WILDLIFE MANAGEMENT AREAS & REFUGES
Generally referred to by their three-letter acronym, the 1.3 million acres of Minnesota wildlife management areas located in every county but Ramsey are open to public hunting.

“I think (a lot of Minnesotans) underappreciate them because those who travel to other states see that those opportunities don’t exist elsewhere,” said Dennis Simon, wildlife management section chief.

The seven biggest WMAs -- Whitewater, Lac qui Parle, Roseau River, Thief Lake, Red Lake, Carlos Avery and Mille Lacs -- encompass thousands of acres and many include state refuge lands that are open to limited types of hunting.

Refuges were established in the 1930s and 1940s to protect native populations. Simon said there wasn’t a single whitetail in the Whitewater valley at that time. Today, the valley is crawling with one of the best populations of deer in the state, not to mention some of the best opportunities to take a trophy.

When bowhunters see the word refuge, many think it is closed to all forms of hunting, but that’s not true.

Actually, all but a handful of refuges are open to bowhunters. A complete listing in the 2008 hunting regulations identifies refuge lands available for bowhunting.

WMAs come in all shapes and sizes from giants like the massive Whitewater WMA to tiny five-acre Aid-pit WMA. Simon said the DNR is attempting to acquire more lands for new WMAs and acquire larger plots of land adjacent to existing WMAs.

“It costs the DNR just as much to manage a 20-acre piece of land as it does to manage 80 acres or more, so we like to find land that can be added to a larger complex,” he said.

The DNR plants food plots on many WMAs and manages others for prime habitat and cover for a variety of wildlife including whitetails.

The DNR recreation compass or Web site at www.dnr.state.mn.us/wmas, features maps showing the type of vegetation and cover on each WMA. It is an amazingly helpful tool for scouting a WMA without actually driving there or walking around the entire area.

WMAs near urban areas or other large tracts of public land tend to be the busiest, but Simon recommends hunters investigate a WMA before concluding it’s too busy to bowhunt.

Bob Tangen, assistant manager of the Whitewater WMA in southeastern Minnesota, one of the largest WMAs in the state, said it receives heavy hunting pressure on the firearms opener and during turkey season, but it is distributed very evenly through the entire area.

“Some access points get a few hunters,” he said, “but there are enough areas where you can have a pretty isolated hunt and not worry about bumping into other hunters.”

Lac qui Parle, a large WMA in northwestern Minnesota, receives plenty of pressure from waterfowlers and firearms deer hunters, but not so much from archers. Brad Olson, assistant area manager, said very few archers take the opportunity to harvest one of the many big deer in Lac qui Parle.

“The opportunity is definitely there, especially in the smaller units that make up the larger complex,” he said.

OTHER STATE LANDS
Minnesota’s state forests support tremendous deer populations that aren’t pressured until firearms season. Each state forest is dotted with private land, so consult a PRIM map at www.dnr.state.mn.us/state_forests or a specific state forest map from the DNR. There are also scattered pieces of land, 40 acres or more, spread throughout the area near a state forest that most hunters aren’t aware of.