Minnesota hunters shot 158,678 deer during the 2023 hunting season, a lower total harvest than in recent years, the Department of Natural Resources reported this week. The harvest was down 8% from the 2022 season and 14% lower than the five-year average.

The greatest decreases were in the northern part of the state, where deer harvest compared with 2022 was 21% lower in the northeast region and 8% lower in the northwest region. Other regions saw smaller decreases in harvest, with 3% lower in central and southeast Minnesota, and 4% lower in southern Minnesota.

“In recent years, deer populations have been lower in northern Minnesota, particularly following the severe winters of 2021-2022 and 2022-2023,” Todd Froberg, big game program coordinator with the Minnesota DNR, said in a statement Monday. “Several factors can drive these declines, resulting in fewer deer on the landscape during subsequent hunting seasons.”

Deer numbers can suffer during prolonged severe winters, especially in areas with deep snow or insufficient winter habitat. In these conditions, deer must expend more energy to acquire food, making them more vulnerable to predators.

Wolves play a large role as a predator of deer, especially in winter, but there is little evidence to suggest that northern Minnesota’s low deer numbers are directly due to wolf predation, the DNR said. The influence that wolves play in influencing deer populations likely changes over time and can be exacerbated by other conditions such as poor quality wintering habitat.

Northern Wisconsin and the Upper Peninsula of Michigan, also hit hard by severe winter, saw similar declines in deer harvests in 2023.

“This year’s extremely mild conditions do bode well for deer in northern Minnesota, but deer populations in the far north will need several mild winters to start to recover,” Froberg said.

Crossbows were allowed for all deer hunters for the first time in 2023. Archery hunters killed 24,088 deer which was a similar total compared to 2022. In 2023, crossbows accounted for 43% of the total archery harvest.

“During this first year of crossbows being legal for all hunters, we sold 6% more archery licenses, and youth licenses made up most of that increase,” Froberg said. “Lots of kids who weren’t archery hunting in the past were able to use crossbows and go hunting during the archery season.”

Analysis of the 2023 deer harvest is available in a final deer harvest report. This report and past season harvest reports are available on the Minnesota DNR website at mndnr.gov/mammals/deer/management/statistics.html.

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DULUTH — Northern Minnesota mineral deposits containing copper, nickel and titanium are getting another look.

In a news release earlier this month, Vancouver, Canada-based Green Bridge Metals Corporation said it had entered into an agreement with mineral exploration company Encampment Minerals Inc. to acquire up to an 80% interest in four projects between Boulder Lake and Babbitt.

The company said it will begin its own exploratory drill program within a year to further existing findings.

“We are pleased to have secured a rare portfolio of assets with clear mineralization in an underexplored world-class region within the Duluth Complex of Minnesota,” David Suda, CEO of Green Bridge Metals, said in the release. “We plan to advance these underexplored properties by leveraging historical exploration data by drilling in the coming 12 months.”

Previous exploratory drillings have shown the Boulder sites, approximately 15 miles north of Duluth on the north side of the Boulder Lake Reservoir, and Titac, a few miles farther north than that, are known to contain iron-titanium-vanadium mineralization as well as signs of copper-nickel mineralization.

(Forum News Service)

The Siphon-Wyman and Skibo sites southwest of Babbitt contain copper-nickel mineralization.

While iron ore mining has long been practiced in Minnesota, mining for non-ferrous minerals like copper, nickel and titanium has not been done before.

According to the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources, exploratory drilling programs in the 1970s identified areas that could contain possible titanium oxide.

The four properties Green Bridge is eyeing are among the 13 bodies now known to contain ilmenite, an iron-titanium compound, that dot the western edge of the Duluth Complex, which formed when the Midcontinent Rift 1.1 billion years ago tried to pull North America apart, sending magma up and leaving behind deposits of copper, nickel and other metals.

Titanium is widely found but not widely mined. It has become increasingly more valuable as it’s used in metals to build submarines and ships, aircraft, spacecraft, automobile parts, prosthetics such as artificial hips, buildings and even sporting equipment. It is light, strong and corrosive-resistant.

But effectively processing ilmenite into a high-value titanium feedstock — separating titanium from all the other rocks — had long been a question.

