A warning to anglers who soon will move their fish houses off Minnesota's frozen lakes: Pick up your trash.

"The only thing they should leave is an imprint in the snow and ice," said Rodmen Smith, director of the enforcement division at the Department of Natural Resources.

Fish houses on inland lakes in the southern two-thirds of the state must be removed by midnight March 2 and by March 16 in the rest of the state. Different deadlines are in place for waters on the state's borders.

What sometimes gets left behind isn't pretty, such as cigarette butts, fish carcasses, blocking material, propane canisters, cans, bottles and bags — some full of human waste. When the ice melts, the trash lands in the water, potentially affecting water quality, DNR officials said.

"The majority of people do things right, but unfortunately there's a subset of people who leave a mess on the ice and count on someone else to clean up after them," Smith said. "They take advantage of the fact that the majority of people care about our lakes and will clean up trash, even if it isn't theirs."

Conservation officers sometimes can pinpoint where the trouble spots will be because they monitor lakes throughout the winter. They also get reports from anglers upset about the trash left by those who fished near them during the winter. Scofflaws will receive litter citations.

MARY LYNN SMITH

Duluth

Essentia Health to move to Sears site

Essentia Health is moving into the former Sears at Miller Hill Mall, making it the biggest tenant at the regional shopping center.

The Duluth-based health system didn't say which services would be moving or when, just that "several options are being considered for developing this property."

"We're still working on plans for the Sears space," spokesman Louie St. George III said in a statement last week. "Meanwhile, we are planning to move additional services into the open space on the second floor of the former Younkers store, including therapy services, occupational medicine and select retail services."

Essentia paid $4 million for the 109,000-square-foot Sears store, St. George said. Sears closed its Duluth location in 2018.

Last year Essentia bought the 145,000-square-foot former Younkers space for $3.2 million, according to county records. It is home to the Center for Personal Fitness and the Therapy and Performance Center. Among anchor department stores at Miller Hill Mall, only J.C. Penney remains.

brooks Johnson