BISMARCK, N.D. — North Dakotans who ate wild game killed with lead bullets appeared to have higher lead levels than those who ate little or no wild game, according to a study released Wednesday by the North Dakota Department of Health.

The study examined the lead levels in the [...]]]> From the Duluth News Tribune
published Nov. 6, 2008

BISMARCK, N.D. — North Dakotans who ate wild game killed with lead bullets appeared to have higher lead levels than those who ate little or no wild game, according to a study released Wednesday by the North Dakota Department of Health.

The study examined the lead levels in the blood of more than 700 state residents. The elevated lead levels were not considered dangerous, but North Dakota officials say pregnant women and children younger than 6 should avoid eating venison killed using lead bullets. Those groups are considered most at risk from lead poisoning, which can cause learning problems and convulsions, and in severe cases can lead to brain damage and death.

The study, conducted by the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the state health department, is the first to connect lead traces in game with higher lead levels in the blood of people who ate it, said Dr. Stephen Pickard, a CDC epidemiologist who works with the state health department.

A separate study by Minnesota’s Department of Natural Resources earlier found that fragments from lead bullets spread as far as 18 inches away from the wound. Minnesota’s firearms deer season opens Saturday in Northeastern Minnesota.

“Nobody was in trouble from the lead levels,” Pickard said. However, he said, “The effect was small but large enough to be a concern.”

Pickard said the study found “the more recent the consumption of wild game harvested with lead bullets, the higher the level of lead in the blood.”

Officials in North Dakota and other states have warned about eating venison killed with lead ammunition since the spring, when they were alerted by Dr. William Cornatzer of Bismarck, a physician and hunter. He conducted his own tests using a CT scanner and found lead in samples of donated deer meat.

The findings led North Dakota’s health department to order food pantries to throw out donated venison. Some groups that organize venison donations called such actions premature and unsupported by science.

“There continues to be no evidence of human health risk from using traditional ammunition,” said Lawrence Keane, a vice president and lawyer for the Newtown, Conn.-based National Shooting Sports Foundation, a trade association for the firearms and ammunition industry. “The report from the CDC appears to confirm we were right.”

North Dakota’s deer season begins Friday. Cornatzer said he has two deer tags, and plans to shoot the animals with solid copper bullets.

Health officials say the best way to avoid ingesting lead-tainted venison is to use bullets that don’t contain lead.

“It’s a no-brainer,” Cornatzer said. “Hunters with wives of childbearing age and those with children should be concerned about this.

“No one is trying to take anyone’s bullets away, but hunters need to educated that there are safer alternatives out there and they should use them,” Cornatzer said.

Terry Steinwand, director of North Dakota’s Game and Fish Department, said 21 employees from his agency participated in the CDC study. Each had eaten game shot with lead bullets and the study found that each had low lead levels in their blood, he said.

Steinwand said he would likely continue to use lead bullets when hunting.

“Any information is good information,” Steinwand said. “(But) it’s not going to change my habits one bit, not at this stage in my life.”

Yesterday I sat in my office, also serving as my hunting gadget storage room, getting all my duck decoys ready by attaching new anchor lines to each of them. Each time I finished a decoy I set it on the floor in a neat line, drake, hen, drake, hen… From the TV [...]]]> © By Othmar Vohringer

Yesterday I sat in my office, also serving as my hunting gadget storage room, getting all my duck decoys ready by attaching new anchor lines to each of them. Each time I finished a decoy I set it on the floor in a neat line, drake, hen, drake, hen… From the TV upstairs my ears caught the faint announcement form the Canadian Comedy Channel, “are you ready to rumble?”

Looking at my duck decoys all lined up on the floor I thought to myself. “Yes indeed my ducks are all lined up and I am ready to rumble – in the duck marsh that is.” For weeks I am lining my ducks up to get ready for waterfowl season.

It started weeks ago with daily visits to the shooting range to get my shotgun patterned. I am very particular with shooting accuracy. I want the best performance possible be that with bows, rifles, muzlleloader or rifle. To get the best out of every weapon I have to spend considerable time at the range. “This will do” has never been an option for me.

I went through several boxes of various brands, shell and shot sizes, trying out different choke tubes until finally I arrived at a consistent pellet pattern. It’s a lot of work but the end result is worth that work. My trusty Mossberg performs a consistent pattern with Federal Ultra Shok 3” loaded with # 3 steel pellets pushed through an improved choke. Fortunately, the heavier BB shot, which I prefer for geese, of the same brand and shell size performs equally well with the same choke. I do not have to waste time exchanging choke tubes in the marsh when ducks and geese fly in together. All I have to do is load quickly a shell with the proper size pellets.

With the gun performing at its best it was time to scout a few good spots to ambush waterfowl. About a ten-minute drive from our house I found several perfect spots. All the spots are accessible by boat only, which is a good thing. Not many hunters here will go out of their comfort zone for waterfowl hunting. It’s just not that popular around here. One of the places I found receives frequent visits from bears, and judging from the prints in the soft shore sand they are huge. It’s a secluded place and that makes it attractive to ducks. When I go there I might take the rifle along too just in case a bear shows up when I am there too.

