Osprey Relocation
Each summer, Minnesota Power employees collect osprey chicks from nests high atop transmission structures and power poles in northern Minnesota so the Iowa Department of Natural Resources can move them to Iowa. This assisted immigration has helped to strengthen the bird’s numbers in Iowa and keep the population in Minnesota at a healthy level. Once in Iowa, the fish-eating raptors are fed and housed in protective “hack boxes” until they are old enough to fly, find their own food and be on their own. Because osprey generally return to the location where they first learned to fish, Iowa likely will remain their home base.
