Minnesota Stories:

John Helland: Wildife in Metro's Back Yard

This week we're beginning a series of outdoor stories from Minnesota voices. John Helland is our Monday contributor.

When I recently read in a suburban paper that a fisher was spotted in the Minnesota Valley Wildlife Refuge, I was both surprised and interested. After all, this unique mammal is largely known as a secretive and reclusive denizen of Minnesota's great northeastern forests. Why would it be in the midst of our largest metropolitan area, in an area of mostly wetland cattails, and under the booming sound of nearby airport jet travel?

John Helland

The fisher was seen by an editor of the paper while eating lunch near the old Cedar Bridge along the Minnesota river. He had seen fishers before when he lived and worked up north, and verified that it surely could be a fisher when he talked to a DNR biologist. Bill Berg, DNR's forest wildlife research scientist said fishers are continually expanding their range and sometimes den up outside the edge of forests and woodlands.

A fisher

So perhaps we are slowly increasing the diversity of wildlife species throughout the state. Look at the reports of cougars moving through the twin cities northern suburbs, coyotes continually popping up metro-wide, and even a Bigfoot spotting further north. Someone saw a coyote adjacent to my suburban house, we have a distinctive owl taking residence in our backyard cottonwood tree, our house is even a half-dozen miles north of the Minnesota river valley, so I'd love to discover a fisher in nearby environs. What better to still feel like there's a semi-wild natural world out there then have some unusual species turn up.

John Helland worked on environment and natural resource issues for the legislature, and now writes, blogs and enjoys leisure while watching from afar.