A first swan hunting season ever opened Saturday for some Chippewa Indian band members in Minnesota, Wisconsin and Michigan.

Ten bands, including six in Wisconsin and one in Minnesota — the Mille Lacs Band — can hunt tundra and trumpeter swans off-reservation in the 1837 and 1842 ceded territories, which include a portion of central Minnesota, most of northern Wisconsin and part of Michigan's Upper Peninsula.

The hunt is intended to focus on tundra swans, whose population is healthy and are hunted by the public in other states, including North Dakota and South Dakota, though there is no open season in Minnesota. But band members can also shoot trumpeter swans, a species once threatened and still protected that has made a remarkable comeback in Minnesota and Wisconsin.

"Our population is probably 10,000 here,'' said Steve Cordts, Minnesota Department of Natural Resources waterfowl specialist. He doesn't expect many trumpeters to be killed, and band officials say most of the hunting likely will occur in Wisconsin and Michigan. There is a daily and seasonal possession limit of two swans.

The bands' swan season ends Dec. 31, or when a total of 10 trumpeter swans have been killed in the three states. As of Tuesday, no swans had been registered by hunters, said Sue Erickson, public information director for the Great Lakes Indian Fish & Wildlife Commission.

The potential loss of 10 swans wouldn't affect the trumpeter population, Cordts said. "But I've gotten some calls and e-mails from birders and swan lovers'' upset over the hunt, he said.

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service approved the bands' swan hunt. DNR officials said they have no plans to propose or consider a state swan hunting season.

Corn harvest help

Minnesota farmers have harvested more than 70 percent of the corn crop, which should help deer and pheasant hunters. Both deer and pheasants seek refuge in standing cornfields. Farmers harvested 30 percent of the corn just last week, the most taken during the last week of October in more than 10 years.

Doug Smith • 612-673-7667