Outdoors

DES MOINES — The Iowa Department of Natural Resources received a donation from the Science Center of Iowa of a cross section from a 440-year-old white oak tree. This is one of two cross sections from the tree — the other is displayed at the Science Center of Iowa in downtown Des Moines. The tree cross section is about 3 feet in width. The white oak tree was located along the Des Moines River north of Hartford in northeast Warren County...

WASHINGTON — On May 29, the U.S. Department of the Interior and the National Park Service announced $48.9 million in historic preservation grants for U.S. states, territories, and partnering nations, and $11.4 million for historic preservation grants to 175 tribal historic preservation offices...

The Iowa Great Lakes continues to be situated perfectly as an example, a model, of how to implement bipartisan water quality and land management practices to the state of Iowa and beyond. Yes, it all starts with high quality water resources, but Dickinson County offers up ideas of how to balance water, public land and agricultural resources in a ratio that drives a rural economy in a contrasting model to the other 98 counties in the state...

For many fisher-people, netting the fish on the end of their line is about the last thing they think of: There are so many other things that we need to do to get to that point. First you’ve got to find where the fish are. Then you’ve got to select the proper bait that will get them on the end of your line. ...

This past week I think I found my own little slice of paradise. You see I was fishing for bluegills on West Okoboji. This is the perfect time to really catch some nice sized fish, since they have been in their spawning mode. This means they are in the shallows (6-10 feet of water), and they are extremely aggressive...

DES MOINES — The Iowa Department of Natural Resources received a donation from the Science Center of Iowa of a cross section from a 440-year-old white oak tree. This is one of two cross sections from the tree — the other is displayed at the Science Center of Iowa in downtown Des Moines. The tree cross section is about 3 feet in width. The white oak tree was located along the Des Moines River north of Hartford in northeast Warren County...

WASHINGTON — On May 29, the U.S. Department of the Interior and the National Park Service recently announced $48.9 million in historic preservation grants for U.S. states, territories, and partnering nations, and $11.4 million for historic preservation grants to 175 tribal historic preservation offices...

DES MOINES — Turkey hunters reported harvesting 11,700 Iowa birds this spring, which is 100 birds fewer than were harvested in 2017. Iowa’s spring turkey seasons began April 7 with the youth season and ended on May 20. Hunters purchased nearly 50,000 spring turkey tags...

At the time that this stewardship tip is being written our nation is celebrating Memorial Day. It’s a day set aside to remember those that have given their all for the freedoms that we enjoy each and every day. Even though we are a couple of weeks past the Memorial Day celebration, I feel it’s fitting to reflect on its meaning and to discuss another angle of stewardship...

Temperatures of 100 degrees hit parts of the Midwest much earlier than normal this year. Those temperatures created warmer water, and the warmer water has fish moving, and they’re also hungry. In early summer different species of fish are doing different things, and they can be moving around quite a bit. The fish will bite if they see our bait, we just need to get it in front of them. Kind of an old school way to catch fish right now is forward trolling with a couple of different types of baits...

Part of the management plan approved by the Iowa DNR and local leaders to combat the curlyleaf pondweed in portions of the Iowa Great Lakes included a chemical application of Aquathol-K. On May 9, 10 acres on the North Bay of East Okoboji and another 10 acres in Lower Gar were treated using this herbicide...

Mitchell hosts the outdoor television program “Jason Mitchell Outdoors” which airs on Fox Sports North and Fox Sports Midwest. More information can be found at www.jasonmitchelloutdoors.com. Jerk baits can roll with a lot of different names and monikers. ...

Crappies are one of the most popular fish species across North America. Pure and simple, they’re fun to catch, and for the past few weeks, anglers who have been chasing crappies have, for the most part, been successful. The crappies have been in shallow water and have been eating. As we get into the summer months, crappies will move out of the shallows and be harder to locate. If you want to keep catching them, you need to fish where they are. Here’s how you do it...

Won’t spend a lot of time on this, but yup, gotta talk about this. If you are thinking about going fishing, this is definitely the time of the year to go. You can enjoy some of the very finest fishing we will have this year for so many different species of fish. ...