(Forum News Service)

In 2017, however, the Natural Resources Research Institute of the University of Minnesota Duluth announced it had successfully processed some 10 tons of ilmenite from the Longnose deposit just northeast of Hoyt Lakes using a two-step process — once mechanically and then using a hydro-metallurgical process where acids leach the minerals out of the rock — into 99.8% pure titanium dioxide.

While Green Bridge said it is “focused on acquiring ‘battery metal’ rich mineral assets and the development” of the Minnesota properties, any potential mining is likely years away and would likely face steep opposition over environmental concerns.

Several key permits for NewRange Copper Nickel’s NorthMet Project near Hoyt Lakes and Babbitt have been revoked or on hold, and the federal government placed a 20-year pause on mining on federal land within the same watershed as the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness, halting Twin Metals’ planned underground copper-nickel mine.

A third project, Talon Metals’ proposed underground nickel mine in Aiktin County, is in the early stages of environmental review.

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INDIANAPOLIS — As of right now, the Vikings are preparing for Kirk Cousins to be their starting quarterback next season. That’s been the messaging this week with general manager Kwesi Adofo-Mensah and head coach Kevin O’Connell both expressing their desire to retain Cousins moving forward.

Still, the Vikings have also been doing their due diligence at the NFL Combine in Indianapolis, sitting down with a number of top prospects with an eye toward the future.

This is a highly skilled class of rookie quarterbacks, with Caleb Williams of USC, Drake Maye of UNC, and Jayden Daniels of LSU possibly going No. 1, No. 2, and No. 3, respectively, in the 2024 NFL Draft. Though the Vikings won’t be able to select any of those players without trading up, they could be in position to pounce on the next wave that includes J.J. McCarthy of Michigan, Michael Penix Jr. of Washington or Bo Nix of Oregon.

What are the Vikings looking for in their next quarterback? That’s a complex question layered with nuance.

“There’s so much that goes into it,” O’Connell said. “There’s a lot of great examples of players coming into our league with some of those foundational points and then adding the rest of them to their skill set to become the complete player that they are.”

The most challenging part of evaluating quarterbacks is the fact that there is so much variance across the league. Some teams place a premium on talent above anything else, for example, while other teams take more of a holistic approach to the evaluation.

Asked for his most important qualities in a quarterback, O’Connell talked at length about the ability to process information and the ability to throw with accuracy. That makes sense considering his offense is predicated on diagnosing coverage quickly and delivering the ball on time.

It’s why he likes working with Cousins so much.

“You try to find those traits first and then go back and apply those traits to them doing certain things,” O’Connell said. “You’re just trying to piece together the best possible profile on the player.”

There’s also something to be said about player’s ability to create off schedule. As much as O’Connell values a quarterback who can drop back, stick his foot in the ground and rip the ball downfield, he understands the benefit of having somebody who can make something happen in a pinch.

“When the play doesn’t exactly go as planned, maybe a teammate struggles, ‘How does that person overcome context?’ ” Adofo-Mensah said. “That’s something we’re going to look for.”

The way a player carries himself off the field is another area to consider. The quarterback has to be a leader who can effortlessly command the respect of the locker room. Some of the formal interviews conducted at the NFL Combine in Indianapolis will go a long way in determining what the Vikings decide to do.

“You talk about somebody like Kirk and he sets an example with how he works,” Adofo-Mensah said. “He’s got a phrase: ‘It’s not a hobby.’ He lives every day that way. You need somebody at that position that embodies that for the team.”

It’s important to note that the Vikings are open minded with the way they evaluate the position. They understand that there isn’t a singular way of having success. Not at quarterback.

“I think what makes us unique as a coaching staff and as a football operation is we appreciate players for how they perform and how they get to their value,” Adofo-Mensah said. “We say, ‘You can be a starting quarterback and it’s not going to look the same.’ ”

Ultimately, if the Vikings decide to pull the trigger on a rookie quarterback in the coming months, O’Connell made it clear that he plans to do everything in his power to empower that player every day so he can reach his full potential.

“We’re in it with them from Day 1,” O’Connell said. “That’s how we have to look at it.”

