LAKES AREA
OUTDOORS
2020 2020
Perfect spring conditions lead to big hatches for TURKEYS • 12 PHEASANTS • 18
What DC meat processors are taking DEER? An Echo Echo Press Press Publication Publication An
A new-look whitetail season
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inside this issue Changes for deer hunters to be aware of locally.............. 4 Poult survival rates seem way up this summer............... 5 Pheasants are there to chase this fall................................... 6 Minnesota hunting and trapping seasons.......................... 7 Bear sightings persist.................................................................. 8 Fewer deer processing options................................................ 9 Map of D.A.T.A Trails........................................................... 10-11 Easy steps to process your own deer.................................. 12
Eric Morken, Sports/Outdoors EditorÂÂ Diann Drew, Publisher Lori Mork, Designer A publication of Echo Press, October 2020 225 7th Ave. East, Alexandria, MN www.echopress.com
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Changes for deer hunters to be aware of page 4
Lakes Area Outdoors | PAGE 3
An early-antlerless season in deer permit areas 213, 214 and 215 from Oct. 15-18 and voluntary CWD sampling in areas 213 and 273 are part of some new opportunities for hunters in the local area this season. (Courtesy photo / Minnesota Department of Natural Resources)
Changes for deer hunters to be aware of locally Early anterless season, CWD surveillance part of new-look 2020 season
Eric Morken emorken@echopress.com
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nyone following along throughout the past year to what was going on in the whitetail world in this area of west-central Minnesota knew the 2020 hunting season might look a little different. Some sort of surveillance was bound to take place in the area as it relates to Chronic Wasting Disease after a captive deer on a farm in Douglas County tested positive for the disease in late 2019. Local deer permit areas were also part of a deer population goal-setting process over the winter, where the Department of Natural Resources determined through public meetings, surveys and feedback from area managers that deer numbers were con PAGE 4 | Lakes Area Outdoors
sidered too high in many zones around the Alexandria area. With the 2020 regulations now set, hunters know exactly what this upcoming deer season will look like, and it includes plenty of opportunity to shoot does and voluntary sampling for CWD. EARLY-ANTLERLESS SEASON Mark Nohre, regional director for the Minnesota Deer Hunters Association, goes to almost every public meeting on deer in the area. He heard from a vocal group this past winter that wanted to see deer numbers drop, in some cases by a lot, so Nohre knew a new management plan to do that to some extent was likely coming. He just didn’t know how extreme it would be. “I was surprised at the number (of deer hunters are allowed to take),” Nohre said. “I thought it would be more leaning toward three, four at the max.” Deer-permit areas 213, 214 and 215 were added to the list of zones where hunters can take part in an early-antlerless season this year. It coincides
with the statewide youth season that is set for Oct. 15-18. During that four-day season, hunters can shoot up to five antlerless deer, which is in addition to the statewide bag limit of three deer allowed to be taken in 213, 214 and 215. So hunters in those areas can legally shoot up to eight deer total this season. “People will see that and there will be many who say, ‘That’s going to wreck the deer herd,’” Glenwood DNR wildlife manager Kevin Kotts said during an interview in July. “The reality is very few people even shoot two deer, let alone three even when they could. There will be a handful of people who take advantage of all those numbers. It will result in some more antlerless deer killed, but I don’t see one year of early antlerless decimating the deer herd.” Nohre agrees that most hunters won’t shoot near that eight-deer limit, but he was still surprised to see that high of a number being allowed. “I think it’s a little excessive at this time,” Nohre said. “I would have liked to see two or three, not eight. I think out of 100
people who might hunt that season, maybe one will shoot eight deer. I think the rest will be two or three, but I think it will thin out some of the deer.” Hunters shot 2,312 adult does in permit area 213 last year. That’s up from 1,514 in 2018 and 1,392 in 2017. DNR staff will evaluate the data after this year to see how the new early antlerless season affects those overall numbers. “Then we’ll see if we think the deer herd is starting to drop,” Kotts said. HUNTERS NEEDED FOR CWD SURVEILLANCE Local deer-permit areas 213 and 273 are a part of the new west-central CWD surveillance area this year, meaning CWD has been found in a captive deer but not in the wild deer herd. The DNR announced on Dec. 10, 2019 that CWD was found in an 8-year-old doe from a small, 2-deer captive facility in Douglas County. The doe was at the farm for less than a year, and the site of the farm is in an area of Douglas
DEER page 16
POULT SURVIVAL RATES
seem way up this summer
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t was Sept. 1 when I was taking my daughters to daycare before work, and I noticed a huge flock of wild turkeys just off the road a few hundred yards up. The birds had a whole sea of vegetation to disappear into, but they hung tight in the road ditch long enough for me to get my camera and snap a bunch of photos. This group was a mixed bag of toms, hens and poults that look old enough now to do a good job avoiding predators. Two hours later, I was again behind the wheel of my truck a few miles down a different road from my house when I spotted another big group of birds. This one was a flock of about 20 that has frequented this same general area all summer.
