Outdoors with Sam Cook

My colleague John Myers wrote a more detailed story about the proposed Minnesota wolf hunting and trapping seasons this fall. Look for it here.

The Minnesota Department of Natural Resources has proposed an inaugural gray wolf hunting and trapping season this fall that calls for a harvest quota of 400 animals.

Wolf research indicates Minnesota’s wolf population could sustain a higher quota, but DNR officials say they are taking a measured approach to the state’s first season.

The proposal sets a quota of 6,000 licenses that will be allocated through a lottery system. Only one license will be allowed per hunter or trapper. Hunting would be allowed with firearms, archery equipment and muzzleloaders. Calls and bait would be allowed with restrictions.

The season is proposed to open near the end of November and would be closed once the quota is met. Hunters would be required to register animals on the same day they are harvested and data would be collected from carcasses. Other states with harvest seasons for wolves and other big game animals similarly monitor seasons and close them when quotas are met.

The DNR will outline its proposals to the Legislature on Thursday before the Senate Environment and Natural Resources Committee and the House Environment, Energy and Natural Resources Policy and Finance Committee.

While the legislatively approved wolf management plan authorizes hunting and trapping seasons, the agency is seeking additional authorization from the state Legislature this session to offer a wolf license and implement other management strategies. Legislators will have to pass a bill by the end of the session and the governor will have to sign it in order for a season to be held.

The DNR will also take public comments prior to finalizing and implementing a wolf season.

“I feel much better about where they (DNR officials) are going with it,” said Mark Johnson, executive director of the Minnesota Deer Hunters Association. “They’re taking a cautious but realistic approach. As long as things work right in the front end, with the first season and the second seasons, there will be more options from a hunting and trapping standpoint in the future.”

“I feel much better about where they (DNR officials) are going with it,” said Mark Johnson, executive director of the Minnesota Deer Hunters Association. “They’re taking a cautious but realistic approach. As long as things work right in the front end, with the first season and the second seasons, there will be more options from a hunting and trapping standpoint in the future.”

The initial season will allow wolf biologists to collect information on hunter and trapper interest and harvest success and will provide biological information on harvested wolves to help inform future wolf population management and monitoring. The state has an estimated population of 3,000 gray wolves and past surveys indicate the population is stable.

Wolves are prolific, survival of young is generally high and populations can offset effects of mortality caused by hunting and trapping seasons, DNR officials say.

The DNR intends to manage wolves as a prized and high-value fur species by setting the season when pelts are most prime.

DNR plans to adjust the framework of future wolf seasons based on information collected during the inaugural season. The wolf harvest quota does consider other causes of mortality such as removal due to livestock and domestic animal depredation and threats and vehicle collisions.

The agency will also be undertaking a new wolf population survey starting next winter.

Minnesota’s population of Great Lakes gray wolves transitions from federal protection to state management on Friday. That is when the DNR implements its state management plan, which is designed to ensure their long-term survival of wolves in the state.

Biologists will begin flying the annual survey of moose in Northeastern Minnesota on Wednesday if weather conditions are favorable. The survey usually begins Jan. 2 or 3 but was delayed this year because snow cover was too scant in parts of the survey area. Biologists need good snow cover so the moose can be seen more easily.

Glenn DelGiudice and Erika Butler of the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources use an ultrasound to check the thickness of body fat on the rump of a tranquilized moose near Greenwood Lake in Lake County in 2011. The young bull, which had one of its antlers but not yet the other, is one of more than 60 moose in northern Minnesota to be fitted with GPS collars to help scientist track their movements. (News Tribune file)

The survey is conducted annually by the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources, the 1854 Treaty Authority and the Fond du Lac Band of Lake Superior Chippewa. The survey typically takes two to three weeks to complete.

Wildlife managers were concerned that the survey might not occur this year, at at time when Minnesota’s moose population is declining and biologists want to keep close tabs on it. In the survey, biologists will count cows, bulls and calves. Biologists need to know the ratio of cows to calves and the ratio of bulls to cows to understand what’s happening in the population.

Bulls are easy to distinguish from cows if bulls still have their antlers, said Tom Rusch, DNR area wildlife manager at Ely. Additionally, cows can be distinguished from bulls because of a white patch that cows have on their rumps, he said.

In Northeastern Minnesota, moose numbers plummeted to about 4,900 during the 2011 winter survey, down 11 percent from 2010 and down from more than 8,000 just five years ago.

That rapid demise is exactly what happened in northwestern Minnesota, where moose, which numbered more than 4,000 in 1981, crashed to only about 100 animals by 2001.

Minnesota moose hunters killed 54 moose in the state’s annual hunt last fall. A total of 94 parties took part in the two-week hunt in Northeastern Minnesota, yielding a success rate of 58 percent, the highest in several years.

The moose survey is done by helicopter and is based out of the Ely airport.

Kirstie Zauhar of Superior sent along the following note about an outing her husband, Mike, and the couple’s two oldest boys had the other day. I suspect the boys will remember that day for a long time.

Here’s Kirstie’s note:  “My husband, Mike, took our two oldest boys out in the woods a few weeks ago to retrieve his deer stands. Our three boys are outdoor boys and are fortunate to have had many experiences with nature. They have been fishing with my husband since they were old enough to sit up and hold a fishing pole! They were so excited to spend a few hours in the woods with their dad. They are always keen to the sights and sounds of animals and they had a great afternoon in the woods. They saw a beaver lodge, saw wolf tracks in the snow and heard wolves howling a short distance away.

“As they were making their way back to the truck, they stumbled on a once in a lifetime opportunity. They were walking along a small ravine when my husband noticed an opening in the earth. He casually mentioned to the boys that it looked like a bear den. He walked up to the opening, bent down to look inside and much to his surprise he saw the face a bear looking back at him! They walked away very quickly and quietly as they did not want to startle the groggy bear.

“They came home from the woods and told the story of the bear den over and over again as my youngest son and I listened to every detail. Last Sunday, we all walked into the woods to take a peek at the den. We quickly took a few pictures and as we did we heard little squeaks coming from the den. We did not see a cub but we are thinking that it is a mother bear with one or more cubs.”

And here’s a photo of the outdoor Zauhar boys: