Deer hunter accused of illegally bagging moose in northeastern Minnesota

A deer hunter admitted he messed up and bagged a moose, whose population is a far cry from what it was in Minnesota two decades ago, according to a criminal complaint filed Wednesday.

Dane Landon Nelson, 37, of Duluth, was charged in St. Louis County District Court with illegally taking the moose, a gross misdemeanor, while hunting on Monday, the first day of the firearms deer season, about 20 miles south of Eveleth.

The Minnesota Department of Natural Resources (DNR) has listed moose as a species of special concern for several years and hasn’t allowed a moose hunting season since 2012. Some Native bands in the region reserve the right to hunt moose.

Nelson was charged by summons and is scheduled to appear in court on Feb. 22. Court records do not list an attorney for him. The Minnesota Star Tribune left a message for Nelson seeking his response to the allegations.

State conservation officials estimated in February of this year that the moose population in northeastern Minnesota was 4,040, less than half the estimate of 8,840 in 2006. The population had been sharply declining between 2009 and 2013 before largely stabilizing, according to the DNR.

According to the charges:

DNR officers were alerted about 9:15 a.m. to a moose being shot near Melrude, an unincorporated community in St. Louis County. They arrived at the scene and spoke with Nelson and others in his hunting party.

He said he was facing east at the time, and the sun’s glare made it difficult to see the animal, which he thought was a six-point white-tailed deer. The moose fell about 110 yards from Nelson’s deer stand.

The officers saw that Nelson’s eyes were bloodshot and watery, and he smelled of alcohol. Nelson said he had been drinking beer the previous night. The officers administered a preliminary breath test that measured his blood alcohol content at 0.10%, a level considered to be intoxicated for drivers.