Wild North: Shawn Perich
The day began as a real drag. The previous afternoon, I’d killed a whitetail doe a long way from the truck. Too far, it turned out, to make it out with the deer before dark. My flashlight was in another jacket at home. So I pulled the doe beneath the boughs of a balsam tree to hide it from the ravens. My plan was to come back and get it in the morning.
The next day I started into the woods at daybreak. The deer was about a half-mile from the truck. I lashed it to a sturdy toboggan so it slid easily across the bare ground. In fact, the drag really wasn’t a drag—until I reached the ravine. We have some topographic ups and downs along the North Shore and this particular ravine is so steep and deep you can call it a canyon. Doe in tow, I had to traverse it to reach the truck.
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The recent announcement that Dave Epperly will no longer serve as director of the Minnesota DNR’s forestry division is discussed in the current issue of the Timber Bulletin, the bimonthly magazine of the Minnesota Timber Producer’s Association. Epperly and Forestry stalwart Bob Tomlinson were reassigned as part of what TPA executive vice president Wayne Brandt describes as “sweeping changes” within the Forestry Division. Although Epperly and Tomlinson’s reassignment received limited media coverage, it is the first ripple in the political pond we’ve seen from DNR commissioner Tom Landwehr.
And it’s a large pond. While many folks think the DNR is mostly about hunting, fishing and outdoor recreation, the agency manages millions of acres of forests. Timber harvested on state lands is the single largest source of wood for Minnesota’s forest products industry. Needless to say, the industry is a large and influential DNR constituency, especially in the north. It’s also a constituency that feels it was blindsided by the Landwehr administration’s proposed changes to the Forestry Division. Not only was the forestry constituency unaware change was in the offing, but most were satisfied with Epperly’s leadership.
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Back in the early 1980s, a Minnesota outdoor writer named Steve Grooms wrote a book with the somewhat presumptuous title of Modern Pheasant Hunting. While Midwesterners had been hunting pheasants, which were introduced from Asia, for about 50 years, a changing agricultural landscape was also changing pheasant habitat and hunting.
Clean farming techniques left little cover for the birds. Nesting and winter habitat, vital to pheasant survival, were in short supply. Suburban sprawl gobbled up lands once open to hunting. In many traditional pheasant hunting states--Pennsylvania, Ohio, Illinois, Michigan and even Minnesota--pheasant populations plummeted. Bird numbers reached new lows even in the pheasant-rich Dakotas.
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Many Minnesotans own canoes. But rare is the canoer who paddles a birch bark canoe. Rare still are bark canoe builders. Count Talon Stammen of Grand Forks, North Dakota among that rarest breed.
I met Talon, who is a high school senior, last summer when he visited Grand Marais to attend a birch- bark canoe-building class at the North House Folk School. I was impressed with this quiet young man who deeply appreciates Nature and working with his hands. At the time, he intended to spend the rest of the summer at his family’s island retreat at Lake of the Woods, working on his canoe.
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With due respect, Howard Hedstrom of Hedstrom Lumber in Grand Maraisis at an age where he really ought to be thinking about retirement rather than embarking on new endeavors. But we are living in times when anyone concerned about natural resource conservation—be they duck hunter or a lumberman—has to step up to the plate to make sure federal conservation programs are not savaged or eliminated by a deficit-reducing Congress.
Hedstrom’s primary concern is the timber management on national forests, which provides raw material for businesses such as his. He says 20 years ago, the national forests had annual timber sales totaling 12 billion board feet. Currently, the annual sales are 2.7 billion board feet.
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The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service recently announced Endangered Species Act protection is not warranted for the northern leopard frog in 19 states, including Minnesota. The decision was based on a 2006 petition to protect leopard frogs in the western U.S., where their numbers have greatly declined. Although testing showed some genetic differences among northern leopard frog populations across their range, the Service concluded that a frog is a frog. Northern leopard frogs remain common enough in the eastern U.S. to preclude Endangered Species protection.
Be that as it may, the fact the Service even considered Endangered Species protection for northern leopard frogs ought to be big news, because they are (or were) one of the most common amphibians in the northern U.S. A medium-sized green or brown frog with black spots, the leopard frog is likely to be seen near water or grassy areas. They are also the frogs commonly used for dissection in high school biology classes.