The other spot is located in a huge reed field. I cut a channel into it that will accommodate my boat perfectly and stay hidden from any approaching duck’s view. All in all I am pretty confident with the locations I have chosen. The gun shooting well and promising stand locations found I had half of my ducks lined up. I could turn my attention to duck and geese calling practice. I am a great believer in game calling because it works when all the conditions are right and the hunter masters the proper sounds and sequences.

The only downside is, that if you hunt so many different game species you need to practice a lot of different calls. There is just no way that I can consistently practice deer, turkey, elk and waterfowl calls on a regular schedule. The good news is that ones you learned the calls its like riding a bicycle. You never will forget, but you get rusty if you don’t do it for a few month. So, for the past two days I am brushing up on my waterfowl language.

The last job remaining to do was to attach anchors to my brand new set of Flambeau duck decoys. Everything is ready to go or you could say, my ducks are all lined up and I am ready to rumble.

Tags: Waterfowl Hunting, Duck Hunting, Goose Hunt, Duck Calls, Mossberg Shotguns, Federal Ultra Shok
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The Rev. Paul Larson, an ardent duck hunter from Deer River, remembers the good old days of bluebill hunting.

“It’s nothing like it used to be,” Larson said this past week with Minnesota’s duck season just around the corner. “I used to shoot — oh, from about Oct. 20 [...]]]> From the Duluth News Tribune
published Sept. 28, 2008

The Rev. Paul Larson, an ardent duck hunter from Deer River, remembers the good old days of bluebill hunting.

“It’s nothing like it used to be,” Larson said this past week with Minnesota’s duck season just around the corner. “I used to shoot — oh, from about Oct. 20 to the middle of November — I’d get bluebills all the time. Now, if I get two a year, I’m lucky.”

Minnesota’s 2008 waterfowl season opens Saturday, and with it comes new regulations on scaup, or bluebills. The scaup limit will be one daily except from Oct. 25 to Nov. 13, when two may be taken. The Minnesota Department of Natural Resources protested to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, which sets season frameworks, hoping to get a two-scaup limit for the entire season. The limit has been two in recent years. But the Fish and Wildlife Service didn’t change its framework.

Larson said the new scaup limit is reasonable.

“I can live with it,” he said.

So can Gene Olson, 54, an avid duck hunter from Coleraine.

“I’m in favor of it, if it helps us get our bluebills back,” Olson said. “The way duck hunting is going nowadays, we’re going to have to do something to get duck hunting back. I’m afraid before my time is up, they’re going to take duck hunting away.”

One problem with the restrictive scaup limit is that most hunters have difficulty distinguishing scaup from ring-necked ducks in flight. The ringneck is popular among hunters and a significant part of the annual bag in northern Minnesota. Ring-necked duck hunters may inadvertently take too many scaup, Olson said.

“I’m afraid we’re going to find a lot of ducks [discarded] in the weeds. That part of it’s going to be bad,” he said.

Larson, who has been out harvesting wild rice lately, says the population of ring-necked ducks, many of which breed in Minnesota, appears good.

“I’ve been ricing every year for 30 years, and this year I saw the biggest flocks I’ve seen in a long time,” Larson said. “Ringbills [ring-necked ducks] and also lots of teal.”

The question is whether the teal will stick around.

“If we have lots of teal on the opener, it seems to make or break the opener,” said Steve Cordts, DNR waterfowl specialist in Bemidji. “We’ll hope the teal here will stay.”

The scaup population has been declining across the continent, and biologists aren’t sure why. Some say the habitat along migration routes may be a limiting factor, Dennis Simon, chief of the DNR’s wildlife management section, has said.

Larson remembers the good old days, when thousands of bluebills rafted on Lake Winnibigoshish and on Bowstring Lake, both north of Deer River, and Cass Lake to the west.

“I purposely hunted bluebills,” Larson said. “That’s what I did. I’d rather hunt bluebills because of the excitement they’d provide. I enjoy watching them fly. I enjoy watching them twist.”

Olson, too, loves the late-season hunting of diver ducks despite dwindling numbers of bluebills.

“I would go duck hunting if they knocked the limit down to one,” Olson said. “I go right to the end of the season. If I have to find a trout lake with deep water, I do it.”

MADISON (AP) — Wisconsin wildlife experts say ducks are healthy and abundant heading into the autumn hunt.

Department of Natural Resources migratory bird ecologist Kent Van Horn says the numbers are so plentiful that hunters can enjoy the maximum 60-day season allowed by federal regulations.

The duck hunt in the northern [...]]]> From the Daily Telegram
published Sept. 22, 2008

MADISON (AP) — Wisconsin wildlife experts say ducks are healthy and abundant heading into the autumn hunt.

Department of Natural Resources migratory bird ecologist Kent Van Horn says the numbers are so plentiful that hunters can enjoy the maximum 60-day season allowed by federal regulations.

The duck hunt in the northern zone opens next Saturday and continues through Nov. 25.

In the southern zone, there’s a split season, with the first one opening Oct. 4 and running through Oct. 12. The season reopens again Oct. 18 and runs through Dec. 7.

