Pheasant Prospects 2012

Well it has been a while since I have updated this blog, sorry bout that.

Well now that I am finished with that on to some good news. Recently the MN DNR published their August roadside survey and pheasant prospect map. It appears that the mild winter and drier summer has produced good results and that the pheasant population is starting to rebound from the previous years. There are still large swaths of poor area but unlike last year there are a few good areas instead of just the one near New Ulm. The fair areas have also expanded but as mentioned earlier there still is a large portion of poor areas.

Also this year I stopped at the DNR building at the MN State Fair and looked at the various offerings they had there. The best find was their printed "Wildlife Lands 2011" maps which are about the size of the state highway map but each one only covers half of the state. These show the location of all of the WMAs in the state and there is one for southern Minnesota as well as one for northern Minnesota. You can download them here:

• Wildlife Lands Southern Minnesota 2011
• Wildlife Lands Northern Minnesota 2011

Granted these maps don't show all of the various lands open to public hunting but do show the locations of WMAs and would be worthwhile to get a paper copy.

Also I was looking at the 2012 hunting & trappings regulations books and saw an advertisement for a free map of public hunting land in SW Minnesota, Marshal area, and took a look. It appears that the map is a cut down one of the DNR provided Wildlife Lands Southern Minnesota 2011 map. The only nice thing is that they have a google maps overlay to view the same info. It isn't great but it is better than nothing.

Archery Deer Locations

With Archery season under way for deer in Minnesota I decided to produce 2 maps showing the archery deer harvest. These 2 maps show the relative number of deer harvested per square mile. One of the maps is for bucks the other is for antler-less. The darker red the higher number of deer harvested per square mile. Data for these maps came from the MN DNR for the 1993-2005 harvests.

Antler-less Bow Harvest:
Buck Bow Harvest:

Google earth

While looking at the Minnesota DNR website recently I discovered that they now have some data file available for Google earth. If you do not know what Google earth is it is a program that you install on your computer from Google that allows you to have a Google maps style program that shows a lot more information and you can turn different layers on and off. If you would like to get Google Earth you can get it from Google's web site here. The download for the free version is in the upper right of the page.

Once you have Google earth you can download from the MN DNR website some files that add additional layers. The layers that I know the MN DNR provides is one for WMAs that include information on the WMA size, boundary, parking and name. The other layer that the MN DNR has is one for what they call hunter walking trails. These are trails that go through state forests and WMAs that hunters can use. You can find additional information on these files that the following MN DNR web pages and also download the files there.
hunter walking trails:
page: http://www.dnr.state.mn.us/hunting/hwt/index.html
Data for Google maps: http://files.dnr.state.mn.us/outdoor_activities/hunting/hwt/mndnr_hwt.kmz

WMAs:
page: http://www.dnr.state.mn.us/wmas/index.html
Data for Google maps: http://maps.dnr.state.mn.us/compass/wma/kml/mndnr_wmas.kmz

Below is a quick screen capture from Google earth running on my computer (only actual image generated, none of the program) that shows one of the WMAs near McGregor (outlined in red), MN along with one of the hunter walking trails (the yellowish line in the WMA labeled "North Access Trail"). Also in the are is a national wildlife refuge outlined in green. To see a higher resolution version click on the image.