GRAND FORKS

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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North Dakota pheasant crowing counts up 6% from last year

Brad Dokken — Thu, 26 Jun 2025 22:00:00 GMT

BISMARCK – North Dakota’s spring pheasant counts are up 6% statewide from last year, the Game and Fish Department said Thursday, June 26, in reporting results from its 2025 spring crowing count survey.

“We basically have had two really easy winters, especially for North Dakota standards, with not much snow and really nice temperatures,” RJ Gross, upland game management biologist for Game and Fish, said in a statement.

According to a Game and Fish news release, the primary regions holding pheasants showed 31.1 crows per stop in the southwest, up from 28.8 in 2024; 21.3 crows per stop in the northwest, down from 21.5; and 18.6 crows per stop in the southeast, up from 16.2. The count in the northeast, which is not a primary region for pheasants, was 6.5 crows per stop, up from 5 last year.

The survey results are an index, not a total count, of breeding pheasant roosters, Gross said, and offer a good way to look at over-winter survival. Barring untimely heavy rains, cool weather or hail, he expects more good news, with the peak of the pheasant hatch under way.

“Entering the nesting season, residual grass cover looked good,” Gross said. “The timely May rains caused increased growth in nesting and brood rearing cover across the state. Combined with high overwinter survival the past two years and near ideal nesting habitat conditions, things are looking good for upland birds in portions of North Dakota.”

The Game and Fish Department conducts pheasant crowing counts each spring throughout North Dakota. Observers drive specified 20-mile routes, stopping at predetermined intervals, and counting the number of roosters heard crowing over a 2-minute period.

The number of pheasant crows heard is compared to previous years’ data, providing a trend summary.

“On a normal winter, we lose 75% of our pheasants from year to year,” Gross said in this week’s “North Dakota Outdoors” webcast. “The last couple of years, that’s definitely not the case.”

Game and Fish will have a better handle on fall hunting prospects after conducting roadside brood count surveys in July and August. In 2024, Game and Fish tallied 94.5 total pheasants per 100 hundred miles during the late-summer survey, which was up 25% from 2023. Broods, at 11.6 per 100 miles, were up 33% from 2023.

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TowBoatUS expands to Rocky Point area of Lake of the Woods

Brad Dokken — Sat, 14 Jun 2025 12:00:00 GMT

ROOSEVELT, Minn. – Boaters on the U.S. side of Lake of the Woods now have one more option if they have boat trouble on the big lake. TowBoat US 24/7 just added its second on-the-water towing and assistance service on Lake of the Woods, this one in the Rocky Point area on the west side of the lake.

Opened by Capt. Doug and Melanie Nelson of Baudette, Minnesota, TowBoatUS Rocky Point provides professional on-the-water towing, soft ungrounding, battery jump and fuel drop-off services. The new service at Rocky Point is part of a network of more than 300 TowBoatUS ports nationwide.

The Nelsons opened their first Lake of the Woods port, TowBoatUS Lake of the Woods, two years ago in Baudette. In a news release, Doug Nelson said it’s all about going where their services are needed, providing faster response times.

“We have a lot of possibilities,” Nelson said. “Being able to service the west side of the lake efficiently from our new west-side port means shorter response times to requests for assistance. We hope to grow BoatUS membership over here by providing great service.”

TowBoatUS Rocky Point has a 21-foot red response vessel fully rigged for towing and salvage homeported at Arnesen’s Rocky Point Resort north of Roosevelt. All of the company’s captains are U.S. Coast Guard-licensed.

The Boat Owners Association of The United States (BoatUS) offers on-water unlimited towing memberships for freshwater boaters and anglers – much like an auto club for recreational boat owners – for just $109 per year. Membership comes with more than 25 BoatUS benefits, including discounts at local fuel docks and transient slips at marinas. Also included are a subscription to

BoatUS Magazine

, free DSC-VHF radio registration and more.

Separate from BoatUS on-water towing, the company also offers boat salvage services.