In late July, there was a trip back to our hunting land in southern Minnesota, and I saw the same thing -- hens bunched up together to help avoid predators with poults jumping up all around me as I walked along a standing corn field with the river and tree cover to my left. It’s not an exact science, but I have seen more young turkeys this summer than I remember seeing in the last five, six summers combined. I wanted to hear what someone from the Glenwood Area DNR has witnessed in their field work as it pertains to production of wild turkeys around this whole Douglas and Pope County area. “I’m going to have to speak on that from what I’m hearing from other people in the DNR.
This group of hens and poults was a part of a flock of about 20 birds that the author photographed a mile west of his house near Alexandria on Sept. 1. (Eric Morken / Echo Press)
Eric Morken
OUTDOORS EDITOR
I’ve been working a bunch out west with water control projects, and I haven’t seen the production from Kensington west over to Donnelly, Morris, Wheaton,” area wildlife assistant manager Jason Strege said. “But a coworker of mine, John Maile, he’s been working more east and south and he’s been seeing the production you’re seeing. When I have gone east into the more traditional turkey area, I have seen more poults. John has been seeing a lot of production.”
The western part of the Glenwood DNR’s work zone tends to have some more open terrain, so it’s not surprising that bird sightings would go down that direction with a lack of ideal habitat for turkeys. If indeed poult survival numbers are up in the more timbered regions of this area and across the state, that should bode well for hunting seasons in the near future. High turkey numbers are not something anyone should take for granted. Reaching adulthood for turkeys is incredibly difficult. Studies from across the country have shown time and again that survival rates for young birds are pretty dismal.
POULTS page 17
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Pheasants are there Eric Morken emorken@echopress.com
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irds like the pheasant that have such a short lifespan to begin with are so dependent on annual hatches to produce big numbers each fall. Marginal or poor habitat and wet springs can lead to tough seasons chasing roosters. Quality habitat can help sustain numbers every year, and a dry spring during the June nesting season can help populations jump considerably in one year. That seems to be what pheasants got across much of their range in Minnesota in 2020. The Minnesota Department of Natural Resources on Sept. 8 released the results of its annual roadside survey that showed the number of pheasants counted up 42% over 2019 and 37% above the 10year average. The pheasant increase hit an astounding 146% over 2019 in the state’s prime pheasant habitat in southwestern Minnesota. “It really comes as no surprise to me given the weather that we had this spring,” Douglas County Pheasants Forever chapter president Dean
Krebs of Alexandria said. “When we get good weather in June, the pheasants are designed to really increase or explode their population when they have favorable nesting conditions. We had really favorable nesting conditions this year, and this is the result of that.” This year’s statewide pheasant index was 53.5 birds per 100 miles of roads driven. All regions of the pheasant range reported an increase in pheasant counts, with the southwest reporting the greatest increase. There, observers counted 90.5 birds per 100 miles. The areas of Douglas, Pope, Todd and Stearns Counties run the gamut on the 2020 pheasant hunting prospects map from poor (10-24 birds/ square mile) to good (greater than 49 birds/square mile). That prospects map is intended to be a general indicator of the upcoming fall hunting season based on count numbers. But areas considered poor overall can have areas of great habitat within them that will carry plenty of birds, and vice versa. “There’s places where we were jumping 20, 30, 40 birds in down years,” Krebs said. “If
“We saw and heard a lot of birds this year while turkey hunting. That’s a little bit anecdotal because it’s just one spot, but even driving to and from in the areas where we go, we saw a lot more pheasants in the spring than we had in many years. We kept saying, ‘If we get a good hatch, this is going to be a good year.’ I think we pulled off a phenomenal hatch.” Dean Krebs
Douglas County Pheasants Forever chapter president
PAGE 6 | Lakes Area Outdoors
to chase this fall
Black lab, Gus, sits on the tailgate after flushing and retrieving a couple of Minnesota roosters late last November. The 2019 season produced some great hunts across the state in areas of good habitat, and this year’s roadside count from the DNR’s annual survey showed pheasant numbers increasing by 42% statewide from the 2019 survey, setting up what could be a good fall for hunters. (Eric Morken / Echo Press) you have good habitat, you’re going to see that. It’s that marginal habitat where you really get that hit in down years.” To put this year’s count into an historical perspective, the 53 birds per 100 miles counted is still just a fraction of the more than 300 birds per 100 miles counted in the 1950s and well below recent highs of over 100 birds per 100 miles in the early 2000s. Still, it’s good news for pheasant hunters in the state after the bird’s numbers dropped over the past decade due to
the loss of grassland habitat taken out of the federal Conservation Reserve Program on private lands. “It was nice to see. It’s a prediction based on roadside counts, but it’s crazy how accurate they are a lot of times,” Krebs said. “When you have good news like this, that’s also represented in the license sales. We’re going to see an uptick in pheasant hunters by quite a bit I would guess this year because people are
