With the press of a button on a transmitter Wednesday afternoon, Tom Newell made the sound of a quacking duck break the silence at Keystone Woods Wildlife Management Area in northern Washington County.

Craig Minder’s male yellow lab, Clifford, immediately stood at attention. Newell, of Scandia, then pressed another button to launch a ring-necked pheasant — already dead, and marked with an 8-inch colored streamer — into the air about 60 yards away, right where the sound of the duck quacking could be heard.

Minder pretended to shoot a wooden handler gun in the direction of the bird, and Newell pressed another button that sounded like a rifle firing. Clifford waited patiently to be instructed to retrieve. Once given the order, “Bird,” he had to use his nose and eyes to locate the prize.

Tom Newell, seated, and other members of the Northern Flight Hunting Retrievers Association watch Craig Minder, of Houlton, Wis., work with Clifford, his yellow lab, during field training at Keystone Woods Wildlife Management Area in northern Washington County on Wednesday, April 30, 2025. (Mary Divine / Pioneer Press)

“They have to stay at our side until the bird is down in the field for hunting,” Minder said. “When he brings it back, he has to deliver it ‘to hand.’ He can’t just drop it.”

Minder and Newell were among the 25 members of the Northern Flight Hunting Retrievers Association who gathered at Keystone Woods near the southeast corner of Manning Avenue and 155th Street late Wednesday afternoon to work on advanced field training with their retrievers.

The Minnesota Department of Natural Resources is allowing the Minnesota Federation of Field Trial Clubs to use the land from April 15 through Aug. 31 for hunting dog field trialing and training.

The organization is paying $6,970 for a “non-exclusive” lease, meaning that the land is still open to the public even when MFFTC members are using it, said Brandon Schad, the DNR’s assistant central regional wildlife manager.

The lease allows dogs to be off-leash on the 340 acres during a time (April 15 to July 15) when bird-nesting season normally requires dogs to be leashed in Wildlife Management Areas. It also allows for the use of non-toxic ammunition, release/taking of live birds and motor-vehicle use within the 340 acres, which also are not typically allowed in a Wildlife Management Area.

Some users of the 1,820-acre Keystone Woods Wildlife Management Area, which opened officially in October, question why the MFFTC is being allowed to use the land.

“Nothing against dog training or hunting, but it’s pretty disappointing that an 1,800-acre WMA, that was paid for with $27 million in public funds, is being partly leased to an exclusive group for such a paltry fee,” said Kent Grandlienard, former town board chair of Baytown Township.

Conservation advocates say the land, which includes woodlands, wetlands and prairies, has special ecological significance. Of particular concern is the rusty-patched bumblebee and Blanding’s turtle, both of which are federally listed as endangered species, said Laurie Schneider, executive director of the Pollinator Friendly Alliance.

Organization has used property for decades

The area that the MFFTC is leasing covers about two-thirds of the grasslands north of the parking lot on Barker’s Lake Road, and about half of the shoreline of Barker’s Lake, Schad said.

The MFFTC, which has held dog field training and trials on the property for decades, last year leased 97 acres of the land from the DNR for $440, Schad said.

Under the terms of the current lease, no dog training may occur before noon between April 15 and May 31 to mitigate impacts to turkey hunters, he said. In addition, no live fire (including starter pistols) is allowed prior to 8 a.m. for the duration of the lease.

DNR officials have the right to adjust the times “to minimize or avoid neighbor conflicts,” the lease states, and will meet with MFFTC officials to discuss any proposed changes to shooting times at least 14 days in advance of any change. The lease ends on Aug. 31, the day before the early waterfowl-hunting season for ducks, geese and doves opens on Sept. 1, Schad said.

The DNR also allows field trialing/training at the Four Brooks WMA near Onamia; Four Brooks and Keystone Woods are the only two WMAs in the state that have leases with the MFFTC, Schad said.

Schad said there were no issues reported during the MFFTC’s lease last year at Keystone Woods. “We didn’t run into conflicts, and we did have other uses, whether it was by hunters or bird watchers during the time that the lease was in place last summer,” he said.

‘Strong feelings’ on both sides

During public-input sessions about the use of Keystone Woods earlier this year, DNR officials heard a lot of “strong feelings” on both sides of the issue, Schad said. “What the agency really looked to do was try and balance those … different ideologies,” he said.