In an interview with the Herald, Nelson said the rate for an on-the-water service call is $250 an hour for boaters who don’t have the $109 BoatUS towing membership.

“If you’re up by Garden Island, that’s going to be an expensive tow,” Nelson said. “If you’re at Long Point and we come out of Arnesens, it’s not going to be too bad. It does vary widely on the expense, but it can get up to $1,000 to $1,200, depending on the length of the tow. So, the $109 membership makes a ton of sense.

“We want to be able to take care of people, and then at the end of the tow, I would rather just wave and wish them a great day and not have to take their money because they’re a member.”

The Baudette location, now in its third season, is at the Lake of the Woods Campground marina on the Rainy River, Nelson says. Calls vary, he says, all the way from someone miscalculating and running out of gas coming back from the north end of the lake, to dead batteries, engine trouble or grounding on sandbars near Lighthouse Gap, Morris Point or Buffalo Point.

For BoatUS members who run out of gas, the only fee they have to pay is the cost of the fuel, Nelson says.

“We’ll deliver fuel as a member,” he said. “We’ll do that for free.”

Based on tows to date, the company is on pace to respond to about 60 calls this summer on Lake of the Woods, Nelson said.

“Obviously, our weekends are the busiest,” he said. “We’ll do several tows in a day on a nice weekend. … And it keeps growing every year as more people know about us and memberships increase.”

The company also has worked with the Lake of the Woods County Sheriff’s Department to assist with boaters who need help, he said.

“We’re not search and rescue – that is not our job,“ Nelson said “Because we’re here on the lake, we can get out to a swamped boat a whole lot faster than they can.”

Nelson and his wife, who also manage the marina at Lake of the Woods Campground and offer boat rentals, own their rescue boats but have a licensing agreement with TowBoatUS, which in turn provides branding, marketing and dispatching support, he said.

“They are the largest marine assist company in the United States, but we are locally owned,” Nelson said. “We own the boats and we provide the captains.”

To request on-the-water assistance, boaters can call the BoatUS toll-free 24/7 Dispatch Center at (800) 391-4869, call TowBoatUS Rocky Point or TowBoatUS Lake of the Woods directly at (218) 434-0087, or hail on VHF radio Channel 16.

The company also is certified through ACAPT, the Accredited for Commercial Assistance and Professional Towing organization, Nelson said.

“I think the biggest thing that we provide is the peace of mind that when you leave the dock, there’s someone there, 24 hours a day, seven days a week,” he said. “We’ve got your back if anything goes wrong.”

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Little Miracles aims to bolster occupational therapy for children

Daltyn Lofstrom — Sat, 14 Jun 2025 12:00:00 GMT

BEMIDJI — Occupational therapy is a helping profession and few people know that better than Kayla Borszich.

The clinical director of Bemidji’s Little Miracles, Inc., Borszich has worked with children since the Bemidji location opened earlier this year. However, the organization’s mission extends beyond the First City on the Mississippi as Little Miracles originated in Grand Forks, N.D., in 2006.

Owner and CEO Tammy Sayler opened Little Miracles’ pediatric therapy and child care center in order to comprehensively serve children and their families in the Greater Grand Forks area. Borszich would later get involved after graduating from the University of North Dakota with her master's in occupational therapy.

She and her husband, Cory — a UND graduate himself — moved to Bemidji, where they resided from 2012 to 2014. The pair moved back to Grand Forks at the end of 2014 as Borszich started her 10-year stint at the original Little Miracles location.

A conversation between her and Cory would plant the seed for Little Miracles’ Bemidji location.

“We just wanted more space and to be close to family,” Borszich said. “I told Tammy and she said, ‘Let’s just open in Bemidji. I know there will be kids that you can help there.’”

As a one-woman show operating the therapy clinic at 1710 Paul Bunyan Drive NW, Bay 111 in the Willow Creek Center, Borszich currently works with under 10 children, though her caseload has been steadily increasing.

