Family-Outdoors

Hunters need park-specific permit to hunt those parks; other parks are open to any hunters MADISON - Turkey hunters interested in hunting in a Wisconsin state park during the 2014 Wisconsin spring turkey hunting season should note that the 16 state parks that were open to spring turkey hunting prior to 2014 are still designated as special turkey hunting zones. "To hunt in the 16 state parks with designated turkey zones, a person must have a turkey hunting permit that is issued specifically for that zone," said Scott Loomans, wildlife regulations specialist for the Department of Natural Resources. "The 2012 law opening state park properties to hunting did not eliminate the established state park turkey zones that are set in current administrative codes." State park spring turkey zone permits are issued through the same permit application process as permits for regular turkey zones. Hunters had to apply for those permits by the Dec. 10 application deadli...

The Minnesota Department of Natural Resources (DNR) reminds waterfowl hunters that some fields are considered baited and off limits to waterfowl hunting.  Due to the wet and cold spring, some farmers were not able to plant a normal crop for harvest. Instead they worked with their insurance companies or the U.S. Department of Agriculture and Natural Resources Conservation Service office to plant a cover crop.  “These cover crops were never intended for harvest and are now being disced, tilled or plowed. The food sources such as oats, which were a common cover crop, are now an attractive food source for ducks and geese,” said Lt. Dean Olson, DNR enforcement district supervisor in Rochester. Olson noted these fields are considered baited and off limits to waterfowl hunting. Federal regulations define a baited area “as any area on which salt, grain, or other feed has been placed, exposed, deposited, distributed, or scattered, if that salt, grain, or other feed...