Van Horn says the four most abundant ducks are mallards, wood ducks, green-winged teal and blue-winged teal. He says the breeding and brood rearing habitat in the state was good this year.

If you’ve never hunted ducks in a snowfall, let me tell you that it is a remarkable thing. The ducks appear as if out of nowhere. How they even know that there is water down below when the air is as thick as one of those shaken snow [...]]]> From the Duluth News Tribune
published Sept. 21, 2008

If you’ve never hunted ducks in a snowfall, let me tell you that it is a remarkable thing. The ducks appear as if out of nowhere. How they even know that there is water down below when the air is as thick as one of those shaken snow globes I’ll never know. But down they drop, brazen-chested, feet dangling and wings cupped, suddenly appearing before startled hunters who rise cold and stiff, shotgun barks muffled by the wet air. And so it was this day, both blinds seeing great action, six men relishing the experience, and one very happy retriever.

That happy retriever was my female black Labrador, Gypsy. Gypsy’s most remarkable gift was that of her sense of smell, a sense no other dog I’ve owned or hunted over has ever equaled. And during this snowfall in North Dakota, she had ample chance to demonstrate her gift, for Gypsy was covering for two blinds a hundred yards or more apart on a long, deep prairie pothole. The mallards and pintails poured in through the snow, some meeting death, others escaping to the south. Gypsy and I were kept busy retrieving everyone’s ducks, and she fetched more birds that day than many a dog does in a full season.

Once, after cleaning up some downed birds for my friends in the south blind, the dog and I returned to our station in the other, only to learn that guys there had been busy, too, and several ducks dotted the water. Gypsy made short work of them, and the pile in the snowy blind grew ever larger.

Jeff Nelson, my wise, elder duck hunting friend, took one look at the most recently retrieved birds and told me that one was still missing. I asked how he knew.

“Because I know I knocked down a fine drake pintail, and there are none in the pile,” he replied. “If it was a cripple, I’d guess it swam off into that stand of cattails on the other shore.”

Jeff had been hunting ducks longer than I’d been alive, so I never doubted his word. Wondering if I’d ever again get the chance to pull the trigger myself, I climbed from the blind. From the water’s edge, I gave Gypsy a line, and sent her across the water and into the cattails. Once she hit the far shore, she sped into the dense cover but almost immediately popped back out. That was quick, I thought, and was waiting for her to begin her return. Instead, she stood on the water’s edge, staring at me. Her mouth was empty.

I motioned her back into the cattails, and again she entered, but she did not hunt dead. Almost immediately, she emerged birdless, and stared back in my direction.

One of the things I’ve regretted in my life is growing angry with a dog when it really didn’t deserve my wrath. But I was young and hot with the thought she was disobeying me in front of all my friends. I fired some choice curse words across the water as I grew angry at her refusal to scour those cattails. She just stared back over the water. Finally, I decided that it was time to walk around the edge of the pothole and give her “what for.” We had had several of those kinds of discussions over the years …

Just as I was about to hitch up my waders and march over to the dog, a remarkable thing happened. I noted that not only was she ignoring me, she was staring out into the pothole, her head slightly up, her big nose working the breeze. Without a command from me, she eased into the slushy pothole, and swam out to the middle, where she paused, treading water.

She swam in place, snorting, the sound of it coming to us even through the snow-muffled air. Then she paused, ears perked up, staring down at the water’s surface.

Now, if you recall, we’d shot a bunch of ducks in this slough, and there were feathers floating everywhere out there. I guessed that she was merely smelling the traces of some previous retrieve, and was about to call her back and scold her into scouring those cattails, when she disappeared beneath the water.

I have since owned a lab (Rascal) that swam underwater as well as an otter, but this was not something Gypsy had ever done. Yet here she was (or wasn’t, for she was nowhere to be seen) diving into a pothole growing ever thick with fallen snow. Everyone in both blinds looked at me, as if to ask the same question I was asking myself — what the hell does she think she’s doing?

Some anxious seconds went by, and just as I began to grow worried that she had somehow gotten mired in the thickening water, she surfaced, her back to us. Seventy yards away. And then she got her bearings, turned toward my whistle, and when she did, we saw she had a limp pintail drake in her mouth.

There have been several times in my life when I’ve been very proud (and some times when I’ve been red faced, too, but that’s for another time), but I don’t know if there was a much prouder moment than that. I admired her for her skill, and her heart, and even for the fact that she was smart enough to ignore me and risk a possible whooping in order to get that duck.

There was seemingly no way, with all the duck feathers and duck oil floating in that slushy pothole, that she should have been able to distinguish the scent of a bird deep underwater from the scent floating on top. Yet she had, had found the exact spot where that pintail drake had made his last dive, had the nose and the smarts to go under and yank him from his weedy, watery grave.

As she climbed the bank and delivered the duck to me, the men in both blinds stood up and applauded. In their lives, they had all seen many a fine retrieve. But to a man, all said they had never seen anything quite like this one.

That night, Gypsy was the queen of the duck camp.