PHEASANT page 14
MINNESOTA 2020 hunting & trapping
SMALL GAME
SEASONS
Rabbit and squirrel................................................. Sept. 19-Feb. 28 Ruffed and spruce grouse and Hungarian partridge............................................Sept. 19-Jan. 3 Sharp-tailed grouse.................................................. Oct. 10-Nov. 30 Mourning dove........................................................... Sept. 1-Nov. 29 Pheasant.........................................................................Oct. 10-Jan. 3
FALL WILD TURKEY.........................................Oct. 3-Nov. 1 DEER
Archery........................................................................Sept. 19-Dec. 31 Muzzleloader..............................................................Nov. 28-Dec. 13 Firearms, 100 series............................................................... Nov. 7-Nov. 22 200A and 300A series.........................................Nov. 7-Nov. 15 Season 300B............................................................... Nov. 21-Nov. 29 (Only valid in southeastern Minnesota)
WATERFOWL
Ducks: Central zone:..............................................................Sept. 26 -Oct. 4; (Includes Alexandria) Oct. 10 - Nov. 29 North zone: .............................................................. Sept. 26-Nov. 24 South zone: ..................................................................Sept. 26-Oct.4; Oct. 17-Dec. 29 Geese: Central zone: ..............................................................Sept. 26-Oct. 4; (Includes Alexandria) Oct. 10-Dec. 30 North zone:................................................................Sept. 26-Dec. 25 South zone:........................................Sept. 26-Oct.4; Oct. 17-Jan. 6
FURBEARER HUNTING & TRAPPING
Beaver (North zone)............................................... Oct. 24 - May 15 Beaver (South zone)................................................Oct. 31 - May 15 Mink and Muskrat trapping (North zone)......Oct. 24 - Feb. 28 Mink and Muskrat trapping (South zone)........Oct. 31- Feb. 28 Coyote, Striped Skunk and other unprotected...... Continuous
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A
BEAR SIGHTINGS PERSIST
but high numbers remain long ways off locally
lmost every year at the Echo Press Newspaper in Alexandria, we get a reader-submitted photo of a black bear that has made its way into the area. This far south in westcentral Minnesota is not considered part of the bear’s common range in the state, but there’s no doubt people see them from time to time. My father spotted one last year just west of Alexandria on the gravel road leading into Wildridge RV Park on Lobster Lake. In talking to other hunters around the area, I have gotten a sense that getting pictures on game cameras of bears has become more common not too far north of Alexandria. But has hunting bears in this region of the state become a viable option for people? “In the Alexandria area, it’s pretty low,” Glenwood DNR assistant wildlife manager Jason Strege said. “We’ve got some bears that have been seen around this summer. No official complaints or anything on them. We had
one running around in southern Pope County for a while here, but the population is super low.” Strege said it would likely take someone knowing a bear is using a food source such as a corn field already and then setting up for a hunt to successfully fill a tag. Just running a bait station on a piece of land with no prior knowledge of bears using a property would likely be fruitless. “You don’t have to go very far north to start getting into some decent bear numbers,” Strege said, “but as a whole in our work area...it would be such a low population of bears that you’d have to have a pretty good lucky streak to get one.” Chris Kleine is the president of the Viking Sportsmen organization. He lives east of Lake Burgen near Alexandria. Kleine has not seen any bears himself in Douglas County but says neighbors have reported seeing two not far from his house. Local hunters also talk almost every time they
A bear uses its paws and claws to cling to a tree on the grounds of the Radisson Hotel at the corner of 5th Avenue West and First Street in Duluth. That region of northeastern Minnesota is more of the bear’s traditional range in the state, but people don’t have to go too far north and east from Alexandria to start hearing of more bears being on the landscape. (Photo by Bob King / rking@duluthnews.com) PAGE 8 | Lakes Area Outdoors
Eric Morken
OUTDOORS EDITOR
get images of a bear on their game cameras. “I’ve heard of bears being fairly common over the last several years near Parkers Prairie,” Kleine said. “I think right now it’s more of a novelty and fun to see, but if they continue to stick around and reproduce locally it might be something that more hunters think about when they head out to the field.” There is opportunity to hunt in west-central Minnesota. Douglas County is part of a no-quota area where hunters can purchase a bear license over the counter. There are 13 bear management units in the state’s more natural areas of bear habitat where there are limited licenses available through a lottery system. The DNR uses hunting as a management tool in these areas, with the fall bear season running from Sept. 1 through Oct. 18. “I’ve listened to quite a few talks from our bear biologists, and I think it’s just more that the population in general is so low that it’s not considered a real viable population,” Strege said of the no-quota areas of the state. “Harvest isn’t really a factor. Every now and again, a bear will be taken in the area, but we’re not managing a population much there. As you get into the traditional bear zones, that’s where we do a lot more population assessments and actively manage for a healthy bear population.” A change was made to bear permit area 45 this year not too far from Alexandria.
The southern portion of that unit was subdivided to create a new bear permit area (451 just north and east of Long Prairie) to allow additional bear hunting opportunities. Hunters in area 451 do not need to apply in a lottery, with licenses available to any eligible hunters. Statewide, a total of 2,340 bears were registered during the 2019 hunting season. That was up 33% from the season before. Most of the increase occurred in the southern portion of the bear range, with harvest in bearmanagement units 45, 51 and 52 being two to three times higher than in 2018. Hunter success rates often have a lot to do with how much natural food is available to bears on the landscape each year. In years with low mast-crop production, bait stations become more effective for hunters with bears more actively seeking out food. There continues to be interest in bear hunting from Minnesota hunters, with last year’s 20,632 permit applications topping the 20,000 mark for the third straight year after not reaching 20,000 applicants since 2002. The number of permits available in those quota zones has dropped considerably over the years, from 20,840 in 1999 to 6,000 in 2012 and now 3,400 in 2019. The number of no-quota licenses purchased last year in central, western and northwestern Minnesota reached an all-time high of 3,396. It’s the fifth straight season that no-quota licenses purchased have passed the 3,000 mark after never reaching that level since
BEAR page 15
Michael Dickey (front) works with a piece of meat as Al Drexler (back) cuts up a section of beef this past spring at Klinder Processing near Carlos. Klinder Processing will take a limited amount of deer carcasses on a first-come, first-serve basis this fall hunting season but won’t be able to boost production to take on more deer than they can handle with another area processor, Miltona Meats, not taking full carcasses this year due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Miltona Meats will still be taking venison trimmings to process into sausage, burger and other finished products. (Echo Press file photo by Lowell Anderson)
Fewer deer processing options for hunters this fall Karen Tolkkinen ktolkkinen@echopress.com
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ouglas County’s largest processor of venison carcasses said it does not plan to take the entire deer this year, but will continue to take trimmings for sausage making. Miltona Meats normally processes 700 deer during rifle season in November, said owner Bonnie Johnson. “This year we are not taking carcass deer because of the COVID,” she said. “If one of my employees would get it, what am I going to do with all that deer hanging here?” While beef can hang for weeks, aging, venison can’t, she said. The way venison is killed, with wounds at various parts of its body, is different from the managed, controlled way beef is slaughtered. Miltona Meats is not alone in not being able to take whole carcasses of deer in Douglas County. Lake Country Meats in Alexandria will not be taking carcasses, but will also take trimmings of wild game to process into sausage, brats, etc.
Klinder Processing of Carlos will continue to process carcasses, said owner Scott Klinder. His business does about 400 carcasses a year. During the hunting season, they take a break from hogs and beef for about three weeks, bring on extra help and work 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. Klinder said he will take carcasses first come, first serve and that he won’t be able to boost production to take more. “I’m only going to do so many,” he said. Two other processors, Evansville Meat Market and Garfield Smokehouse, only take trimmings. “We haven’t done carcasses for years,” said Rich Waldorf, owner of Garfield Smokehouse. “We’ve just grown into other things.” This year, meat lockers say they continue to be swamped with demands for other services, such as hog and beef butchering. That pressure came after some meat plants closed because workers were becoming infected with coronavirus, and Tyson Meats warned of widespread
meat shortages in the U.S. Johnson said she has been so booked with hog and beef butchering that she couldn’t even open spots for the youth deer hunt in October after her schedule had already filled up. Mark Nohre of Alexandria, who is a regional director for the Minnesota Deer Hunters Association, said the loss of carcass processing in Miltona will be a “big hit” but that ultimately, it wouldn’t affect most of the thousands of hunters in Douglas County. “I believe they’ll find someplace else,” Nohre said. “A certain percentage will do it themselves because they
have to, but most will find somewhere else.” Hunters in local deer-permit areas 213, 214 and 215 will be able to take up to eight deer this fall, though five of those would have to come during a four-day period from Oct. 15-18 during the first early-antlerless season that was added in the area this year. Some hunters, like Nohre’s crew, view skinning and cutting up venison as just a part of the hunt. But not everyone has the time or inclination to do it themselves. “A lot of guys, they just find it easier to drop it off and have someone else process their deer for them,” he said.
