New Property in Minnesota

[356]

With the closing of my in-laws estate, my wife and I now have 1/3 ownership of 45 acres in hunting unit 176 near Tower, MN. Her brothers don't hunt anymore, so the property is not hunted, at least from what I know. Growing up, my wife saw deer, bear and moose sightings regularly. Today, bear and wolf are frequent visitors to the property, but deer are rare visitors. The small river that goes into Lake Vermillion is stocked with brown trout.

We may go up this fall and put out a few solar trail cameras to see what shows up. At this point I doubt if it is worth getting an out of state tag for deer, but the idea of hunting bear in 2026 (the year I retire) holds some interest.


A house and greenhouse are just south of this photo. A highway is to the east and forest to the north & west.

 

[Foggy47]

Have you been on this property? Looks like lots of marsh around that creek. From what I have heard.....not many deer been taken in that neck of the woods these days. I'm sure there are exceptions. That area around Tower and Vermillion is quite wild and beatiful.

Getting a bear tag has become difficult around our area. My family has been applying.....but no dice. I'd like to get "rid" of some bears. Seems the DNR is managing for predators and not for game animals anymore. Deer and Moose have taken a backseat to wolves, coyotes and bears. IMHO. Then the DNR throws so much effort into things like Elk that can never have a decent huntable population as there is not the government land to allow them to prosper.....IMO.

I am just south of the heavy wolf country. Go 30 miles north of my place and there are likely more wolves than deer. Fortunately I just have coyotes and bears.....and the deer seem to survive most encounters.......so far.

I feel like Debbie Downer.

 

[356]

Have you been on this property? Looks like lots of marsh around that creek. From what I have heard.....not many deer been taken in that neck of the woods these days. I'm sure there are exceptions. That area around Tower and Vermillion is quite wild and beatiful.

Getting a bear tag has become difficult around our area. My family has been applying.....but no dice. I'd like to get "rid" of some bears. Seems the DNR is managing for predators and not for game animals anymore. Deer and Moose have taken a backseat to wolves, coyotes and bears. IMHO. Then the DNR throws so much effort into things like Elk that can never have a decent huntable population as there is not the government land to allow them to prosper.....IMO.

I am just south of the heavy wolf country. Go 30 miles north of my place and there are likely more wolves than deer. Fortunately I just have coyotes and bears.....and the deer seem to survive most encounters.......so far.

I feel like Debbie Downer.

You are not a Debbie Downer, just a realist whose observations support my research and knowledge of the property. I spent a lot of time on the property in the early 80s, but not recently. I saw some deer nearby when we were up in 2023. The hunting tradition ended about 30 years ago, in part due to less game, but mostly due to changes among family members. It is a beautiful area, with little—if any—management.

Management could be done with an ATV, chainsaw and seeders (or just a chainsaw). For this coming year I would like to get a few cameras running to see what is there.

For the long term there are two likely scenarios: We will buy off her brothers and keep this as a place for family. Our son spent his summers on the place in the from 1994 to 2001 and would love to have access to the property at some point. The other is to sell it (potentially to family) as we don’t plan on going up there often and hunting and fishing would be my objectives, which as a non-resident is pricy.

 

[Foggy47]

You are not a Debbie Downer, just a realist whose observations support my research and knowledge of the property. I spent a lot of time on the property in the early 80s, but not recently. I saw some deer nearby when we were up in 2023. The hunting tradition ended about 30 years ago, in part due to less game, but mostly due to changes among family members. It is a beautiful area, with little—if any—management.

Management could be done with an ATV, chainsaw and seeders (or just a chainsaw). For this coming year I would like to get a few cameras running to see what is there.

For the long term there are two likely scenarios: We will buy off her brothers and keep this as a place for family. Our son spent his summers on the place in the from 1994 to 2001 and would love to have access to the property at some point. The other is to sell it (potentially to family) as we don’t plan on going up there often and hunting and fishing would be my objectives, which as a non-resident is pricy.

