Following successful 2024 deer hunt, East Grand Forks considers 2025 hunt
Mar. 25—EAST GRAND FORKS — The East Grand Forks City Council on Tuesday discussed details of what it would like to see in a 2025 special deer hunt.
The application for a special hunt through the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources opens in April. Following a successful hunt in 2024 and a still large deer population, the city is likely to hold another hunt this year. The archery hunt would occur in the same areas of the Greenway as it did last year, when hunters had a 60% success rate. A typical success rate is closer to
30% for these hunts, according to Parks and Recreation Superintendent Jeremy King.
"The fact that we hit 60% in nine, 10 days is pretty impressive," King told the council. "I can tell you that the day after the archery season closed, there were three vehicle accidents (with deer) on Bygland Road."
Issues with deer have been a long-fielded complaint from city residents, and with a mild winter, city staff say the number of deer is still healthy. Last year's hunt had 10 tags available — nine antlerless and one buck or antlerless permit, with preference given to city residents.
A total of 40 people applied for the tags, including 20 residents and 20 nonresidents.
Fifteen were invited to orientation following the tag lottery, including 10 hunters and five alternates. The council believes increasing the number of permits would be nice while hoping that some system can be put in place to ensure that all hunters get a chance to get a tag.
"I think going to 15 (tags), 12 antlerless and three bucks, we got six (successes) out of what we did before. I'd like to do a few more," council member Tim Riopelle said.
Council member Ben Pokrzywinski added that they should still keep the hunt open to nonresidents and potentially increase the tag options
"I would like to see the out-of-towners be eligible for a buck and potentially have a larger fee associated with that buck (tag)," Pokrzywinski said. "If the person got the buck, I think it's fair that they don't get the buck tag for a couple of years. But maybe if they win the lottery two years in a row and hit a deer both years, they're excluded for the third year."
Regarding setting limits on buck tags and who can get them, the council was mostly in agreement. Setting limits on antlerless tags prompted much more varied feelings, especially given the likely total number of archery hunters who live in the city.
"My concern was if you eliminate the people that got deer from doing the next year there's only so many people to draw from and it's going to be the same people all the time," council member Donald Casmey said.
The final details will be determined in April, once the city receives more information from the DNR about what it can and cannot regulate. There could also be a portion of the hunt that has permits restricted for the Wounded Warrior Project or an accessible hunt, but those details haven't been fully hashed out at this time.
In other news, the council:
* Discussed setting business licensing fees for cannabis businesses.
Guidelines from the state have been issued on what the city can charge for fees.
The council agreed that it would like to move forward with charging the maximum it can. Most businesses would have initial licensing fees between $250 to $500, with renewals being $500 to $1,000.
* Discussed purchasing playground equipment for the Griggs Park Trailhead. The playground has been one of the projects identified with
funds the city received from American Crystal Sugar's pollution violation fine.
The city has already received several thousand dollars in donations for the playground in addition to the pollution fine funds. Total construction is estimated at around $83,000 and the city still has $4,600 that would need to be funded for the playground.
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