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State record turkey harvest appears safe — for now
It’s come to a final push for turkey hunters up and down the state. South zone hunters wrap up their spring turkey season today, while north zone hunters begin their final week before the season closes...
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Illinois high school bass fishing finals postponed due to high water at...
Young bass anglers in Illinois are getting a good education on things old bass anglers in Illinois already know: Spring fishing is a “you against Mother Nature” battle. And she always wins. With that...
View ArticleAnti-bobcat trapping bill is amended, groups remain opposed
The proposal that would ban bobcat trapping and also the sale of bobcat pelts was amended on Friday to exclude southern Illinois and a handful of western counties from the ban, but trapper and...
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Buffalo Grove lands state bass fishing title
Tyler Lubbat (left) and Dominic Domian of state champion Buffalo Grove show off some nice largemouths.Buffalo Grove’s Tyler Lubbat and Dominic Domian pulled 13 pounds and 7 ounces of bass out of...
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Only one-third of Illinois waterfowl hunters are aware of duck stamp’s purpose
The new federal duck stamp went on sale June 23, so it’s a good time to be curious: how many hunters know what the stamp is used for? According to an interesting survey by the Illinois Natural History...
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DNR calls public meetings on CWD
One thing careful eyes will notice about last week’s announcement from the DNR concerning upcoming CWD public information meetings is that another county has been added to the “CWD positive” list. The...
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Retired high school teacher reaches goal with 11-point buck; bowhunters ahead...
Dave McCarthy has been a patient deer hunter, if nothing else. The bowhunter from Rantoul has been wanting to harvest a Pope and Young buck for decades, and last week his hard work — and patience —...
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Turkey hunters take 350 birds during fall shotgun season
(Photo by Bob Drieslein)It’s considered “the other shotgun season,” but turkey hunters in Illinois are a dedicated lot. Yes, the harvest for this year’s week-long season was down slightly, from 385...
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Ducks dropping from sky in record numbers on Illinois and Mississippi rivers
Ducks flock to the Illinois River recently. Where did all the ducks come from? That’s not something Illinois waterfowls typically ask at this point in November, but the Illinois and Mississippi rivers...
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DNR once again appears ready to get into the ATV trail business
Lingering debates about whether to build ATV trails on state park land were revived Wednesday when Gov. Bruce Rauner and DNR Director Wayne Rosenthal met up in Carrier Mills to announce the state’s...
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Bowhunters ahead of last year’s pace; muzzleloader hunters come up short
Just slightly more does were taken by muzzleloaders than bucks.Good news from the second weekend of shotgun deer season was tempered a bit when muzzleloader hunters took only 3,700 deer this weekend....
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Hunters steaming into final week of deer season
The state’s deer season wraps up Sunday, and it appears hunters will easily top last year’s harvest total. DNR has released numbers from the first weekend of the late-winter and special CWD seasons,...
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Public forums offer information about Farm Bill, potential affects on...
According to the Theodore Roosevelt Conservation Partnership, if Congress fails to re-authorize important Farm Bill conservation provisions in 2018, Illinois stands to lose up to 900,000 acres of...
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EHD was moderate in state’s deer herd in 2017
Fears about the effects of another Epizootic Hemorrhagic Disease outbreak in late summer 2017 — just before the archery season opened — were put to rest today (Thursday, Feb. 8) when the Illinois DNR...
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Report: Fishing license sales down in Illinois
As the DNR reminds us that hunting and fishing licenses expire at the end of this month, a report out of Springfield suggests fewer people have been paying for the right to fish. “Fishing license sales...
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McTaggart to replace Bluett as DNR furbearer manager
Stan McTaggart, who has spent more than four years managing upland game as the DNR‘s agriculture and grassland wildlife program manager, is replacing Bob Bluett as the agency’s wildlife diversity...
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Opening weekend of youth turkey season produces fewer birds
The regular spring turkey season opens in the south zone on April 9 and in the north zone on April 16. (Photo by Bob Drieslein)We could probably blame it on the Easter Bunny – hunters during the...
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Folden named Conservation Police Officer of the Year
CPO Marc Folden (far right) with DNR Director Wayne Rosenthal (far left) and DNR Conservation Police Chief Rafael Gutierrez (center).Marc Folden, who is based in southern Illinois’ Hamilton County, has...
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Deer feeding bill gets massive makeover, passes Senate
Legislation that was aimed to legalize some forms of supplemental feeding of wild deer in Illinois was passed out of the Senate this week – albeit as a much different version of the original proposal....
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2018 spring turkey harvest sees steep decline
Hunters took only 13,500 turkeys during the 2018 spring season, which wrapped up on Thursday in the state’s north zone. The south zone season ended May 10. The final tally is well behind the 2017...
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