EDITOR’S NOTE: Duluth outdoor author and photographer Michael Furtman wrote this essay about Gypsy, his first black Labrador retriever. Gypsy is long since gone, but her legend lives on.

Wisconsin’s waterfowl season opens Saturday and the state’s hunters will have the maximum 60-day season allowed by federal regulations.

“Wisconsin waterfowlers should have a good hunting season,” said Kent Van Horn, migratory game bird ecologist for the state Department of Natural Resources, in a prepared statement. “Overall, populations of [...]]]> From the Duluth News Tribune
published Sept. 21, 2008

Wisconsin’s waterfowl season opens Saturday and the state’s hunters will have the maximum 60-day season allowed by federal regulations.

“Wisconsin waterfowlers should have a good hunting season,” said Kent Van Horn, migratory game bird ecologist for the state Department of Natural Resources, in a prepared statement. “Overall, populations of waterfowl game species are healthy and abundant.”

The duck hunt in the northern zone opens at 9 a.m. Saturday and continues through Nov. 25.

The two main changes this year are a closed season for canvasback ducks and dual framework for scaup, also called bluebill, with a daily bag limit of one scaup for 40 days and two scaup for 20 days, according to a Wisconsin DNR news release. In the northern zone, the daily bag limit is two scaup from Oct. 18 through Nov. 6.

Other than on opening days, the hunt begins a half hour before sunrise.

The daily bag limit for the full 60 days is six ducks, not to include more than four mallards, of which only one may be a hen; three wood ducks; one black duck; two redheads; one scaup for 40 days and two for 20 days as noted above; and one pintail.

Many of the ducks harvested in Wisconsin come from birds that breed in the state’s wetlands, according to the news release. The four most abundant ducks in Wisconsin’s fall hunting harvest are mallards, wood ducks, green-winged teal and blue-winged teal.

Licenses and stamps required include a Wisconsin small game license, a Wisconsin waterfowl stamp and a federal migratory bird stamp. The $15 federal stamp can be purchased at a post office.

Bass League winners announced

The Duluth Area Bass League held its 10th summer tournament event on Sept. 4 at Island Lake.

First place went to the Hawg Hunters, Al Ansell and Doug Pirila, with a five-fish limit weighing 17.8 pounds. Second went to the River Rats, Roger Olson and Steve Gutz, with five fish weighing 8.75 pounds. Third went to Hawghammer, Mike Lebsack and Jacob Lebsack, with three fish weighing 6.45 pounds.

Youth gundeer hunt set

The seventh annual Wisconsin Youth Gun Deer Hunt will be Oct. 11-12, according to a Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources news release.

Youth hunters ages 12 to 15 who have successfully completed a hunter education program and possess a gun deer hunting license may participate in the hunt. Youths must be accompanied by an adult 18 years of age or older. Adult mentors may not hunt with firearms and cannot accompany more than two youth hunters. Qualified hunters may harvest one buck deer using a Gun Buck Deer Carcass Tag and additional antlerless deer with the appropriate carcass tag.

Minnesota Department of Natural Resources conservation officer reports for Tuesday, Sept. 16

District 5 – Eveleth area

CO Darrin Kittelson (International Falls) spent time on wetland issues within the station. Checked grouse hunters and archery deer hunters, very little activity with the rainy weather. Bear hunting activity starting to slow [...]]]> From the Duluth News Tribune
published Sept. 16, 2008

Minnesota Department of Natural Resources conservation officer reports for Tuesday, Sept. 16

District 5 – Eveleth area

CO Darrin Kittelson (International Falls) spent time on wetland issues within the station. Checked grouse hunters and archery deer hunters, very little activity with the rainy weather. Bear hunting activity starting to slow a bit. Handled an injured eagle complaint, the eagle was captured and later sent on a plane to Raptor Center at the University of Minnesota.

CO Lloyd Steen (Ray/Kabetogama) reports checking grouse hunters on the opener. Very few hunters seen in the drizzling rain and fewer grouse. Violations for juvenile hunters under 14 years of age, unaccompanied by adults, juveniles illegally operating ATVs, juveniles on ATVs without helmets, juveniles without ATV safety certificates, and adults allowing illegal operation of ATVs by juveniles were addressed. Also checked experimental regulation lakes of Kabetogama and Namakan where citations for illegal length walleyes, transporting filleted walleyes on the water, and reducing fish to more than two fillets were handled. Also investigated camper trailers left on state land for more than several weeks unattended with litter.

C0 Troy Fondie (Orr) reports assisting Ely conservation officer with work project monitoring boating and angling activities and working on various equipment up keep issues.

CO Brad Schultz (Cook) reports following up on a fire from last week, dealing with a problem bear and mink, requests for bear meat, bear hunting questions, deer hunting questions, grouse hunting questions, internal DNR questions, and checking for hunting activity.

CO Don Bozovsky (Hibbing) finished field training with COC Vollbrecht. Officers worked early goose hunters, the opening of the small game seasons, ATV’s, and bear hunting activity. An illegal fire investigation was completed with a citation issued, along with enforcement action for littering for another individual in the case. Enforcement action was taken on no federal duck stamp, no state duck stamp, operate a motor vehicle on a state trail, fail to register bear bait station, careless or negligent fires, and fail to display ATV registration.

