They’ve paddled about 300 miles since launching at Lake Traverse and had “just a little over 100 miles to go” when they hit the river Thursday morning.
Some of the best wildlife habitat in northeast North Dakota is near or between the airport and Grand Forks Air Force Base. That increases the potential for bird strikes at both sites.
This year, a busy June and a full season are ahead, but spring has brought challenges that no one could have anticipated last year, when drought ravaged the region.
It’s a mess, the result of a late snowmelt after a winter of heavy snow in the border country and record or near-record precipitation the past two months across the watershed.
Sturgeon – dozens upon dozens of them – congregated in an obvious act of spawning, the first verified sighting in more than 100 years of lake sturgeon actively spawning in the Red River Basin.
Spottail shiners are the go-to baitfish for many Minnesota walleye anglers from the fishing opener through late May into early June, but supplies have been tight this spring.
Complicating the shortage is a Minnesota DNR requirement that minnow dealers who trap spottail shiners in waters designated as infested with zebra mussels must remove their gear by Monday, May 23.
