Two Fridays ago, I was in Bemidji as Native Americans waged a protest agains the state of Minnesota restricting their off-reservation fishing rights.  It’s a long-standing feud and culminated that Friday with the Natives dropping fishing nets into Lake Bemidji a day before the fishing opener in violation of state law and DNR policy.  The DNR showed up, cut and confiscated the nets, which led to a lot of rallying, angry rhetoric and the promise of court battles and more protests.

A week later I was back to some familiar territory.  When I was working for the Duluth News Tribune, I went down to the base of the Fond du Lac dam on the St. Louis River in far west Duluth as DNR biologists and officers worked to rehabilitate the sturgeon population in the western end of the Lake Superior watershed.  After a winter where hundreds of huge boulders were strategically placed in the stream around the base of the dam to promote sturgeon spawning, the plan appears to be attracting new sturgeon and I really hoped this was the year I actually got to see one of these prehistoric fish.  I was not to be disappointed.  Before lunch, they had captured, scanned and tagged more than 10 fish varying in weights up to 50+ pounds and lengths near five feet.  Fully grown, these fish can grow to be 100+ pounds, over six feet long and can live 150+ years.  Despite all this, they didn’t seem to get smarter with age as DNR officers were able to scoop them out of the water with relative ease.  The project is ongoing and the DNR has yet to find any sign of spawning, but the sturgeon are just reaching reproductive age so that moment may come at any time.

A link to the story can be found here while MPR’s audio piece can be heard below…

The first nine images deal with the sturgeon assignment while the last six deal with the protest in Bemidji.

Nick Frohnauer surveys the St. Louis River near the Fond du Lac dam for sturgeon in Duluth, Minn. Frohnauer is the Minnesota DNR's assistant area supervisor.

Nick Frohnauer (left) points toward the position of a sturgeon while Josh Blankenheim (right) looks for a way to net the fish while surveying the St. Louis River in front of the Fond du Lac dam in Duluth, Minn. Blankenheim is a Minnesota DNR fishery specialist.

Josh Blankenheim scoops a fish out of the St. Louis River near the Fond du Lac dam in Duluth, Minn

A sturgeon awaits testing inside the net of Minnesota DNR fishery specialist Josh Blankenheim along the St. Louis River near the Fond du Lac dam in Duluth, Minn.

Josh Blankenheim (left) and Nick Frohnauer (right) survey the St. Louis River in front of the Fond du Lac dam in Duluth, Minn.

Josh Blankenheim (left) scans a sturgeon for a marker while the fish is held by Nick Frohnauer (right) along the St. Louis River near the Fond du Lac dam in Duluth, Minn. The two would measure, weigh and scan the fish to see if they had already been tagged. If they had already been tagged, the scanner would find the tag and record information, but if no tag was found, they would tag the fish before releasing it back into the river.

A sturgeon is held down while being scanned for a tag along the St. Louis River near the Fond du Lac dam in Duluth, Minn. The Minnesota DNR was checking up on the sturgeon population near the dam while efforts continue to restock this area and western Lake Superior with sturgeon.

Nick Frohnauer (left) and Josh Blankenheim (right) prepare to weigh a sturgeon that was capture in the St. Louis River near the Fond du Lac dam in Duluth, Minn.

Josh Blankenheim (left) surveys the St. Louis River near the Fond du Lac dam for sturgeon in Duluth, Minn.

Josh Blankenheim (left) and John Lindgren (right) work to restrain a sturgeon while scanning it for a tag along the St. Louis River near the Fond du Lac dam in Duluth, Minn. This particular sturgeon was nearly five feet long and weighed almost 50 pounds. Lindgren is a Minnesota DNR biologist.

Luther Aadland (right), river ecologist with the Minnesota DNR, scuba dives in the St. Louis River near the Fond du Lac dam looking for signs of sturgeon spawning in Duluth, Minn.

And now for the Bemidji Fishing Protest Images…

Aaron White Sr. (2nd from left, hat on) gets into his boat with a little help from Sandy Nichols (left) at the Lake Bemidji waterfront park in Bemidji, Minn. The two were going out to drop fishing nets to demonstrate their off-reservation fishing rights in protest against the state of Minnesota.

Sandy Nichols (left), Aaron White Jr. (front) and Aaron White Sr. (back, red shirt) survey Lake Bemidji waterfront park after White Sr. and Nichols came ashore after dropping fishing nets to demonstrate their off-reservation fishing rights in protest against the state of Minnesota in Bemidji, Minn.

American Indian Movement member Keith Loussier of the Red Lake Nation has Dennis Banks, founder of the American Indian Movement, reflected in his sunglasses while Banks speaks before getting in a canoe to drop fishing nets in a demonstration of their his off-reservation fishing rights in protest against the state of Minnesota in Bemidji, Minn.

Aaron White Sr. (left) and Tuffy Isham (left) are confronted by a Minnesota conservation officer over fishing nets White Sr. dropped into Lake Bemidji during a protest over off-reservation fishing rights.

