Although the Cook County News- Herald knows that the majority of sportsmen and women are lawabiding 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 Darin Fagerman (Grand Marais) reports that Sunday was for the birds. Early in the day, someone called in a common loon sitting along a county road. When the CO arrived, the loon was crying and waving both wings like it was trying to take off. The CO put it in a dog kennel and took it to Lake Superior. The loon went for a quick swim to clean off the road grime, and then it flew away like nothing was wrong.
Later in the day the CO was called to an interpretive center along the North Shore for an American bittern that had gotten into a wire enclosure that protects freshly planted pine trees from deer. The CO lifted up the enclosure and let the bird out. The bird didn’t realize it was freed and wanted to show the CO that it was nothing to mess with. The CO watched it hiss for a while and then point its beak straight up towards the sky, standing still. Eventually the bird flew away.
The ice probably won’t be out in Cook County for the opener. It definitely won’t be a good idea to go ice fishing. The ice will not be safe. Some people are saying that they want to ice fish just to say they did. You can’t say you did if you fall through the ice and drown.
CO Mary Manning (Hovland) checked steelheads on Lake Superior tributaries. Landowners are reminded that river anglers have legal access to public waterways so long as they have lawful access at some point to that waterway; anglers walking below the ordinary high waterline of a river may be there lawfully regardless of land ownership. Manning also attended annual training at Camp Ripley and tended to vehicle repair issues.
CO Thomas Wahlstrom (Tofte) worked the Rainy River with CO Fairbanks, checked anglers and instructed firearms training at in-service. Angler success was poor. Enforcement action was taken for angling without a license, no license in possession, no type IV lifesaving device on board watercraft and failure to display current registration on a watercraft.
CO Keith Backer (Blackduck) investigated a report of a dead eagle near a road. The eagle had lived to be approximately 24 years old before being shot.
CO Dan Malinowski (Fosston) received two calls he never had before. The first was a family wanting beaver brought to a pond on their property (calls are usually to get rid of beaver). The second call was about an unidentified bird. You know it has been a long winter when the officer identifies a ptarmigan so far south.
CO Gary Forsberg (Pelican Rapids) assisted a party that called in regard to a woodchuck stuck in his vehicle engine. After much poking and pulling the woodchuck was finally removed.
CO Joyce Kuske (Little Falls) received a complaint call of pelicans eating a person’s fish from the Mississippi River and the complainant wanting to shoot at the pelicans to scare them away (not a lawful practice).
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