Now is the Time to Complete Snowmobile Safety Training in Minnesota
November 6, 2008
Those who wait until cold, snowy weather arrives before taking snowmobile safety training may find they’re too late to enjoy the season, according to the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources (DNR).
“Some snowmobilers wait to see how much snow is in the forecast or on the ground before taking a DNR snowmobile safety training course,” said Capt. Mike Hammer, DNR Enforcement Education Program coordinator. “Snowmobilers who wait may find that classes are full or have concluded for the season. No Snowmobile Safety Certificate means no snowmobiling.” He added that plenty of snowmobile safety training classes are available right now.
To legally ride a snowmobile in Minnesota, residents born after Dec. 31, 1976, need a valid snowmobile safety certificate. There are two ways to obtain the certificate: take the traditional classroom course taught in communities around the state for anyone 11 or older; or request the DNR Adult Snowmobile Safety CD ROM, available to those 16 or older. To request the CD-ROM, or a copy of DNR’s 2008-2009 Minnesota Snowmobile Safety Laws, Rules, and Regulations handbook, call 651-296-6157 (toll free at 888-MINNDNR), or send an e-mail to info [at] dnr [dot] state [dot] mn [dot] us
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“CD ROM users can learn from the comfort of home, fill out the quizzes and exam, and send their results in to be officially certified,” Hammer said.
More than 1,800 volunteer instructors teach DNR snowmobile safety courses across the state. For more information on the dates and locations of these courses, visit the DNR Web site: www.dnr.state.mn.us or call 1-800-366-8917.
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Minnesota Deer Hunters Encouraged to Buy License Early
November 6, 2008
DNR Information Center Open Additional Hours This Weekend
With more than 475,000 firearms deer hunters in the state, the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources (DNR) encourages hunters to purchase their licenses early to avoid long lines and any system issues associated with the high sales volume. The 2008 Minnesota firearms deer season begins Saturday, Nov. 8.
Deer licenses are available at approximately 1,800 license agents statewide or by phone at 1-888-MN-LICENSE (665-4236). There is a $3.50 convenience fee for telephone service.
Hunters who purchase licenses by phone will receive their deer tags by mail, which can take three to five days.
Staff members from the DNR Information Center and License Center in St. Paul will work extended hours to handle additional phone calls from deer hunters and license agents. Phone lines will be open on Friday, Nov. 7, until 6:30 p.m., and Saturday, Nov. 8, from 8 a.m. to noon.
The DNR Information Center phone number is 651-296-6157 or toll-free 888-MINNDNR (646-6367).
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Georgia DNR Adds DOT Acres to Manage for Hunting, Fishing, & Wildlife
October 21, 2008
In September of last year, a hunter in middle Georgia called the Georgia Department of Natural Resources saying he had just lost his hunting lease. Opening day was only a few weeks away and he was frantically searching for a place to hunt.
Sound familiar?
As land is sold, hunting leases are often terminated. Some hunters who have hunted on the same lands for years suddenly find themselves with no place to hunt. Others simply can no longer afford the high cost of leases.
But hunters have another option. For $19 a year they can access more than 900,000 acres on 99 different wildlife management areas (WMAs) and natural areas across the state.
There’s even better news: The available property just increased by more than 10,000 acres.
In mid-September, the Georgia Department of Transportation and the state’s Department of Natural Resources signed an agreement through which the DNR will begin managing some Department of Transportation lands for hunting and fishing. The DNR’s Wildlife Resources Division will manage nine of these tracts. One, Oliver Bridge in Bulloch County, will be a stand-alone WMA, while six will be added to current WMAs. The remaining two tracts will be added to natural areas the division manages.
The agreement between the two agencies is designed to protect the natural resources on these tracts. Those resources include game and nongame wildlife, rare species of plants and animals, and wetlands and stream habitats.
“Providing hunter access to public lands is essential to the core values of wildlife conservation and to rural economies,” said John W. Bowers, an assistant chief with the Wildlife Resources Division. “This enhanced opportunity is the result of successful collaboration between the Georgia Department of Transportation and the Wildlife Resources Division.”
The tracts are part of DOT mitigation and will be managed for their wetland and stream benefits. However, the agreement allows the DNR to immediately open the tracts to public hunting and fishing, adding more than 10,000 acres to the state’s WMA system.
The next time you are looking for a place to hunt or fish, why not buy a WMA stamp? It is the least expensive 900,000-acre hunting lease you will ever purchase.
New WMA Lands
Listed by county, WMA or natural area (NA) and acreage.
