Why not run trucks and ATVs in the spring over protected land, including nesting birds and threatened Blanding’s Turtle sites? How about frequent gunfire, running dogs, piles of dead captive birds, eroding shoreline, and the spontaneous creation of a boat launch on Barker Lake? That’s what The Minnesota Federation of Field Trial Clubs is doing in the new Wildlife Management Area (WMA), Keystone Woods, under a lease our DNR has granted. We need your help, to let the DNR know that this is not acceptable.
With expensive guns, dogs, and trucks, bird hunters with the nine clubs affiliated with the Minnesota Federation of Field Trial Hunting Clubs descend on the newly created Keystone Woods Wildlife Management Area (WMA), in Washington County, 39 minutes north-northwest of the St. Paul Sierra Club office. Not only are hunters training dogs and shooting captive-bred birds as well as native birds out of season on weekdays, but some weekend events attract as many as 600 hunters, their activities sometimes spilling over into trespassing on private land.
What is behind this trammeling? The Northern Flight Hunting Retriever Association has a lease for 336 acres of countryside from the DNR, running April through August 31st. A renewal request is expected. The Association presents harms to flora and fauna too numerous to list. Among them: ATV and gun noise drives animals away, and sadly, since no one wants to be near this kind of group, birders, hikers and lovers of nature, too.
A special lease for all these harms should not be renewed; this is certainly not appropriate in a WMA. Ideally, before July 25th, please contact DNR Commissioner Sarah Stromen Or, if you’re quick, you can mail her at:
Commissioner Sarah Strommen
Minnesota Department of Natural Resources
500 Lafayette Drive, St. Paul, MN 55155
Here is some possible language:
“I support the rule suggested by the Izaak Walton League and others to prohibit leasing of Keystone Woods WMA for dog training or trials. Thank you.”
(Your name, address, phone number, email.)
Please copy to your legislators, the MN House Natural Resources Committee, and the Pollinator Friendly Alliance.