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Yahoo
2 days ago
- General
- Yahoo
Minnesota DNR to offer 4 elk tags for 2025 hunting season
Jun. 10—ST. PAUL — The Minnesota Department of Natural Resources is offering four elk licenses this year — down from 10 in 2024 — and the tags will be limited to the Caribou-Vita area of northeast Kittson County, the DNR said Tuesday, June 10. Minnesota hunters have through Thursday, July 3, to apply for one of the four elk licenses, the DNR said. "We are reducing opportunities for elk harvest this year to make sure Minnesota's elk populations continue to thrive," Kelsie LaSharr, Minnesota DNR elk coordinator, said in a statement. "The number of permits available is based on the lower-than-expected number of elk we counted during our 2025 aerial flights and recent trends in population growth. "The DNR will continue to work with Tribal Nations, local landowners, agricultural producers, legislators, local government officials and state agencies to manage Minnesota's elk sustainably." The Red Lake Nation in March announced that it will offer 20 tribal elk tags in northwest Minnesota this year — double the number offered last year — for a season that will begin Sept. 15. Much of northwest Minnesota falls within an area covered by a treaty that Red Lake tribal leaders signed with the U.S. government on Oct. 2, 1863. As part of the 1863 Old Crossing Treaty, the Pembina and Red Lake bands of Ojibwe ceded some 11 million acres of land in northwest Minnesota and eastern and northeastern North Dakota to the U.S. government. There are currently three recognized herds in northwest Minnesota: Grygla, Kittson Central and Caribou-Vita. The Grygla area zone remains closed to state-licensed elk hunters, and this year, the Kittson Central zone will also be closed to state-licensed hunters. The Red Lake Band, meanwhile, will offer 10 "either-sex" tags good for either a bull or a cow elk and 10 "antlerless" tags, Jay Huseby, wildlife director for the Red Lake DNR, told the Herald in March. The band won't be taking any elk from the Grygla herd, which has lagged below management goals for more than a decade, Huseby said. The Minnesota DNR tallied 63 antlerless elk and 12 bulls in the Kittson Central herd near Lancaster in early January during its annual winter aerial survey. By comparison, the DNR counted 50 antlerless elk and 25 bulls in the Kittson Central herd during the 2023 survey. The DNR didn't fly the elk survey in 2024 because there wasn't enough snow to accurately spot elk from the air. All of the elk in the Caribou-Vita survey block, where the herd ranges between northeast Kittson County and Vita, Manitoba, were on the Canadian side of the border during the January 2025 survey. The DNR counted 128 antlerless elk and six bulls on the Manitoba side of the border. That was down from 227 elk — 96 in Minnesota and 131 in Manitoba — during the 2023 survey, but the DNR only surveyed the first 4 3/4 miles of Manitoba this year, LaSharr told the Herald in a February story, an area that represented about 25% of the Manitoba survey block. The DNR counted 18 antlerless elk and six bulls in the Grygla herd, down from 18 antlerless elk and 11 bulls in 2023. Minnesota hunters can apply for one of two seasons: * Two licenses are available to harvest either a bull or antlerless elk in the Caribou-Vita (Zone 30) during the A season, Saturday, Sept. 13, through Sunday, Sept. 21. * Two licenses are available to harvest an antlerless elk in the Caribou-Vita (Zone 30) B season, Saturday, Sept. 27, through Sunday, Oct. 5. This is a once-in-a-lifetime hunt for Minnesota residents. Successful applicants who choose not to purchase a permit will be eligible for future elk hunts and receive an application point toward their 10-year application history preference. Given the reduction in available state permits this year, no tags will be available for the 10-year application history pool or for eligible agricultural landowners who reside within elk range, the DNR said. Hunters must select a season and can apply individually or in parties of two at any license agent, online at or by telephone at (888) 665-4236. There is a nonrefundable application fee of $5 per hunter. Total license cost for selected applicants is $288. Successful hunters must present the animal within 24 hours of harvest for registration and collection of biological samples to screen for diseases or other health-related issues. In 2024, 4,307 individuals or parties (up to two people) applied for one of the 10 state-issued elk licenses, DNR statistics show. If a similar number of individuals or parties apply this year, the odds of drawing a tag would be about 0.093%, or 1 in 1,077. * On the web: More information is available on the DNR's elk hunting webpage at . For more on Minnesota's elk, check out the DNR's elk management webpage at .
