the outdoors

It happens all the time. A good idea gets a little traction and then, for a whole host of reasons, dies on the vine. This was what just about happened in the Adrian community when an Eagle Scout started a project to open an archery range about two years ago. The required approvals were received from the necessary government entities, but over the next few months the project was not completed, and…

When I came home way after sunset a few days back, I asked my gal Cindy Scott why I was always so beat every night. I knew the answer, but she added that if I ever stopped long enough to let my engine cool off, it might help. The past two months were great, and the upcoming two months are going to be great, but it means a lot more nights coming home beat. Opening Pheasant Hunting weekend starts…

The public lands in Minnesota are the heart and jewel of the Minnesota way of life. Many people move to Minnesota to immerse themselves in this way of life. Others wouldn’t consider living anywhere else because of it. Minnesota has great hunting, fishing, bird watching, canoeing and a lengthy list of other outdoor pursuits. At the heart of this lifestyle is our public lands. I call them citizen-…

Most hunters pay little attention to protecting their hearing from the loud blast of a shotgun. Rifle hunters, on the other hand, almost always wear substantial hearing protection. Some will even spend north of $1,200 to adapt their rifle to a suppressor, which is quiet enough not to require hearing protection. It the past I never wore hearing protection while hunting. I did not shoot enough…

Minnesota’s pheasant opener this year is Oct. 16, a week later than the normal opening weekend, cutting the season short by seven days. I have attended the Minnesota Governor’s Pheasant Hunting Opener for the past 10 years or so, but the jury is still out as to whether this is actually going to happen in 2021, so I made other plans. My Pheasants Forever chapter and I are now hosting a ladies-only…

It is mid-August and the past several free days and evenings have been spent doing public lands habitat improvements. These improvements have been in the way of spraying a leaf application brush killer on volunteer trees that for all practical purposes pollute grassland ecosystems. One tree here or one shrub there provides no wildlife value. In fact, they actually reduce the habitat quality and…

The first fall gunning season is only two weeks away. The fall hunting season starts with the mourning dove opener on Sept. 1. The mourning dove is the most numerous game bird in North America, and states have been hunting them for decades. When the season started in Minnesota more than a decade ago, it was a pretty big controversy. A segment of the population thought they should be left alone,…

Now is the time to grab a few boxes of shells and get your shooting eye tuned up for the dove season that starts on Sept. 1. Not everyone hunts doves, but a keen shooting eye will benefit every hunter, whether it’s ducks, pheasants, grouse or any other game on the wing. When I finally got serious about hunting winged birds, I was already about 25 years old, and now this outdoor activity has…

The headline of the Star Herald a few weeks back announced that a nearby community’s drinking water had levels of magnesium that were five times higher than what was safe for infants. It really doesn’t matter where in the state you live, this is becoming a far too frequent headline. There is a very old saying that “whiskey is for drinking and water is for fighting,” and water issues are now one…

Every time the United States Department of Agriculture announces additional acres for the CRP program, sportsmen and women across the country cheer. The federal Conservation Reserve Program pays farmers to take marginal cropland out of production and plant it to native grass and flower cover. Contracts range from 10-15 years with rental rates as high as $350 per acre per year and as low as $42…

With the increase in popularity of off-road recreational vehicles, I am seeing more and more side-by-sides running around the counites where I live. The units I am referring to are like 4-wheel-drive golf carts. Polaris Rangers and others made by Arctic Cat, Yamaha and Bombardier are all commonly seen in southwest Minnesota. I have seen many of these units that have had the off-road tires removed…

It is not very often that legislators call me. I call them regularly, but total solar eclipses are more common than a legislator calling me. About 20 years ago Sen. Jim Vickerman, a gentleman I really respected, called me about wolves, a subject that hardly ever comes up in the ag land zones of Minnesota. Wolves have been listed, then delisted, then listed again about a half dozen times over the…

Anglers that are most attentive to the littlest of details are the ones who normally have the biggest and best fishing stories to tell. I will give you just a few examples of ways that extra attention to detail can make a measurable difference in the day’s catch. The first would be the basics of fishing lines. Many casual anglers have one or two rod and reel combos that they use for every…

I recently made the seven-hour drive to Upper Red Lake in Minnesota. I figured this was about the 15th time I had made this annual trip to the best walleye fishing in North America. It is a father-son experience I cherish. For those of you who can remember back that far, the walleye fishing on Upper Red Lake collapsed from overnetting and to some extent overfishing by anglers back in about 2000.…

I never really figured out what I wanted to do after high school until I was about 28 years old. After graduation I took a few years off from schooling in the sales and marketing arena. I sold cars and then newspaper subscriptions. At age 28 I decided I wanted to be a regional fisheries manager for the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources. However, this would have required six more years of…

I recently spent a few days in western South Dakota shooting prairie dogs. This was a great trip and the subject of another column in the next few weeks. I was wondering what other kinds of creatures made a life on the grazed grasslands of this part of the state. As I was researching what those creatures might be, I came across a question that I just could not answer. “What is the difference…