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WINTER FUN ALONG THE TRAILS Your guide to
GAS & GROCERY
1
Cenex Convenience Store
LODGING
6
Garfield | 320.834.2224
FOOD & BEVERAGE
2
Alexandria VFW
3
Brandon Municipal Liquor Store
320.763.9221
320.834.4547
4
Depot Express
5
Leaf Valley Mercantile
320.763.7712
320.834.2532
6
Holiday Inn/Willy T’s 320-763-9983
PAGE 10 | Lakes Area Outdoors
Holiday Inn of Alexandria 320-763-6577
7
Best Western
8
Super 8 Motel
9
Days Inn
320.762.5161 320.763.6552 320.762.1171
10 Fairfield Inn & Suites by Marriott 320-763-0113
5
3 1
4
8 9
The Douglas Area Trails Association maintains 370 miles of snowmobile trails (shown in yellow) in West Central Minnesota.
6
2
7 10
Douglas County Map of Winter Fun, Including D.A.T.A. Trails! Lakes Area Outdoors | PAGE 11
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EASY STEPS
to processing your own deer
eer hunters in the Douglas County area will be faced with a decision this year after filling their tags on whitetails – try to find a meat processor that is taking whole carcasses and maybe travel an extra distance to drop their deer off. Or they could butcher the animal themselves. Miltona Meats in Douglas County, which normally takes nearly 700 deer a year during firearms season, won’t be taking full carcasses this season due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Neither will Lake Country Meats in Alexandria. Both will be accepting trimmings to process into sausage, burger and other final products. Klinder Processing of Carlos will take deer carcasses this season, but won’t be able to absorb more deer than the typical 400 or so it has the staff to butcher each fall. If you haven’t ever done it before, this might be the perfect season to try butchering your own deer. This has always been a part of my deer-hunting tradition. My dad let me tag along in the woods with him from the time I was about 6 or 7 years old. Part of hunting if he got a deer was hanging it and then butchering, deboning and packaging the meat ourselves. I love being a part of that process from start to finish, and it’s really not difficult. Here is a step-by-step process in how I go about butchering my deer from start to finish in case you want to give it a try this year. GETTING THE HIDE OFF The first step in the butchering process is getting the hide off the animal. The biggest thing here is deciding how you want
PAGE 12 | Lakes Area Outdoors
Eric Morken
OUTDOORS EDITOR
to hang the deer – by its legs or by its neck. I have worked from both angles and don’t really have a huge preference. There is a device that attaches right into the receiver of your truck for people who want to buy a product that will aid in the butchering process. I often just use a sturdy rope and tree limb. If butchering a deer hanging from the neck, take a sharp skinning knife and cut upward under the hide starting near the top of the chest cavity. Once you are near the top of the neck under the jaw, slice the hide around the entire neck. The hide should almost rip off by grabbing and pulling down after that. The process is the same if butchering a deer hanging from its legs. Start from the highest point on both hind quarters, cut the hide all the way up toward the knee and make a slit around each joint. This should allow you to grab hold and pull the hide down. REMOVING EXCESS HAIR So much of getting greattasting meals from deer comes in the preparation, and that starts during the butchering process. We always remove the excess hair that gets on the meat after taking the hide off by using a small, hand-held propane torch and burning it. Look closely over all parts of the animal to remove any hair that might get left behind on streaks, roasts or trimmings. Careful preparation of burning the hair, removing fat and silver skin and then
Gary Morken butchers a doe he shot during the opening week of the North Dakota archery season this year. (Eric Morken / Echo Press) washing the meat at the end of the butchering process makes for great meals where you don’t have to worry about experiencing that “gamey” taste that you hear people talk about with wild game. REMOVING LOINS, HINDQUARTERS Now it’s time to remove the loins and quarter the animal. Make sure you don’t forget to take the tenderloins in this process. These small straps of meat that fry up great for a stir fry or grilled as a steak are found inside the chest cavity along the spine. You really don’t even need a knife to get at them. Simply take your fingers and run them along the rib cage or the
vertebrae. It should pull out easily. From there, I remove the backstraps that I’ll cut into steaks. These run parallel to the vertebrae on the outside of the rib cage and are simple to remove. Run your knife along the spine to break the silver skin you see covering the red meat. Then cut down to the last rib perpendicular to the spine at the end of the back strap to get your start. I like to work from the top of a backstrap and cut down. Simply take one hand and slightly pull the backstrap away from the rib cage. Use the knife to separate the meat from bone.
