Outdoors Notebook: North Dakota high school clay target tourney underway
Jun. 14—HORACE, N.D. — The
2025 North Dakota State High School Clay Target League State Tournament
got underway Friday, June 13, and is scheduled to continue through June 15 at The Shooting Park in Horace, North Dakota. In a news release, the USA High School Clay Target League said 1,562 students representing 97 high school teams from across North Dakota are scheduled to participate.
This spring, 2,347 students representing 107 high school teams across the state participated in the North Dakota State High School Clay Target League. The league is a part of the USA Clay Target League, which offers high school and college programs across the country.
The top students in the country this season will be eligible to compete at the
USA High School Clay Target League National Championship,
set for July 9-13 in Mason, Michigan.
WASHINGTON — U.S. Sens. Kevin Cramer, R-North Dakota, and Angela Alsobrooks, D-Maryland, sent a letter this week to Secretary of the Army Dan Driscoll and Commanding General of the Army Corps Lt. Gen. William H. "Butch" Graham, highlighting the need for immediate action to address the staffing shortfalls at recreation sites managed by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers.
According to a news release from Cramer's office, Corps-managed recreation sites across the country face reduced hours or full closures after a hiring freeze that the U.S. Department of Defense implemented Feb. 28. The freeze restricts the Corps from hiring the seasonal staff needed to safely manage boat ramps, campgrounds and swimming areas. The Corps has requested Secretary Driscoll use his waiver authority to allow seasonal hires.
Dated June 11, the letter from Cramer and Alsobrooks urges the Army to approve a waiver request from the Corps, allowing it to bring on seasonal workers. Under current policy, the secretary of defense has authorized service secretaries to grant waivers for positions essential to public safety.
Cramer and Alsobrooks are chairman and ranking member, respectively, of the Senate Environment and Public Works Transportation and Infrastructure Subcommittee.
"Every year, outdoor recreation contributes more than $1 trillion to the economy and supports over 5 million jobs," the senators wrote. "Limiting access to Army Corps recreation sites hampers this economic engine and has adverse impacts on communities who depend on the reliable summer influx of visitors. However, this is about much more than merely the economic implications. Outdoor recreation is a way for people to engage with nature, spend quality-time with family, and boost their physical and mental health."
If the waiver authority is not utilized, several Corps-managed recreation areas in North Dakota will be partially or fully closed for the summer season due to staffing shortages, according to the news release from Cramer's office. This includes the East Totten Trail and Wolf Creek at Lake Sakakawea, Beaver Creek and Hazelton at Lake Oahe and East Ashtabula Crossing, Eggerts Landing and West Ashtabula Crossing at Lake Ashtabula.
BISMARCK — North Dakota state law requires youth ages 12 to 15 to pass the state's boating basics course in order to operate a boat or personal watercraft with at least a 10-horsepower motor by themselves.
According to a news release from the North Dakota Game and Fish Department, the course is available for home-study from
the department
at gf.nd.gov. Two commercial providers also offer the course online, and links to those sites are on the
boat and water safety education page
of the Game and Fish website at gf.nd.gov.
While the home-study course is free, there is a fee to take it online, the department said. The online provider charges for the course, not the Game and Fish Department. The fee remains with the online provider.
The course covers legal requirements, navigation rules, getting underway, accidents and special topics such as weather, rules of the road, laws, life saving and first aid, the department said.
CORVALLIS, Ore. — New research strongly suggests policymakers should view outdoor recreation spaces not as luxuries but as essential public health infrastructure, according to a news release from Oregon State University.
Led by Oregon State scientists, the study analyzed behavior and well-being during the COVID-19 pandemic and found that outdoor recreation's mental health benefits were significant and measurable.
The research, published in
PLOS One
, is part of the Play2Cope project led by OSU's
HEAL
research lab, which has been investigating
leisure engagement patterns
among U.S. adults during the pandemic.
Xiangyou (Sharon) Shen directs the lab, which collected data through an online survey from a sample representative of the adult population by age, sex and race in early 2021, a period characterized by the peak of the second wave of COVID-19 cases and an early stage of vaccination rollout.
"The new study, along with another from our group published six months earlier in
SAGE Open
, provides a comprehensive picture of how Americans engaged in and adapted their outdoor recreation behaviors during one of the most challenging periods in recent history," said Shen, an assistant professor in the OSU College of Forestry.
The researchers learned that reduced outdoor recreation was directly associated with higher levels of perceived stress and depressive symptoms, while more frequent outdoor activities predicted better well-being.
According to the OSU news release, the research found that 68% of survey respondents said near-home activities such as walking and gardening were their most frequent outdoor recreation, compared with just 32% engaging in traditional outdoor sports or nature-based activities. Walking accounted for 57% of all reported outdoor recreational activities.
Colby Parkinson, now a doctoral student at Penn State, helped lead the research while finishing his studies at Oregon State. The project also included Oregon State's Megan MacDonald, Sam Logan and Lydia Gorrell and Kreg Lindberg of OSU-Cascades, the news release indicated.
ST. PAUL — The Minnesota Department of Natural Resources K9 Unit has expanded by four dogs and handlers. In a news release, the DNR said the expansion has increased its ability many times over to detect aquatic invasive species, locate lost people, detect possible game and fish violations and assist local law enforcement agencies with their evidence-detection needs.
Following several months of intensive training, the four teams earned their detection certification in late May and doubled the number of DNR dog/handler teams working throughout Minnesota. The newly certified teams include:
* CO Cassie Block and K9 Jet, currently stationed in Willmar but will be stationed in Two Harbors beginning later this month. K9 Jet's previous handler, Adam Seifermann, recently accepted a promotion to lieutenant/supervisor.
* CO Dustin Roemeling and K9 Cora, stationed in Worthington.
* CO Annette Schlag and K9 Trapper, stationed in Rochester.
* CO Jake Swedberg and K9 Axel, stationed in Detroit Lakes.
All the new dogs are trained in detection (including for zebra mussels), article and evidence search, tracking and obedience. They join the K9 Unit's other teams:
* Unit leader Capt. Phil Mohs and K9 Mack, stationed in the metro area.
* CO Mike Krauel and K9 Bolt, stationed in Mora.
* CO Mike Fairbanks and K9 Fennec, stationed in Deer River.
* CO Luke Gutzwiller and K9 Earl, stationed in Montevideo.
"I'm thankful for all the work these dogs and handlers have done and am really excited for them to join the team and enhance our ability to protect Minnesota's people and natural resources," Mohs, the unit leader, said in a statement. "Our dogs have an integral role in achieving our overall mission of ensuring the generations of Minnesotans that come after us have the same or better opportunities than we do today."
Compiled from news release material.
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