The 14th Annual Governor’s Deer Hunting Opener
was held at Breezy Point Resort in Pequot Lakes, Nov. 3-5.
Festivities kicked off on Thursday when 140 local 5th
grade students participated in Youth Deer Day at Breezy Point Resort where they
visited six different activity stations throughout the day to learn about deer
populations and habitats, outdoor safety, ATV simulator, and shooting sports. Gov. Mark Dayton greeted the students,
answered questions and talked about his passion for duck and pheasant hunting.
 Christine Reisz, Brainerd area wildlife manager, talks to kids at the Outdoor Expo.
Later in the afternoon, the Outdoor Expo offered a wide
variety of vendor booths. The public was invited to participate in a
skill-building activity at each booth and earn points for a chance to win the
traveling Bad Ax Award. DNR Wildlife staff participated in the Outdoor Expo
with an information booth, and Regional Training Officer Mike Lee hosted the
popular Laser Shot game.
DNR Commissioner Tom Landwehr served as a celebrity food
judge as four local chefs competed in a venison cook-off with mystery
ingredients.
The event closed with a blaze orange group photo (above) and
celebration banquet where it was announced that Grand Rapids was selected to
host the 2017 Governor’s Deer Hunting Opener.
The DNR is closing the 1970s-era French River Hatchery on Lake Superior due to failing
infrastructure and excessive energy consumption.
The trout hatchery, north of Duluth, needs $8 million in capital
investment to address failing equipment. It also consumes 10 percent of the
energy used by the entire agency statewide.
Fisheries Chief Don Pereira
(pictured right) said the remaining fish production from French River will be continued
elsewhere.
“We remain strongly committed
to providing great fishing opportunities in Lake Superior and along the North
Shore,” Pereira said. “To provide the best fishing we can for anglers, we need
to be strategic about how we use energy, and we’re confident we can adjust to
meet angler needs with our remaining four hatcheries.”
Pereira said production of
Kamloops trout, which are raised at French River and stocked in Lake Superior,
will be moved to another hatchery. The Kamloops trout is a domesticated strain
of rainbow trout that cannot reproduce in the lake.
Four hatchery employees will be reassigned to positions at Lake Superior or Duluth area offices.
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A recent field trip to
Whitewater State Park near Rochester turned into more than a hypothetical
exercise when a group of 125 seventh graders from Plainview-Elgin-Millville
Junior High discovered an emerald ash borer (EAB) infestation in the park.
The find was confirmed by a DNR resource
specialist and reported to the Minnesota Department of Agriculture, which
oversees the state’s response to emerald ash borer.
It was the first time EAB has been confirmed
in the park, even though it has been found elsewhere in Winona County.
As the students examined trees in a
campground at the park, they noted several of them showed signs that might be
associated with EAB. But one in particular stood out. Each of the five groups
of students agreed that something was wrong with it, and when the last group of
the day peeked under the bark, they found the telltale s-shaped grooves left by
tunneling EAB larvae.
"I love it when my students get to see
how topics we discuss in class, like invasive species, show up as real issues
faced by scientists in the field,” said science teacher Amblyn Reisetter.
“We’ve been lucky the past five years to work with Whitewater staff who can
give my students these types of experiences in the field.”
Park naturalist Sara Holger talked to the
students about the discovery, and its implications.
With nearly a billion ash trees across the
state, Minnesota has much to lose in terms of both economics and aesthetics.
First found in Minnesota in St. Paul in 2009,
the pest has now spread to 14 counties, with the transport of infested firewood
the primary means of its movement.
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Renée Hartwig, who oversees the DNR's volunteer programs, recently received the 2016 Minnesota
Association for Volunteer Administration (MAVA) Mary Wiser Award for Excellence
in Volunteer Administration.
Colleen
Coyne, assistant administrator, OCO/OSD, nominated Hartwig for her
long-standing dedication to and expertise in the volunteer field, her
contribution to the state’s body of knowledge about volunteer management, and
her outstanding achievements.
Hartwig has worked in volunteer management since 1982 and
served as the volunteer administrator for the DNR for the past 28 years. Each year more than 22,000 volunteers donate
approximately 266,000 hours valued at $6.1 million to the agency.
 Renee Hartwig (left) and Colleen Coyne
"Renée does a remarkable job developing,
coordinating and managing the policies, procedures, recruitment, supervision,
training, and evaluation of volunteers within the structure of a state agency on
a tight budget," Coyne said.
Hartwig works with DNR
staff to answer their questions, train them, and guide them on the policies and
laws governing volunteer management. She
assists as needed with volunteer-related legislative issues, served as project
manager for the DNR exhibit at the Minnesota State Fair for many years and has
done training in volunteer management at conferences for MAVA and other
agencies in the U.S., Canada, and Europe.
DNR volunteers work in programs
such as citizen-science monitoring of loons, frogs and toads; habitat
enhancement for fish and wildlife and trail maintenance, firearms safety, angler and hunter mentoring, park interpretive programs and lake level monitoring
, to name a few.
Hartwig is now heading up a four-year initiative to improve volunteer safety training, volunteer
management training for staff, and on a renewed recruitment strategy using electronic
communications and centralized volunteer software.
Some DNR units are currently
piloting newly purchased software which enables us to register,
schedule and track the impact of volunteers across the state. Department-wide roll out of initiative tracks
are scheduled for fiscal year 2018.
 Fraud against the state of Minnesota, and other government entities, is an
expensive burden on taxpayers, resulting in:
- Increased cost of governmental service.
- Loss of public funds and resources
- Decreased confidence in public officials.
- Expenses associated with the investigation,
prosecution, and incarceration of people who commit fraud.
Three factors are usually present when ordinary people
commit fraud:
Pressure – Financial difficulties, addictions,
or relationship crises.
Rationalization – I deserve this, I don’t
get paid what I’m worth, or they’ve got plenty.
Opportunity – Lack of internal controls,
no segregation of duties, or lack of enforcement.
In cooperation with the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency and the Board of Water and Soil Resources, there will be two Skype
meetings where you can learn more about the topic on Thursday, Nov.
17. You may join either session.
11 a.m.-noon
Join Skype Meeting
1-2 p.m.
Join Skype Meeting
All state employees are key in helping prevent,
detect, and report fraud within state government. Visit Minnesota Management and Budget Office's fraud
awareness and prevention page for more information, including a short (3.31 min.) Fraud
Awareness video.
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If
you have a photo related to DNR field work, events or other subjects of
interest, send with a brief caption to newsletter.dnr@state.mn.us.
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