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 Thomas Wahlstrom (Tofte) checked fishermen, ATV riders and hunters. A lot of different user groups were out on the back roads enjoying the nice fall weather. Hunters who were getting off the beaten path were having success. A fishing complaint was investigated and nuisance animal complaints were looked into.
CO Darin Fagerman (Grand Marais) reports a very poor start to the grouse season. Hunter numbers are very high and grouse are far and few between. The roads and the trails are getting hit hard by hunters as many of the walking trails have different trucks at the trail head about every hour or so. Loaded shotguns in motor vehicles are becoming far too common. ATVs were checked without registration displayed.
CO Mary Manning (Hovland) checked numerous grouse hunters and spoke to many leaf lookers hoping to catch the end of the fall colors. Anglers, like hunters, reported things were a bit slow and overall compliance was good. The officer followed up on a camping complaint on the shore of Lake Superior. Folks are advised that much of the shoreline is MnDOT land, not DNR Forestry, and camping is prohibited other than for hiking and water trail users.
CO Don Bozovsky (Hibbing) came upon a pair of underage partiers (18 and 19) who were found sleeping it off in an SUV at a public access, with numerous empty and full beer cans strewn about, and an unattended fire near tall grass. One individual was still a .06, 10 hours after his last beer.
Three duck hunters took advantage of the change of the end of duck hunting shooting hours; however they went to another extreme and were hunting over 45 minutes after hours, when it was almost too dark to see. The hunters had numerous other violations.
CO Joyce Kuske (Little Falls) received a TIP call of some people camping on the lake who were using floating pop bottles with chemlights in them. It was found that the campers had devised fishing set lines (not legal) using pop bottles, fishing line and a treble hook with the light in the bottle so they could see the line go down. When Kuske asked the group where they had learned to make them the guys said they had dreamed it up while drinking beer around the campfire that night.
CO Rick Reller (Buffalo) assisted Benton County with a party attempting to hunt on public land. The hunter had been cornered in the box of his pickup by a “feral” pig and was unable to leave. Eventually another individual was able to remove the pig and the hunter was able to get in his vehicle and drive away unharmed.
Contact local DNR Conservation Officers to report violations or ask questions:
Thomas
Wahlstrom
218-370-0244
Darin Fagerman
218-387-9751
Mary Manning
218-475-0121
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