Floods, wildlife diseases and snowmobiles all made outdoors headlines in 2022
Dec. 30—GRAND FORKS — The year started with snow — a welcome turn of events, after severe drought in 2021 — and ended with snow, in both cases raising concerns about the harsh weather's impact on wildlife.
In the end, all that snow turned out to be too much of a good thing. If 2021 was the Year of the Drought, 2022 was the Year of the Floods.
There was plenty of other activity on the outdoors front in 2022, as well. Canada's loosening of border-crossing regulations was welcomed by many outdoors enthusiasts, while wildlife diseases continued to make headlines.
Here's a look back at some of the key outdoors issues and happenings that showed up in the Herald and on its website in 2022.
Plans were beginning to fall into place for a project to remove the lowhead Drayton Dam
on the Red River and replace it with a rock-riffle structure that accommodates fish passage and is safer to humans. All of the dams on the U.S. portion of the Red River will accommodate fish passage when the project is complete sometime in 2023.
An ice road across Lake of the Woods from Springsteel Resort north of Warroad, Minn., to the Northwest Angle opened for the season, allowing travelers to reach the Angle without driving through Canada and submit to the country's vaccination and testing requirements for COVID-19, which were still in place.
The road would be short-lived because of persistent snow and wind, and developers of the road scrapped the project
a couple of weeks later.
Extreme snow and cold was beginning to raise
concerns about winter's impact on wildlife
in both North Dakota and Minnesota.
The Minnesota DNR announced it would be
listing the burbot as a game fish
in the 2022 fishing regulations booklet.
While strict COVID-19 border-crossing regulations remained in place,
Canada's beleaguered tourism industry was beginning to show signs of life
as camps and lodges anticipated their first full summer of business since 2019.
Twin brothers
Marty and Scott Glorvigen of Grand Rapids, Minn., were featured as inductees into the Minnesota Fishing Hall of Fame
for their accomplishments as tournament anglers and businessmen and in outdoor communications.
The Minnesota DNR was proposing a new bear hunting unit specifically for the Northwest Angle, saying it would offer more flexibility in setting bear permit quotas for the area while offering more recreational opportunity.
The proposal drew opposition from the Red Lake Band of Chippewa,
which owns a large portion of the Northwest Angle.
The North Dakota Game and Fish Department announced it would ban baiting for deer hunting in Unit 2B
along the Red River after chronic wasting disease was found in November 2021 on the Minnesota side of the river near Climax. Game and Fish implements baiting restrictions in any hunting unit that falls within 25 miles of a CWD detection.
Joe Henry, executive director of Lake of the Woods Tourism, was named "Tourism Professional of the Year"
by Explore Minnesota Tourism. In addition, the Riverbend Skate Path in Warroad, Minn., received the #OnlyinMN Award.
The North Dakota Game and Fish Department announced it would offer
810 any-deer bow licenses for nonresident archery hunters
in 2022. The number available each year is based on 15% of the previous year's mule deer gun license allocation.
Willie Ewing of Becker, Minn., logged 2,125.04 miles
in 24 hours on Lake of the Woods to set a pending world record for the farthest distance traveled on a snowmobile in 24 hours. Ewing drove a 1,000cc Arctic Cat ThunderOne snowmobile for 202 laps around a 10-plus-mile course set up north of Wheelers Point.
Canada announced it would drop its COVID-19 testing requirement
for fully vaccinated travelers entering the country, effective Friday, April 1.
North Dakota's bighorn sheep herd set a population record of 335 in 2021,
up 4% from 2020 and 15% above the five-year average, the Game and Fish Department reported.
The Game and Fish Department received 19,426 applications for bighorn sheep
licenses, 23,427 for elk and 26,038 for moose, Game and Fish reported. The department was offering 563 elk licenses and 404 moose licenses for the 2022 season. The bighorn sheep lottery was scheduled for September after summer populations were complete and total license numbers determined.