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Recently, Minnesota Outdoor News columnist Ron Schara wrote that when it comes to understanding the cause of northeastern Minnesota’s mysterious moose decline, wolves may be the elephant in the room. He points to Montana, where a wolf hunting season began this year, in part because researchers there believe wolf predation on elk calves is causing elk numbers to decline. In Minnesota, where more wolf research has occurred than just about anywhere else in the world, Schara thinks scientists have ducked the predation issue.
That may be true, but wolves are not the only predators hiding behind an elephant. Right next to them are hunters. Biologists say the annual harvests from the state and tribal moose hunts are statistically insignificant. In contrast, as I drove to work this morning, I heard a radio announcer on the local Grand Marais station say if the population decline continues at its present rate, moose will nearly disappear from Minnesota by 2020. When I reached Grand Marais, I saw some hunters clustered around truck toting a moose at the local registration station. I don’t know much about statistics, but the audio and visuals of my morning drive made a significant impression on me.
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Abby wanted to go hunting. Although it is difficult for the old dog to even climb into the cab of my small pickup, much less go for more than a short walk, she still enjoys spending an afternoon in the grouse woods. She doesn’t seem to mind that she must stay in the truck while the young dog and I walk in the woods. Like many old hunters, she just likes being there.
It was the weekend, so the forest roads were bustling with bird hunters, leaf-lookers, moose hunters and cabin-goers driving everything from foreign sedans to pick-ups pulling big trailers to all-terrain vehicles. Despite all the traffic, hardly anyone was actually in the woods. These days, very few people venture more than 100 yards from a parked vehicle. My dog and I are among the few.
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Are you going duck hunting this weekend? The September 27 openingdate, a week earlier than the traditional first Saturday in October, is intended to give hunters more opportunities to kill ducks. Early migrants, such as blue-winged teal and wood ducks, are more likely to be available to hunters, because they head south when cold winds begin to blow.
To make it easier to kill birds, the DNR relaxed bag limit restrictions, increasing the mallard hen bag from one to two and the wood duck limit from two to three. The total daily bag limit is six ducks, the most allowed under the federal waterfowl harvest guidelines.
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Sometimes you hear about a place and it sticks with you. I'm not sure where I first heard of the Elk River, but I've long wanted to fish this trout stream in the Canadian Rockies, one of the few that still supports native populations of westslope cutthroat trout and bull trout. In a lifetime of chasing trout, I'd never caught either of these western fish. It was time to do so.
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On a recent trip to the northern Rockies, Vikki and I made an overnight stop in Helena, Montana, to visit our friend Tom Dickson and his partner in life, Lisa, who moved there from the Twin Cities nearly a decade ago. Tom and I first met when we were wet-behind-the-ears college grads hired by the long-defunct Fins and Feathers magazine. Hunting, fishing and work sort of blended together at Fins and we formed a lasting friendship. However, I hadn't seen Tom since he'd moved to Montana.
Tom and Lisa live in a fine old Helena home on a hillside a short walk from downtown. An even shorter walk leads to an endless network of hiking trails on Mount Helena and beyond. We took a short walk with the dogs, then enjoyed a good dinner and better conversation. They put us up in a spare bedroom--a welcome change from our camper.
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Rich Patterson believed Lake Superior was devoid of fish. After all, he’d spent two days fruitlessly casting into the lake near is campsite at the mouth of the Cross River in Schroeder. Aside from soaking up some sunshine and Superior scenery, Patterson had nothing to show for his efforts.
“There are no fish in Lake Superior,” he told me.
My job was to prove him wrong. Patterson and his wife, Marion, are members of the Outdoor Writers Association of America, as am I. They’d travelled to the North Shore from their home in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, to escape the summer heat. Although we’d never met, we connected through a mutual friend and I offered to take them fishing. While I never guarantee fish, I was pretty sure they’d enjoy the boat ride.
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One day last April, Craig Engwall noticed what looked like a dark freckle beneath his wrist watch. Putting on his reading glasses for a better look, he discovered it was a very tiny tick, which he removed. Engwall, who is the DNR's regional administrator in Grand Rapids, had been bitten by the miniscule nymph of a black-legged tick, also called a deer tick. Unfortunately for him, big problems can come in very small packages. Within days, Engwall says he felt awful, with pain in his joints, nausea and a rash encircling his wrist.
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Sometimes you ask a question and get an unexpected answer. Looking for information about trout fishing in the Canadian Rockies, I emailed a friend of a friend who lives in Alberta. His prompt response included great information about specific streams and where to fish them. That was to be expected.
Was what unexpected was his comment, “All streams in area have grizzly bears--always carry bear spray.”
