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Staff reports
The Minnesota Department of Natural Resources (DNR) has mowed a network of walking trails in Cook County this summer to provide access for grouse and woodcock hunters in an area of the forest managed for grouse habitat. The trails are also open to non-hunters and hunters pursuing other quarry. These are non-motorized trails.
The trails mowed this year are near Caribou, Wills, and Devil Track lakes. The trail system, established in the 1990s, was a joint effort of the DNR, U.S. Forest Service, and the Ruffed Grouse Society.
Time has taken its toll on gates and signs, but the agencies are repairing and upgrading them as funding becomes available. Last year, the DNR mowed trails near Wills and Devil Track lakes for the first time in five years. Thisyear, they mowed the Caribou Lake trails.
In 2008, the agencies improved other hunter walking trail systems in the Dale Honer Grouse Management Area (on the Ball Club Road), at Pendant Lake on the Meridian Road and at Kadunce River on the Trout Lake Road.
The trails are on state and federal land. The DNR and Forest Service have worked to improve grouse and woodcock habitat by managing for several different age classes of aspen/ birch forest in close proximity. Funding for maintenance is primarily from hunting licenses and the Forest Service wildlife budget. In addition, last year a $1,000 grant from the Ruffed Grouse Society helped fund trail maintenance.
“These areas are a good place for those new to hunting to give it a try,” said Dave Ingebrigtsen, DNR Grand Marais area wildlife manager. “The trails provide easy access to areas where new hunters can see grouse and learn what habitat to look for when hunting grouse.”
“This is a good time to repair trails because the grouse population is rising toward its cyclic high,” said Ingebrigtsen. “DNR workers have reported seeing good numbers of grouse in some areas while clearing trails this summer.”
“These grouse management areas are a good example of how the forest can provide both recreation and wildlife habitat,” said Wayne Russ, U.S. Forest Service wildlife ecologist and designer of grouse management and walking trail systems. “We designed these areas to benefit grouse, but they provide yearround recreational trails for hiking, biking, bird watching, and snowshoeing.”
Russ said these trails remain non-motorized regardless of whether the signs and gates have been upgraded. Both the DNR and Forest Service provide nonmotorized trails to give users a chance to experience the forest on foot.
Forest plans for the Superior National Forest and Pat Bayle State Forest allow motorized vehicles only on designated roads and trails. Maps of the trail systems are available online and at DNR and Forest Service offices in Grand Marais and Tofte.
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