Aaron White Sr. (2nd from left) points to a Minnesota conservation officer after the officer cut his fishing lines in Lake Bemidji. White Sr. was joined by Tuffy Isham (far right) in a protest over off-reservation fishing rights.

Aaron White Sr. holds up a net that he says was cut by a Minnesota conservation officer in Lake Bemidji during a protest over off-reservation fishing rights in Bemidji, Minn.

Minnesota Public Radio contacted me to shoot pictures of a Wisconsin DNR pilot who tracks radio-collared wolves for a story about continuing efforts to get wolves delisted from federal protection.  Farmers and hunters have been complaining for a few years now that the wolf population in this part of the country is starting to get out of hand and this year saw a record number of wolves (16) killed and those were only the ones that were found so that number is just a fraction of how many were probably killed.   This sounded like a cool assignment, but I was worried we would only see one wolf at a time or that the woods would be so dense that it would be impossible to see them from up in the sky.  I was so wrong on both accounts.

Now I’d be lying if I said I didn’t have the wolfpack scene from “The Hangover” playing over and over again in my head.  I just love that movie.  Anyway, back to my story.  The wolves have a radio collar attached to them and the pilot, Phil Miller, used a GPS tracking system that beeps when the airplane gets closer to the animals.  When the beeping really picks up, it’s time to start looking on the ground for the animal, which can be tough when the woods are thick.  The first animal, a lone wolf, took about five minutes to find.  We located him sitting just off to the side of a deer stand.  It was too thick to photograph so we moved onto the next group.

This was the first of two packs we would see on the day and it would be the biggest.  We flew a few minutes before the GPS started beeping again.  We saw one wolf then another and another and another and this kept going until it stopped at 11.  This was the pack I was hoping would be out in the middle of a lake or out in the open, but they still remained in fairly dense forest.  The third and fourth pictures are from this pack and the fourth one demonstrates just how hard it was at times to find these animals if you weren’t already locked onto their location.

So after circling them for 10 minutes shooting pictures and freezing the face of Minnesota Public Radio reporter Bob Kelleher from my need to open the window of the plane to shoot pictures, we decided to move on.  This third radio-collared animal was supposed to be part of a group of nine wolves.  And with this, my hopes and dreams for the assignment came true as we came upon a beaver pond and five of the wolves were walking and lounging around in the middle.  No trees to obstruct, no bushes to get in the way.  It was a perfect setting and with fresh snow, the tracks the wolves made were quite visible as well, which just added to the photos.  We spent about 15 minutes circling these guys before we left to track two more radio-collared animals.  After that, I took some pictures of Bob at the controls before watching the last radio-collared wolf trot along a snowmobile path.

I had never seen a wolf in the wild and after reading what one did to a woman’s dog in Ely, I don’t think I’d want to either.  You can find out what happened to that woman’s dog by clicking here and reading Minnesota Public Radio’s story about the flight and efforts to delist the wolves.  I hope you have as good a time looking at these pictures as I did taking them.  One thing for all you people out there that I learned from this trip… Dramamine will knock you out.  I thought I might need some because of all the banking, spinning and twisting the pilot needed to do to get a good look at the wolves, but I didn’t get sick and all it did was make me nod off in the middle of conversations with Mr. Kelleher on the way back.  Sorry Bob!  Anyway, on to the photos!

In a way, nothing has changed.  I had no idea this morning that I’d get a call to cover a standoff, but I did and I’m glad I did.  It was fun to see many of my old colleagues who had braved freezing cold nights with me covering other standoffs or had passed me on the sidelines at a soccer game.  Today, I got to revisit those days for about five hours as a man suspected in an early morning murder in west Duluth was holed up in a house just a few blocks from where I live.

I got there around 10am and soon after they were sending in the armored personnel carrier and so I thought things were going to go down quickly.  I was wrong.  The police talked throughout the morning and afternoon with the suspect over the phone.  Around 1pm, law enforcement officers pushed all the spectators and the media back about a block from the scene.  Lucky for me, I brought my 300mm f/2.8 and 1.4x extender to the scene, which gave me a pretty decent focal length for where I was shooting from.  This was a residential neighborhood so there were a ton of obstructions between my location and the scene.  There was a very small opening where I could see the action, but it required me getting down on my stomach and shooting with the 300mm lens positioned on top of my camera.  At that point, it was wait and wait and wait…

Fortunately for everyone, around 3pm the suspect surrendered peacefully and everyone left in one piece.  Two days.  Two very different assignments.

Law enforcement officers approach the house where a suspect in a west Duluth murder was holed up.

Law enforcement officers jump off an armored personal carrier after arriving in front of a house where a suspect in a west Duluth murder was holed up.

The suspect is taken into custody.

Cheryl White, the mother of the suspect, looks toward the squad car where law enforcement took her son after a long standoff ended.

The cool thing about Peterson’s job is that she spends day after day on these trails and record all kinds of data about the birds she observes.  You could tell she absolutely loved the job too and is a self-described “bird nerd.”

