Friends and family pay tribute to northwest Minnesota conservation champion

Friends and family pay tribute to northwest Minnesota conservation champion

Glasses were raised far and wide Sunday night, Feb. 25, as friends and family paid tribute to the man known by many as “Earl the Pearl.” Earl Johnson, a longtime wildlife manager for the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources in Detroit Lakes and champion of prairie grouse, woodcock and little brown bats – to name but a few – died Feb. 25. He was 75 years old. Earl’s younger brother, Mark Johnson, executive director of the Lessard-Sams Outdoo…