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The Minnesota Department of Natural Resources just debuted a way-cool new way to help stock trout in several remote lakes in northern Minnesota.

Minnesota is a big state, and keeping track of all the different species of fish in our 10,000 lakes (actually, it's over 11,000 lakes, but who's counting?) is just one of the responsibilities of the DNR. And the amount of fish the DNR restocks each year is a pretty big number too. According to the DNR:

The DNR manages roughly 180 lakes for stream trout. Because stream trout don't reproduce in lakes, regular stocking is required to sustain these fisheries. Each year, the DNR stocks these waters with a total of roughly 400,000 rainbow trout, 150,000 splake, 90,000 brook trout, and 20,000 brown trout.

But when you look at the vast areas of northern Minnesota, especially between the North Shore of Lake Superior and that Canadian border, things can start to get pretty remote, pretty quickly. How do you stock those remote lakes without spending a ton of taxpayer money?

Well, you turn to cool new, alternative methods. Which is why the DNR's Enforcement Aviation Unit recently used a helicopter with a tank system to stock several trout lakes in the Grand Marais area. The DNR posted the cool video on the Twitter page. Check it out below!

And while they're not fish, you might still find them in one of Minnesota's 10,000 lakes. We're talking snakes, and did you know that there are 17 different species of snakes who call Minnesota home? Keep scrolling to take a look!

Listen to Curt St. John from 6 to 10 a.m. on Quick Country 96.5
and from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. on 103.9 The Doc

LOOK: The 17 Snake Species of Minnesota

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