When we started hiking it wasn’t too windy and we were expecting to see a lot of birds.  As we worked our way up through the hills, the wind picked up, which made it hard to hear any of the birds.  We hiked with her for about 90 minutes before turning back after the prospects of seeing a large number of birds looked grim due to the wind.  Later in the day, Anna called the reporter and told him that 100 meters down the path from the point where we turned around, she ran into over 200 warblers that were on the ground level.  So it goes…

NRRI bird researcher Anna Peterson reacts to strong winds that make it very difficult for her to listen for birds Tuesday morning along the Lake Superior hiking trail near Crow Creek and Castle Danger. Peterson is working with the University of Minnesota Duluth's Natural Resources Research Institute in Duluth.

NRRI bird researcher Anna Peterson listens to a bird chirping Tuesday morning along the Lake Superior hiking trail near Crow Creek and Castle Danger. Peterson is working with the University of Minnesota Duluth's Natural Resources Research Institute in Duluth.

NRRI bird researcher Anna Peterson listens to a bird chirping Tuesday morning along the Lake Superior hiking trail near Crow Creek and Castle Danger. Peterson is working with the University of Minnesota Duluth's Natural Resources Research Institute in Duluth.

NRRI bird researcher Anna Peterson listens to a bird chirping Tuesday morning along the Lake Superior hiking trail near Crow Creek and Castle Danger. Peterson is working with the University of Minnesota Duluth's Natural Resources Research Institute in Duluth.

Using a GPS unit, NRRI bird researcher Anna Peterson records data about birds Tuesday morning along the Lake Superior hiking trail near Crow Creek and Castle Danger. Peterson is working with the University of Minnesota Duluth's Natural Resources Research Institute in Duluth.

NRRI bird researcher Anna Peterson records data about birds Tuesday morning along the Lake Superior hiking trail near Crow Creek and Castle Danger. Peterson is working with the University of Minnesota Duluth's Natural Resources Research Institute in Duluth.

One cool thing I had the opportunity to do was spend a day at the Nokomis Restaurant and Bar shooting all kinds of images for the Wall Street Journal.  The restaurant is located about 10-15 miles north of Duluth along the shore of Lake Superior.  I found out about the assignment on Wednesday and they needed the images by the following Monday.  On top of that, it was Grandma’s Marathon weekend so I couldn’t shoot it Saturday and on Sunday I had to leave to shoot a Charity Golf Tournament in Milwaukee.  That left me with one option… which was to shoot the assignment on Friday.

So I headed out there around 4 in the afternoon and spent about 6 hours there shooting all kinds of scenes from inside the restaurant, the kitchen, different foods and more.  My girlfriend Kristin joined me around 530 and helped out and then we settled down and had dinner there and make no mistake about it–the place lived up to the hype.  Strangely, the bread we had was my favorite part of the whole meal.  The cooks in back put sea salt (I think) and olive oil on it before baking it and it turns out delicious.

Anyway, check out some of the images from my afternoon at Nokomis and what the final article looked like in the Wall Street Journal…

Oh and here is a link to the article online…

Customers enter the Nokomis Restaurant and Bar north of Duluth.

Sous-Chef Curtis LaBreche puts the finishing touches on a Whitefish Cake at the Nokomis Restaurant and Bar north of Duluth, Minn.

Tables near large windows that let natural light pour through with views of Lake Superior are among the hardest to get on busy nights at the Nokomis Restaurant and Bar north of Duluth, Minn.

Fog rolls in off Lake Superior toward the Nokomis Restaurant and Bar north of Duluth, Minn.

Lake Trout is one of the main courses at dinner time at the Nokomis Restaurant and Bar north of Duluth, Minn. The Lake Trout comes with fingerling potatoes, butternut squash, wild mushrooms and butter sauce and sells for $16.

Line cook Seth Lozano removes bone from fresh Whitefish at the Nokomis Restaurant and Bar north of Duluth, Minn.

Waitress Susan Fackler (left) gives a tense expression as the evening rush kicks in while waiting for an entree from the Nokomis Restaurant and Bar Chef and owner Sean Lewis (center). On the right is line cook Seth Lozano. The restaurant north of Duluth, Minn. recommends reserving tables with views of Lake Superior up to a week in advance.

The Opera Cake is one of the more popular desserts at the Nokomis Restaurant and Bar north of Duluth, Minn. The Opera Cake comes with strawberry cocoa powder, strawberry compote and sells for nine dollars.

Nokomis Restaurant and Bar Chef and owner Sean Lewis (right) reaches around line cook Seth Lozano while they prepare Chicken Gumbo at the restaurant north of Duluth, Minn. On the left is Sous-Chef Curtis LaBreche.

Pastry Chef Elizabeth Banks tends to some Peach-Mango Creme Brulees at the Nokomis Restaurant and Bar north of Duluth, Minn.

Susan Fackler rushes through the kitchen to deliver a meal to customers at the Nokomis Restaurant and Bar north of Duluth, Minn.

The Elk Burger is one of the popular items on the dinner time menu at the Nokomis Restaurant and Bar north of Duluth, Minn. Served with tomato relish, aged white cheddar, onion marmalade and a pickle, it sells for $10.

Eric Faust (right), a waiter at the Nokomis Restaurant and Bar north of Duluth, Minn., pours wine for customers.