PROCESS page 13
PROCESS from page 12 Now I move on to removing the quarters. The front shoulders are easy. Grab hold near the elbow area of the animal and pull the shoulder away from the rib cage. The whole quarter will separate by simply cutting away at the connective tissue without going through any bone. The hindquarters can be a little more of a process. I like to use a Sawzall, but a hand-held bone saw will work to remove the whole back end of the deer from the vertebrae. That can also be used to cut through bone and separate the two hind quarters to be more easily worked on during the deboning process. DEBONING THE MEAT This is the part of the process that I assume intimidates most people who are new to working on their own big game. Two key points I’ll make here are to use the bone as a guide and simply concentrate on separating the muscle groups of the hindquarters. All of the meat off the front shoulder goes into trim for me to grind into burger. It doesn’t have to look fancy. I like to use a sharp and fairly pliable fillet knife here. Work the knife against the bone to remove all of the meat. The important thing to recognize with the
hindquarters is that these are multiple muscle groups that can be easily separated. Find the seams with your fingers and use your knife to separate the tissue that holds the muscles together by cutting all the way down to the bone. PREPARING THE FINISHED PRODUCT Once all the meat is entirely deboned, what you want to do with it is up to you. Some people put most of their meat into burger, sausage, deer sticks, etc. Those are things you can do yourself too with the proper equipment, but all local meat processors are taking trimming to make into those finished products still. By the time everything is done, I have steaks cut out of every last inch of backstrap. I have about six roasts and many pounds of trim that I will grind into burger myself with the addition of a little bit of beef or pork fat that can be purchased for almost nothing at grocery stores or meat shops by calling them in advance. For anyone who has never tried butchering their own deer, I strongly recommend giving it a try. It’s rewarding being a part of this entire process when you sit down for the multiple meals you will get out of your deer this year.
Knowing how to butcher your own deer is good practice, especially when taking out-of-state hunts now due to regulations in place that do not allow the transfer of carcasses across borders to limit the chance of spreading CWD. This 2019 North Dakota buck was shot in early November last year on an evening sit before taking the next day to butcher and debone the meat. (Eric Morken / Echo Press)
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Lakes Area Outdoors | PAGE 13
Hoping the numbers lie PHEASANTS from page 6 going to see this, and they’re going to go out. In one way, it’s almost too bad because we still had good hunting even in down years. You may have had to work a little harder, but this good news is going to bring out the hunters, which I love to see.” Minnesota’s pheasant season begins Oct. 10 and runs to Jan. 3, 2021. Ideal weather conditions with a dry June not only lead to early and successful hatches, but it helps the chicks head into the fall and winter season in better shape. The peak pheasant hatch was approximately four days earlier than average this year. Hunters can expect great opportunities to see birds in the southwest and very good hunting prospects in the west-central, central and south-central regions, which all reported more than 50 birds per 100 miles. DNR officials said there is better news on the habitat front with a net gain of 10,000 acres of former cropland going back into the Conservation Reserve Program since 2019, a small total but in the right direction. Monitoring pheasant population trends is part of the DNR’s annual August roadside wildlife survey, which began in 1955. Wildlife managers and conservation officers in the farmland regions conduct the survey during the first half of August. This year’s survey consisted of 169 25-mile-long routes, with 153 routes located in the pheasant range. Observers drive each route in the early morning and record the number of wildlife game species they see. The data provide an index of species abundance and are used to monitor annual fluctuations and long-term population trends of pheasants, Hungarian partridge, eastern cottontail rabbits, white-tailed jackrabbits, mourning doves, sandhill cranes and white-tailed deer. Full information on this year’s roadside count can be seen on the DNR website.
The 2020 pheasant prospects map is based on the annual DNR August roadside count and is intended as an indicator of relative density. There may be sites with good pheasant habitat and numbers within overall areas considered to have poor hunting prospects, and vice versa. (Map from the Minnesota DNR) A combination of plenty of birds surviving the winter and a good spring sets up Minnesota pheasant hunters for a promising 2020 season. “We saw and heard a lot of birds this year while turkey hunting,” Krebs said of the habitat he hunts around the Alexandria area. “That’s a little bit anecdotal because it’s just one spot, but even driving
to and from in the areas where we go, we saw a lot more pheasants in the spring than we had in many years. We kept saying, ‘If we get a good hatch, this is going to be a good year.’ I think we pulled off a phenomenal hatch.” (John Myers of the Forum News Service contributed to this story)
Minnesota’s pheasant season October 10, 2020 – January 3, 2021 PAGE 14 | Lakes Area Outdoors
BEAR from page 8
A sow black bear stands in thick growth near a white pine holding at least one cub near Duluth. (Steve Kuchera / skuchera@duluthnews.com)
the data was tracked in 1999. Just under 30% of the total 2019 harvest of bears was taken in no-quota zones. Maybe the record number of licenses sold in no-quota zones is an indicator that more people are seeing a bear or two in nontraditional areas of the state. Populations certainly aren’t high in Douglas County, but hunters aren’t too far from what are considered better bear areas to the north and east of Alexandria. “Just getting into Otter Tail County would up your chances,” Strege said. “I don’t know that it would up it a ton. Their population of bears isn’t super high either, but you start getting into Carlos, Miltona, that area, that’s still Douglas County, but they do go up two or three a year. You don’t have to go far north to start increasing your potential.”