Yep.....I became a resident of AZ some years ago. Before doing so, I bought a liftime hunting and small game license, and a lifetime deer firearms license. I cannot off-hand remember the price for a non-resident bear license, but it's quite high. Same goes for archery license. Not worth it to me. I'd rather bait for some family members or even strangers. I can do just fine without the archery license...as we are primarily gun hunters. Still.....I do not like to be "limited" out of a few situations on the Minnesota land I own. As a property owner and tax payer, I'd like some consideration on these issues. Who do you think is raising and caring for these critters? Alas...it is what it is.

If not for our family and hunting traditions.....I likely would let my property go to someone else. Lotsa work and expense for the rewards gained by owning such land.....especially as I get older. Still I enjoy the work most often.

 

[bwoods11]

Good luck up there… I love NE Minnesota . Here is a pic we took up by Lutsen last fall ! With my goofy BIL staging one pic !

 

[356]

I meet my wife in Hibbing and we lived in Minnesota for the first 10 years of marriage (minus two in Texas for grad school). Most of our time was in the Bigfork/Chisholm/Hibbing area, with three years spent in Hallock. For years we dreamed of retiring in Minnesota, but we’ve found four seasons of Missouri more to our liking. I do miss the quality lakes and fishing in the state, although I never had great success deer hunting in St. Louis and Itasca counties. It’s a beautiful state (although I’ll take the MDC over the DNR) with some great natural resources and people.

 

[bwoods11]

I meet my wife in Hibbing and we lived in Minnesota for the first 10 years of marriage (minus two in Texas for grad school). Most of our time was in the Bigfork/Chisholm/Hibbing area, with three years spend in Hallock. For years we dreamed of retiring in Minnesota, but we’ve found four seasons of Missouri more to our liking. I do miss the quality lakes and fishing in the state, although I never had great success deer hunting in St. Louis and Itasca counties. It’s a beautiful state (although I’ll take the MDC over the DNR) with some great natural resources and people.

I used to hunt by Hallock… some big bucks up in that area !

 

[356]

I used to hunt by Hallock… some big bucks up in that area !

And moose….I recall going with Curtis Nyberg, the county extension agent, on a call where a moose had crashed through a mobile home.

In 1989 while on a Sunday drive in early September my wife and I counted over 150 deer in a field about 5 miles west of Hallock. During our years in Hallock I was working two or three jobs and enjoying the time-limitations that come with three young kids while my wife was finishing college. I never hunted while we lived in Hallock (except once during the family hunt in Tower, MN).

 

[Ben.MN/WI]

I don't think the deer hunting in NE MN will be too exciting, but some chain saw work can improve things slightly. Making some brush piles and small openings will definitely improve the grouse, rabbit and snowshoe hare hunting if you enjoy those things. The fishing on Lake Vermillion is really good as well, so you are in a really nice area for just about everything (except deer hunting).

On the left side of your picture there appears to be a strip of high woods between the swamp on the right and the opening or swamp on the left. That looks like a nice funnel for wild game - I'd consider throwing a camera or two on trails that likely go through that bottleneck.

 

[356]

I don't think the deer hunting in NE MN will be too exciting, but some chain saw work can improve things slightly. Making some brush piles and small openings will definitely improve the grouse, rabbit and snowshoe hare hunting if you enjoy those things. The fishing on Lake Vermillion is really good as well, so you are in a really nice area for just about everything (except deer hunting).

On the left side of your picture there appears to be a strip of high woods between the swamp on the right and the opening or swamp on the left. That looks like a nice funnel for wild game - I'd consider throwing a camera or two on trails that likely go through that bottleneck.

It’s an opening to an old clearing that was logged, and is a great place for a camera. I seem to recall a critter path going through there. The fishing on Vermillion is great, as it is on several smaller public access lakes in the area. That one opening would make a good clover plot. The transition point near the swamp area is filled with berries bushes that bring the bears in through the end of the season.

I realize I missed applying for a bear take preference point by two weeks.

