Published in the Duluth News Tribune
September 1, 2009
A new “shining” law has gone into effect in Minnesota, aimed at reducing poaching opportunities and minimizing the disturbance of rural residents.
Deer shining is “freezing” deer in bright lights to temporarily immobilize them. Recreational shining is legal at times for viewing wildlife. However, previous statutes made it too easy for people to poach wildlife while posing as recreational shiners, according to Department of Natural Resources officials.
The DNR met with stakeholder groups to determine how to curb abuse.
“Their collective opinion is that deer shining is a statewide problem,” Capt. Rod Smith, a DNR regional enforcement manager, said. “It’s also one of the most common complaints to law enforcement officers.”
by John Myers
published in the Duluth News Tribune, August 19, 2009
Minnesota wildlife managers should keep deer numbers to a minimum in Northeastern Minnesota but probably can continue holding a limited moose hunting season for the near future, the state’s moose advisory committee reported Tuesday.
The 18-member committee, which for nine months has studied the state’s declining moose population, presented its findings to Minnesota Department of Natural resources officials Tuesday in Duluth.
The state’s Northwestern moose herd collapsed from thousands of animals to just a few dozen in the 1990s, and now mortality rates in Northeastern Minnesota’s moose herd have biologists worried the state may lose the big animal altogether. More moose are dying, and often for reasons not clear to biologists, than is considered safe to continue the population.
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