Eric Morken

From left to right, Hunter Krebs, Ryker Johnson, Macoy Denny, and Wyatt Krebs, along with the Krebs’ hunting dog, Winnie, celebrate a successful morning in the marsh during a Minnesota youth waterfowl hunting season. (Photo courtesy of Dean Krebs)

A buck slips into a bed two hours after daylight during a hunt Morken had on the morning of Sept. 1, 2024, in North Dakota. If you have setups that provide great access opportunities into security cover with good natural vegetation for deer to feed on, then you have a chance at success during early-season morning hunts. (Photos courtesy of Eric Morken)

It’s well known that heavy rains can be tough on young pheasants and turkeys. But how does abundant precipitation affect fawn survival in the earliest stages of a whitetail’s life?

While deer likely came through last winter in pristine condition, the Minnesota DNR is taking a conservative approach in order to grow whitetail populations in some locations. (Stock photo)

The Susquehanna River is the largest tributary and ends at the Chesapeake Bay. The University of Maryland’s Center for Environmental Science just rated the Chesapeake Bay’s condition a C+, its best grade in more than 20 years.

Dr. Bronson Strickland is the St. John Family Endowed Professor of Wildlife Management at Mississippi State University. (Contributed photo)

But one rule I believe in with bowhunting is that your last shot — good or bad — does not matter. The only arrow that matters is your next one.

Morken is pictured with a doe he shot in snowy, cold conditions on Dec. 13, 2021. He shot the doe with his bow by scouting his way into a piece of timber that sits between a bedding area and an agriculture field that were both on adjacent properties he could not hunt. Heavy, scattered tracks in the snow showed him where deer were congregating to feed on woody browse on the land he was allowed to hunt. (Photos courtesy of Eric Morken)

Minnesota muzzleloader hunters registered 8,253 deer this year. That’s up 1% from a year ago and down 11% from the five-year mean. (Stock photo)

Should Minnesota deer hunters be killing more antlerless whitetails to better balance the deer herd? It depends on where they hunt. (Photo courtesy of Tony Wenzel)