MFFTC members originally proposed leasing an additional 100 acres, but DNR officials declined that request, Schad said.

A coalition of conservationists and organizations recently asked the DNR to enact a moratorium on further development and recreational activities at Keystone Woods WMA in 2025 until biological surveys and the ecological significance of the land are thoroughly examined.

“Unfortunately, the DNR chose to act prematurely and opened hunting and trapping at Keystone Woods in 2024 without giving worthy consideration for conserving at-risk and endangered wildlife species,” coalition members wrote in an April 10 letter to DNR officials. “The DNR’s initial emphasis demonstrates a clear need for more Minnesotans to be actively engaged in collaboration with the DNR so that conservation is maximized and not undermined by heavily promoting hunting, trapping, fishing and dog training.”

Schneider, one of the signatories on the letter, said the MFFTC members have been given the right to use the area around Barker’s Lake, which she called “one of the most beautiful areas” in the WMA.

“I don’t know how other non-hunting people–birders, hikers, visitors–will be able to use that land when they are out there hunting and shooting and firing their rifles, having their dogs off-leash,” said Schneider, who lives in Stillwater Township. “They’re out there killing birds, including waterfowl. That is public land. I don’t see how they can lease that out to a for-profit organization to use.”

Concerns about disrupting wildlife

Of special concern is a family of short-eared owls, a rare species that nests on the ground and has been spotted at the WMA, she said.

“It’s an overall concern of damage to the land and the at-risk animals that are there — from insects to birds to beaver,” she said. “The DNR is charged with protecting the state’s natural resources. Where is that coming in? You don’t see that being applied in their development of this land.”

Said Greg Burnes, president of the St. Paul Bird Alliance, formerly St. Paul Audubon: “What we have is public land paid for by the general public and managed through public funds being given over to a private group for their activities, which are not legal activities for the general public.”

The argument that the MFFTC has traditionally used the land for dog training and trialing and should be “grandfathered in” holds no water, he said.

“That was back when it was private land, and now it’s public land,” Burnes said. “If the private owners had had an ATV race track on their land, would the DNR allow that to be grandfathered in?”

The firing of weapons outside of the legal hunting season disrupts wildlife, particularly nesting birds, and limits the use of the land by the general public, “who paid for the land,” he said. “Who wants to go look for wildlife when there are guns going off? It’s just not a very inviting environment.”

Another area of concern: MFFTC members can release domestic-raised birds at the WMA, which could be a potential disease vector for wildlife, he said. Escaped birds also could interbreed with native birds and damage the wild gene pool, he said.

“They say allowing this will promote more people to get involved in hunting, but that’s at the expense of other groups getting to use the property for what they want to do,” he said. “Our birding group would like to get younger and other folks involved, but I can’t take them out on days that these folks are out there and gunfire is going off. That limits us in our ability to grow our base.”

Wildlife staff at the DNR are collaborating with colleagues in the agency’s Ecological and Water Resources division “to identify and define rare plant and animal communities on the WMA,” said Gretchen Miller, the central region’s wildlife manager. “While short-eared owls (a species of special concern in Minnesota) have been found at Keystone Woods WMA, all available data suggest that the owls are migratory in the area and prefer to nest further north and west in Minnesota.”

DNR officials have worked to “balance wildlife habitat and public-user experiences,” Miller said. Working with dog clubs “offers a great opportunity to get people outdoors on the WMA” and staff will be working with them “to monitor activities and their potential for impacts to the landscape,” she added.

Schad said the DNR agreed to just a one-year lease with the MFFTC to give the agency flexibility to “fine-tune and adjust” things if necessary.

“Both the DNR and the clubs want to get things right,” he said. “We want to do things very intentionally, and so we’re giving ourselves that flexibility.”

A balancing act

The size of Keystone Woods and its proximity to the metro area means the DNR is exploring additional opportunities at the site, including fishing piers and trails, that “might not be present on our typical WMAs to provide a greater user experience or a greater breadth of user experiences,” Schad said.

Dog training is a common avenue for people to get into hunting, “so we do see some benefits there, which is part of the reason that we’re working with the clubs on this and allowing it,” he said.