** Bulloch: Oliver Bridge WMA, 1,560 acres*
** Bleckley: Ocmulgee WMA, 1,127 additional acres
** Long: Townsend WMA, 3,970 acres
** Miller: Mayhaw WMA, 1,685 acres
** Montgomery: Bullard Creek WMA, 1,007 acres
** Taylor: Fall Line Sandhills NA, 700 acres
** Upson: Big Lazer Creek WMA, 1,350 acres
** Walker: Crockford-Pigeon Mountain WMA, 1,048 acres
** Whitfield: Conasauga River NA, 202 acres
*Oliver Bridge is a new WMA.
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First Fish Stocked From Newly Renovated Hatchery in Wisconsin
September 26, 2008
WILD ROSE – The first fish raised in the new $15.9 million coldwater facilities at Wild Rose State Fish Hatchery are being stocked in Lake Michigan waters this week and next, marking an important milestone for the century-old fish hatchery and Wisconsin’s stocking program.
The new facilities were dedicated last month in a ceremony with Gov. Jim Doyle and DNR Secretary Matt Frank, and early this morning, state stocking trucks rolled out of Wild Rose with 28,000 coho salmon and 13,000 Seeforellen Brown trout bound for Algoma.
All told, 150,000 coho salmon and 60,000 Seeforellen trout will be stocked in Lake Michigan harbors by the end of the month. The fish are “large fingerlings” about 5-inches long, and should grow big enough over the next year to start being caught by anglers next summer.
“We’ve very excited that after all the years of hard work and effort, the first fish are being stocked from the new coldwater facilities at Wild Rose,” says Department of Natural Resources Fisheries Director Mike Staggs. “It’s a great day for anglers, particularly those who enjoy fishing Lake Michigan.”
The new facilities at Wild Rose are critical for continued great fishing for Lake Michigan trout and salmon. These fisheries depend on stocking, and virtually all of the 2 ¼ million trout and salmon produced at Wild Rose in a given year are destined for the “big pond.”
“So far, the hatchery is doing what it’s supposed to do,” says Hatchery Supervisor Steve Fajfer. “These fish look just tremendously healthy and in good shape, which should transmit to better survival when stocked, which will mean more fish being available to anglers a year from now.”
The new coldwater facilities replaced aging, century-old raceways and a faltering water supply that were making it difficult for fisheries crews to raise healthy fish. The fish have adjusted so well to the new facility and have grown so fast that hatchery staff had to adjust the amount of feed they were receiving so the fish didn’t outgrow the new facilities, Fajfer says.
New regulations and precautions in effect to prevent the fish disease VHS from entering the hatchery system mean a tightly orchestrated schedule of getting fish out for stocking before new eggs can be brought on site for rearing, putting space at a premium.
Those regulations also mean that for the first time in about three decades, Wild Rose has been raising Coho Salmon. All eggs collected from fish in the Lake Michigan basin, where VHS, or viral hemorrhagic septicemia has been found, are hatched and then raised at state facilities within the same basin.
The new coldwater facilities represent the first phase of renovation at Wild Rose, which also built a new visitors center. Work is underway on the second phase of the renovation, building new coolwater facilities to raise walleye, lake sturgeon, spotted musky and northern pike.
Lake Michigan is the state’s top fishing draw, accounting for 6 percent of angler trips, according to a 2006-7 DNR angler survey. In that same year, 235,000 anglers fished a total of 3.7 million days on Wisconsin’s Great Lakes waters, generated a $418 million economic impact, supported 5,011 jobs and generated $28 million in state and local tax revenues, according to the American Sportfishing Association’s 2008 report, “Sportfishing in America,” available on the association Web site [www.asafishing.org] (exit DNR; pdf).
FOR MORE INFORMATION CONTACT: Steve Fajfer (920) 622-3527 ext 201; Mike Staggs (608) 267-0796; Al Kaas (608) 267-7865
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Special Antlerless-Only Deer Season Opens Today in Michigan
September 18, 2008
PLEASE NOTE: An earlier version of this release did not specify this is a private land hunt only. This is being re-issued today to clarify.
Department of Natural Resources officials remind hunters that a special five-day, antlerless-only deer season begins Thursday in all of Zone 3, the southern Lower Peninsula, and in the six counties of Presque Isle, Montmorency, Alpena, Alcona, Oscoda, and Iosco in the northeastern Lower Peninsula. This is hunt is on private land only.
The Sept. 18-22 season is a firearms season; hunters may use archery gear, but are required to wear hunter orange as they would during any firearm season. Hunters are reminded it is illegal to bait deer due to the recent discovery of Chronic Wasting Disease (CWD) in a captive deer facility in Kent County.