A highly contagious strain of
avian influenza was hitting snow geese and raptors
especially hard in North Dakota.
The North Dakota Game and Fish Department announced it would offer 64,200 deer gun licenses
for the 2022 hunting season, down 8,000 from 2021.
Rising water levels, fed by high flows and record April precipitation, were beginning to cause
concern throughout the Rainy River-Lake of the Woods Watershed.
The problem would persist throughout much of the summer.
Students at the University of Minnesota Crookston marked their 40th year
of planting trees in Chippewa National Forest under a partnership with the U.S. Forest Service.
Sturgeon — dozens upon dozens of them — were observed spawning in the upper Otter Tail River.
The spectacle marked the first verified sighting in more than 100 years
of lake sturgeon actively spawning in the Red River Basin.
Mule deer numbers in western North Dakota
were up 13% from 2021 and 34% above the long-term average, the Game and Fish Department said in reporting results from its annual spring mule deer survey.
A trio of 69- and 70-year old women — Deb White of Rosemount, Minn.; Deb Knutson of Owatonna, Minn.; and Anne Sherve-Ose of Williams, Iowa — paddled through Grand Forks on the first leg of a three-year canoe trip that would take them from Lake Traverse to Hudson Bay.
"The Ladies from the River," as they came to be known on the Red,
paddled to the Canadian border and would resume the trip on the Manitoba side of the Red River in 2023.
Breeding duck numbers in North Dakota were up 16%
from 2021 at 3.4 million birds, the Game and Fish Department said in reporting results from its 75th annual spring breeding duck survey.
North Dakota's
spring pheasant crowing counts were down 22%
statewide from 2021, the Game and Fish Department reported. Biologists attributed the decline to drought conditions that resulted in below-average production during the summer of 2021.
The Minnesota DNR, with assistance from the North Dakota Game and Fish Department, wrapped up a
comprehensive survey of fish populations on the Grand Forks portion of the Red River.
The DNR has sampled the Red River every five years since 1990 but a survey originally scheduled for 2020 was delayed until 2022 because of the pandemic.
Businessman, entrepreneur and extreme sports enthusiast
Paul Menta of Key West, Fla., launched a fund drive to benefit Key West and the Northwest Angle,
communities united by the monuments that commemorate their locations as the southernmost and northernmost points of the Lower 48. The fundraiser would benefit a homeless shelter in Key West and help the Northwest Angle school purchase sports equipment.
Kyle Agre of Fargo, a longtime member of the F-M Walleyes fishing club, was
inducted into the North Dakota Fishing Hall of Fame
for his efforts to promote fishing in the state.
A total of 47,020
North Dakota pheasant hunters shot 259,997 roosters in 2021,
down 18% and 21%, respectively, from 2020, the Game and Fish Department said.
The Minnesota DNR was beginning to fill vacancies
after the state lifted a hiring freeze implemented during the early stage of the COVID-19 pandemic. Among the hires were new assistant wildlife managers in Baudette and at Thief Lake Wildlife Management Area.
The Minnesota DNR and the North Dakota Game and Fish Department had both scheduled meetings
to discuss chronic wasting disease. The DNR scheduled meetings in Crookston and Grand Rapids, while Game and Fish meetings were set for Fargo, Dickinson and Minot.
The Red Lake Band of Chippewa announced it would offer an elk hunt off-reservation
in the area covered by the Old Crossing Treaty signed with the U.S. government on Oct. 2, 1863. The tribe was offering five tags for the inaugural hunt on ceded lands in northwest Minnesota.
Thirteen-year-old angler Noah Moss of Aitkin, Minn., was featured for landing
monster muskies measuring 51 3/4 and 54 inches
during an August family fishing trip to Lake Plantaganet near Bemidji.
The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service estimated continental breeding duck populations at 34.2 million,
down 12% from the 2019 estimate of 38.9 million and 4% below the long-term average since 1955, conservation group Ducks Unlimited said in reporting survey results. Because of the pandemic, the last report was released in 2019.