 

[356]

While going through photos, I found these taken during previous trips. I’m not sure when we’ll get to the property, but I hope it will be sometime this year.

 

[356]

Reading harvest reports and community listening session statements is depressing (as a deer hunter):

- Jessica Holmes, DNR Wildlife Manager, Tower Wildlife Areas, "The most dramatic declines could be found in Permit Areas (PA) 176, 177, and 178."
- David Lonsky, local hunter, "I’ve seen 9 wolves in 176 1 doe 1 fawn and hunted 11 days"
- Corey Paulson, "there are almost no deer in 176 have seen 9 wolves."

Yeap, that's the new property



While many sought to debunk this statistic, here is what the folks in Ely, MN (Voyager Wolf Project, a wolf advocacy group) released.

2022: We studied 6 wolves and so far (year of the study) they have killed 0, 2, 5, 6, 11, and 15 deer fawns for an average of 6 fawns/wolf (so far). The wolves that killed 11 and 15 fawns are breeding animals.

2021: We studied 6 wolves who killed 2, 4, 4, 4, 18, and 32 fawns for an average of 10.7 fawns per wolf. The wolves that killed 18 and 32 fawns were breeding animals. The other 4 wolves that killed 2-4 fawns were all yearlings.

2021: We studied 7 wolves. These wolves killed 6, 12, 14, 18, 22, 27, and 38 fawns for an average of 19.5 fawns per year.

 

[Ben.MN/WI]

It is easier to manage for grouse and rabbits in wolf country than deer. Grouse, rabbit/hare and woodcock hunting is world class in northern MN, so with a little chain saw time you could have a gem of a hunting property.

 

[SD51555]

Reading harvest reports and community listening session statements is depressing (as a deer hunter):

- Jessica Holmes, DNR Wildlife Manager, Tower Wildlife Areas, "The most dramatic declines could be found in Permit Areas (PA) 176, 177, and 178."
- David Lonsky, local hunter, "I’ve seen 9 wolves in 176 1 doe 1 fawn and hunted 11 days"
- Corey Paulson, "there are almost no deer in 176 have seen 9 wolves."

Yeap, that's the new property

View attachment 79263

While many sought to debunk this statistic, here is what the folks in Virgina, MN (Voyager Wolf Project, a wolf advocacy group) released.

2022: We studied 6 wolves and so far (year of the study) they have killed 0, 2, 5, 6, 11, and 15 deer fawns for an average of 6 fawns/wolf (so far). The wolves that killed 11 and 15 fawns are breeding animals.

2021: We studied 6 wolves who killed 2, 4, 4, 4, 18, and 32 fawns for an average of 10.7 fawns per wolf. The wolves that killed 18 and 32 fawns were breeding animals. The other 4 wolves that killed 2-4 fawns were all yearlings.

2021: We studied 7 wolves. These wolves killed 6, 12, 14, 18, 22, 27, and 38 fawns for an average of 19.5 fawns per year.

That is a crisis of abandonment. There are no stakeholders up there. Like I mentioned in that other thread, if there were 1000 hunting properties up there where capital and time was at stake, that wolf problem would be handled.

The public land hunter has the luxury of just leaving and having lost nothing but a weekend and some gas money.


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[SD51555]

If a person is invested, it’s much more difficult to just quit. Instead, we have to stay and fight floods, droughts, invasives, bad soil, poor habitat management in general. Many of us toil all year and at great expense to try to improve the habitat for animals we don’t own, and are nearly all shot by those that do less or nothing at all.

But we soldier on.

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[356]

While I do not anticipate hunting the property until 2026, I would like to get some cameras on the property. Two years ago there were bear on the property almost every day, along with lots of rabbits and raccoons. With the passing of my in-laws, the bears left as no-one is planting gardens or raising chickens. Their gardens were large, 1/2 acre plots that attracted bears, rabbits and raccoons. With a bachelor living on the homestead (bottom property), I doubt if there are gardens this year.