Stories from Wednesday, September 13, 2017

The U.S. Department of the Interior announced a new report by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service that shows that 101.6 million Americans—40 percent of the U.S. population 16 years old and older—participated in wildlife-related activities in 2016, such as hunting, fishing, and wildlife-watching...

Milkweed Matters began in 2014 when group founder Kelly Guilbeau began throwing loose milkweed seeds along the RAGBRAI route. The following year, seed ball dispersal began with 2,000 thrown during the ride in collaboration with another organization; Monarchs in Eastern Iowa. Last year the number of seed balls jumped to 58,459—made at 79 different events statewide by 3,406 people. ...

I went fishing to one of my all-time favorite places recently, Lake Kabetogama in the Voyageur’s National Park in northern Minnesota. I’ve been to Kab many times in the past fifteen years. I go there for several reasons, but mostly because it’s a world class fishery for a variety of fish. Usually our focus is on the fishing, and on this trip we were going to take our fishing seriously, but maybe not as seriously as we usually do. Here’s what I mean...

For the past 29 years, the weekend after Labor Day weekend has been the annual PIGLIFT tournament at the Iowa Great Lakes. That’s the Pocahontas Iowa Great Lakes Invitational Fishing Tournament, and each boat consists of three anglers, one of whom must at some time in his/her life been a resident in Pocahontas...

Spirit Lake played host to some of the area's best volleyball teams Saturday, but the Indians were far from gracious hosts, sweeping the field that included Dickinson County rival Okoboji to win. "The competition this weekend was really, really good," Spirit Lake coach Beau Dielschneider said. ...

Spencer’s girls swim team made easy work of Algona and Boone Monday night at Algona Family YMCA, taking out the Bulldogs 78-22 and the Toreadors 61-36. “The girls had a great night swimming some new events and working hard at regular events, cutting times and having fun,” Spencer girls swim coach Amie Lawrence said...

Okoboji cross country runners were in action over the weekend at the Tim Thomas Classic in Holstein. The Pioneer boys won the varsity B meet with a combined score of 55 points, defeating runner-up Woodbine by 26. "The boys ran really well," Okoboji coach Brad Peter said. ...

A pair of Harris-Lake Park cross country runners competed Monday at a meet hosted by West Lyon at Lake Pahoja Recreation Area near Inwood. Jaden Rueter placed 39th for the Wolves in the boy's race with his final time of 22 minutes, 9 seconds. Skylar Forbes placed 18th in the girl's race with her time of 31 minutes, 19 seconds...

Spirit Lake boys and girls cross country runners had a solid showing Tuesday afternoon at a meet hosted by Lakes Conference rival Storm Lake. The Spirit Lake boys team placed third overall, and the girls — led by a runner-up performance from junior Kourtney Delperdang — placed sixth...

Spirit Lake dropped an early game to Lakes Conference rival Spencer at home Tuesday night, but bounced back to win three straight, topping the Tigers 3-1 (20-25, 25-21, 25-17, 25-21). "Anytime we play Spencer, it's a huge rivalry and it's really intense. ...

Okoboji entered Thursday night's Siouxland Conference volleyball opener against Rock Valley without a win so far this season. The Pioneers exited the night the same way they entered it, losing to the Rockets in five sets, but according to coach Eric Thompson, his squad continued to make progress...

While it remains to be seen, top-ranked (1A) West Lyon certainly looks the part of a state champion after a 49-0 road win over Okoboji on Friday night. Entering the contest, Okoboji Jon Allen said the Wildcats were the best team in either Class 1A or 2A, and would "beat up a lot of 3A teams."...

Returning state runner-up Harris-Lake Park faced an uphill climb after losing seniors and 2016 First Team All-State performers Trevor Gunderson and Keegan Carpenter to injury in the first quarter of the season-opener. Now, after falling to fourth-ranked Remsen St. Mary's 58-32 at home in Friday's district opener, that climb just got a lot steeper...

Spirit Lake remains unbeaten with commanding win over 'Dogs

Editor's Note: This is the fourth installment of a weekly series previewing prep football in Dickinson County. The rankings are according to the Associated Press poll. Spirit Lake is the lone unbeaten team in Dickinson County after downing Le Mars 49-12 at home last week...