Epizootic hemorrhagic disease, a viral illness that ravaged deer populations
along parts of the Missouri River and localized areas of the northern Red River Valley in 2021, didn't appear to be much of an issue in 2022, the Game and Fish Department said.
The North Dakota Game and Fish Department released a new CWD management plan
as part of its ongoing efforts to mitigate the spread of the disease that is fatal to deer, elk and moose. The new plan takes effect in 2023, replacing a plan that had been in place since the early 2000s.
Madison Eklund, who lived in Grand Forks from 2018 until late August 2022, was featured after completing
a 1,600-mile solo kayak trek from the Twin Cities to York Factory, Manitoba,
on Hudson Bay. In the process, she became the first person — male or female — to complete the expedition alone.
Minnesota artist
Joseph Hautman won the 2022 Federal Duck Stamp Contest
with a painting of three tundra swans flying over a wetland. It was his sixth time winning the contest.
Richard "Skittles" Larson completed a 5,000-mile hiking trek
from Key West, Fla., to Minnesota's Northwest Angle. Larson averaged about 16 miles a day during the trek, which began Nov. 23, 2021.
The North Dakota Game and Fish Department was predicting
a better outlook for hunters when the state's pheasant season opened
Saturday, Oct. 8. Severe drought hampered pheasant production in 2021.
A survey by a North Dakota Game and Fish Department fisheries crew in Devils Lake showed
fish populations in Wood Lake in Benson County were holding up quite well after an August fish kill.
The die-off occurred after a blue-green algae bloom depleted oxygen levels and killed hundreds of fish.
Elk hunting success in northwest Minnesota was down
from 2021. In Zone 20 near Lancaster, 15 of 28 hunters filled their tags for a success rate of 54%, down from a success rate of 82% in 2021.
A video documenting an incident between a group of waterfowl hunters and an irate landowner
in North Dakota's Eddy County
went viral on YouTube,
eventually drawing more than 2.4 million views. Jeffrey Ermer, 69, Bismarck, and Dustin Wolf, 23, of West Fargo,
both would be charged for their roles in the incident.
Minnesota's deer harvest during the opening weekend of the firearms deer season
was down 19% from the 2021 opener, but hunting success bounced back the second weekend, the DNR said. Hunters had registered 110,435 deer through the first nine days of season, down 11% from 2021 and 17% below the five-year mean.
Ontario's Ministry of Natural Resources and Forestry was proposing a reduction in walleye limits on the Ontario side of Lake of the Woods
in response to concerns about high harvest rates and declining walleye biomass. Under the proposal, anglers could keep a daily limit of 2 walleyes with a sport license or 1 walleye with a conservation license. A 60-day comment period opened Nov. 10 and was set to continue through Jan. 9, 2023.
Walleye abundance in Minnesota waters of Lake of the Woods
was slightly below management goals, the result of a series of weak hatches in 2012, 2017 and 2019, the DNR said in sharing results from its annual September population survey.
A bill that would strip the North Dakota Game and Fish Department of its authority to ban baiting for deer as a way to mitigate the spread of CWD
was rumored to be in the works when the North Dakota legislative session begins Jan. 3.
A request by the Red River Snowmobile Club to add 7.2 miles of groomed snowmobile trail
in the Grand Forks Greenway developed into a hot-button issue, raising debate about whether the public green space was for everyone or just for hiking, biking, cross-country skiing, birdwatching and other nonmotorized use.
The Minnesota DNR added Deer Permit Area 184 near Bemidji
to the list of areas set for a late-season CWD management hunt after a deer shot south of Bemidji during the firearms deer season tested positive for the disease.
The Minnesota DNR released its new wolf management plan,
which generally supports the state's current wolf population while allowing for potential hunting and trapping seasons if numbers rise.
