District 6 - Two Harbors CO Sean Williams (Ely 1) reports: Goose hunting activity continued to be light through the week although a few hunters were contacted who reported a fair amount of success. Although most of the season remains most of the bear hunting activity seemed to be winding down because of early success. Violations included: possessing toxic shot while waterfowl hunting, transporting a loaded firearm, and hunter harassment.
CO Brent Ihnen (Ely 2) checked fishermen and wa‑tercraft operators this week. He also checked waterfowl hunters. Additional time was spent patrolling near area lakes and public water accesses monitoring AIS compliance.
CO Thomas Wahlstrom (Grand Marais) checked bear hunters and bear camps. Hunters had good success during the first and second week of hunting. Big game in‑vestigations were completed. COHudsonLedeen(Hov‑land) spent the week working on angling, hunting, and ATV activities.
CO Anthony Bermel (Babbitt) took enforcement action on a public waters excavation violation. A resi‑dency case was worked with a citation being issued for purchasing resident licenses when not eligible. 23 youth were certified in firearms safety in Babbitt. Thanks to the volunteers that helped out. CO Larson and Bermel as‑sisted on a medical rescue on the Bass Lake trail, canoeing in and extracting the patient. COMeganFranzen(Silver Bay)spenttheweekprimarily monitoring ATV and angling activity. Time was also spent responding to wetland viola‑tions and complaints within a state park. Various calls were also fielded regarding bear registration within the new ELS system.
COTrentAnderson(Tofte) focused on angling, ATV, and bear hunting enforcement for the week.
District 5 - Eveleth area CO Paul Kennedy (Inter‑national Falls #1) monitored bear hunting activity for most of the week. Hunters reported mixed results with most reporting successful hunts in the first few days. He followed up with reports of problem bears in the area and answeredquestionsregarding the ELS license system. Ken‑nedy also issued permits for car killed bear.
CO John Slatinski IV (Ray) Fall activities are ramp‑ing up with more activity starting in the woods and fall fishing is still going strong. The weather has kept anglers looking for a break from the winds and inconsistent patterns have made catching tough for some. Time was spent following up on a garbage dumping complaint. CO Troy Fondie (Orr) reports little waterfowl hunt‑ing over the week and even fewer birds observed in the field. Bear hunting appears over as most hunters were successful the first two days of season. Bear sightings and complaints continue. ATV activity is on the up swing as the fall riding season ap‑proaches. Grouse numbers appear down considerably from previous years.
CO Sean Cannon (Cook) spent the majority of the week continuing some inves‑tigations into bear hunting issues. Area forest roads were checked and ATV activity was monitored.
COAaronLarson(Tower) worked primarily hunting, ATV, and angling enforce‑ment. He also assisted with a firearm safety class and worked on a wetlands case. Larson assisted other agen‑cies with a rescue of an in‑jured individual on a hiking trail and worked on ongoing cases.
