Sportsmen Take Action

The DNR has embraced whole-heartedly the goal of the Minnesota Legislature to have cattle on 50,000 acres of Wildlife Management Areas.  This seems to the agency to be an acceptable alternative to the normal controlled-burn practice with the idea of returning to a buffalo-like disturbed prairie of the past that will magically renew our public hunting grasslands. Each hunter should ask if these are going to become the lush grasslands the agency promises or will they simply become pastures for grazing operations subsidized by the public.

The State Legislature approved $600,000 in free cattle fencing for the DNR’s Conservation Grazing Program.   We have all at times hunted the edges of a farmer’s pasture and we have seen cattle-caused ruts and erosion.  Especially in wetlands, the hoof prints leave small craters like mini-volcanoes that turn concrete-hard and last for decades.  These areas become ankle-breakers and we hunters should be concerned and force the DNR to prove to a citizen-hunter task force that Conservation Grazing is really more beneficial than controlled burns.