MINNEAPOLIS — On the day before Thanksgiving, Cole Wagaman awoke uncertain whether he would hunt ducks. He lives in Kasson, in southern Minnesota, and the wind was whipping snow out of the northwest at 30 miles an hour, with a temperature in the mid-20s.

If he did hunt, he wouldn’t take along his golden retriever, Nellie, he knew that.

Too...Read more

PITTSBURGH — More than a foot of snow has blanketed many areas where local birds look for food.

"So if you have been feeding birds this winter, don't stop when conditions are at their worst," says Kenn Kaufman, a national bird author and artist who visits Pittsburgh regularly.

In the run-up to the Pittsburgh region's biggest snowfall in 16 ...Read more

MINNEAPOLIS — Ron McNamara is no Huck Finn. But McNamara, like Huck, knows something about nighttime travel on the Mississippi River.

“If you think it ain’t dismal and lonesome out in a fog that way by yourself in the night, you try it once — you’ll see," Huck said in Mark Twain’s, “The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn.”

McNamara...Read more

MINNEAPOLIS — Managers of the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness say they will extend stricter food storage requirements for visitors, noting the rules have reduced encounters with black bears over the last two years.

The order was set to expire this spring, but now will be enforced for another five years, the U.S. Forest Service announced...Read more

BOSTON — Will Sundays no longer be peaceful days of rest for deer in the Bay State?

State wildlife officials are looking into expanding deer hunting opportunities, as they gather public input on Sunday hunting, crossbow hunting and minimum setback distances for hunting.

Massachusetts is one of only two states with an outright ban on Sunday ...Read more

MINNEAPOLIS — The Department of Natural Resources is moving ahead with its plan to lower Minnesota’s walleye bag limit by putting its formal recommendation up for public feedback and possible legal review.

The agency hopes to make the change from six walleye to four, with the new limit to take effect March 1, 2027, said Brian Nerbonne, a ...Read more

MINNEAPOLIS — Tim Walz has a lot on his plate right now.

Pointing out that many Minnesota hunters, anglers and other conservationists consider it good news that he won’t seek re-election seems like piling on.

But there it is.

When he was elected governor in 2018, Walz seemed as if he might follow in the conservation footsteps of his ...Read more