"We've been intentionally growing my caseload as I balance treatment with my responsibilities as clinical director and mentorship support for our Grand Forks office," Borszich said, "but I'm anxious to be able to help even more kids here in Bemidji."

Day-to-day operations differ drastically and each child receives specialized attention based on their needs. Borszich usually serves children twice a week, though the time commitment can vary based on the child’s needs and parents’ schedules.

“What we’re trying to do is help people return to things that are meaningful,” she said. “Most of the time, it’s play for kids. For some kids, they may have a hard time with dressing or they may be really picky eaters or having feeding challenges. A lot of kids have sensory processing difficulties; we help with all of that.”

Occupational therapy aims to help children develop the skills they need to participate in daily activities, such as those Borszich described.

Signs that a child may benefit from occupational therapy include avoidance of tasks and games that require fine motor skills; difficulty copying shapes and letters; overly sensitive or heightened reactivity to sound, touch or movement; constantly moving, jumping or crashing; difficulty with peer play or social interactions; emotionally reactive or difficulty with eating a variety of foods.

Such work often takes place alongside other types of therapy, including physical and speech therapy, which Borszich hopes to offer from Bemidji in the future, given Grand Forks' offering of all three.

"There's so much overlap in what each area does," Borszich said. "A lot of times, kids may need a combination or will benefit from a combination of two or all three."

Necessary supports

Addressing developmental challenges is one way that Borszich hopes to add value to the Bemidji area.

“I want to help kids and families that are struggling because if I can make life just a little bit easier for them, I feel so much better,” she added.

Borszich recalled one such story where a family of a child she served reached out to update Borszich on his progress. The 6-year-old attended private school and had to follow a specific dress code.

“The only thing he could tolerate was one pair of boots. That’s all he could have,” Borszich said. “His pants had to be super tight. The family was thinking about moving if the dress code at that school was too strict. They said ‘We might not be able to go to the school we really want because he can’t handle it from a sensory standpoint.’”

After some therapy, one of the parents approached Borszich to tell her that the child had tried on three different pairs of boots during back-to-school shopping. Years later, the mother emailed Borszich, informing her of continued progress.

“She writes, ‘Kayla, he still talks about occupational therapy and how beneficial that was,’” she mentioned. “‘Now, he’ll give me hugs and he never used to be able to tolerate hugs. He’s also wrestling and doing so great in school.’ I just want to be able to help people like that.”

On top of providing necessary support, Borszich hopes to inform the broader community about the work of occupational therapy and provide clarity about the profession, given its seemingly increasing presence in schools and growing popularity throughout the years.

Borszich grew up in Littlefork and was first exposed to the field of occupational therapy in high school.

“It just kind of fell in my lap in high school. We had a business professional-like class and we got to job-shadow different people. I had never heard of it before, but I think it’s more common now,” Borszich said. “I feel like there are more OTs in schools now. I don’t ever remember having an OT in our school helping.”

Borszich’s 14-year career in occupational therapy underscores her desire to provide a service that hasn’t necessarily been offered to others in prior years.

“We’re a helping profession. We want to help people and I find meaning in that, regardless of who it is, but the little kids have my heart even more,” Borszich left off. “It’s literally the best job ever.”

More information can be found at littlemiraclesinc.com.

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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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ONLINE EXTRA: Photo gallery highlights Grand Forks Builders and Traders’ 75th anniversary fishing trip

Brad Dokken — Fri, 06 Jun 2025 12:00:00 GMT

NEAR MORSON, ONTARIO — The Grand Forks Builders and Traders Exchange marked the 75th anniversary of their Canadian fishing trip tradition with an excursion to Amason’s Obabikon Bay Camp on Lake of the Woods near Morson, Ontario. The May 29-June 1 trip included two days of fishing and memories that will build on the Builders and Traders’ rich fishing trip history.

The photos in the gallery below capture just a few of the highlights from the trip to Obabikon, the group’s destination since 1998.

