Winter Reading

Tovar Cerulli over at the Mindful Carnivore website has posted a very rich reading list that will likely appeal to most hunters and fishermen that I have known. Common to many of us is the realization that we "have always known" that we were fishers or hunters in some innermost way, but it has often been difficult to express this knowing to others, and, especially to ourselves.

Cerulli's book list begins and ends with two of my personal favorites. A Hunter's Heart: Honest Essays on Blood Sport, by David Petersen and Richard K. Nelson, is an eclectic assemblage of reflections on the hunt.  Many essays in this set will leave the reader wondering how the hunting experience can mean so many different things to hunters. The complexity of meanings undoubtedly testifies to the centrality of this practice to humans in all walks of life, including those who refuse to acknowledge it. 

A Valentine for Minnesota's Natural Resources

Acting swiftly in his new capacity as Commissioner of Natural Resources, Tom Landwehr has assembled a remarkable team of assistants and resource management professionals to lead the state in responsible stewardship of Minnesota's natural resources.

Pictured left - right: Ed Boggess, Fish & Wildlife Division director; David Epperly, Forestry Division director;Bob Lessard, special assistant to the commissioner; Tom Landwehr, commissioner; Larry Kramka, Lands and Minerals Division director; Elaine Johnson, Management Resources administrator; Denise Legato, Human Resources administrator; Denise Anderson, Office of Management & Budget administrator; Marty Vadis, Lands & Minerals division director (retiring); Col. Jim Konrad, Enforcement Division director; Laurie Martinson, Operations Services director; Steve Hirsch, Ecological and Water Resources director; Mary McConnell, assistant commissioner for legal and government affairs; Keith Parker, Central Region director;Erika Rivers, assistant commissioner for customer relations; Dennis Frederickson, Southern Region director; Chris Niskanen, communications director; Bob Meier, special assistant to the commissioner for legislative affairs; Dave Schad, deputy commissioner; Kent Lokkesmoe, capital investments director;Courtland Nelson, Parks & Trails Division director. (Not pictured: Craig Engwall, northeast regional director and Mike Carroll, assistant commissioner for field operations.)

Minnesota has long enjoyed one of the most progressive of the natural resource departments and conservation agencies in the country. Our civil service has been populated with some of the best-trained and most effective managers in charge of the widest diversity of land, forest, fish and wildlife resources anywhere in the nation.  Their approach has been based upon sound science and best practices management techniques that have resulted in the finest and most accessible network of trails, waterways, forests and parks anywhere in the nation.