Posted by Melissa Burlaga

Youth ages 10-15 also are eligible to participate in a special deer season that runs from Thursday, Oct. 21, to Sunday, Oct. 24, in 12 permit areas of southeastern and 15 deer permit areas of northwestern Minnesota, according to the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources DNR.“This youth-only season provides an opportunity for parents, guardians and mentors to schedule and plan a special deer hunt with youth,” said Mike Kurre, DNR mentoring program coordinator.Deer permit areas open to the hunt are 101, 105, 111, 114, 201, 203, 208, 209, 256, 257, 260, 263, 264, 267, 268, 338, 339, 341, 342, 343, 344, 345, 346, 347, 348, 349 and 601.Youth must meet all firearms safety requirement, purchase a license and use the appropriate firearm for the permit area in which they are hunting.Youth may take a deer of either sex. An adult mentor must accompany the youth but may not hunt or carry a firearm.The special season should occur when students are on school break.Public land is open as is private land, provided the youth hunter has landowner permission.Participating in the youth deer season does not preclude the youth from participating in the regular firearms deer season but any deer harvested do count against the youth’s season bag limit.Apply by Aug. 20 for October special youth deer hunts  Click Link Below for Full Story!

via MN DNR Offers Special Youth Deer Hunting Season | Northland’s NewsCenter: News, Weather, Sports | NBC, CBS, MyNetworkTV, and The CW for Duluth MN / Superior WI | Local News.

BY SPENCER E. TURNER Special to the Tribune

I grew up in northern Wisconsin fishing mostly lakes, yet one of my earliest memories is fishing with my parents on one of Wisconsin’s driftless streams southwest of La Crosse. Mom and I fished with cane poles and indigenous wigglers (worms). Dad used a fly rod.

The stream, as my memory recalls 65 years later, was populated with bluegills, bullheads and that occasional largemouth bass — not smallmouth bass or trout.

That’s all changed. Landowners learned better farming practices. Streams cooled and cleaned themselves of silt and soil eroded from nearby hills. Fisheries and wildlife agencies in Wisconsin, Minnesota and Iowa learned the resource’s value, and conservation groups like Trout Unlimited help restore the streams.

The driftless area is located in southwest Wisconsin, northeast Iowa and southeast Minnesota. It’s an area that missed the last two glacial ice epics, 9 million and 12 million years past, leaving the topography intact with rolling hills, deeply dissected valleys and fertile soils. Each valley supports a productive stream with brook trout in the headwaters and smallmouth bass in the main stems.

The streams all flow to the Mississippi River and now support some of the best trout and smallmouth bass fishing in the nation. And they’re all within an easy drive of Columbia. Hook a turn north on Highway 63, and you’re just a few hundred miles away. Leave in the morning, and fishing could be in your plans by late afternoon.  Click Link Below For Full Story!

via Trout, smallmouth thrive in streams to the north – Sports | The Columbia Daily Tribune – Columbia, Missouri.

Hunters have until Friday, July 16, to apply for one of 11 elk licenses offered this year by the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources (DNR).

Licenses for the 2010 hunts will be available in the traditional Grygla area and central Kittson County, which is a consolidation of the north and south Kittson zones from last year. Maps of the two hunt zones can be found at http://www.dnr.state.mn.us/hunting/elk.

“Annual elk hunts help manage population size and provide a unique hunting experience for Minnesota hunters,” said Lou Cornicelli, DNR big game program coordinator.

Seven licenses (two either-sex and five antlerless) will be offered in the Grygla area. Four licenses (one either-sex and three antlerless) will be offered in Kittson County.

“With the completion of our elk management plan, we’re allocating elk licenses so that we can manage the two populations at established levels,” Cornicelli said.

A total of three licenses (two in Grygla and one in Kittson County) may be issued to qualified landowners in their elk zone in a preferential drawing. Unsuccessful landowner applications will then be added to the general drawing, from which the remaining applicants will be selected. Alternates will be selected in case successful parties opt not to purchase a permit.

In total, there will be two seasons in each zone, divided as follows:

·Sept. 18-26, two either-sex in Grygla, one either-sex and one antlerless license in Kittson County.

·Dec. 4-12, five antlerless licenses in Grygla and two antlerless licenses in Kittson County

Applications may be made at any DNR license agent or the DNR License Center, 500 Lafayette Road, St. Paul. Paper applications will not be accepted. Hunters may apply individually or in parties of two. There is a non-refundable application fee of $10 per hunter. Successful applicants will be notified by mail. In order to hunt, they must purchase an elk license for $250. Each party will be authorized to harvest one elk.  Click Link Below For Full Story!

via Apply now for the 2010 Minnesota elk hunt.

Santo Antonutti’s hunting buddy died a day before his moose hunting license notification arrived in the mail. Now, that license will go to another friend.

By: Sam Cook, Duluth News Tribune

For 37 years, Ray Rizzi and Santo Antonutti had been applying unsuccessfully for a Minnesota moose license.

This was almost their year.

On May 21, the 69-year-old Antonutti, of Esko, got a letter from the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources saying he’d been drawn for the hunt in the state’s lottery. He called his 80-year-old friend, but Rizzi, of Duluth, said he hadn’t received notification yet.

The next day, May 22, Rizzi joined some friends at a fishing camp near Orr.

“He died Friday night at the dinner table,” Antonutti said. “His license came Saturday morning.”