“What we’re trying to do is balance all these different uses and resource values, and I hope that we’ve done a pretty good job of that,” he said. “I think we have taken into consideration the wildlife needs, other users. There is still a vast majority (of the land) where these activities won’t occur. So if you’re not comfortable with it, there’s a lot of nice wetlands and lakes like Maple Marsh Lake where the activities will not be occurring.”

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John Zeman, president of the Minnesota Federation of Field Trial Clubs, said club members have been using the land, formerly the Kelley Land and Cattle Co., to train hunting dogs and hold dog events for close to 50 years.

The former cattle ranch, which had been owned by the same family since the 1950s, is considered one of the largest tracts of undeveloped land in the Twin Cities metropolitan area. The property has rolling hills and open grassland for training upland hunting dogs, and wetlands and ponds that provide areas for training retrieving and waterfowl hunting dogs, Zeman said.

Training generally starts in the spring, as soon as the snow melts, he said. Members primarily use pigeons, quail, pheasants and chukar partridge for training, he said.

Club members can have their dogs off-leash within the area of the land that the MFFTC is leasing before July 15, which is the end of the nesting season.

Dan Phelps, of Forest Lake, places a pen-raised pheasant in a remote-controlled winger during field training at Keystone Woods Wildlife Management Area in northern Washington County on Wednesday, April 30, 2025. (Mary Divine / Pioneer Press)

Club points to controlled training

The group represents about 30 different dog clubs, and leasing the land at Keystone Woods gives club members in the metro area an opportunity to “get to an area within a half-hour drive of the Twin Cities to be able to train their hunting dogs,” Zeman said.

Zeman, who trains pointing dogs, said club members rarely actually shoot birds during training. “With the pointing breeds like mine, we use homing pigeons quite a bit primarily,” he said. “Those homing pigeons just fly back to the coop; then we can recycle them. We can use them again. We plant the bird; the dog ‘points’ to the bird using their nose. We flush the bird, we fire a blank pistol to seemingly fire, and the bird flies all the way back home. These pigeons can fly up to 500 miles back to their home coop.”

When club members are out using guns, “it’s always in a safe manner in a safe place where there’s really no potential for somebody to get in the way,” he said. “That’s one of the reasons we’re in the areas that they chose to (let us use). We wanted to be well away from the main parking area. We’re fairly well off of the road and further back there than most people are going to go.”

Club members are allowed to park in a designated area where the general public is not allowed, separating them further, Zeman said. Club members are also allowed to use two ATVs at a time to haul equipment, he said.

All birds killed on the premises must be disposed of properly outside of the Keystone Woods WMA, under the terms of the lease.

Zeman said most of the birds used by club members come from highly regulated producers and that there have been no instances of the birds having avian flu or other diseases that he is aware of.

Club members encourage people who visit Keystone Woods to stop by and see the work that they are doing. “Every one of us dog trainers are dog enthusiasts, and we love to show off our dogs,” Zeman said. “There’s been no other component that has done more for retaining and recruiting new hunters than the dog.”

WMAs are established to protect lands and waters that have a high potential for wildlife production, public hunting, trapping, fishing and other compatible recreational uses, according to the DNR.

Zeman said most of the state’s 1,500 WMAs are used by hunters, especially pheasant and waterfowl hunters.

“The use of the dog component for folks enjoying wildlife management areas is huge,” he said. “You literally cannot ethically and effectively hunt upland birds or waterfowl without a dog. You have to have the dog in order to ethically recover shot-game birds, whether it be a duck that lands in the cattails, or a pheasant that hits the ground running like they tend to do when we hunt them.”

Each member of the Northern Flight Hunting Retrievers Association who trained a dog at Keystone Woods on Wednesday had to sign a contract stating that they had read and understood a list of rules prior to using the land.

The dogs, which were trained one by one, each had to retrieve three birds and two plastic training bumpers from five different hunting blinds.

During one retrieval, Minder used a loud whistle and hand signals to have his retriever Clifford retrieve a target that was 90 yards away. It took the dog no more than 30 seconds. When he was done, he raced back to Minder’s side.

“This is not a dog park,” said Chuck Stokes, club secretary and former board member. “We don’t let the dogs just run willy-nilly where they could possibly kick a nest up. In 24 years of training out here, one of my dogs has never kicked a nest up. This is controlled training to elevate our dogs so that they are the best we can have in the field — to conserve the game that we shoot when we hunt.”

