Minnesota · UplandGreater prairie-chicken

Greater prairie-chicken range in Minnesota has moved twice in its documented history: historically confined to the southeastern part of the state, it expanded statewide as 19th-century farming created new habitat, then contracted westward as grassland was lost, with hunting closed after 1942. Today, per MN DNR's own 2025 survey report (Charlotte Roy), the beach ridges of glacial Lake Agassiz hold most of Minnesota's prairie-chickens, a specific, named northwestern Minnesota geological feature. The state's own standardized survey (17 designated blocks, split into a core group and a periphery group) confirms this: the 10 core blocks had roughly double the booming-ground density of the periphery blocks in 2025 (0.07 vs 0.04 booming grounds/km2). A limited-entry hunting season reopened in 2003 (roughly 100 birds harvested annually) using 9 named permit areas (803A-813A, 117 total permits statewide).