Antonutti and Rizzi grew up in Gary-New Duluth. They had worked together for a time at the U.S. Steel Plant in Morgan Park. Their fathers had immigrated to America from the same region of Italy.

Understandably, Antonutti gets a little emotional when he talks about his old friend.

“Rizzi had so much enthusiasm for the outdoors,” Antonutti said, sitting on his porch Thursday morning. “He was a tough old buzzard. Best brook trout fisherman I’ve ever seen. … It was like we became brothers.”

When his moose hunting partner died, Antonutti had to decide what to do. He still wanted to hunt moose, but he has stents in his heart and is a Type 2 diabetic. He would need another partner, he told Lou Cornicelli, big-game program coordinator for the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources.

Antonutti told Cornicelli he would like to hunt with his and Rizzi’s longtime friend Ray Rybos, 79, of Gary-New Duluth. Rybos had not applied for a moose permit this year.

After weighing the decision for about a week, the DNR granted Antonutti’s request and notified him of the decision Thursday. Rybos’ moose permit is in the mail, Cornicelli said. The decision to issue the permit was made by Dave Schad, director of the DNR’s Division of Fish and Wildlife, Cornicelli said.

“We got authority to do this, and it’s the right decision to make,” Cornicelli said. “It’s a reasonable request given an extraordinary set of circumstances.”  Click Link Below for Full Story!

via His hunting buddy died. The DNR gave him a new one. | Duluth News Tribune | Duluth, Minnesota.

By Andy Birkey

Secretary of the Interior Ken Salazar announced Friday that the federal government was removing the gray wolf from the list of species protected under the Endangered Species Act. Minnesota’s gray wolf population is one the nation’s largest, second only to Alaska.

“The recovery of the gray wolf throughout significant portions of its historic range is one of the great success stories of the Endangered Species Act,” Salazar said in a statement on Friday. “When it was listed as endangered in 1974, the wolf had almost disappeared from the continental United States. Today, we have more than 5,500 wolves, including more than 1,600 in the Rockies.”

Minnesota’s gray wolf population was downgraded by the Bush administration from endangered to threatened in 2007, but a court case over-ruled that decision in September 2008. Gray wolf populations were also de-listed in the northern Rockies in early 2008, but a judge over-ruled that decision as well.

Minnesota has far exceeded its goals in its wolf management plan. As of October 2008, the state had a population of at least 2,900 with a goal to maintain a stable population of 1,251 to 1,400 wolves.

Salazar maintained the endangered status of gray wolves in Wyoming because that state offers the wolves no protections from hunters and livestock owners who perceive the wolves to be a threat to their herds.  Click link below for full story.

via Minnesota Independent: News. Politics. Media. » Minnesota’s gray wolf to be removed from endangered species list–again.

Some people just love to fish no matter how cold it gets. Others simply love winter — ice, snow and all. But for many, it’s a way to get outdoors and do something.

By Doug Smith, Star Tribune

Ice fishing is ubiquitous in Minnesota, home to the largest ice angler population in the nation.

Most of us don’t give a second thought when thousands of ice fishing houses and thickly dressed anglers show up each winter on frozen lakes and rivers around the state.

That just happens here.

But it’s also what makes us unique.

“Ice fishing is this really distinctive thing of living up north; people who don’t live here think it’s nutty,” said Greg Breining of St. Paul.

And, of course, staring for hours into a faintly illuminated hole bored through the ice is a little bit nutty. But several hundred thousand of us do it anyway.  Click Link Below For Full Story!

via Ice fishing – and why.

Wildlife experts from across North America were in Duluth Monday to help jump-start an effort to save Minnesota’s moose.

Hit hard by parasites and warmer weather, Minnesota’s moose population is shrinking, and experts fear the state may lose the big, beloved animal for good.

“We’re going to figure this out. We’re going to set a course that’s proactive,’’ said Laurie Martinson, deputy director of the state’s Department of Natural Resources, which held its first-ever moose summit at the Inn on Lake Superior.

“There’s nothing that makes your heart beat faster [than seeing a moose], and we want to make sure we save that for future generations,’’ she said  Click Link Below For Full Story!

Minnesota trying to save its moose | Duluth News Tribune | Duluth, Minnesota.

Minnesota pheasant hunters shouldn’t count on another banner season this fall.

The Department of Natural Resources reports the pheasant index dropped 24 percent this year, because of cold and wet spring weather that reduce chick survival. The decline comes after three consecutive years of high pheasant harvests, culminating last year in the highest pheasant kill since 1964.

“We’re down by 24 percent, but we’re right at our 10-year average for the pheasant population, so it should still be a good year,” said Kurt Haroldson, a DNR wildlife research biologist.

This year’s state’s pheasant index is 81 birds per 100 miles of survey route, compared to 106 birds per 100 miles last year. The index, based on roadside counts taken by trained spotters, exceeded 100 pheasants per 100 miles in 2005, 2006 and 2007. Last year, hunters killed 655,000 roosters.

Minnesota’s pheasant population, which lies on the north edge of the bird’s range, did not suffer many losses during last year’s mild winter, but cold and rainy weather in April, May and early June likely resulted in some nest destruction and loss of chicks to hypothermia. The peak of the hatch, around June 6-8, was poor weather for young pheasant survival, Haroldson said. Full Story

Minnesota pheasant hunting should drop this fall – TwinCities.com.