CO Matt Frericks (Virginia) spent time checking bear hunters and their baits. Some unmarked bait stations are being watched. Unfortunately, while looking for bear baits, CO Frericks found some active deer baiting. CO Frericks located a fisher set from last season. The trap had the remnants of a large fisher in it. The conibear trap still had the trap tag on it and an investigation is underway for a trap tending violation.

CO Mark Fredin (Aurora) checked fishing activities on area lakes and found fishing to be slow, the fall bite hasn’t started yet. Bear hunters are having some success and report bait stations are just starting to get hit. Officer Fredin also gave a law presentation for the Moose Orientation in Ely, many questions were answered, good luck to all of them.

District 6 – Two Harbors area

CO Brandon McGaw (Babbitt) spent time in the woods and on the water. The fish bite has picked up a little since temperatures are dropping. Bear hunters are having mixed results and most have called it a season. Time was also spent in Ely giving a moose orientation class to some of this falls moose hunters. Grouse hunters hit the woods on Saturday and had trouble seeing birds due to the thick foliage.

CO Dan Thomasen (Two Harbors) kept an eye on bear hunting activity throughout the week. Opening of deer archery and small game seasons were greeted with some soggy weather, which dampened the outing for many. Angling pressure has slowed some after Labor Day, however many are still catching fish both on Lake Superior and inland. Officer Thomasen would like to remind people to give extra consideration to wearing PFD’s as the weather and waters become colder. It could save your life.

CO Tom Wahlstrom (Tofte) worked anglers on Lake Superior. People need to review their salmon and trout identification before heading on the water. Stealhead are to be immediately released. Officer Wahlstrom checked bear hunters and their baits; overall compliance was good. A few grouse were bagged during the small game opener. The hunters enjoyed the changing leaves but found it frustrating to see the birds.

CO Darin Fagerman (Grand Marais) reports that a bear guide stopped him on the road and showed him some digital pictures of garbage and furniture dumped onto Forest Service land. The CO recognized a recliner that he had seen at another bear camp a few days before. The CO made some phone calls and fingers were pointed in the direction of a suspect and the case was turned over to the U.S. Forest Service Law Enforcement Officer. A citation was issued and the mess was cleaned up. The CO issued more citations this week for garbage in bear baits and for baiting with mammal bones. The majority of bear hunters do things right.

District 7 — Grand Rapids area

CO Thomas Sutherland (Grand Rapids) and COC Paurus spent the week on fishing and small game enforcement. They completed a dumping investigation where a large amount of garbage and vehicle parts were illegally left on public land. The officers also investigated wanton waste of some Canada geese.

CO Randy Patten (Northome) worked bear hunting activity, checked anglers, finished a required defensive driving training session, attended a trails meeting, and issued a cease and desist for a potential wetland violation.

CO Jeff Koehn (Grand Rapids – OHV Specialist) presented an enforcement report to the Itasca County Trails Task Force. CO Koehn helped train COC Vollbrecht in OHV enforcement efforts. They patrolled by ATV along trails and in known ATV use areas. Numerous deer stands were located and checked prior to the archery deer hunting opener. CO Koehn and COC Vollbrecht checked campgrounds common to ATV users. Enforcement activity for the week included, operate ATV with youth passenger no helmet, fail to display ATV registration, operate ATV without headlights, allow illegal juvenile operation of an ATV.

CO Gary Lefebvre (Pengilly) worked fishermen, watercraft, ATV’s, small game and archery deer hunters. He also checked bear hunters and handled several complaints during the week.

District 8 — Cloquet area

CO Randy Hanzal (Brookston) despite the rainy weather lots of sportsmen were contacted this weekend for the opener of small game and archery seasons. A district meeting was attended where current law updates and other issues were discussed. Bear hunters are reporting more activity at bait stations. A few ATV violations involving juveniles were encountered during the week. An informational visit was made to a local Game Farm and some of its neighbors.

CO Scott Staples (Carlton) attended a district meeting with other conservation officers and also spent time working on wetland cases in the area. One citation was issued to a person for failing to comply with a Wetland Conservation Act Restoration Order. Other time was spent checking small game and bear hunters in the area. Success rates are slow in the area. One hunter harassment case was worked and is still under investigation. CO Staples and CO Humphrey assisted with and taught the law portion of a trapper’s education class in Cromwell.

CO Jeff Humphrey (Kettle River) worked small game and archery deer opener and investigated complaints of trespass and deer shining. Officer Humphrey attended a district enforcement meeting and assisted at a Trapper Education class in Cromwell. Inclement weather put a damper on opening weekend activities in the area.

CO Kipp Duncan (Duluth) spent time working small game opener over the weekend. Several people were out chasing grouse, but the weather didn’t cooperate for most of opening weekend. Contact was also made with several archery deer hunters. All were excited about being in the woods again for another year. Some time was also spent checking goose hunting and fishing enforcement. Several calls have been taken during the week, with some requiring time and follow-up with possible enforcement action needed when completed.

