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 Thomas Wahlstrom (Tofte) checked area lakes for anglers and ice conditions. A few brave anglers are venturing out on some of the shallower lakes. The officer checked small game hunters and muzzleloader hunters during the last weekend of the season. A wetland case was reviewed and a shotgun was armored.
CO Darin Fagerman (Grand Marais) reports that ice conditions continued to deteriorate during the week. The CO has found a few instances where he has seen footprints walk several feet out into a lake, a drilled ice hole, and footprints turning back around and coming off the lake. The CO checked muzzleloader deer hunters and trappers during the week. A trapping investigation was followed up on. The CO did a local radio interview on ice conditions and fielded a phone call where someone just wanted to argue about whether or not it was safe for him to go ice fishing. The CO told him the conditions were unsafe, but the person who called for the CO’s opinion didn’t want the opinion the CO gave him.
CO Dan Malinowski (Fosston) assisted and removed a sick coyote in a window well and determined it to be a poor old female husky cross away from home.
WREO Mike Scott (NE) worked with local government units in Cook County on two new large wetland impacts. Restoration Orders are being drafted and deed restriction being placed on a large impact site that has been sectioned into lots for sale.
CO Matt Frericks (Virginia) followed up on several trespass cases. One involved a landowner who found No Trespassing signs on his property that he did not put there. When Frericks spoke with the person who was responsible for the signs, he said he did it because he thought that was what the landowner might want. The No Trespassing signs that were placed were off by about 770 feet from the location where they should have been.
CO Sean Williams (Ely) responded to a dispatch call that a loud explosion was heard in the Winton area that had caused the reporting party’s windows to shake and lights to flicker. After a short search two target shooters were found at the local shooting range who had used four pounds of tannerite to blow a tree in half.
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