Tower area wildlife

The Tower wildlife work area

One of the Tower wildlife area's lakes surrounded by boreal forest.

Hunters, trappers and wildlife watchers in northern St. Louis and Lake Counties benefit from the management, habitat and oversight work of the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources' Tower area wildlife staff.

Area Wildlife Supervisor Jessica Holmes oversees an area that includes more than 3 million acres of private and public land. This includes eight Wildlife Management Areas, seven state forests, three county forests, six Scientific and Natural Areas, the Superior National Forest and the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness.

For Tower area staff this means managing species and habitat in a 4,770-square mile area of which 75 percent is open to public hunting.

Tower wildlife work area

Our work

• Annually conducting population surveys to monitor deer, moose, bear, ruffed grouse, sharp-tailed grouse, waterfowl, woodcock, furbearers, wild rice and bear foods.
• Managing all hunting and trapping seasons, regulations and harvest and field thousands of calls annually to assist hunters, trappers and landowners with hunting, trapping and other wildlife questions.
• Working with the Minnesota Deer Hunters Association to improve deer hunting and deer habitat in northern St. Louis and Lake counties.
• Cooperatively managing timber on 3 million acres of public forest land to improve wildlife habitat, hunting, trapping, wildlife observation and establishing winter conifer cover for deer and other wildlife in the northern forests.
• Managing 10 wild rice lakes in St. Louis and Lake Counties, to provide rice harvesting, waterfowl hunting and furbearer trapping opportunities.