Although the Cook County News- Herald knows that the majority of sportsmen and women are law-abiding folks, there are a few that run afoul of the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources (DNR) Conservation Officers. Periodically, the DNR provides a report of some of the miscreants the Conservation Officers (CO) have encountered. The News- Herald shares these stories as a reminder to all to be safe and to follow the rules!
CO Mary Manning (Hovland) attended training by the U.S. Border Patrol on tracking. CO Manning continued to check bear bait stations and find signs left by hunters; several will be receiving paperwork in the mail. Numerous phone calls were answered regarding the wolf season and car deer permits were issued. Officer Manning also worked a busy firearm deer and wolf season opening weekend. Deer baiting reports were checked and an injured deer was dispatched in the wildlife refuge.
CO Darin Fagerman (Grand Marais) dealt with unlawful trap sets, checked deer hunters and wolf hunters during the opening weekends. Some hunters sitting over deer baits were very surprised to see conservation officers on opening weekend. A few citations were issued and guns seized for forfeiture. One case involved a gun passed down through generations. A big chance to take just for a deer. The DNR and media have put many articles out the last couple of years on unlawful deer baiting.
CO Thomas Wahlstrom (Tofte) attended sign cutting/ tracking class at the Border Patrol station in Duluth. The officer worked the opening weekend of deer and wolf season. Some nice deer were harvested in the area. Enforcement action was taken for hunting deer over bait, trespassing, hunter harassment, operating an ATV during closed hours, failure to validate site tag and illegally transporting big game.
CO Al Peterson (Osage) reports the opening weekend of the firearms deer season was mixed, which included one hunter’s unique perspective that the deer were adjusting to the clocks being turned back. Complaints of hunting while intoxicated, transporting loaded firearms, hunter harassment, site tagging/validation, and deer registration were investigated.
CO Mark Mathy (Cass Lake) reports deer hunters saw few deer in the area on the opener. Officer Mathy responded to a call from a hunter that he shot a nice buck. The unusual part was once the hunter went to retrieve his buck he found that its antlers were locked with another buck that had been deceased for a few days. The two bucks were both large, one being a 12-point buck, while the other was a nice 10-point. He issued a possession permit to the hunter for the buck that had clearly died a couple days back due to the entangled antlers.
CO Don Bozovsky (Hibbing) spent much of the week prior to season on deer baiting issues. The officer ticketed six deer hunters hunting over bait on opening day and four rifles were seized. One of the bait hunters also had no deer license and was not wearing blaze orange. A variety of baits were used, but in one case, a trio of baited stands consisted of corn, apples, marshmallows, bread, and peanut butter and jelly, though not in a sandwich.
CO Mark Fredin (Aurora) had a busy deer opener that started out with violation of loaded firearm in a vehicle and hunting from the vehicle without a permit. A father had his 16-year-old hunting over bait who later stated he did not know C’mere Deer is bait (hunters should read the ingredients of attractant products).
Leave a Reply