CO Sarah Sindelir (Duluth) continued to investigate a dock complaint this past week. She also attended a district meeting in Cloquet. She spent time working early goose, bow, small game, and bear hunting activity. Enforcement action was taken for no license in possession.

Duluth Marine Unit

CO Troy Ter Meer (Marine Unit) attended a district meeting, worked on reports and paperwork from some past cases, and performed equipment maintenance. He checked boaters and anglers and assisted in area stations with early goose, small game, bear and archery deer hunters. Enforcement action was taken for a bear hunter who did not have his license in possession and investigation is ongoing into another possible violation.

CO Matt Miller (Marine Unit) checked anglers near Silver Bay and Tofte. The salmon and lake trout are cooperating with anglers much better now. Equipment maintenance issues were handled, and work areas were scouted for the beginning of hunting season. Enforcement action was taken for angling, boating, and controlled substance violations.

C.O. Keith Olson (Marine Unit) checked muskie anglers on the St. Louis River. One fish of +50″ was seen. Moved the Lake Superior boat for repairs. Attended a District 8 meeting. Calls of the upcoming deer season are on the increase. Small game hunters and ATV’s were checked over the wet and rainy weekend.

Q Goose season already is under way in North Dakota, and the regular waterfowl seasons are right around the corner. What’s the outlook for waterfowl in the Dakotas and other parts of the Prairie Pothole Region this fall?

A Scott Stephens: I would say that, across North Dakota and probably [...]]]> From Forum Communications Co.
published Sept. 7, 2008

Q Goose season already is under way in North Dakota, and the regular waterfowl seasons are right around the corner. What’s the outlook for waterfowl in the Dakotas and other parts of the Prairie Pothole Region this fall?

A Scott Stephens: I would say that, across North Dakota and probably South Dakota as well, we have drier conditions than we saw last year. I know I was out a couple of weeks ago looking at some of the areas where I spent time last year, and several of the wetlands that I had hunted were dry, just bone dry. That’s something I think people will experience as they go afield. And then, with that, comes the fact that we had fewer birds breed here this spring and summer, and production was probably down a bit compared to years past with those drier conditions.

Q Sodsaver – a provision to discourage producers from plowing up marginal land – was watered down greatly in the new farm bill, and it’s now up to governors whether to participate. Where are things at right now, and have the states weighed in on what they’re going to be doing?

A Scott Stephens: The states have not, and we’ve worked with a coalition of conservation partners to try and get going on meetings with folks like the governors to lay out the case for why this is important, but we have not had many of those yet. And really, the time frame will be driven by the risk management agencies which deal with crop insurance, and we have not heard from them when they’ll be asking the governors, “Are you in or are you out?” So we continue to track that and try to make progress on getting with folks and visiting with them and talking about it, but not much has happened to date.

Q What impact does a weakened Sodsaver potentially have on waterfowl and other wildlife habitat?

A Scott Stephens: We think the impacts could be pretty large. With commodity prices the way they are, there’s a lot of pressure to put land in production that probably isn’t the most productive land out there. I think some folks are thinking, “Well, even if just for a year or two I can get a crop, that might make it worth it.”

The other fact that comes into play is that, in this new farm bill, we got funding for permanent disaster, which just takes a little more of the risk out of the whole equation because now, instead of folks having to go to Washington and lobby for disaster money, it’s sitting there at the piggy bank. Our fear is that might further encourage conversion of some of the marginal lands. We understand the need for the disaster relief on high-quality agriculture land, but we really sought Sodsaver as sort of a backstop to make sure we didn’t have some of the abuses that we’ve seen in the past.

And it didn’t happen, so we’re a little scared to see what’s going to transpire.

Q Hundreds of thousands of acres of Conservation Reserve Program land also will be disappearing from the landscape over the next few years.

A Scott Stephens: It seems almost a foregone conclusion that the CRP acres that expire will go back into production, and it’s pretty clear that most of those acres were not the most productive agricultural land, either. So I think what we’ll realize as we put some of those areas back into production is they end up costing a lot of taxpayer money, the disaster payments and crop insurance, those sorts of things, that we had forgotten about when they were out of production.

Q From DU’s perspective, are there things that can be done to minimize this loss?

A Scott Stephens: Yeah, I think so. We’ve already started having conversations with the conservation groups we work with on the policy front to talk about maybe we need to think about having CRP or programs like that involved to where they’re more working-lands kind of programs.

And we recognize that there definitely are benefits to wildlife having that idled cover, but just sort of in the economic environment we have out there, I think we recognize these programs have to work for producers, and if we want to maintain the millions of acres we think have really provided the benefits to wildlife, then we may have to allow more use like grazing and haying on these acres.

We were disappointed with things like the lawsuit that came out recently against allowing some of those uses on CRP. We thought that that was sort of bad timing, and if folks need to use those acres to stay in grass-based ag, then that probably makes sense.

Q I understand there’s been a little confusion, too, among some producer groups and maybe landowners out there as far as who had brought on this lawsuit, and I’ve heard some concerns about it affecting hunter access this fall.