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Like Zeman, Stokes encourages members of the public who have concerns about the club’s use of the land to come watch club members — and their retrievers — in action.

“We’re doing everything we can to show the public, as well as the DNR, how good we take care of the property,” he said. “When it was the Kelley farm, we treated this as if it was our own. We are still doing that. We want everybody to know how much we value this place.”

By ERIC TUCKER, Associated Press

WASHINGTON (AP) — A federal judge on Friday blocked a White House executive order targeting an elite law firm, dealing a setback to President Donald Trump’s campaign of retribution against the legal profession.

U.S. District Judge Beryl Howell said the executive order against the law firm of Perkins Coie violated multiple provisions of the Constitution and ordered that it be immediately nullified.

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The order sought to punish the firm by stripping the security clearances of its lawyers, blocking its employees from accessing federal buildings and canceling federal contracts involving the firm.

It was one in a series of similar executive actions aimed at punishing some of the country’s most prestigious law firms, in some cases over prior legal representations out of favor with the Trump administration or because of their associations with prosecutors who previously investigated Trump. In the case of Perkins Coie, the White House cited its representation of Democrat Hillary Clinton’s campaign during the 2016 presidential race.

Howell wrote in her 102-page order, “No American President has ever before issued executive orders like the one at issue in this lawsuit targeting a prominent law firm with adverse actions to be executed by all Executive branch agencies but, in purpose and effect, this action draws from a playbook as old as Shakespeare, who penned the phrase: ‘The first thing we do, let’s kill all the lawyers.’”

The decision was not surprising given that Howell had earlier temporarily blocked multiple provisions of the order and had expressed deep misgivings about the edict at a more recent hearing, when she grilled a Justice Department lawyer who was tasked with justifying it.

So far, all the firms that have challenged orders against them — Perkins Coie, WilmerHale, Jenner & Block and Susman Godfrey — have succeeded in at least temporarily blocking the orders. But other major firms have sought to avert orders by preemptively reaching settlements that require them, among other things, to dedicate tens of millions of dollars in free legal services in support of causes the Trump administration says it supports.

The enduring image of the Wild’s first-round playoff series against Vegas was glimpsed early in Game 3.

After an impressive road win that knotted the series at a game apiece, the Wild were home at Xcel Energy Center and on a power play just more than 3 minutes into the first period. After skating the puck in a complete circle, through the circles and behind the net, Kirill Kaprizov saucered a puck past an unprepared Aiden Hill for a quick 1-0 lead.

The left winger immediately skated to the glass, smiled to the crowd — on its feet and waving their playoff towels in a collective frenzy — and raised his arms in celebration before he was mobbed by teammates.

It seemed like a premonition, a brief glimpse of a possible future of sustained excellence with Kaprizov at the forefront, leading the Wild into deep playoff relevance.

A week later, the Wild’s season is over, ended Thursday by a 3-2 loss to Vegas in Game 6 at the X. Yet that image of Kaprizov, beaming to a grateful crowd hungry for postseason success, lingers.

Kaprizov is now officially entering the final year of a five-year, $45 million extension and will be eligible to sign an extension July 1. The Wild have roughly a year to secure the best player in franchise history’s long-term future with the team without him talking to another club. That’s good, but it doesn’t necessarily give the Wild an advantage over what would certainly be a phalanx of other suitors.

Everything general manager Bill Guerin hopes his team will achieve in the near future runs through the preternaturally talented Russian winger. But not everything Kaprizov hopes to achieve in the near future necessarily runs through the Minnesota Wild.

You see the potential hiccup.

Before a preseason game last fall, Wild owner Craig Leipold told reporters the Wild will pay whatever is necessary to retain Kaprizov, that no other NHL team will pay him more, for longer, than the Wild. It’s not unreasonable to take Leipold at his word on this.

For one thing, the Wild need Kaprizov, who could conceivably become the franchise’s leading goal-scorer next season before he turns 30. He’s currently 39 goals behind leader Marian Gaborik (219), and while he missed half the regular season this year because of a lower body injury, he averaged 44.3 goals in his previous three seasons.

Further, the Wild emerge this summer from a period of salary cap hell and, also taking into consideration the NHL’s projected salary cap of $95.5 million next season, will enjoy a windfall they can spend on free agents and extensions this summer.

