The emergency feeding of winter-weary deer across a wide swath of northern Minnesota will begin in as soon as two weeks after state conservation officials Wednesday reversed their long-standing opposition to the controversial practice.
"I was pleasantly surprised and mildly shocked," said Mark Johnson, executive director of the Minnesota Deer Hunters Association (MDHA). He said Tom Landwehr, commissioner of the Department of Natural Resources, told him of the decision Wednesday morning.
The feeding program, Johnson said, "is the result of several meetings between our group and the DNR in recent weeks," and likely will be supported by many of the state's 500,000 deer hunters.
Feeding was approved for a region from about Cloquet, just south of Duluth, west to Cass Lake, north to International Falls, then south to Ely and Lake Vermilion and back to Cloquet. Feeding will not occur along the North Shore.
The effort is expected to cost about $170,000. It will be the first time the DNR has fed deer since the winter of 1996-1997, the second of two consecutive severe winters that devastated pockets of deer across the north.
Last week, DNR wildlife section chief Paul Telander said his agency was opposed to deer feeding, noting its steep cost and questionable effectiveness in saving deer from the ravages of extreme cold and deep snow, both of which have plagued northern Minnesota this winter.
Deer feeding also can cause deer to congregate, and could contribute to both the spread of disease and an increased likelihood the animals will be killed by wolves.
On Wednesday, however, Telander said the DNR wants to act "in good faith," using an emergency deer feeding account that whitetail hunters have paid into for about 15 years through 50-cent license surcharges.