A Scott Stephens: I think almost every hunter that knocks on a door this fall will probably hear about the lawsuit. It was filed by the National Wildlife Federation because they felt some procedural things were not followed (by the U.S. Department of Agriculture) in the way the releases were done. But when we sort of looked at the drought conditions across these areas and the economic environment, our take was, “Well, let the producers use these acres if that makes a difference in how they view re-enrolling in CRP and just maintaining grass in general.”

The last thing we want to see is guys selling off cows and wholesale conversion of not only the CRP acres, but native grassland and hayland, too. We understand that producers have to make a living out there. If allowing more use on those acres is what it takes for them to do that and keep the expansive nature of the program, then we were in support of that.

Q In the context of less CRP and a watered-down Sodsaver provision, are the good old days of waterfowl hunting at risk right now?

A Scott Stephens: I think so. The challenges you pointed out are big ones that we face. The good news in this whole equation is we continue to have demand from producers for perpetual easements on grasslands and wetlands. Right now, we have across the two Dakotas, 650 landowners that are offering up almost 300,000 acres for perpetual protection, and we need about $100 million to get that work done. So, that’s the silver lining – we still have a lot of the folks who control the most critical wildlife habitat out there that are interested in working with conservation groups to protect it. That’s really what we’re focused on from a conservation standpoint these days.

Jeff Essler: When we talk about the good old days, some people still refer to now as the good old days with the burgeoning Canada goose population and the wildly exponential growing snow goose population. Well, those birds are just responding to some things that we have done as humans.

When I first started hunting waterfowl, there were ducks all over the place. I would call these tornadoes or funnels of mallards, and everywhere I looked, if you wanted to go put some decoys in a field, literally, it was just a matter of going a couple more miles and seeing several thousand more mallards funneling down into another field.

I don’t see that anymore. I’m lucky if I see one funnel each year now of mallards pouring into a field, and that concerns me because we know that there are duck populations that are in trouble. I’m not saying the mallards are way off base in the waterfowl management plan numbers, but it’s changed.

Q With high Canada goose and snow goose numbers, is there a danger of relegating these birds to a trash or nuisance status?

A Jeff Essler: It is possible just by the way people talk about them. I jokingly call (snow geese) sky carp. I actually had a license plate one time that had SKY CARP on it, but they are my most revered waterfowl of all, and so I think that there are some negative issues just because they’re so abundant. It’s no different than mud hens that we call our coots and things like that.

It does concern me because I do witness that there is some waste of this wonderful bird, especially in the springtime, it seems, when I’m driving around and I’ll see four-five snow geese just left in a ditch somewhere. Or I’ll be driving down I-94, and I’ll see that people just throw them in the ditch and that concerns me very much. Because what we have is not only illegal, but what you’re referring to is a real negative response to hunters and sportsmen when they do something like this. I don’t like to see that at all. If you have the sense to go out hunting, I expect you to use that resource and consume those birds that you shoot, and so the Canada goose numbers and things like that, we have to keep those numbers in check, as it could develop into a serious management issue. Especially in the Drift Prairie, where the agricultural fields are right next to the wetlands. And Canada geese don’t need grasslands like ducks. They just need a place where they can make a nest and it can be right on the shoreline edge or goose tubs that were so popular 25 years ago. They’re very prolific and they’re not prone to predation because they’re big enough to defend themselves from the larger predators, too.

Q The nationwide trend points to fewer hunters, and that’s even more true with waterfowl hunting. What is DU doing to stem this tide and encourage young people to participate? I know you hosted a pretty big event in Bismarck last weekend.

A Scott Stephens: That’s probably the thing that’s freshest in my mind. We, in cooperation with the North Dakota Game and Fish Department, they offered grants this year to put on youth hunting events. And we took advantage of that and put on a Youth Waterfowl Hunting Clinic on Saturday and we had 40 kids attend the event.

When we had a show of hands at the beginning, about half of those had never hunted ducks or geese before. So they were really engaged. We got rave reviews from the kids and the parents. I think it’s things like that that will be key in the future. We would look to do more of those things and continue to do that every year, but there’s clearly a lot of competition for kids’ time out there with sports and all the activities that are available. And if they don’t have somebody to mentor them along or expose them to these outdoor activities, it’s a lot easier to go to soccer practice than to figure out how to go duck hunting, so I think it’s events like that that are really going to be key in engaging and recruiting that next generation of hunters and conservationists.

Q DU and the Energy and Environment Research Center at UND recently announced a carbon credits program. How did DU become involved in this program, and what’s the potential benefit to waterfowl?

A Scott Stephens: DU got involved in the program because we’ve been focused on doing grasslands conservation for some time now. And with increased interest on climate change, global warming and the impacts that carbon and other gases play in that, there was the realization that these grasslands we’ve been focused on for a long time from a waterfowl and wildlife perspective really play a big role in sequestering carbon and taking it out of the air and storing it in the ground.

We were engaged with the folks at EERC to do some research actually to look at how much carbon has been stored in CRP tracts of various ages and then also in the native grasslands we had out there forever, and then make a comparison to cropland that’s cultivated on an annual basis.