Hunters in the nine-township CWD Surveillance Zone in Kent County, including Tyrone, Solon, Nelson, Sparta, Algoma, Courtland, Alpine, Plainfield, and Cannon townships, are required to bring the deer to a check station for mandatory CWD testing. For more information on CWD, visit www.michigan.gov/chronicwastingdisease.
For more information on deer hunting dates and regulations, check the 2008 Michigan Hunting and Trapping Guide, or visit www.michigan.gov/dnr.
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Cleanup Finished on Popular Blatz Pavilion Lagoon in Milwaukee
August 29, 2008
MILWAUKEE – The popular Blatz Pavilion lagoon in Milwaukee’s Lincoln Park has reopened for boating and fishing after mud containing PCBs was removed from it as part of a collaborative project between the Department of Natural Resources and Milwaukee County. Planning continues for a larger effort to clean up the adjacent Lincoln Park Lagoon and channel.
“We’re very pleased to complete this important first step in restoring recreational opportunities in Lincoln Park,” says DNR Secretary Matt Frank. “The park has long been an important recreational spot for the local community, and this work allows people to enjoy it again.”
Contact with Milwaukee River water is no longer a problem for people boating in the lagoon as a result of the project. People fishing from 1-acre lagoon who want to eat their catch should follow the fish consumption advice for that stretch of the Milwaukee River.
Frank says that the $1.3 million project was possible because of state Great Lakes Program Funds that Gov. Jim Doyle and the Wisconsin Legislature provided to address the significant sources of toxic chemicals that have contaminated fish in Wisconsin’s major tributaries to the Great Lakes.
“This project, like the Kinnickinnic River cleanup announced last week, demonstrates Governor Doyle’s commitment to providing the resources to successfully address the contaminated sediment sites in the state and restore our natural resources for people to enjoy,” Frank says.
On July 20, Doyle announced a $24.4 million project to clean contaminated sediment from the Kinnickinnic River in Milwaukee. The state is leveraging about $7.7 million of state funds, earmarked in the current state budget, to secure $14 million in federal funds for the cleanup. The city of Milwaukee also is contributing money.
The Blatz Pavilion site was identified as a priority cleanup site by the DNR and the local community following a 2005 report on PCBs in the Estabrook Impoundment in Lincoln Park in Milwaukee, according to Ted Bosch, project engineer from the DNR Southeast Region. The risks posed by the site included skin contact and potential water ingestion by park users, and the consumption of too many contaminated fish from the river. Infants and children of women who have eaten a lot of PCB-contaminated fish may have lower birth weights and delayed physical and learning development. PCBs also may affect reproductive function and the immune system and are also associated with cancer risk.
The department conducted an environmental investigation of the river but was not able to determine a source that was responsible for the PCB contamination.
The Blatz project removed an estimated 300 pounds of PCBs in nearly 4,000 cubic yards of mud from the lagoon bottom. About 2,000 tons of the mud with higher concentrations of PCBs were shipped out of state to a chemical waste landfill. About 3,500 tons of low level sediment were disposed in a local solid waste landfill, Bosch says.
The lagoon bottom was restored with sand and gravel and improvements were made to the lagoon waterfront, Bosch says. The DNR, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, Milwaukee County, and the Milwaukee Metropolitan Sanitary District all provided supervision for the contractor performing the work.
The experience DNR staff gained on other sediment remediation projects, including the Lower Fox River project, resulted in the success of the Blatz Pavilion lagoon project, according to Greg Hill who leads the DNR’s statewide contaminated sediment management program.
That expertise will be important as the DNR and Milwaukee County tackle the larger clean up project the must be done in the adjacent Lincoln Park Lagoon and channel. The DNR is developing a project plan with Milwaukee County to design and implement this next project.
FOR MORE INFORMATION CONTACT: Greg Hill - (608) 267-9352
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Iowa’s Becoming an Outdoors Woman Workshop Set for Sept. 19 - 21
August 28, 2008
Iowa’s annual Becoming an Outdoors Woman (BOW) workshop will be held September 19-21, at the Springbrook Conservation Educations Center, approximately 1 ½ hours west of Des Moines.
The 2 ½-day workshop provides women a comfortable environment and beautiful setting to learn outdoor skills they may not normally try. BOW is an international program aimed primarily at women, but is an opportunity for anyone 18 years and older to learn outdoor skills usually associated with hunting and fishing, but useful for many outdoor pursuits. Classes offered throughout the weekend include introduction to firearms, basic shooting, basic fishing, knot tying, river fishing, fly fishing, archery, turkey and deer hunting basics, Dutch oven cooking, canoeing, kayaking, bird watching, map and compass, and much more.
“We have been providing BOW workshops in Iowa for nearly 15 years and they continue to be very popular, well-attended events,” says Julie Sparks, BOW coordinator. “It’s a wonderful opportunity for participants to get enough instruction and hands-on learning to feel confident pursuing these activities. We have a great team of dedicated instructors and an awesome location for the workshop.”
