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) assisted in extinguishing a suspicious grass fire in a county road ditch. Manning also assisted Cook County in a successful search for a missing backpacker. A check of several campsites indicated to the officer that “Leave No Trace” means different things to some hikers as metal cans, disposable heater packs and partially burned freezedried food packaging were all recovered during the search. Anglers and boaters were checked on inland lakes. The officer also followed up on calls about a moose calf sleeping on the Gunflint Trail roadway, nuisance beaver and illegal fishing activity.
CO Thomas Wahlstrom (Tofte) spent the week in the BWCAW on a work detail with Officer Schottenbauer. People were enjoying the exceptional lake trout fishing and great weather in the Boundary Waters this last week. The officer worked ATV enforcement which resulted in five violations for just one of the individuals stopped. The majority of the riders had good compliance.
CO Don Bozovsky (Hibbing) received good information from CO Starr of anglers taking too many fish and in the slot on Vermilion Lake and observed the suspects. After stopping them on the lake, a visit to the angler’s cabin revealed more walleye; however, they had called ahead for the neighbor to conceal the excess fish. The plot was foiled. Two slot walleye, several walleye over the limit and no navigation light violations were the result.
CO Scott Fitzgerald (Malmo) received a call of an orphaned wild bunny rabbit. The rabbit was transported to the Wild and Free organization at the Garrison Animal Hospital. A call of a goose that was tangled in some fishing line was also fielded.
CO Angela Londgren (Princeton) received a call from a concerned citizen stating that she pulled into a driveway and saw an injured deer lying near a brush pile and was sure that there was some sort of poaching activity going on at the residence. When Londgren arrived on the scene she identified the deer – which ended up being the homeowner’s apparently very life-like 3D archery target!
CO Tom Hemker (Winona) responded to a complaint of rough fish being dumped in a rural roadway and many wild animal calls and questions including a call of a rattlesnake by a home door. The rattlesnake was actually a fox snake.
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