The way things have worked out is there’s a lot of interest from companies and just individual citizens to offset their carbon footprint and look for ways to be green, and one of those ways is to purchase these carbon credits.

We have been working with producers so when they sign the easement that protects the grassland, they have an opportunity at the same time to sell the carbon on it. Producers are able to get a payment of from $25 to $30 per acre on the carbon they’re storing in that land, in addition to the easement payment. And what we’ve seen is, that additional payment in a lot of cases makes enough difference to producers they may say, “Well, with that addition, I am interested in doing this. Before, it didn’t quite pencil out for me, but with the carbon on top of the standard easement payment, it does make more sense for me.” So we’ve been working with folks on getting those carbon rights on their land and bundling those together.

We have a relationship with folks who have experience with marketing carbon credits and selling them on the market, and we’re just about to have the first sale of those credits. It’s a really neat story because it shows the upside of society really valuing these ecological goods and services that areas like the grasslands provide, which we haven’t been able to take advantage of and put a monetary value on before.

Q A look at the calendar shows nearly 20 banquets coming up in North Dakota over the next few weeks, including the Grand Forks banquet Sept. 9. How important are these banquets and other grassroots efforts to DU’s mission?

A Jeff Essler: They are critically important to the mission of Ducks Unlimited. The money that is raised from these grassroots events is very efficiently spent, as well. But not only that, the dollars that are raised, we’re able to have that multiplying factor in. So for a lot of projects, you’re going to be able to leverage that dollar that is raised at the event, three, six or seven times. And so it’s very important, as you can see the sheer value of dollars that is raised where we can leverage those other partners and do some real serious conservation to this critical area.

Scott Stephens: The one other thing I might add is the fact that, because North Dakota is such a high conservation priority, the dollars that are raised at the grassroots banquets here in North Dakota are very significant. But we also import money from the banquets from many other states that go to work here on the ground. So, for folks attending the banquets in North Dakota, boy, they are really getting their money’s worth, because not only is it their dollar that’s going to work within their state, it’s folks from all over the country who are putting dollars to work in their state so they get to see the fruits of those labors right here at home.

Jeff Essler: When you look at the number of dollars that North Dakota has here and the number of dollars DU spends right here in North Dakota, the whole Great Plains budget is over $20 million per year, and that covers eight states. More than $4 million is spent in North Dakota, so we get a pretty good return on our investment here. For the half a million dollars that our volunteers raised at a grassroots level, we get millions back to do our conservation work here.

Q What attracted you to waterfowl hunting, and what keeps you coming back?

A Jeff Essler: I grew up in northwest North Dakota along the Des Lacs National Wildlife Refuge, so it was kind of my own little learning station for waterfowl biology. The countless hours I spent along the lake-road trails up and down sites north and south of Kenmare really got me fired up about waterfowl. That’s what planted the seed of waterfowl that’s a part of my inner core.

I remember just growing up, we were able to hunt at a very young age. I had several other brothers, and we’d just walk out of town with our shotguns, and right near the airport on the east side of town, there’d be a little honey hole where mallards would just come piling in. We’d be walking back with our trusty old (Remington) .870s and mallards flung over our back and that’s how we did it – when we were even 12-13 years old.

Nowadays, I don’t think that police officer would probably see it very entertaining that there’s a group of young boys walking through town with shotguns and ammo.

Scott Stephens: I grew up in southwest Iowa and came to waterfowl hunting later in my life. I was in college, actually, and had always been a big bow hunter for deer. I had a friend who said, “It’s going to rain tomorrow, you should come with me and go to the duck blind.”

So I did, and I can still in my mind’s eye see that first flock of mallards coming out of the sleet and snow to work to the decoys. I was just mesmerized with questions about where do these birds come from? And what were they doing in this spot? And where were they going? And I quickly discovered they do all kinds of interesting things at other times of the year, too, but from that one moment, I was hooked, it was over.

I was trying to learn everything I could about ducks and geese and getting out in the fall and getting in the right spot and laying under a big flock of mallards that’s coming into a spot. Still, it’s hard to describe and just is a real passion that I look forward to all year long.

Q Any closing thoughts?

A Jeff Essler: What I have noticed in the young people, especially in the Red River Valley in regards to Canada goose hunting, is that they hunt them and hunt them hard. They get things done and harvest a ton of them. The Canada geese have provided an opportunity for waterfowlers to cut their teeth on hunting ducks and geese. I feel, if not for the reintroduction of Canada geese to North Dakota, we would have way less waterfowlers today and certainly less hope for future conservationists.

While some feel the Canada geese are becoming a nuisance, I feel they have been very helpful in keeping waterfowlers in the field as the duck numbers and habitat disappears.

While I don’t like to see the tradeoff, there is a silver lining to the majestic big birds. The young hunters of the UND and North Dakota State University chapters of DU hunt Canada geese hard, but they did not see what I saw in numbers of ducks before prairie Canada converted native prairie to cropland. I wished they could have. I hope to be a part of bringing waterfowl to a population where they can fill the skies today, tomorrow and forever.

Brad Dokken is the outdoors writer for the Grand Forks (N.D.) Herald, a Forum Communications newspaper