the outdoors
By Scott Rall, outdoors columnistJanuary 25, 2021Winter finally looks like it has arrived. So far, the wildlife of Minnesota has had a pretty easy go of it due to unseasonably warm temperatures and not a lot of snow. Mild winters can benefit a whole host of different animals, but not all animals see those same benefits. What benefits some wildlife will negatively impact others. I have often wondered how different species survive deep snow and…
By Scott Rall, outdoors columnistJanuary 19, 2021Last week I wrote about the Environment and Natural Resources Trust Fund created by constitutional amendment back in the late 1980s when the Minnesota State Lottery was begun. It has done many good things but still funds too much research and not enough on the ground habitat and water projects for my complete satisfaction. About 20 years ago there was another movement started to create a special…
By Scott Rall, outdoors columnistJanuary 12, 2021When is the last time you bought a lottery ticket? For some it is at least a weekly occurrence and for others the answer might be never. I am not a big gambler by any means, but I do buy a Powerball ticket every once in a while. I have no doubt that I will never win any money, but the Minnesota lottery does do some very good things with the money I spend. When the lottery started in Minnesota,…
By Scott Rall, outdoors columnistDecember 28, 2020I am not a big Facebook follower, but I was checking out a post I made on our chapter’s local Nobles County Pheasants Forever Facebook site. As I was scrolling across the past few days on my regular feed, I saw a re-post from one of my longtime friends, Bob St Pierre, who is a Pheasants Forever national employee. He reposted a picture of a young gal who had taken up decoy carving. There are those…
By Scott Rall, outdoors columnistDecember 21, 2020About three years ago I purchased a used tractor to fill the need I had when implementing wildlife habitat projects. I chose poorly with little experience, but after several large repair bills the machine was up and running. As a result, I then needed a building to store it in, and a medium-sized pole barn shed was next on the list. I built it bigger than I thought I needed and again, I was…
By Scott Rall, outdoors columnistDecember 01, 2020So the opening weekend of the Minnesota pheasant season is here and gone and it took until 8 a.m. that following Monday morning for my phone to ring with questions regarding hunting etiquette on public lands. For sure there are different common-sense rules when it comes to interacting with other hunters who all want to hunt on the same parcel of public land at the same time. The recommendations…
By Scott Rall, outdoors columnistNovember 10, 2020The firearms deer season started in most of Minnesota on Nov. 7. In the southwest part of the state it runs for 11 days. Other regions have different dates and season lengths. I am a pretty serious deer hunter but have not harvested a deer in over 30 years. This by no means indicates that I have skipped the opportunity to buy a license and take part in the hunt for any of those three decades. I…
By Scott Rall, outdoors columnistNovember 03, 2020In previous columns I have advised keeping a cell phone in your pocket and telling others where you were going to hunt in case of an emergency. And I’ve also written about falling on a stick and ending up in the emergency room. Well, I have a different story that happened just a few weeks back that makes this all the more important. I hope my bad luck can drive home to you how important it is to…
By Scott Rall, outdoors columnistOctober 20, 2020For nearly 40 years I’ve purchased a deer license, but in that time I’ve harvested only about five deer. That’s because I get more enjoyment from watching others being successful than harvesting a deer for my personal use. Last year alone on a property I own, I mentored five kids 12 years of age or younger to their very first successful deer hunt. That makes my day and my season a success. One of…
By Scott Rall, outdoors columnistOctober 13, 2020So the opening weekend of the Minnesota pheasant season is here and gone and it took until 8 a.m. Monday morning for my phone to ring with questions regarding hunting etiquette on public lands. For sure there are different common-sense rules when it comes to interacting with other hunters who all want to hunt on the same parcel of public land at the same time. The recommendations that follow are…
By Scott Rall, outdoors columnistOctober 06, 2020I have been fortunate to be able to hunt upland birds all around the Upper Midwest for about the last 20 years. Many hunters will hunt in some years and skip other years if the bird numbers are not as high as they wished. There is lots of competition for time in the fall. There is great fishing, bow and gun hunting for deer, and ice angling in the later parts of November and beyond. I love doing…- By Scott Rall, outdoors columnistSeptember 15, 2020It was almost 35 years ago that I attended my first Pheasants Forever volunteer meeting on a Thursday night in January. I was about 26 years old. I had twins at home that were about a year old. It was mainly a bunch of older white guys all talking about what they could do to increase the number of pheasants so hunting them would improve. I spent my first 15 years with that outfit in the generic…
By Scott Rall, outdoors columnistSeptember 08, 2020I recently welcomed home my new puppy Ghost, a 7-week-old black Labrador puppy who is the son of my oldest dog, Tracer. Many people told me just how bad the first few weeks with a new puppy are. They are not totally off base. A new puppy that has spent the past seven weeks with his six other brothers and sisters now has to find out what being all alone is like. The reason that most puppies are…
By Scott Rall, outdoors columnistSeptember 01, 2020When I wrote about this subject matter 15 years ago for the first time, I almost got my head ripped off. Letters to the editor were a regular occurrence. Minnesota had not had a morning dove season for many decades, and in 2014 that opportunity was made available again by the Minnesota legislature. I had watched my dad hunt these plentiful birds in South Dakota as a kid, and I made a great bird…
By Scott Rall, outdoors columnistAugust 04, 2020My new Labrador puppy recently joined our family that already includes three Labradors at my house. They all live inside and are all topnotch pheasant hunting dogs. They are Tracer, age 8, Sarge, age 6, and Raider, age 4. My new puppy is called Ghost. My son served in the United States Marine Corp and we have had a bunch of dogs over the years with names coming from a military background. We…
By Scott Rall, outdoors columnistJuly 21, 2020As July races by, I was thinking that in only a few weeks I will be back on the road at sunrise for four days on four routes across the county that I live in. I waited for more than 20 years to have the opportunity to participate in the Minnesota DNR’s August roadside count program. This is a program that has been in existence since 1955. Wildlife personnel and members of the Minnesota…
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