Minnesota wildlife

Twenty Minnesotans have been selected to help update the state’s wolf management plan.

Wolf plan committee members will serve on an advisory committee formed by the DNR.

Committee members represent diverse perspectives, including hunting and trapping; wolf advocacy and animal rights; livestock and agriculture; and other interests related to wolf conservation and management. Find more about the plan update on the DNR website.

It's that time of year! Buy your Minnesota hunting, fishing and trapping licenses.

Minnesota hunting, fishing and trapping licenses for 2019 expire Saturday, Feb. 29. Licenses for 2020 are available wherever hunting and fishing licenses are sold, online at mndnr.gov/buyalicense and by telephone at 888-665-4236. All 2020 fishing licenses become effective Sunday, March 1. New licenses are required for 2020 seasons that continue past Feb. 29.

Women and families can learn outdoor recreational skills in a wide range of hands-on learning opportunities.

Activities are listed in the newly released 2020 Becoming an Outdoors Woman and Becoming an Outdoors Family catalog.

For more information about upcoming classes, visit mndnr.gov/bow or call the DNR Information Center at 651-296-6157 or 888-646-6367 and request a copy of the BOW 2020 catalog of events.

The DNR is adjusting bans on the feeding of deer in certain parts of the state, to help prevent the spread of CWD.

In central Minnesota, deer feeding bans expanded Feb. 24, due to additional discoveries of chronic wasting disease in captive deer in late 2019. New counties included in the deer feeding ban are: Carlton, Chisago, Douglas, Isanti, Kanabec, Pine and Pope.

Find out about what bans are in place where, and details about the bans, at the DNR’s deer feeding and attractant ban page.

Turkey hunters can buy their licenses for the spring 2020 season starting Sunday, March 1.

Starting this year, hunters can hunt statewide and buy licenses for any time period (A-F) over the counter.

For research purposes, license agents will be asking hunters what permit area they plan to hunt, so hunters are advised to know what permit area they plan to hunt when they buy their license. The information is useful to the DNR in managing the state’s turkey population. Hunters who identify their permit area will not be restricted to that area.

Season dates and hunt rules can be found on the DNR’s turkey hunting page. Permits to hunt the popular Carlos Avery, Mille Lacs and Whitewater wildlife management areas in the A-C time periods are by lottery only for firearms hunters 18 and older.

Here's how many elk hunters harvested in Minnesota last season.

The DNR offered a limited number of licenses to hunt elk in 2019, split between two zones in Kittson County: central and northeast. A total of 27 permits were issued consisting of four either-sex; 21 antlerless, and two bulls-only. Hunter success rates were slightly lower than in previous years, with a total of five bulls and 10 antlerless elk harvested.

Hunting elk in Minnesota is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity, and Minnesota’s herds have drawn nationwide attention for their trophy-sized bulls. Find more about elk in Minnesota, including elk harvest reports, at the DNR’s elk management page.

Hunters can help reduce the population of light geese through April 30.

A federally authorized spring conservation harvest of light geese runs Feb. 18 through April 30.

Light geese are snow geese, blue-phased snow geese and the smaller Ross’s goose, and harvest regulations can be found on the DNR website. The conservation action aims to reduce damage from these geese to fragile ecosystems in Arctic coastal areas and around Hudson Bay.

Bucktorn on a steep slope? Send in the goats! DNR grant program helped county find a way to chew down invasive species.

Steep limestone bluffs towering over Trout Brook provide a scenic skyline for Dakota County’s Miesville Ravine Park Reserve. Yet those cliffs pose a challenge for land managers: How can workers safely remove woody invasive species like buckthorn that grow on the steep slopes? The solution? Send in the goats.

Using conservation grant money awarded by the DNR, county land managers bring in goats with an appetite for buckthorn and its berries. The four-legged lawnmowers had no problem chowing down the invasive shrubs, a task that would have proven difficult for humans and their equipment.

Find more about the Conservation Partners Legacy grant program including grant cycles, a complete list of the most-recent grant applications and history of projects funded on the DNR website.

The start of the new year is a great time to think about signing up for a firearms safety course.

Whether you want to try hunting or just want to feel comfortable around firearms, these classes may be for you! Many classes already have been scheduled and more will be added to the calendar. Classes tend to fill up quickly. Firearms safety certification is required of anyone born after Dec. 31, 1979, who wants to purchase a hunting license in Minnesota, but safety officials recommend it for anyone who’s around firearms. Details, exemptions and requirements are available on the DNR website.

During the 2019 hunting season and special hunts, chronic wasting disease was confirmed in 27 wild deer, all from southeastern Minnesota.

In total, 12,618 hunter-harvested deer were tested in the southeast disease management and control zones, 3,965 in the north-central disease management zone, and 536 in the central surveillance area.

CWD was not detected in wild deer in central and north-central Minnesota. You can find a summary of statewide CWD test results in the DNR news release.

Conservation efforts for pheasants, ducks and their habitats are outlined in new DNR action plans.

The plans were developed during the last 10 months with the help of conservation and tribal partners as well as the public and technical experts. Each plan is designed to better define what the DNR will do and how it will work with partners.

Each outlines short-term actions that can help fulfill long-term conservation goals.

The intent of the plans is to better define and track the DNR’s work to foster stewardship of pheasants, ducks and their habitats; increase recreational opportunities; and increase public awareness and appreciation of habitat conservation. You can find copies of the plans on the DNR website.