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Morning Edition
Cathy Wurzer and Gracie Stockton

Sheriff speaks on ice safety, burden of continual rescues on Upper Red Lake

plane crash
A plane landed on Upper Red Lake on Dec. 19, 2023, and broke through the ice. It was one of several incidents that have called rescue crews to the lake during the unseasonably warm winter.
Beltrami County

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This warmer-than-average winter has seen numerous rescues as hopeful anglers venture onto thin, unstable lake ice.

Wednesday, Beltrami County officials extended a ban on vehicles on Upper Red Lake. It follows more than 100 people being rescued after getting stranded on an ice floe last Friday — just one example of several this season, including a plane that landed on the lake and broke through the ice.

Beltrami County Sheriff Jason Riggs told MPR News this year has been an anomaly as people generally get stranded on the popular fishing lake during a two-week period: Thanksgiving to early or mid-December. Mother Nature has extended that by more than a month so far.

Friday’s mass rescue called on many resources including local fire and rescue crews and an airboat from the Department of Natural Resources. Sometimes aircraft have to get involved, and Upper Red Lake spans the jurisdictions of Beltrami County and the Red Lake Nation.

“Timewise, it takes away from the other things that we would be doing, you know, other public safety things,” Riggs said. “And these things are completely preventable in some way, shape or form.”

Riggs says anglers are ignoring warnings from resorts, and even though the vehicle ban is in place, the size of the lake makes it tough to monitor.

“We’re not going to be sending our staff out there to enforce it on the lake itself, because we’re not going to put them in harm’s way with the unknown conditions that are out there,” he said.

Significant pockets of open water remain on Upper Red Lake and many lakes across Minnesota. Wind and fluctuating temperatures continue to chip away at any existing ice.

“And when it refreezes overnight, you go from 10 to 13 inches down to maybe a half inch to an inch and people aren’t seeing that,” Riggs said.

Thursday morning dipped down to 10 degrees, Riggs said, grateful for new ice overnight. He hopes the region will stay below freezing and bring good news for an ice assessment in tandem with the DNR on Monday. If the ice grows enough, he’ll consider allowing vehicles back on the lake.