state hunting land

Just got back form my last pheasant hunting outing for the year. We decided to go to a place that I haven’t be to for four or five years. I have driven by it once in a while every year. Thinking I need to go back. We got there and seen the DNR has be there and seen that they had taken a brush hog to almost all the willows and dog wood brush. They used a bulldozer and pushed over a area that had cedar trees spread over a meadow. They cut down almost all over the cover that holds pheasants except the cattails.
This is not a small place (300 to 350 acers) that held a lot of pheasants over the years almost 2 hours of walking and didn’t see a single bird.

This has happened to 3 or 4 spots that I like to hunt in the past couple of years.
They are not subtle with what their trying to do out there.

Just wait, next year they will probably rent it to a farmer to plant corn.
Several years ago they did just that. Rented out for a couple years and started over. Such a waste.

is that in the Osakis area??? seen some things on and that could have been it…

No it’s the Litchfield area. This isn’t the first one they have done around 10 over the last 5 years.

Yeah I seen it a bunch on state land. I’ve asked about it, and I guess the thought is that tall trees are not good for bird pops. Hawks and owls and maybe other predators use them to hunt pheasants. When they mow the willow clumps, that’s a mystery to me. I would love to talk to a wildlife manager about it.

did you reach out to them and ask what they are doing? the DNR has been incredibly responsive when I reach out to them and ask them questions specific to my area. I just emailed a fisheries guy yesterday as I’m planning a spring BWCA trip and the guy got back to me with an incredible amount of info in only a couple hours.

That sounds like the fish and wildlife service on a WPA, not state land. I used to work in the litchfield office and the goal of a WPA or waterfowl production area is waterfowl production because the land is bought with duck stamp money. Trees and the birds that perch on them are bad for duck production, prairie grass is good for duck production. Pheasants are not the intended species.

The regeneration in a few years will probably end up being good for pheasants too. Stagnant grown up willows and cedars end up being pretty useless for much of anything if it gets ignored for too long.

If it’s the spot I’m thinking of. It is a WMA owned by the state.

Yeah I agree I’m assuming. Sure could be wrong.

Mike Schulz wrote:

is that in the Osakis area??? seen some things on and that could have been it…

That Osakis WPA being bulldozed is a major bummer. Destroyed some amazing bedding for deer and the pheasant numbers are non-existent this year. I would assume they took all the cattails out so they could open up some of the ponds. The raptors are still unimpeded. Almost went full Karen and called up the local DNR office. cOnSeRvAtIoN

Really pisses me off the state claims to be buying land with parts of our License fees just to turn around and have it clear cut logged for the cash. Turns a great piece of land into a Cluster F for the next 10 to 15 years.
Just another Govt service…

I worked with a friend who does work for the DNR one summer on a project like that by Alexandrea. Everything but oak trees were removed. Theres a bunch by my house that they cut and burn alot trying to get it back to native grasses. Wouldnt have been willows and cedars in it

It really depends on what species they are catering for…
We have many wildlife areas here west of Alexandria that they cut down all trees and piled them high. Just left the piles??
One closer to me, they even made little spots to hold water in the spring. All the while there is nothing but crappy non-native grass that is less than a foot high that holds no birds?

I get the idea of removing tall trees to slow down the raptors taking pheasant and ducks, but clearing out the red oiser dogwood or russian olive wind breaks doesn’t make a lot of sense.
Piling all the trees in a pile for a few years just gives the raccoons and other predators a nice winter den.
I still have no idea why they plowed up a decent grassland for a weedfree cornfield either.
This was in Lincoln county, prime pheasant/ duck country.

brandyman wrote:

All the while there is nothing but crappy non-native grass that is less than a foot high that holds no birds?

And then we have an annual summer drought on top of that, so the grass doesn’t grow.

What species they are catering to OR what there end goal is. If it is to restore the land back to natural, pre-settlement, then yeah a lot of the tree species present now aren’t native to the area. Agencies follow the Marschner’s map for pre-settlement land types. A lot of Oak Savana and Maple-Basswood in the cites transitioning to upland prarie/wetlands to the Dakota’s.

Remember, Pheasants are a introduced species from China. Not saying we should get rid of them.

Need to know what type of land it is (WMA, WPA, state etc.), and then reach out to the appropriate party for the reasoning. As previously stated they are very responsive once you get to the right group managing it. I live by a WMA and they routinely are tilling it up or burning it off every August for 4 years straight. This is due to trying to restore the prairie grasses and native flowers. Very frustrating as it goes from full of life, to none. The burning isn’t as bad, as the tilling it over is imo.

This is state land it is southwest of Rosendale. I do under stand the trees and controlling the willow and dogwood but not all of it. They did take advantage of the drought the last two years they really raised hell with them around here.