Dill agrees with cancellation of moose hunting season
DNR must find out why numbers have dramatically fallen in the last 10 years
ST. PAUL — Rep. David Dill (DFL-Crane Lake) agrees with last week’s decision by the Department of Natural Resources to cancel this year’s moose hunting season.
The DNR made the decision after its aerial survey of moose in northeastern Minnesota showed that the decline of the population was accelerating dramatically. Since 2010, the state’s moose population was down 52 percent. In the last 12 months, it was down 35 percent.
The new population estimate is 2,760 animals, down from 4,230 in 2012. The population estimate was as high as 8,840 as recently as 2006.
Rep. Dill will likely be holding hearings later this session in his House Environment and Natural Resources Policy Committee on the declining moose population. Minnesota needs to find out why these numbers are so low.
“Any Minnesotan who has spent any time in the northern part of the state knows that the state’s moose population is on the decline and has been for at least 10 years,” Dill said. “Where moose sightings were once common, they’re now rare occurrences.”
Some of the factors that could be to blame for the dramatic decline are lack of snow cover for the past three winters, warmer temperatures because of climate change or danger posed by wolves.
Rep. Dill is certain it’s not the hunt that caused this decline and believes it’s possible that the situation is unique to Minnesota. He and his son, during a recent duck hunting trip near Rugby, N.D., saw a moose at the edge of a corn field. Talking to locals, they learned that there many moose sightings in the area.
“When we went into town, locals told us that our moose sighting was anything but rare,” Dill said. “They were all over the place. And that was in central North Dakota. And same holds true north of the border; the Canadian moose population is thriving as well. But cancelling this year’s hunt is the right move under these circumstances.”