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Hoping the numbers lie DEER from page 4
County that is not considered to have the high deer numbers that are seen in some portions of the area. “We’re hoping it’s an extremely low probability that we had any infection transfer from that farm into the wild deer herd,” Glenwood DNR assistant wildlife manager Jason Strege said. “We’re hoping we’re not going to find it.” Hunters are being asked to help out in answering that question more definitively. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, all CWD sampling in Minnesota is voluntary this year. Hunters in the west-central surveillance zone can drop off the heads of adult deer (1 year or older) at self-service sampling stations any time of day at multiple locations (listed below) starting on Oct. 15. The sampling will be done until a goal number (862 points in DPA 213 and 385 points in DPA 273) is reached on a weighted point system. Each deer is assessed a point value based on age and sex, with deer such as older-aged bucks that have been shown to be more likely carriers of the disease due to their age and rutting behavior being assigned a greater point value. “I like their testing program. It’s a good start,” Nohre said. “I know us guys at (the Minnesota Deer Hunters Association), we’re supporting them. I hope hunters are cooperative with this. I haven’t had five guys rush up to me and say, ‘Yeah, we’re going to do this.’ But I’d like to see a good turnout for this.” A group of area taxidermists and meat processors (listed below) are also helping by taking samples throughout the whole deer season. Hunters interested in taking a deer to a taxidermist or meat processor listed should contact them PAGE 16 | Lakes Area Outdoors
ahead of time to make sure they are available. “This sampling technique is new for the Minnesota DNR,” Strege said. “It’s been tried in several other states as a different type of sampling, just because the last number of years now it’s basically been every DNR employee has gone all hands on deck on this. It is taking a tremendous amount of staff time and resources to sample with our traditional sampling locations where it’s a staffed area and we extract samples.” The meat processors and taxidermists will get about $10 per sample, or $5 if they are just collecting the head of the animal and not doing the lymph node extraction. “That kind of sounds like a lot of money when you start dealing with a couple thousand deer, but I think we sampled something like 18,000 deer in the 2019 season,” Strege said. “If you start putting in fleet cost, employee wages, hotel bills, all that stuff makes it significantly less cost per sample than our traditional way of sampling.” With sampling being voluntary, hunters’ willingness to help out is a very important part of the process in trying to find out if there is any chance CWD was transferred into the wild herd. Chronic Wasting Disease is a slow, progressive disease that is always fatal in deer but can incubate for 18 months up to three years before clinical signs start to appear. Because of that, hunters are reminded that CWD positive deer may look entirely healthy. “The more testing we do, the sooner we find out, the sooner we can lift the feeding bans and that sort of thing too,” Nohre said.
A map of CWD sampling stations in deer-permit areas 273 and 213 where hunters can drop off heads of deer ages 1 and older starting on Oct. 15. The heads will then be collected to test for CWD in the wild deer herd after a captive deer was found to be CWD positive from a farm in Douglas County in late 2019. (Map courtesy of the Minnesota DNR) WEST-CENTRAL CWD SURVEILLANCE AREA INFORMATION (Consists of Deer Permit Areas 213 and 273) What can hunters harvest: All regular season rules apply. There are no special restrictions or exceptions in this area. Carcass movement: There are no deer carcass movement restrictions for deer taken in the surveillance area. Deer feeding ban: Douglas and Pope Counties are a part of a deer-feeding ban that includes the counties of Carlton, Chisago, Isanti, Kanabec, Pine and Stearns. Attractants have not been banned in these counties. Deer feeding includes the placement or distribution of grains, fruits, vegetables, nuts, hay or other food that is capable of enticing deer. Deer feeding and attractant ban: Todd County is a part of the counties under a deer feeding and attractant ban. Deer attractants are considered natural or manufactured products capable of attracting or enticing deer, including salt, minerals, liquid food scents or any products that contain cervid urine, blood, gland oil, feces or other bodily fluid. 2020 sampling stations (city, location): Hunters can drop off heads of deer 1-year old and older any time of day at the following locations starting on Oct. 15 until goal is reached. ALEXANDRIA - Bear Paw Taxidermy; EAGLE BEND - Shirley’s Gas and Grocery; ELBOW LAKE - West Central Skulls; GLENWOOD - Cenex; KENSINGTON - Crossroads Convenience Store; LONG PRAIRIE - Long Prairie Fleet Supply; OSAKIS - Head of Lakes Resort, Lake Osakis South Public Access; SAUK CENTRE - Big Sauk Lake Highway 71 Public Access; STARBUCK - Cenex; VILLARD - Cenex Taxidermist and meat processor information for sampling: Hunters can drop off deer for sampling at the following taxidermists and meat processors throughout the season. Contact them ahead of time to schedule an appointment. ALEXANDRIA - Randy Schoeneck (507-327-7607); Matthew Nygaard (320-808-0913); Bear Paw Taxidermy (320-759-0703) BROOTEN - Jenniges Meat Processing (320-346-2414) DALTON - Natural Images Taxidermy (218-589-7502) ELBOW LAKE - West Central Skulls (218-770-8990)
