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 (Grand Marais) attended in-service training and instructed firearm qualifications at Camp Ripley. He monitored ice fishing and followed up on complaints of early trout fishing and trapping violations.
CO Mary Manning (Hovland) worked with CO Wahlstrom on a case involving a deer caught in a trap and another trapping situation that turned out to be legal. She also took reports of drivers led astray by Google. At least three drivers, including one in a semitruck, followed their phone’s advice down unplowed forest roads and ATV trails that are part of the county snowmobile system. The semi-driver shared a nice evening and dinner with the good Samaritan who rescued him while he waited five hours for a tow. Manning also followed up on an ATV issue and a trapping case from earlier this fall.
CO Andy Schmidt (Duluth West) worked muzzleloader and archery deer-hunting activity most of the past week. Ice conditions have improved greatly and anglers/ ice skaters are taking advantage. Complaints related to injured/nuisance animals were handled.
CO Adam Seifermann (St. Cloud) reports a busy week of checking small-game hunters, deer hunters, trappers and anglers. He reports making progress on several ongoing big-game investigations. Enforcement actions were taken for illegally taking or possessing protected wild animals, dumping deer carcasses, failing to register deer as required, trespassing, and angling without a license. While observing one angler, Seifermann noted that he had caught seven crappies through the ice. When the angler noticed Seifermann, he left the fish on the ice and hurried to his vehicle. The angler was charged with fishing while his angling privileges were revoked and driving while his license was revoked. He was arrested on a local warrant. Numerous deer-possession permits were issued and injured-animal complaints were addressed.
Standby CO Pilot Tim Gray (Bemidji) looked for evidence of timber theft and attended to maintenance issues. NR Pilot John Heineman (Bemidji) flew a wolf telemetry flight and attended to maintenance on the airplane. Heineman also worked on training and GPS routes for the Duluth Fisheries creel survey.
CO Pilot Jason Jensen (Brainerd) reports flying an iceangling creel flight and training with other CO pilots.
CO Pilot Charles Scott (Grand Rapids) completed Flight Review. Multiple training tasks were completed from the DNR training program. He flew a creel survey in Duluth and assisted with the search for an individual. Vehicle maintenance was attended to.
CO Marc Johnson (Warroad South) primarily worked angling activity on Lake of the Woods. Ice on the lake is still forming and shifting. It remains very dangerous with many large cracks, heaves and areas of open water. Anglers are encouraged to use extreme caution.
CO Hanna Wood (Wheaton) spent the majority of the past week focused on small-game, archery and muzzleloader deer enforcement. She took calls regarding an injured eagle, which turned out to be a hawk, a deer-carcass dump site, and a deer with its head cut off. Wood assisted the Breckenridge Police Department and a North Dakota warden. She also followed up on resource protection notifications issued early last week with the area hydrologist and the soil and water conservation district at a site visit. Other violations included burning prohibited materials and failing to remain with a permitted fire.
CO Don Bozovsky (Hibbing) worked anglers and muzzleloader deer hunters, and followed up on a firearms deer season case. Drug evidence was sent to the BCA lab from a second-degree possession and sales of a controlled substance case, which originated from a spruce top theft case. Enforcement action was taken for failure to register deer.
CO Sean Williams (Ely #1) reports ice angler success was generally low. He checked a good number of anglers on several lakes across the Ely area. ATVs have become abundant and are operating on the lakes that froze early. However, a fish house fell through the ice on one those same lakes. People are reminded to continue to be vigilant of ice conditions. Violations included operating an unregistered ATV, failure to transfer ATV registration, and no identification on a fish house.
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