But, in line for a contract worth more than $15 million annually for many years, Kaprizov will be lighting his cigars with 50 dollar bills no matter where he’s playing after next season. It’s in that context that we humbly suggest that the money won’t be the critical factor in Kaprizov’s decision.

Kaprizov might want to play in a big market, live in a bigger city or in a warmer climate. He might be around more Russian-speakers. He might want to go to a team accustomed to playing for a Stanley Cup, or a team that has another superstar that can help carry some of the load. Kaprizov missed 41 games this season, and according to StatMuse the Wild were 20-17-4 in those games.

The Wild might not have a problem here. Kaprizov might love it in Minnesota. He might want to win here, keep playing with his teammates and finish his career in St. Paul. He might want to create more of those moments from Game 3, for these fans in the Wild’s possibly upgraded, yet-to-be-renamed arena.

Some of that is probably true, but all of it?

From the outside, it seems the Wild still have some convincing to do. Kaprizov needs help, and Guerin is going to have to get him some this summer — and maybe sign Mats Zuccarello to another extension — if he wants to sign him before his contract expires and other teams make their pitches.

It’s safe to assume Guerin and the Wild will do everything in their power to get this done, but in the end it might not matter. This is Kaprizov’s decision, not the Wild’s. If their superstar wants to be somewhere else, nothing will keep him here.

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Minnesota’s women’s basketball team didn’t achieve its goal of an NCAA tournament berth last season, but the Gophers certainly got better.

After a 16-1 start got them a two-week stay in the AP Top 25, for the first time since 2019, they underachieved themselves out of the running for the Big Dance, but the Gophers were quickly scooped up by the Women’s Basketball Invitation Tournament and, when it was over, were last of the 32-team field standing.

Expectations for 2025-26 would be high even if the Gophers weren’t getting their best player back. But they are.

Mara Braun, who missed nearly all of last season after re-breaking her right foot before a game in November, just successfully completed the team’s postseason workouts and plans to be full go when the team convenes this summer for voluntary workouts and a period of official practices.

“I was able to do everything, but it was a lot of skill work, one-on-one, two-on-three,” Braun said Friday. “But it was a good and easy way to get back into practice, back to no restrictions, and I’m feeling really good. It was definitely a good start.”

Braun led the Gophers in scoring as a freshman with a 15.6-point average in 2022-23, as a sophomore in an injury-shortened season (17 ppg.) and through four games last year (18.6). She has two seasons of eligibility remaining and is eager to fulfill her goal of bringing Minnesota women’s basketball back to the prominence it held after Lindsay Whalen — her first coach — led the team to two Sweet 16s and a Final Four in 2003 and 2004.

Minnesota’s Mara Braun avoids a defender during a 74-52 victory over Vermont on Nov. 8, 2024, at Williams Arena. (Keya Shapiro / Gophers Athletics)

With Amaya Battle, Mallory Heyer and Sophie Hart returning for another year, and the development of sophomore Grace Grocholski and freshman Tori McKinney this season, the addition of Braun will give coach Dawn Plitzuweit a surfeit of scoring options when the season starts in November.

“The (NCAA tournament) is our aspiration and goal,” said Braun, part of a nationally ranked recruiting class with Battle, Heyer and Niamaya Holloway. “The first year was building; we were getting used to college basketball, learning. We’ve dealt with adversity the past few years. Eventually we knew it would come full circle, and this is a great year for us to do it. Wherever we go will be propelled by this season. It’s really important for the growth of this program.”

The Pioneer Press talked with Braun by phone on Friday. This interview has been edited for length and clarity.

Mara Braun Q&A

Q: Was it difficult to fall into a non-playing role last season?
A: There was always a part of me that really wanted to be out there, to be a part of the postseason. The hardest part of was knowing how badly everyone wanted to win it. I wanted to do everything I can to get that done. We weren’t exactly happy about the tournament we were playing in, but we were there to win it.

It was nice to see how we were able to respond, especially after the first year I got hurt. We didn’t really have the depth, and mentally it was kind of a shock for everybody. This year we had more players step up, more people we could trust. We put a lot in Tori’s hands and, honestly, she was really good, only a freshman. The way she adapted, the sky’s the limit for her. Amaya really showed something, too, and Mal’s a double-double queen. It will be great to see everybody contribute when we get all the pieces back together.

