The Outdoors

By Scott Rall, Outdoors Columnist

Back in 2021, the local chapter of Pheasants Forever in Nobles County, Minn., adopted all of the Wildlife Management Areas (WMA) in their county. It was during the Governors pheasant hunting opener that a parcel of land was dedicated to acknowledge these acres were now open to all compatible uses. It was part of the Ranson Ridge WMA. At that time the chapter partnered with the local Future Farmers of America chapter to co-adopt this one particular WMA.

The FFA members came out and hand-seeded a special part of this unit to a healthy mix of forbs and wild flowers. It does not look like much after one year, but by year three this spot will be one of the most beautiful public lands in all of southwest Minnesota.

As part of that co-adoption, I volunteered to host this group and others taking a wildlife class in school to a wildlife walk on this property and another one I own that lies right across the road. I took the opportunity to engage about 15 youth for about two hours a few weeks back.

They had studied the American bison and its history dating back to pre-European settlement. As we walked I had them imagine what 50-60 million buffalo might have looked like roaming the plains considering there are only about seven million white tail deer in all of North America. The property we traversed looks much like the Great Plains would have looked like over 200 years ago.

We discussed just how hard surviving might have been when prairie wild fires raced across the nine-foot-tall native grasses that would have covered the landscape in those days. How Native American were the first to utilize prescribed fire and how the fresh green sprouts of grass would have attracted the buffalo to graze there.

We stuck our heads into a wood duck nesting structure and explained why a hen duck lays one egg per day but does not return to incubate until the egg laying was complete. This is done to ensure that all of the eggs hatch at the same time in a short 24-hour window. If she stayed on the nest then the first egg laid would hatch up to two weeks earlier then the last egg laid. They also cover the eggs with down pulled from their breast in order to keep the eggs from freezing at night. Waterfowl nest much earlier in the spring then say pheasants.

We did all sorts of plant identification and took a few minutes to talk about an endangered fish call the Topeka shiner (it lives in the Missouri River Watershed) and how half of the water that lands in the city of Worthington runs to the Mississippi River and the other half runs into the Missouri River. The Little Rock Creek that runs through my property is in the Missouri River watershed.

They came to understand what a watershed is. We talked about what an extinction was and how the efforts on behalf of the Topeka shiner were an effort to keep them from becoming extinct as well. A little side note, of all the species that have ever inhabited the earth, how many of them as a percentage are now extinct? They had all sorts of guesses, but the answer is that 99% of all the species that have ever inhabited the earth are now extinct. What an unfathomable statistic considering the millions of species that are alive today.

Each young person was supposed to bring a question along to try to stump me. I am pretty well versed in the plants and animals of North America but I did very poorly when questioned. Examples include how long can a snail sleep? Up to four years I was told. What mammal in North America has the thickest coat? I guessed the beaver but the answer was the sea otter. Another stumper question was what sound an opossum makes in order to attract a mate. A clicking sound was the correct answer. I will have to try to narrow the field if I am ever to take on a wildlife class again.

Young kids for whatever reason are a pretty quiet bunch with not many questions as we walked along. I hoped that I had at least informed and entertained them a little.

Yesterday in the mail I received a large envelope full of thank you notes from each student. I was so surprised by what each of them remembered and found the most interesting. These notes made it perfectly clear that they listened quite intently and each had learned something they found interesting. Some indicated they might even take up wildlife biology in college as a result of a two hour walk in the tall grass. Nothing could have made me felt better.

Every human has an inert love of nature. Unfortunately, many of them never get the chance to grow this basic human desire as a result of too much electronics or no one to help them explore it. If you ever get a chance to go on a wildlife walk, regardless of your age, you should take that opportunity. If you have any knowledge on the subject, take a kid on that walk with you. Only people who understand nature will care enough about it to try to protect and conserve it is some way. I might have lit a small fire in a small number of this group, and if I was successful in doing so then my time was very well spent. I cannot wait to do it again.

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If you have any questions, reach out to me at scottarall@gmail.com.