Yahoo
29-03-2025
- General
- Yahoo
Brad Dokken: Red Lake Nation to offer 20 tribal elk tags for Kittson County hunt
Mar. 29—The Red Lake Band of Chippewa will offer 20 elk tags to tribal members — double the number of tags offered last year — for a season in northwest Minnesota that will begin Sept. 15 and continue through Dec. 31, the band announced last week. According to Jay Huseby, wildlife director for the Red Lake Department of Natural Resources, the Red Lake 1863 Ceded Territory Conservation Commission met Thursday, March 20, and developed the season framework for the tribal hunt. The band will offer 10 "either-sex" licenses that will allow tribal members to shoot either a bull or a cow elk, and 10 "antlerless" licenses. No elk will be taken from the Grygla herd, Huseby said; the Grygla elk herd has lagged below management goals for more than a decade. Much of northwest Minnesota falls within an area covered by a treaty that Red Lake tribal leaders signed with the U.S. government on Oct. 2, 1863. As part of the 1863 Old Crossing Treaty, the Pembina and Red Lake bands of Ojibwe ceded some 11 million acres of land in northwest Minnesota and eastern and northeastern North Dakota to the U.S. government. The North Dakota portion of the Ceded Territory, which extends nearly to Devils Lake, includes Pembina, Grafton and Grand Forks. The Red Lake Nation didn't exercise its treaty rights to hunt the ceded land until 2022, when the band held its first tribal elk hunt, offering five tags in northwest Minnesota. In addition to the 20 tribal elk tags, the band plans to offer three either-sex tags to nontribal private landowners with property within the 1863 Ceded Territory area, Huseby said. Details for the nontribal licenses are still being worked out, he said, but as with the tribal licenses, no elk harvest will be permitted from the Grygla herd, and season dates will be the same — Sept. 15-Dec. 31. In an interview with the Herald, Al Pemberton, director of the Red Lake DNR, said the decision to offer 20 tribal elk tags this year stems from the Minnesota DNR's agreement with the Fond du Lac Band of Lake Superior Chippewa to relocate 100 to 150 elk from Kittson County to northeast Minnesota over a period of several years. That hasn't sat well with the people of Red Lake. "Last year, we were going to (take 20), too, but (the state) kind of talked us out of it," Pemberton said. "What they're doing is trying to set up for doing that elk removal." The first relocation could happen as early as spring 2026. Pemberton has said the Red Lake Nation wasn't properly consulted on the relocation plan and was instead treated as an afterthought. He expressed his dissatisfaction with the relocation during a meeting Thursday, Feb. 13, at Fond du Lac Tribal and Community College in Cloquet, Minnesota. "You guys never confided in us, none of you," Pemberton said at the meeting, quoted in the Pine Journal, a Forum Communications newspaper. "All of a sudden we started hunting elk. All of a sudden Fond du Lac's coming to take some." While the Red Lake Nation is doubling the number of elk tags it offers this year, Pemberton says tribal leaders aren't yet expanding the hunt into the portion of North Dakota included in the 1863 Old Crossing Treaty. Parts of North Dakota elk units E1E and E5 fall within the Ceded Territory area. "We're looking at that, though — we're going to start looking at it," Pemberton said. "That's our treaty area all the way to Devils Lake. "Hopefully, we can get something worked out there. I mean, we're not going to go over there and (shoot all the elk) or anything. We'll work with (the Game and Fish Department) over there, too." The Minnesota DNR hasn't announced license numbers for the state elk season, but it stands to be lower than last year, when 10 tags were available and eight hunters filled their tags. "Based on the aerial survey results in January, we are below the legislatively limited population goals for two of the three herds, so our recommendations to our leadership were to reduce harvest compared to last year," Kelsie LaSharr, elk coordinator for the DNR in St. Paul, said in an email. "Our state elk lottery will likely open mid-May and close mid-June, but in the meantime our recommendations for state harvest are working their way through the DNR season setting and rulemaking process." During its annual winter aerial survey in early January, the DNR tallied 75 elk — 63 antlerless and 12 bulls — in the Kittson Central herd near Lancaster, Minnesota, and 24 elk — 18 antlerless and six bulls — in the Grygla herd. The Kittson Central count was unchanged from the last survey in 2023, while the Grygla number was down from 29 in 2023. All of the elk in the Caribou-Vita herd — which ranges between Vita, Manitoba, and the Caribou Township area in northeast Kittson County in Minnesota — were on the Manitoba side of the border during the January count. The DNR, under an agreement with Manitoba, counted 134 elk — 128 antlerless and six bulls — in an area that represented about 25% of the Manitoba survey block. * On the web: For more information on elk in Minnesota, check out the Elk Management page on the DNR website at