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Grand Forks Builders and Traders Exchange marks 75-year milestone with annual Canadian fishing trip

Brad Dokken — Fri, 06 Jun 2025 11:59:00 GMT

NEAR MORSON, Ontario – He hadn’t gone fishing in a couple of years, but Toni Troftgruben of Grand Forks found himself the talk of Amason’s Obabikon Bay Camp on the Ontario side of Lake of the Woods last Friday, May 30, after catching a 28½-inch walleye just minutes into the morning.

A territory sales manager for Advanced Business Methods, Troftgruben was part of the Grand Forks Builders and Traders Exchange’s annual Canadian fishing trip. The Builders and Traders Exchange is a nonprofit group of professionals in the construction and trades industries, and this year’s fishing excursion drew 48 guys. Most are members of the Builders and Traders, while others are friends or relatives of members.

This year’s trip, a nod to history and tradition, marked the 75th anniversary of the Builders and Traders’ annual spring fishing excursions. The only year they missed since 1949 was 2020, when the U.S.-Canada border was closed because of the COVID-19 pandemic, said Pat Heffernan, a trip organizer who is retired from Northern Plumbing Supply in Grand Forks.

A few members took an abbreviated trip in 2021 after the border reopened.

“We can think of a lot of events that mark 75 years, but we think it is rare that an event like this has stayed together for this long,” Heffernan said.

Joining Heffernan on the organizing committee are Jim Swingen of Grand Forks, retired from Swingen Construction, and Steve Wasvick of Bergstrom Electric.

Early excursions

According to Heffernan, who has compiled a partial history of the annual trips, the Builders and Traders went to Cedar Island, also on Lake of the Woods near Morson, from 1949 until 1982.

The paperwork on file starts in 1969, when the trip to Cedar Island cost $50 – $428.88 in today’s dollars, Heffernan says.

From 1983 through 1985, the Builders and Traders went to Sunset Lodge at Oak Island on Minnesota’s Northwest Angle, fishing mainly Ontario waters. They switched to the Minaki, Ontario, area for a year in 1986, returned to Cedar Island near Morson in 1987, and went to Cedar Lake near Grand Rapids, Manitoba, in 1988.

There are a few gaps in the history from 1989 to 1996, Heffernan says, but the group went to Jake’s Northwest Angle Resort on Lake of the Woods in 1997 before switching to Obabikon Bay Camp in 1998.

They’ve gone there ever since, taking over the island in Miles Bay for three days beginning the Thursday after Memorial Day every year except the COVID year.

“They give us such a nice product, that why the heck would we go anywhere else,” Heffernan said. “It would be difficult to get 50 guys somewhere else.

“Jim (Swingen) and I have a rule that if somebody wants to go to a different camp, I’ll give them all this paperwork and say, ‘Have fun – Jim and I are going to Obabikon.’ I just love it up here.”

Keeping everyone contained on an island in the middle of Lake of the Woods also has its advantages, Swingen says.

“If you can’t find somebody, you don’t have far to look,” he said. “Just walk around the island.”

The annual Builders and Traders fishing trip offers a chance to wet a line, sling a few barbs, talk a bit of shop (but not too much) and perhaps indulge in the odd libation or late-night card game.

Some of the guys bring their own boats, while others fish out of Obabikon rental boats. The camp provides guides, and the boats are divided into groups, each following a different guide to favorite fishing spots.

The Builders and Traders call the unofficial fishing contest the George Gardner Memorial Fishing Tournament in honor of George Gardner, a longtime organizer of the annual fishing trips, who made his last trip to Obabikon in 2007 at age 93.

He died the following winter at age 94.

The Daily Big Fish Contest is named after Clint Rodningen, a longtime organizer who died in August 2017 at age 75.

Troftgruben, who landed big fish honors – and ultimately the George Gardner traveling trophy – just minutes into the first day, transferred to Grand Forks from Minot last year. He was fishing with Jared Amason, a last-minute guide and owner of Obabikon Bay Camp, when he hooked into the big walleye shortly after they left the dock.

