New London area wildlife

The New London wildlife work area

A bulldozer prepares ground for habitat enhacement.

Hunters, trappers and wildlife watchers in a six-county area of southwestern Minnesota benefit from the management, habitat and oversight work of the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources' New London area wildlife office.

Area Supervisor Cory Netland along with two full-time and one part-time staff oversee a work area that covers more than 2.9 million acres of public and private land in Chippewa, Kandiyohi, Meeker, Renville, Redwood and Brown counties.

The area includes 123 state Wildlife Management Areas totaling more than 26,000 acres; 18 islands; a state game refuge; two waterfowl refuges; two migratory waterfowl feeding and resting areas; two state-designated wildlife lakes; and five other lakes managed intensively for wildlife.

Our work

• Maintaining a Redwood Falls area field office.
• Completing five Outdoor Heritage Fund grassland enhancement projects and eight Conservation Partners Legacy projects with various partners to improve wildlife habitat on public lands.
• Planning and completing prescribed burns on more than a dozen WMA sites; removing trees on more than a dozen sites; harvesting native prairie seed from remnant native prairie sites; seeding native grasses and forbs at many sites; implementing conservation grazing on three WMAs; and controlling noxious weeds at dozens of sites.
• Achieving designated wildlife lake status for Middle Lake (Kandiyohi County) and water level management authority for Wood, Hubbard, South Wheeler, North Wheeler and Schultz lakes. Construction of water control structures for Hubbard, Wheeler and Schultz lakes.
• Implementing cooperative farming agreements for the benefit of wildlife; establishing 35 food plots on WMA; and maintaining 29 pheasant feeder cribs to provide winter food sources for wildlife. Food plots are an important component of over-wintering wildlife.
• Working on animal disease management, including the outbreak of High Pathogenic Avian Influenza in 2015.This involved collecting hundreds of samples in an effort to monitor the health status of wild birds.
• Routinely providing prompt and courteous assistance regarding nuisance animal and depredation concerns, including conflicts with geese, deer, bears, coyotes, beavers, woodchucks, muskrats and non-game birds including raptors, gulls, cormorants and woodpeckers.