The Resource Management Division cooperates with two Minnesota Department of Natural Resources surveys designed to track trends in furbearer populations each year. The Scent Post Survey is run in early fall and consists of 10 stations placed along gravel or dirt roads that serve as travelways for many furbearing species. Each station consists of a 3 foot diameter circle of cleared and sifted dirt with a smelly disc placed in the center. The following day the route is checked and the tracks of visiting furbearers are identified and counted. The Winter Track Survey is conducted after a fresh snowfall and consists of a 10 mile route along a roadway where you identify and count the number of furbearers that were present in each ½ mile segment.
Both of these surveys are run across much of Minnesota each year and of course the species that are detected vary depending on where in the state your route is. Along the routes that we run, our most common visitors are fisher, pine marten, red fox, wolf, and coyote. We feel it is valuable to participate in this survey as a number of our trappers actively pursue fisher and pine marten each fall.