“I was just sitting there fishing,” Troftgruben said. “Everybody else seemed to be catching something. I got a bite and started reeling.”

Amason, thinking Troftgruben’s drag was set too light, reached to adjust it when he realized the fish at the end of the line was heavy.

“He goes, ‘Oh (shucks), I didn’t realize you had that big of a fish on,’ ” Troftgruben said. “It was a good start to the morning.”

Honoring a legacy

George Gardner’s son, Terry, 84, of Burnsville, Minnesota, and grandson Scott, 59, of Woodbury, Minnesota, are trip regulars even though they’re not Builders and Traders members. Terry Gardner retired from Weyerhauser after a 33-year career, and Scott Gardner is president of Weekes Forest Products in Cottage Grove, Minnesota.

Terry Gardner has joined the Obabikon crew, “I’m guessing something approaching 35 years,” he said.

“I just enjoy coming up, and being with all the guys,” he said. “It’s fun to get with a group of 40 or 50 guys. They’re all having a good time, and I really enjoy people having a good time up here. If I had to say one thing, it would be that I feel good when people are having a good time.

“I guess I also feel some obligation to carry on my dad’s legacy.”

Scott Gardner, who made his first trip to Obabikon in 2008, the year his grandfather died, has missed only a couple of years since. Two days of fishing is just right, he says.

“I love it,” Scott Gardner said.

The elder statesman on this year’s trip was Duane Pojar of Cleveland, Tennessee. Now in his early 90s, Pojar got to know George Gardner and others in the Builders and Traders crew in 1997, when he moved to Grand Forks for two years while working for Mortenson, the construction company that built the Alerus Center.

He’s made the trip every year except 2007 and the COVID year. Joining him this year were brother-in-law Mark Rikwa and son, Derrick, of Lawson, Missouri; and great nephews Cobe and Tate Albertson of South Sioux City, Nebraska.

Pojar drove 15-plus hours from Tennessee to Nebraska, riding with the Albertsons and Rikwas to Ontario.

“I’ve had some good experiences up here,” said Pojar, who has a reputation for catching big walleyes, including the 29⅞-inch beauty that won him the George Gardner traveling trophy in 2018. “I just keep coming back and coming back.”

Fishing with Obabikon guide Jules Gibbins, Pojar landed five walleyes over 20 inches the first day of the trip and finished the weekend with a 24½-inch beauty he caught within sight of camp.

No bragging fish, but there’s always next year.

“It never gets old,” Pojar said.

As good fishing trips always do, the Builders and Traders’ 75th anniversary excursion went by too fast. Plenty of walleyes were caught, memories were made, bull was slung and fun was had.

“I think the 75th will be remembered for the weather we had,” Heffernan said. “The fellowship was outstanding.”

Added Swingen: “It’s quite a history in 75 years.”

With the 75-year milestone trip in the books, Heffernan, Swingen and Wasvick are ready to resume their 3 p.m. Friday gatherings at Rumors Lounge in Grand Forks to start planning next year’s trip, which is scheduled for May 28-31, 2026.

As Heffernan quipped, “Who has more fun than people?”

On the web:

Amason’s Obabikon Bay Camp: obabikon.com

Grand Forks Builders and Traders: https://www.bntgf.com

Walleye winners

Here are the top walleyes in the Grand Forks Builders and Traders Exchange’s 75th anniversary fishing trip to Obabikon Bay Camp, held May 29-June 1 on the Ontario side of Lake of the Woods.

18th Annual George Gardner Champion

(Big walleye of the weekend)

28½ inches – Toni Troftgruben.

Friday Clint Rodningen winners

First: Toni Troftgruben, 28½ inches. Second: Brody Peterson, 28 inches. Third: Jason Vosichek, 27½ inches.

Saturday Clint Rodningen winners

First: Bret Erickson, 26½ inches. Second: Mike Compton, 26¼ inches. Third: Aron Pearson, 26 inches.]]>