Get Full Government Meeting Transcripts, Videos, & Alerts Forever!
Get email alerts on the Wildlife Management Hunt topic
No spam. Unsubscribe anytime.
Council supports expanding special archery hunt; staff to refine management plan and application
Summary
Staff reviewed the 2024 special archery hunt (10 permits issued; six tags filled) and the council supported staff plans to expand the 2025 hunt to about 14–15 permits, reserve some tags for nonresidents and wounded-warrior/accessibility hunts, and refine buck‑tag eligibility rules.
City staff reviewed the 2024 special archery hunt and presented options for a larger program in 2025, including reserving tags for nonresidents and wounded‑warrior/accessibility hunts and limiting successive buck-tag awards.
Miss Nelson said the first-year program in 2024 issued 10 permits (nine antlerless tags and one buck tag), received about 40 applications (about 20 East Grand Forks residents and 20 nonresidents), and resulted in six tags filled. Staff reported considering increasing tags to about 14 or 15; Nelson said the city had discussed reserving two permits specifically for out-of-town applicants (antlerless only) and that staff might set aside four total tags for options/wounded-warrior programming (two wounded-warrior and two accessibility hunts) to be scheduled about two weeks before the main hunt.
Nelson said the city gives preference to residents in the lottery and suggested possible rules to prevent repeat buck-tag winners from dominating the limited buck allocation; staff discussed a proposal that a hunter who receives a buck tag would be ineligible for another buck tag for three years, subject to council direction. Nelson said staff would seek clarification from the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources (DNR) on allowable tag structures and return a revised management plan for council review and adoption. She noted an educational outreach effort would precede the fall hunt.
Council members discussed fairness of repeat winners, the size of the applicant pool, and operational details. Council Member Tim Riopel and others supported increasing permit numbers and the wounded‑warrior option; Chief Hedlund said the police department had conducted observational monitoring and estimated roughly 80–100 deer in the Greenway and reported continued vehicle-deer collisions. Nelson said applications should be available in April and that the updated management plan and any ordinance or resolution changes would be brought back for formal council action. The work session record shows council support for staff to proceed but does not record a formal vote to change the hunt rules at this meeting.