Registration continues, but the workshop is filling fast, she said. A registration form is available online at http://www.iowadnr.com/bow/index.html.
For more information, contact Julie Sparks at 515-281-6159 or Julie [dot] sparks [at] dnr [dot] iowa [dot] gov.
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Phone Applications For Black Bear Hunting Permit Begin Aug. 25 For Maryland
August 25, 2008
ANNAPOLIS - On August 25, 2008, the Maryland Department of Natural Resources will begin accepting phone-in applications from hunters wishing to participate in this year’s black bear hunting permit lottery. Applications will be accepted over the phone at 1-888-579-6768 between 9:00 a.m. and 5:30 p.m. from August 25 through August 29, 2008.
Harry Spiker, DNR Game Mammal Section Leader reminds that “hunters must apply each year to retain their preference points in the lottery. Preference points increase your odds of being selected in future lotteries. Beginning this year, hunters may opt to purchase a preference point only. This will allow those who cannot hunt in 2008, the opportunity to retain their preference points for use in future lotteries.”
Hunters may continue to apply online 24 hours a day through 6:00 p.m. on September 1, 2008 at http://blackbear.dnr.state.md.us
A $15 application fee must be submitted via credit card, check, or money order by 5:00 p.m. on Wednesday, September 3, 2008 and should be made payable to MDDNR Black Bear and mailed to MDDNR Black Bear, P.O. Box 30, Cumberland, MD 21501. Only one application per person will be accepted. Duplicate applications will result in disqualification and the loss of all fees.
In order to allow all interested parties an equal opportunity to participate, permits will be awarded by a random selection process which will be held on Thursday, September 4. A list of winning applicants will be available online at http://blackbear.dnr.state.md.us starting 5 p.m. on Friday, September 5, 2008. Maryland’s black bear hunting season begins October 20, 2008 in Garrett and Allegany Counties.
For more info, please visit: http://www.dnr.state.md.us/wildlife/bbregs.asp.
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Entire Length of Tunnel Hill State Trail Open Again In Southern Illinois
August 12, 2008
Sections of Southern Illinois Trail Damaged in Storms Last Winter
VIENNA, ILL. – The first phase of repairs have been completed on sections of the Tunnel Hill State Trail in southern Illinois that had sustained significant damage in a series of storms last winter, allowing access to the entire length of the trail from Harrisburg to the Cache River Wetlands Center.
Illinois Department of Natural Resources (IDNR) crews have been working on repairs to sections of the trail since a series of storms last February and March resulted in flash flooding, ice and tree damage all along the 45-mile trail.
Last February 2, heavy rains and flash flooding caused significant damage to the trail between Harrisburg and the trail headquarters in Vienna. On February 11, an ice storm resulted in further trail damage and downed trees on and along the trail. Heavy rainfall on March 18 again caused widespread damage along the trail.
From the time that the storm damages occurred, IDNR crews have been making repairs to the trail surface and removing trees and debris from the trail. Surface repairs have made areas of the trail useable, though sections of the trail surface remain rough. Bicyclists are encouraged to use extra caution and to be prepared for possible tire problems due to the rough surface. As always, trail visitors should use caution at all times when visiting IDNR sites.
For information regarding trail conditions, call the Tunnel Hill State Trail headquarters at 618/658-2168 or visit the Tunnel Hill State Trail webpage on the IDNR website at http://dnr.state.il.us.
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Test Results Show VHS Fish Disease Hasn’t Spread in Wisconsin
July 31, 2008
MADISON – All planned testing of wild fish for VHS fish disease has been completed for 2008, and results show that so far, the deadly fish virus has not spread in Wisconsin and that state waters have not suffered the kind of fish kills once feared.
Fish from 67 different waters were tested for VHS in 2008, and the only positives were found in fish from Lake Michigan, where VHS was already known to exist. Round gobies found washed ashore on a Milwaukee Beach in June and yellow perch collected a short while later both tested positive. The diagnosis of VHS in the round gobies, an invasive fish species, represents the only instance this year in Wisconsin in which VHS was diagnosed as the cause of a fish kill.
“This is good news on all fronts,” says Wisconsin Fisheries Director Mike Staggs. “There was a lot of concern in 2007 that VHS was already widespread in Wisconsin and that it would spread rapidly,” he says. “Based on the sampling we’ve done last year and this year, it’s clear that’s not the case, and that’s a very good thing.”
Staggs says the test results affirm the DNR’s rules for boaters, anglers and people who harvest wild bait are working to avoid spreading the disease. VHS Prevention.
