Deer hunters asked to participate in NW Minnesota late-season hunt

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As part of Minnesota’s effort to eradicate bovine tuberculosis in northwestern Minnesota, hunters can participate in a special late-season deer hunt from Saturday, Dec. 26, through Sunday, Jan. 10, in deer permit area 101.

“This hunt is another opportunity for hunters to actively help us meet our disease sampling goal,” said Lou Cornicelli, big game program coordinator for the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources (DNR).
“We always have relied on our hunters as the primary methods of meeting our surveillance goals and want them to participate.”

Rules governing the special hunt allow hunters to:

Take an unlimited number of deer of either sex.
Tag deer of either sex with any remaining unused tags from the 2009 season including bonus and disease management permits.
Use any archery, firearm or muzzleloader 2009 license and any bonus, disease management or early antlerless permit.
Purchase additional disease management permits for $2.50.
Hunters must have a license and use the legal weapon for that license.
People with an archery license, for example, cannot hunt with a firearm.
New or replacement licenses may be obtained at any DNR license agent.

All deer harvested during the special hunt must be registered at one of the following registration stations during regular business hours:

Olson Skime Store in Skime.
Riverfront Store in Wannaska.
DNR offices at Thief Lake or Red Lake wildlife management areas.
There will also be collection barrels placed at these locations.
Hunters can drop off a deer head if staff is not available to collect a sample.
For more information on Minnesota’s bovine TB eradication efforts, visit http://mndnr.gov/bovinetb and http://mntbfree.com.