Patience is a Virtue

It is almost time to check to see if you or your group have been drawn for the Minnesota (MN) bear hunt. The MN Department of Natural Resources (DNR) says that they will notify you in the mail around mid June. A paper copy of the regulations and rules will arrive for successful applicants in the drawing notifying you as a winner. If you are too impatient to wait you can check for yourself on the MN DNR website with your driver’s license number or hunt id.

However, there was an error with their process this year. Here is the press release from the MN Department of Natural Resources...

Bear hunt lottery to be rerun
(Released May 27, 2011)

Hunters who applied for a 2011 Minnesota bear hunting permit will have to wait a little longer to determine if they were successful in this year’s lottery.
That’s because the Department of Natural Resources (DNR) is rerunning the bear lottery due to a computer-related error.

Though no bear hunting licenses have been issued, the DNR reports some hunters may be under the mistaken impression they have been selected as a winner because they viewed incorrect content on the agency’s website before the error was detected.

“The message to bear hunters is that we’ll get the word out when correct lottery results are available,” said Dennis Simon, DNR wildlife section chief. “We regret any inconvenience this misinformation has caused.”

Simon said older data from 2009 rather than the most current data from 2010 was used by the computer to determine hunter preference level. As a result, many bear hunting permit winners were erroneously selected based on incorrect preference information.

“Our job is to conduct a fair and accurate lottery and that’s what we will do,” said Simon.

New lottery results will be posted on the DNR website in early June and successful hunters will also be notified by mail later in June.

Also new this year are the following rules...

Unsold Permits
New for 2011, bear lottery winners must purchase their license by July 29, 2011. Unsold licenses will then become available for one week to those that applied but were not selected in the lottery starting August 3, 2011 at 12:00PM. August 10, 2011 at 12:00PM any remaining unsold license will become available to anyone. Please look for a DNR news release or check the DNR Web Site (www.dnr.state.mn.us) in late July, for further information.

I know “Patience is a Virtue”, but I can never wait to see if I am drawn. I guess I am just like a kid at Christmas and have to take a peek.




SOURCE: MN DNR