DES MOINES — Springtime means baby season for Iowa wildlife, beginning with the first hatched great horned owls in March on to June when most of the pheasant chicks arrive and nothing looks more innocent and cute than baby animals. Just check the internet...

When people see the large nest inside the Dickinson County Nature Center and the big raptors on the outdoor nest during the summer, they often think they are bald eagles. Many people don’t realize that after being extirpated in Iowa, osprey populations have started to make a comeback in the 2000s. Each summer, osprey come to Kenue Park to nest and raise their chicks before heading south for the winter...

The Spirit Lake Hatchery is under attack! With the fact that zebra mussels have been found in Big Spirit, yes, the Spirit Lake Hatchery is under attack. “We get our water from Big Spirit, and the facility is not built to handle zebra mussels,” said Mike Hawkins, DNR fisheries biologist at the Spirit Lake Hatchery. ...

It seems like winter has just departed and some anglers are already thinking about catching bass in the early summer months. June is near or here, and some of the best largemouth bass fishing of the year is here or near also. If you’re on the “right lake,” and there are a lot of “right lakes” scattered across the Midwest, you can catch a bunch of bass in shallow water in the coming weeks. ...

DES MOINES — Iowa’s 2018 reported spring turkey harvest is approaching 9,300 birds. Last year, hunters reported nearly 11,800 turkeys. Iowa’s spring turkey hunting season ends May 20. Annual spring night population survey of deer, skunks, badgers, opossum, red fox, coyotes and other furbearers is wrapping up. The data is used as one factor to estimate Iowa’s deer population and is important for guiding management decisions on furbearers. The survey began in the late 1970s...

Walleye Season 2018 has arrived across the Midwest. In fact, it’s been here for a while for some anglers. But now that the season is open for pretty much everyone in Walleye Country, it’s time to get on the water. When it comes to catching walleyes early in the fishing season, it’s tough to beat a jig. ...

Hats off to all those who made the 36th Annual Walleye Weekend another great success. As always, people came from all over with nearly 2,000 entries into the annual contest. Listed below are the top placers in each category. First place: Adam Hample, of Lake Park, at 4.63 pounds...

At the beginning of every fishing season, a good number of anglers promise themselves that they’re going to learn a new tactic this season. There are always new things that we can try, and there are also some established tactics that we just haven’t gotten around to trying yet. If you haven’t tried using planer boards yet, make this the year that you do so...

On a pleasant spring day, it seems ludicrous to worry about winter habitat. Wildlife in rooster country, however, frequently pays a price when unusually mild weather degenerates into a blizzard. Further south, more sporadic harsh winters can simply be devastating for quail...

DES MOINES — Iowa boys age 12-15 have two opportunities this summer to learn skills associated with Iowa’s traditional outdoor pursuits at the hands of experts. The Iowa Department of Natural Resources’ Hunting and Conservation Camp uses a hands-on approach to teach outdoor activities including wildlife identification, fly tying, fishing basics and skills relating to hunting deer, turkey, waterfowl and pheasants...

What a spring or non-spring this has been. Everyone has kind of been held hostage by Mother Nature. Farmers, high school athletes, dock and hoist businesses, lawn and landscape businesses, fisheries biologists…basically everybody in northwest Iowa has had to work through this late spring...

Iowa law prohibits mowing roadside ditches each year between March 15 and July 15, to protect ground-nesting birds and to prevent nest destruction. Roadside ditches, while not optimal habitat, can be the only grassy habitat available in certain areas of the state for ground nesting birds. ...

Just in time for spring, Congress passed and the president signed the omnibus spending bill. In it, there were some very positive outcomes from a wildlife and conservation perspective — mainly in that the United States Department of Agriculture conservation funding was not cut, as has been the case the last several years...

It's a new fishing season! After a spring unlike any other in memory, we’re finally getting the lawn mowers ready for action. That’s the down-side. The up-side is that the fish are biting, and the bite is just going to get better. Following are some things that you can do to make your fishing season even better this year...

As I entered the Spirit Lake Hatchery last Friday, April 27, I saw DNR biologists and technicians busily collecting walleye eggs from big female walleyes. “How can that be,” I asked myself, “with the lakes still mostly ice covered. Where are they getting these fish?”...