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 Darin Fagerman (Grand Marais) worked a Red Lake Recovery detail with other officers. While assisting CO Regas north of Waskish on a multiple ATV stop, COs Fagerman and Duncan pulled up behind some other ATVers. When the COs were directly behind a woman on an ATV, she began to pitch empty beer cans into the woods. The COs couldn’t believe what was happening. Fagerman thanked the woman, explaining that he didn’t know how many times he’d seen beer cans in the woods, and would love nothing more than to catch someone in the act of doing this. Now he’d finally found that person and it was her. She embarrassingly accepted her citation for littering. Other citations included over limits of walleyes, illegal length walleyes, failure to register watercraft, failure to drain live wells and failure to remove drain plugs when leaving a water body.
CO Thomas Wahlstrom Tofte) worked AIS, ATVs, boat and water safety and anglers. The officer worked a detail in the BWCA over the Memorial weekend. Wahlstrom and area officers responded to a search on Lake Superior for a missing vessel with four people on board. Luckily everyone was safe.
CO Mary Manning (Hovland) worked anglers and boaters on inland lakes and the BWCA. The officer investigated reports of a dead moose cow and a road-injured yearling bear that kept wandering into the roadway. An AIS detail was worked with CO Wahlstrom. Manning also assisted Lake County with a search for an overdue boat on Lake Superior. Enforcement action was taken for failure to remove drain plug and no navigational lights after sunset.
CO Dan Malinowski (Fosston) had several wildlife calls ranging from car-killed bear, wolf depredation, a fawn stuck in a fence, a dead doe that had impaled herself on a security fence, shot geese, raccoon in a tree, and carcasses dumped at a public access.
Kids-on-ATV complaints continue. The officer had a close call, almost striking one with his squad as they played tag with their machines and entered the road right of way. Parents were given a list of all the violations covered by the citations for allowing illegal operation by a juvenile.
CO Don Bozovsky (Hibbing) was at McCarthy Beach when two individuals lit up their marijuana pipe in the park campground, 50 feet from family members and kids and 20 feet from the officer. Appropriate enforcement action was taken on two surprised smokers.
CO Marty Stage (Ely) worked in the BWCAW checking fishermen. The fishing was incredible and most people were found to be counting their walleyes accurately. One group that was caught taking more walleyes than their limit said, “If you’d have come ten minutes later, they’d have been all fried up.” The fishermen were referring to the extra walleyes over their limit that they had intended for their supper. What they didn’t take into account was that the officer had been waiting in the woods for them to return with plenty of time to spare. Please don’t hesitate to call a conservation officer when you see over limit violations. They’re stealing opportunity from you and everyone else.
CO Mike Lee (Crosslake) received a call from individuals who were completing demolition on an abandoned house and in the process came across a mother raccoon and three babies that had made a home in one of thed house’s walls. The mother was severely injured when the wall was coming down from the demolition proc ss Due to th mother’ con ition the babies were transported o the Garrison Animal Hospital for rehabilitation.
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