Kim Fundingsland

Many North Dakota residents thoroughly enjoy the outdoor opportunities in this state. When hunting seasons came to a close in early January many who hadn’t already done so have since ventured onto the ice for some vertical fishing.

There’s other activities too – hiking, skiing, snowshoeing among them. Some folks can’t get enough of winter activities. Others choose to participate to help shorten the winter season while waiting for ice to leave our lakes and rivers and for the landscape to change from brown and white to green.

We’ve got plenty of winter remaining before migrating birds return, pushing the winter weather ahead of them. But the hours of daylight are already increasing and thoughts are turning toward the coming spring and beyond. Sometimes spring arrives rather grudgingly. At other times it seems to arrive overnight. Either way is welcome.

I hope you feel the same about this outdoors page returning to The Minot Daily News. We will endeavor to present you in the coming weeks and months with a variety of outdoors news from the area.

We want your participation too. A weekly feature will be a Photo of the Week submitted by you, the reader. It can be a youngster with a first fish, your favorite dog in an outdoor setting or any other subject matter you think is of interest to others.

While hunting and fishing issues will remain a mainstay of our outdoors coverage, we will be including a wide variety of outdoor undertakings in our future reporting. Your ideas are welcome. Be sure and check out our website and Facebook page for video presentations too.