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If you’ve spent time fly-fishing on the trout lakes of the Gunflint Trail, maybe you’ve met Reuben Swenson. For nearly 25 years, he’s fished and camped along the Trail every summer for weeks or months at a time. For Swenson, age 67, fly fishing is life. But there is more to the story.
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Talon Stammen of Grand Forks, North Dakota was in Grand Marais recently to take a birch bark canoe-building class at the North House Folk School. For anyone unfamiliar with the school, North House is a place where you can learn traditional crafts ranging from boat building to bread baking. But even in the eclectic environment of the folk school, Talon stands out. That a 17-year-old high school senior will travel over 300 miles to learn how to build a canoe is unusual. But taking a class and then spending the rest of the summer on an island in Lake of the Woods building a birch bark canoe is Talon.
This was Talon’s third visit to North House. He first came to learn how to build his own cross-country skis. The second time, he learned about blacksmithing, then went home and built a forge so he could make his own tools. On this trip, he spent six days learning about building bark canoes from expert craftsman Eric Simula of Hovland.
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Chanterelles are a powerful distraction. During the past week, I've spent several hours walking through the woods and staring at the ground, oblivious to mosquitoes and horseflies, in search of the
butter-yellow mushrooms. I've been successful. Nearly every night we've had butter-sautéed chanterelles for supper. And yes, they are that good.
Along the North Shore, chanterelles appear in July and provide good pickings for a few weeks. In a wet year, you may find edible chanterelles into September, although it is more likely the picking will end during August. Chanterelles are easy to identify, easy to find, abundant and, best of all, delicious.
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Dan Ashe was wearing his game face when he met with writers for a roundtable lunch at the recent Utah conference of the Outdoor Writers of America. Cloaked in a shroud of bad news, Ashe, who was recently appointed director of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, explained the GOP-controlled House Subcommittee on Interior and Environment Appropriations passed an appropriations bill that not only fiscally hamstrings his agency, but wages financial blitzkrieg on programs and policies intended to protect and restore the nation's fish and wildlife habitat.
Despite its importance to a wide swath of everyday Americans, fish and wildlife conservation is just a flyspeck on the national budget, amounting to less than one percent of federal spending. Nevertheless, the House has slashed fish and wildlife program funding from 60 to 100 percent in the name of deficit reduction. While these cuts will devastate conservation efforts across the United States, they'll do little to address the federal deficit. Ashe contends--and there is plenty of data to back him up--wildlife conservation actually stimulates the economy with spending on recreational activities such as hunting, fishing and wildlife watching.
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Utah's Watsatch Range is known as a skiing mecca, where a winter's accumulation of snow may measure 500 inches or more. With major ski areas conveniently located less than an hour from the Salt Lake City Airport, skiing makes a significant contribution to the economy. But in the spring, when the snow melts, the mountain range makes a vital contribution to the people who live there. The runoff feeds seven creeks that are the water supply for the Salt Lake City metropolitanarea.
Recently, I spent several days attending the Outdoor Writers of America conference at Snowbird Lodge, high up the Little Cottonwod Canyon. Although the massive ski resort is nestled in the valley, protection of the water quality in Little Cottonwod Creek remains a primary concern. For instance, dogs are not allowed in the valley, because--literally--no one wants to drink doggie doo. However, development pressures, largely driven by the recreation industry, threaten the quality of the water supply and the desires of many people who want accessible places where they can escape from the trappings of civilization. Not everyone wants to take a chairlift or ride a snowmobile to reach the mountaintops. What they want is a wilderness experience.
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On June 30, hours before the state government shut down, three Minnesota loggers went before a judge in International Falls to sue the state for breach of contract regarding existing timber sales. The Minnesota DNR had ordered loggers to quit working on state timber sales for the duration of the shutdown. The loggers argued the DNR did not have legal authority to do so, because they'd already bought and paid for the timber under the terms of state contracts. The judge agreed, issuing a temporary restraining order against the state allowing all loggers to continue working on their state sales during the shutdown.
Wayne Brandt, executive director of the Minnesota Timber Producers Association, which worked with the loggers but was not part of the suit, explains that even though state foresters are furloughed during the shutdown and cannot monitor logging sites, sale contracts require loggers to follow forest management guidelines and best management practices intended to protect the environment. Sales will remain open until the shutdown ends and a state forester can visit the site, verify the timber harvest meets the terms of the contract and then "close out" the sale.
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