Part 3: How you keep a series of lakes open and usable, when they're surrounded by some 3 million people www.startribune.com/a-c-ranking-...

Part 2 of 11,840-something: North of Brainerd, by a quiet stony brook, Minnesota’s only lake where the fish are ‘perfect.’ www.startribune.com/this-lake-ca...

Part one of an 11,842-part series! Start with Lake Ocheda, where Ole Fauskee and his brother, also named Ole Fauskee, stumbled 150 years ago. Now an "F+" Ocheda may be Minnesota's worst, most degraded lake www.startribune.com/where-only-t...

In the land of over 10,000 lakes, a small few are remarkably unhealthy. The Minnesota Department of Natural Resources graded about 3,000 of the most used and studied lakes. This “F+” lake in Worthington is Minnesota’s most degraded. www.startribune.com/where-only-t...

How a limping bear got X-rays at the one dog vet who would take her in

Wild and free of human wrath: Arctic wolves in the way up north. Check out Dennis Anderson's review of Dave Mech's latest:

9,000 caterpillars per clutch, why North American birds desperately need your oak tree:

Did you know that a 1934 law requiring goose and duck hunters to purchase a stamp helped the federal government buy and permanently protect tens of thousands of acres of wetlands across the U.S.? @gregstrib.bsky.social writes about the relationship between birding, hunting and wetland preservation.

Take an interactive tour through the Mississippi River Basin, from bog to bayou, that explores the changing wetland landscape.

Minnesota's swamps:

Rare spawning brook trout discovered on Lake Superior's Minnesota coast

Not a whole lot of degrees out there today

Trying to find a particularly swampy swamp in Minnesota… a little tough to get to

November, when water temperatures are a perfect cold, is the best time to fish in Lake Superior. And right now there are more fish swimming in the lake again than thought possible www.startribune.com/a-dwindling-...

Here's her in the spring... amazing how much bigger wolves look in the winter. Lot of insulation under that winter coat

Here's trail cam footage of 04D, the fence-buster and fisher queen... full winter coat, before her leg healed. You can see she's not putting weight on it. From the Voyageur's Wolf Project

Are the dogs really twice the size of a wolf? Yeah, they’re 120 lbs. and growing. A mix of Antolian shepherd, Spanish maremeesa and great Pyrenees. Wolves in Minnesota only grow to about 60 lbs.

Does the fence trap other animals out or in the ranch? Not really. The fence is only 3.5 feet high. Moose and deer jump right over. Black bears climb it. Smaller mammals squeeze right through. Wolves, just, never seem to think to jump. They only dig.

Got a lot of great questions and emails and a TON of readers on this story here www.startribune.com/a-clever-wol...

A wolf, two dogs, a rancher, and some scientists up in north Minnesota: www.startribune.com/a-clever-wol...