/trailers Keep equipment out of dry grass Avoid outdoor burning
Debris/agricultural/trash burning Campfires Avoid activities that involve open flame and/or sparks Don’t carelessly discard cigarettes Evacuate if ordered to do so by local authorities Call 911 if you see fire or smoke]]>

Winter fishing pressure on Lake of the Woods falls short of record

Brad Dokken — Sat, 10 May 2025 12:00:00 GMT

Somewhat surprisingly, perhaps, fishing pressure this past winter on Lake of the Woods didn’t set a record, despite ideal ice conditions and marginal snow cover that made it easy to get around.

According to preliminary results from a winter creel survey conducted by the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources, anglers logged just over 2 million hours of fishing pressure on the big lake during the winter of 2024-25.

While fishing pressure on Lake of the Woods was up from the winter of 2023-24, when anglers spent just over 1 million hours on the ice, the pressure fell well short of the record set during the winter of 2022-23, when anglers logged about 3 million hours on the ice.

A late freeze-up and marginal ice conditions hampered fishing pressure during the winter of 2023-24, but conditions this past winter were favorable well into March. Ice road operators took advantage of the good ice and sparse snow cover, plowing roads of nearly 30 miles in length in some areas along the south shore of Lake of the Woods.

The DNR in recent winters has implemented a new creel survey design to more accurately measure the extent of overnight ice fishing pressure on Lake of the Woods. Instead of a “roving survey,” in which creel clerks traveled the ice by snowmobile or pickup truck interviewing anglers actively fishing, the DNR now uses an “access-based” design, setting up at popular access points and some of the larger resorts and interviewing anglers and fishing groups as they come off the lake.

While anglers tallied more than 3 million hours of fishing pressure in 2022-23, the new creel survey design made the results kind of an “apples and oranges” comparison with previous creel surveys.

“We’re now accounting for overnight pressure,” Matt Skoog , area fisheries supervisor in Baudette, Minnesota, told the Herald in September 2023. “There’s no good way to get a directly comparable number” with the old roving creel surveys.

Upper Red Lake, another popular winter fishing destination, uses a similar format, which provides better data on pressure from anglers who stay on the lake for extended periods of time, a trend driven by the growing popularity of deluxe wheelhouses or ice camping in portable hub-style pop-up shelters.

According to Marc Bacigalupi, Northwest Region fisheries manager for the DNR in Bemidji, operators on other big lakes such as Leech and Winnibigoshish, along with smaller 5,000- to 10,000-acre lakes around the state, may be catching up with Lake of the Woods in terms of plowing ice roads. A phenomenal jumbo perch bite this past winter on Mille Lacs Lake also caught some traffic heading north, he said.

“When we hit 3 million (in 2022-23), it was one of the main games in town because the ice wasn’t as good in other places as it was up there,” Bacigalupi said of the record winter on Lake of the Woods. “So, we were below the record levels (this past winter), but the catch rates were really good. Decent-sized saugers were getting harvested and so there was good poundage out there.”

Preliminary numbers show that anglers harvested about 175,000 pounds of walleyes and 150,000 pounds of saugers this past winter on Lake of the Woods, Bacigalupi said, up from about 75,000 pounds of walleyes and 102,000 pounds of saugers during the winter of 2023-24.

Anglers kept about 94,000 pounds of walleyes and 121,000 pounds of saugers during the winter of 2022-23, the ice season with record fishing pressure.

The DNR’s “target harvest” for walleyes on Lake of the Woods – the poundage of fish that can be kept in a given year without adversely impacting the population – is 540,000 pounds annually, based on a six-year moving average. The most recent annual harvest, based on that six-year moving average, is about 400,000 pounds.

A new fisheries management plan for Lake of the Woods that is nearing completion calls for changing sauger management goals from a target harvest to an “exploitation threshold,” or percentage of the population that can be harvested in a given year.

As the Herald reported in January, the exploitation threshold accounts for changes in sauger abundance. If sauger abundance goes up, more pounds of sauger can be harvested without affecting the exploitation rate – or vice versa. The exploitation threshold for this past winter is still being calculated.

“We have been consistently harvesting over our (sauger) harvest poundage thresholds and not seeing any negative (biological) effects,” Skoog, the Baudette area fisheries supervisor, said in January.

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