Q: With so many potential weapons, where will you fit?
A: It’s going to be a different team. It’s going to look different. The rotation might even go 10 deep; any coach would love to have that option. I don’t have to play 40 minutes every night. I have trust in my teammates. It’s a good thing that we’ll have so many options coming back.

Q: Grocholski seemed to play your old role this season. Do you see yourselves on the floor together?
A: Yeah, that’s something we’ll definitely have to experiment with this summer, and in the fall we’ll have different lineups, too, and see what works. But with our offense, it’s really a lot of read-and-react, so it will be about finding different combinations. I’m sure we’ll all play together at some time or another. There will be different combinations. I’m sure we’ll find ways to make it work.

Q: You re-broke the same foot. Was the repair any different this time?
A: They did it a little differently, but I still have the same screw in there, but they went about it a little differently. The main difference is the recovery time. We’ve been extra patient to make sure I’m back to 100 percent. It hasn’t been easy.

Q: Was it easier to be patient this time?
A: I think it was the opposite, actually, because I knew everything I had ahead of me. So, especially when I was at home (with my leg) elevated for that long, away from the team, it was harder the second time — just knowing the road I had ahead of me. Once you get into it, and find the rhythm of it, you know you’re getting closer and closer but aren’t quite there. It’s a lot of ups and downs, but I was able to find my role better, to step into more of the coaching side of it, and also because of the extra year under my belt.

Q: Did you enjoy the coaching part?
A: I did. It was really different. I knew I always had to be locked in as a scout, to know exactly what each player does, their tendencies, reading the scout report back-to-front so if one of my teammates asked me a question, I could get them accurate information and be there for what they needed. It was good to have a voice.

Q: What was your initial reaction after injuring the same foot again?
A: It happened in a shootaround, so it was just a shock. Honestly, I thought I had tweaked it and it was not a big deal. But we went and got a scan right away and I learned quickly that I had broken it again. It was hard. I’d sit on the sideline and (fans) would be asking me questions about it. That was real tough. But I had to be positive and not let my teammates see me down. I had to swallow my emotions.

Q: Did you ever think you’d play last season?
A: I did at first. I thought, ‘Oh, I’ll be back for a (postseason) run.’ But as much as I wanted to play, I knew it was important to just put this behind us, and as the year went on, it made more sense to hold off.

Q: Do you feel like the profile of women’s basketball has changed since you last played a full season?
A: I do. I always say it’s a great time for women’s basketball, and some of that is because of NIL and that type of stuff, but we’ve also had generational talents in players Caitlin Clark and Paige Bueckers, and that has helped skyrocket the (WNBA) right now. They’re tough competitors. They take a lot from the media but they handle it with so much grace. It’s kind of like they’re not really these elevated players. But I know they’ve done a lot for this country and for basketball in general. The spotlight is different from where it has been. There is so much talent across all levels.

Q: Did you ever think last season, ‘If I were playing, we would have made the NCAA tournament’?
A: A little bit, but I didn’t really want to get into any of that thinking. Things happen for a reason. It happened. But I’m excited that (the tournament) is something we can work for. We haven’t gotten that yet, but this is going to be a big season, especially for seniors like Amaya and Mal and Sophie. This is their last season for sure. These are the people I came in with, and knowing that it’s the last year for some of them. Everything that we do throughout the whole offseason, and when we all come back, is going to make an impact on our postseason. There’s a lot more to this season than maybe in past seasons. It feels different.

Q: Was it nice for you to see Whalen get back to coaching?
A: Oh, yeah. I was really excited for her. It was a great move for her, getting back to working closely with players. I’ve already seen photos of her participating in workouts. It’s where she belongs.

Q: What are your expectations for 2025-26?
A: First and foremost, I want to stay healthy for a season and see what I can do with that. It’s going to be a little bumpy; I haven’t fully played and competed for a while and I’m fully aware of that. But my foot is stronger than it was; I’m able to get to the basket better than I ever had. I’m really looking forward to playing, not just for team goals but for my aspirations to play after college. I’m going into it with high expectations. First and foremost, I want stay healthy, but I also really want to make some noise.

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