On the evening of Saturday, February 26th, the Friends of Rydell and Glacial Ridge Refuges Association will be hosting a Candlelight Ski and Owl Prowl event at Rydell National Wildlife Refuge (NWR) near Erskine, MN. Pre-registration is required for the event, which will run from 6:00 p.m. to 10:00 p.m. Church Lake and Golden Pond trails will be groomed and lighted for this event, although all five of Rydell NWR’s trails will be open for cross country skiing or snowshoeing. Participants are recommended to bring along a headlamp if they have one since there will not be the benefit of a full moon that evening. As visitors traverse the trails, an owl calling station will be set up where the calls of several owl species (e.g., saw-whet, barred, great horned) will be projected into the woods to try and generate a response. Who-who-who knows what you might hear!
Pre-registration is required to attend this event in order to comply with the current event limit of 50 people on Department of the Interior lands. People can pre-register by calling Refuge Manager Gregg Knutsen at 218-686-4329 or emailing him at gregg_knutsen@fws.gov. In order to accommodate as many interested people as possible, reservations will be taken for two different event timeframes – one from 6:00 p.m. to 8:00 p.m. and one from 8:00 p.m. to 10:00 p.m. The Refuge Visitor Center will be open during the event, which will provide participants a place to warm up. However, due to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, there will be several changes to the event from past years. Snacks and beverages will not be provided. Feel free to bring your own snacks, coffee, or hot chocolate. Also, no ski equipment or snowshoes will be provided for check-out at the Refuge this year. If you don’t have your own skis, you can rent them from the University of Minnesota-Crookston (218-281-8520 or 218-281-8586) or Crookston Parks and Recreation (no cost, 218-281-1232).
In addition to dressing appropriately for the forecasted weather, please bring a mask. Masks will be required of anyone who enters the Refuge Visitor Center. If temperatures are below zero or wind chills are in the double-digits below zero, the event will be cancelled and potentially rescheduled at a later date.