POULTS from page 5 One report out of Pennsylvania looked at multiple studies of eastern wild turkeys, the subspecies found in Minnesota, that showed the proportion of poults that die in their first two weeks of life ranged from 56-73 percent. And that’s for the birds that even reach that stage. Nest predation is also a big factor in low production rates. “Any of the upland nesting birds have a high mortality rate,” Strege said. “That’s across the board. I’m not familiar with any current studies that have been conducted around here. Just because we’re not really considered a destination state for turkeys, but it’s tough for them. A 2-year-old turkey is getting to be an old turkey.” The National Wild Turkey Federation lists a number of factors that impact turkey populations, but one that trumps them all is habitat. Areas of quality habitat, meaning large swaths of early-successional growth and other thick cover, have higher nesting-success rates by keeping hens hidden from more predators. It also creates the best-possible diet for the poults, with plenty of insect life and overhead cover for them to seek that food out without being spotted by predators before they can fly into trees. The NWTF said studies have shown up to 90 percent mortality rates for poults without suitable brood habitat. Then there’s the weather to worry about. Like pheasants, cold, wet springs can be tough on young birds in states with colder climates like Minnesota. That’s where local turkeys likely caught a huge break.
“It was super dry this spring,” Strege said. “A lot of the storms that hit northern Minnesota and southern Minnesota completely missed our work area. Through all of June, we didn’t have any sort of rain events that should have affected production on pheasants or turkeys. With that said, our August roadside counts didn’t pick up the pheasants like I thought it would. But that could have just been hit or miss type of stuff. We had what should have been an excellent nesting season for upland birds this year.” Seven, eight years ago, it was nothing for me to hear gobbles from every ridge top during my spring hunting, even in areas of southwestern Minnesota that have not traditionally been thought of as the ideal turkey range in the state. I still have birds to chase in those areas, but numbers have certainly been down from that high mark over the last handful of years. Maybe we’re in for a boom in the population again after conditions seemingly aligned for a good hatch this past spring. “One hard winter, one bad nesting season can really drive population numbers up and down,” Strege said. “It’s not like your birds are living 5-6 years to withstand that, so you’ll see heavy swings in populations, that’s for sure. Seven, eight years ago, it wasn’t much to see a group of 40, 50 birds, especially in the really high-quality habitat of Pope County and areas like that. I haven’t been seeing that the last half dozen years or so. It would be nice to have a good reproductive year on it.”
This big flock of wild turkeys near Alexandria on Sept. 1 featured a mixed bag of toms, hens and poults that have been very visible throughout this whole summer after what seems to be an ideal nesting season for upland birds in the area during the spring of 2020. (Eric Morken / Echo Press) 001775514r1
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Lakes Area Outdoors | PAGE 17
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Hunting and fishing: noble activities National Hunting and Fishing Day brings together sportsmen and women to celebrate the rich tradition of hunting, target shooting and fishing with national, state, regional and local organizations hosting related events.
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Launched in 1971 by Congress, NHF Day has consistently recognized hunters and anglers for their leadership in wildlife and conservation. NHF Day is observed and celebrated the fourth Saturday in September every year. Before the advent of agriculture, human beings hunted and fished for their food. Even after agricultural practices had been established, hunting continued to occupy an important role in sourcing out food for survival and trade. Still today, hunting and fishing are important food sources for many people. Despite that reality, hunting and fishing are often denounced as cruel and unnecessary. These critics couldn’t be more ill-informed. The majority of hunters and anglers respect the rules surrounding the sport, including guidelines and laws governing the preservation of animal species. In fact, hunting and fishing helps to keep many wild animal populations under control. In addition, these activities offer an ideal opportunity for friends and family members to get together and spend quality time doing something active. And it should not be forgotten that the vast majority of hunters and fishermen eat what they catch, without wasting any. This year’s National Hunting and Fishing Day takes place on Saturday, Sept. 26. To discover more about these activities, which are an integral part of our history, visit www.nhfday.org.
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