In this first edition, I would like
to just familiarize you with our neck of the woods and give you an idea of what
a Department of Natural Resources wildlife manager does in northeast Minnesota.
As summer transitions to fall and the hunting seasons, we
are working on a wide variety of wildlife management tasks and field activities
up here on the Canadian border, such as:
- Mowing 85 miles of hunter walking trails for ruffed grouse
hunting.
- Preparing a newly acquired 750
acre Wildlife Management Area (WMA) for hunting.
- Preparing nine other WMA’s for
fall hunting, trapping and wildlife observation.
- Posting the newly dedicated waterfowl refuge on Little
Rice Lake.
- Field checking 85 wild rice
lakes for ricing and hunting prospects.
- Field checking natural bear foods.
- Setting up 23 bear/deer/moose
registration stations scattered throughout our area.
- Working with three local
farmers with deer crop depredation.
- Handling dozens of nuisance bear complaints
(worst in 10 years).
- Conducting seven
furbearer scent post surveys to gauge annual productivity of fisher, marten,
fox, coyote, and wolf.
- Fielding hundreds
of phone calls from hunters, trappers and landowners regarding bear, deer,
moose, duck, wolf, and grouse seasons.
- Preparing for the new wolf trapping and
hunting season.
- Monitoring waterfowl use of Big and Little Rice Lakes.
- Spraying
noxious weeds.
- And reviewing annual timber cutting plans to make recommendations
to foresters to improve habitat for all big game species in the Tower Area.
The Canadian shield is bone dry again, as we speak.
We have gone from severe drought this spring,
to flood stage throughout
June and now
back to drought in September.
We have three
small wildfires burning in the Ely vicinity as field conditions are again bone
dry.
The Tower Area wildlife staff is looking forward to the fall. Collectively, my staff hunts bear,
grouse, deer (bow, gun and muzzleloader),
traps fox, coyote, marten, fisher, beaver and rats.
And we are all in the lottery for the
inaugural wolf season!
Until next time, good luck and shoot straight.
Tom Rusch is the Tower Area Wildlife Manager for the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources' Division of Fish and Wildlife headquartered at Tower, MN in northern St Louis County. His dedicated 4 person staff covers 3.1 million acres of State, County, National and private forest land in northern St. Louis and northern Lake Counties. He hunts, fishes, camps, traps, bikes, hikes, snowshoes and shed hunts year round in the swamps, forests, wetlands and lakes of the northwoods of Minnesota, Wisconsin and Ontario. He is a 24-year veteran of the Minnesota DNR and has worked in the wildlife management field for 30 years in Minnesota, Wisconsin and Missouri. He has lived on the Iron Range with his wife, Deb, since 1991. Tom can be reached by phone at 218-753-2580 ext. 240 or by email at tom.rusch@state.mn.us.
