RHINELANDER, WI (WSAU-WXPR) – You might be hard pressed to find some wild rice this fall.
Peter David is a wildlife biologist with the Great Lake Indian Fish and Wildlife Commission. He was out last week doing aerial surveys of rice beds. “Particularly in your region, Iron, Vilas, Oneida, Forest Counties, it may be one of the very worst years I’ve seen in 35 years. I think with the possible exception of 2010 when we had a major disease outbreak.”
David says water levels are still too high in the region for good wild rice crops. The farther west you go in Wisconsin and into Minnesota the crops get better.
Harvest usually starts around Labor Day. David is asking people to be patient. “The other thing I really encourage everybody, is that in a year like this, it can sometimes coax people to get out there and be the first one there because there isn’t a lot. That really just makes the harvest worse for everybody.”
You can learn about wild rice crop quality for a specific waterbody on GLIFWC’s website.
