I have been involved with a multiple ownership contiguous 1000+ acre private land parcel camp in NW MN about 40 miles west from Northern Dave since the mid 1980's. Our land is surrounded by mostly inaccessible public land that has within the last ten years become a wildlife management area limiting access for the general public unless the public is willing to walk , which most are not . In the 1980's we used to see more moose than deer. Then moose disappeared. Deer hunting was good until a few years after the Skime area disease outbreak resulted in the sharpshooting of many uninfected deer causing wolves to move west since there were less deer in the Skime area. We now have a large black bear and mountain lions population living in our area and wolves that move through the area every few years in addition to the well established coyotes . Deer hunting varies depending upon the predators but large antlered deer are still taken every year in the area by those either lucky enough or skilled enough or willing to actually hunt for the deer instead of drive trails/roads and shoot whatever they see. Disagree with much of what the MN DNR does but most of the issue is that deer license buyers in NW MN today do not have many of the skills required to successfully hunt the wily whitetail in forest environments IMO. Flame suit on and looking forward to other viewpoints. I do not do facebook so am oblivious to that method of communication.
