Greg Stanley

A ‘C’ ranking for the Minneapolis Chain of Lakes is a triumph of environmental restoration The most visited natural destination in Minnesota lies in its most densely developed region.

Part 3: How you keep a series of lakes open and usable, when they're surrounded by some 3 million people
www.startribune.com/a-c-ranking-...

When it comes to fish health, one Minnesota lake stands alone Mitchell Lake in Crow Wing County gets the DNR’s only perfect score for its fish. Anglers, they’re not talking about you.

Part 2 of 11,840-something: North of Brainerd, by a quiet stony brook, Minnesota’s only lake where the fish are ‘perfect.’ www.startribune.com/this-lake-ca...

Meet Ocheda, one of the unhealthiest lakes in Minnesota The lake adjoining Worthington got the lowest score from a state agency of the 3,000 surveyed.

Part one of an 11,842-part series! Start with Lake Ocheda, where Ole Fauskee and his brother, also named Ole Fauskee, stumbled 150 years ago. Now an "F+" Ocheda may be Minnesota's worst, most degraded lake www.startribune.com/where-only-t...

Meet Ocheda, one of the unhealthiest lakes in Minnesota The lake adjoining Worthington got the lowest score from a state agency of the 3,000 surveyed.

In the land of over 10,000 lakes, a small few are remarkably unhealthy. The Minnesota Department of Natural Resources graded about 3,000 of the most used and studied lakes. This “F+” lake in Worthington is Minnesota’s most degraded. www.startribune.com/where-only-t...

…disappears

When Ethel the 300-pound bear started limping, her keepers knew where to call A dog and cat vet who specializes in hard cases opened her clinic to the wounded animal.

How a limping bear got X-rays at the one dog vet who would take her in

Anderson: Minnesota researcher roamed the Arctic with curious wolves unafraid Book by the U’s Dave Mech details decades of close-up wolf studies

Wild and free of human wrath: Arctic wolves in the way up north. Check out Dennis Anderson's review of Dave Mech's latest:

Want to help Minnesota wildlife? Plant an oak tree. Research from the University of Delaware has identified the best flora to plant in every U.S. county to support the most life.

9,000 caterpillars per clutch, why North American birds desperately need your oak tree:

For sport or food, love of birds is saving grace for America’s wetlands Hundreds of species, including every kind of duck, goose and swan, need wetlands to breed, forage and rest. When wetlands are destroyed, the birds are usually the first to noticeably die off.

Did you know that a 1934 law requiring goose and duck hunters to purchase a stamp helped the federal government buy and permanently protect tens of thousands of acres of wetlands across the U.S.? @gregstrib.bsky.social writes about the relationship between birding, hunting and wetland preservation.

Why the nation’s altered wetland landscape faces new threats Take an interactive tour through the Mississippi River Basin, from bog to bayou, that explores the changing wetland landscape.

Take an interactive tour through the Mississippi River Basin, from bog to bayou, that explores the changing wetland landscape.

In Midwest farm country, a tradition of duck hunting has healed the dried-out landscape The love of birds, for sport, food or observation, has been the saving grace of swamps, marshes and shallow lakes along the Mississippi River.

Minnesota's swamps:

Minnesota DNR discovers rare spawning brook trout in Lake Superior The trout were found spawning along the lake’s shoreline, raising hopes the once abundant fish is rebounding.

Rare spawning brook trout discovered on Lake Superior's Minnesota coast

Not a whole lot of degrees out there today

Trying to find a particularly swampy swamp in Minnesota… a little tough to get to

A dwindling Minnesota fishing fleet chases the historic herring boom on Lake Superior A day on the water yields full nets of a beloved Minnesota fish.

November, when water temperatures are a perfect cold, is the best time to fish in Lake Superior. And right now there are more fish swimming in the lake again than thought possible
www.startribune.com/a-dwindling-...

Here's her in the spring... amazing how much bigger wolves look in the winter. Lot of insulation under that winter coat

Here's trail cam footage of 04D, the fence-buster and fisher queen... full winter coat, before her leg healed. You can see she's not putting weight on it. From the Voyageur's Wolf Project

Are the dogs really twice the size of a wolf? Yeah, they’re 120 lbs. and growing. A mix of Antolian shepherd, Spanish maremeesa and great Pyrenees. Wolves in Minnesota only grow to about 60 lbs.

Does the fence trap other animals out or in the ranch? Not really. The fence is only 3.5 feet high. Moose and deer jump right over. Black bears climb it. Smaller mammals squeeze right through. Wolves, just, never seem to think to jump. They only dig.

Kind of bummed that it all ended with a dang car

She never actually killed a calf on the ranch, even for all the time she spent on it. She was after the scat… wolves (and dogs) have iron stomachs and can get a lot of nutrients out of that calf scat

She broke a leg a few years back and still fed at least two litters and five total pups on three legs. She was one of the most proficient fishing wolves the researchers ever saw in the area, diving into creeks and shallow rivers to pull up fat white suckers during the spawn

So yeah, if you were kind of rooting for the wolf. Same. Just an all-around remarkable animal. Have a bit more info on her, all from the biologists at Voyageurs Wolf Project…

A clever wolf repeatedly snuck into a Minnesota ranch. Biologists figured out its MO. The successful fencing of a northern Minnesota ranch could help reduce conflicts between ranchers and wolves.

Got a lot of great questions and emails and a TON of readers on this story here www.startribune.com/a-clever-wol...

A clever wolf repeatedly snuck into a Minnesota ranch. Biologists figured out its MO. The successful fencing of a northern Minnesota ranch could help reduce conflicts between ranchers and wolves.

A wolf, two dogs, a rancher, and some scientists up in north Minnesota: www.startribune.com/a-clever-wol...