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The Chicago Cubs announced one of their most important offseason decisions Monday, naming John Steinmiller, formerly with the Blackhawks, as their new senior director of media relations.

It’s not exactly bringing back Cody Bellinger, but it’s newsworthy, and that counts for something during this Cubs offseason, where President Jed Hoyer has been biding his time while waiting for the prices of free agents to drop.

At least the Rickettses aren’t messing around in this key position, which serves as the bridge between the local media and manager Craig Counsell and his players.

Steinmiller, who replaces veteran Jason Carr, has been in the business since 2005 when he began with the Milwaukee Brewers. His relationship with Counsell should serve him well, and he has a familiarity with most of the Chicago media, including me.

Steinmiller still took the job, which is commendable.

There may be no more thankless job than that of media relations for a professional sports team, especially a major market team like the Cubs. You’re dealing with managers who might be in a cranky mood after a crushing loss, players who decide to leave the clubhouse without talking to the media after hitting a game-winning home run, and writers constantly asking: “Is Jed talking today?”

The relationship between the media and athletes has changed dramatically over the last 20 years, with less access for reporters, fewer stars who feel the need to talk before or after games, and front-office executives who only deal with national writers at the expense of their beat writers.

The main responsibility of a media relations boss is to make sure the team always comes out in the best light, or if it’s a particularly controversial news story to perform some damage control. Steinmiller should be well-prepared after working for the Blackhawks, where damage control has become an art form in the last few years.

The last time I saw Steinmiller at a Blackhawks game, I accidentally stepped on the Blackhawks logo in the postgame locker room, which drew a much-deserved reprimand from one of his media relations assistants: “Hey, get off the logo!” Instead of a lifetime ban, I got off with a warning to watch my step.

Everyone deserves a second chance, though I’ve avoided the Blackhawks locker room since. Fortunately, the floor of the Cubs’ clubhouse is simply a weathered carpet without any logo, so there will be no worries about a repeat offense unless stepping on Clark the Cub counts.

Steinmiller also reminded me that day of the time I wrote in the Chicago Tribune that Counsell was “tragically unhip,” apparently making fun of the new Cubs manager back when he was running the Brewers. I couldn’t remember writing anything like that, but a quick Google search revealed Steinmiller’s memory was accurate.

While writing a Cubs-Brewers series preview in August 2018, I wrote of the competing managers: ”Hipster Joe Maddon matches wits with the tragically unhip Craig Counsell.” Oof. I have no reason to believe Counsell is unhip, tragically or otherwise. The Tribune regrets the error.

Counsell has been around for a long time. He probably doesn’t need any assistance from Steinmiller on how to deal with the Chicago baseball media, which is much larger — and a bit snarkier — than our peers in Milwaukee, except for the Marquee Sports Network, the Cubs-owned outlet that treated former manager David Ross like he was part of the network and thus blameless during the team’s end-of-season collapse.

Hoyer obviously saw otherwise and made the right call on replacing Ross with Counsell, whose $40 million contract is the largest of any manager in MLB history.

Counsell seems to have a quirky sense of humor, which will likely be necessary as he begins the long grind when spring training starts in two weeks in Mesa, Ariz. As former manager Lou Piniella said in spring training 2007: “This is no push-button operation, I can tell you that.”

After an uneventful start to the offseason, the Cubs have made a couple of big moves since the calendar turned, signing Japanese starter Shota Imanaga and reliever Héctor Neris. Everyone still expects Hoyer to re-sign Bellinger, but until he’s in camp it’s mere guesswork.

“Anyone can do a deal,” Hoyer told fans at the Cubs Convention. “Anyone can say yes to an agent’s asking price. If you do that, you’re going to run out of money really quickly.”

I doubt the Rickettses will ever run out of money, no matter how much they give Bellinger or anyone else. But if Hoyer signs Bellinger at a bargain price, his strategy will have worked and most fans will be satisfied. If Bellinger signs elsewhere, the Cubs could be looking at another 80-win season.

Everything really hinges on one decision.

The 2024 season is almost here, but there’s still time to make a move or two. Hopefully Hoyer gives his new media relations director something to do as Steinmiller begins his new job on Feb. 5.

Those press releases don’t write themselves.

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