Outdoorsmen offer ideas to DNR

Dove hunt,

more habitat

sought

By FRITZ BUSCH

Journal Staff Writer

NEW ULM -- Several dozen outdoor enthusiasts packed a room in the New Ulm Armory Thursday night to discuss how the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources is doing and what it should do in the future.

While some of the men at the meeting took verbal shots at the DNR and others defended it, one man -- Dick Kroger of the Granite Falls area -- had several ideas that drew applause.

Kroger would like to see a Minnesota mourning dove hunt.

"Mourning doves are hunted in 39 states and are hunted more than any other bird nationally," Kroger said. "Dove hunting is a great way to get kids interested in hunting. I hunted doves with my kids in California and North Carolina and they loved it."

Kroger said he would like a longer crow hunt and more pheasant, turkey and deer habitat. He mentioned that 11 southcentral North Dakota counties have 20-acre plots on private land in each township. Each plot has 5 acres of trees, 10 acres of grass and a 5-acre food plot.

"The plots would help wildlife wildlife survive during and after bad winters," Kroger said. The plots are funded by state and federal matching money.

The Conservation Reserve Enhancement Program (CREP) has hundreds of proposed restoration areas that could be better designed to increase wildlife survival with the plots of food, grass and trees, according to Kroger.

Mike Hasse of New Ulm suggested regulations to reduce the younger deer kill so more larger, quality deer could be hunted.

A concern about commercial minnow trapping abusing wetlands was voiced by Fred Froehlich of Nicollet. Minnows eat the same things as baby ducks, he said. He'd like to see a $10,000 fine for illegal commercial minnow trapping.

Most hunters said they weren't opposed to higher license fees as long as they knew the money was going to the right place. They tended to agree that the DNR was effective in doing things like buying land but not as good at things like management practices and their impact on wildlife.

A hunter complained that there was too much competition for available habitat and that the DNR shouldn't bow down to special interest groups. Testing areas for quality deer management were requested.

Hasse complained that the City of New Ulm deer hunt was "out of whack," that hunters shouldn't be able to shoot three deer in a state park and that the hunt was depleting the area deer population.

Ken Varland of the New Ulm DNR regional office said the Flandrau State Park deer hunt -- in which 24 deer were harvested this year -- was one of the best of its kind in Minnesota. Varland estimated the deer population to be 200 in the park.

Other suggestions were:

* The DNR sanctioning a trapping education program about ethics, equipment and the use of public and private land.

* Creation of an otter season in southcentral and southwest Minnesota. The importance of turning in otters to the DNR was stressed.

* Cessation of issuing turkey hunting lottery permits on non-huntable land. Don Wendel of New Ulm said there is a bill in the Legislature to improve that issue.

* Urging Soil, Water and Conservation District officials to plant more native grasses.