Eh Tah Khu grew up fishing in Myanmar, but left the country due to political conflict and settled in Minnesota with his wife and son in 2010. He was interested in fishing in his new home state, but wasn’t sure how to navigate questions about where and when he could fish, what he could fish for, and how to do it all legally.
“I felt like I don’t understand all of these rules and regulations, and I don’t want to violate any regulation by mistake,” said Khu, who is co-executive director of the Karen Organization of Minnesota. “So, I’d rather just not do it so that I don’t get into any trouble.”
The Minnesota Department of Natural Resources (DNR) is hoping to reach more people like Khu by posting a new job designed to improve the department’s outreach to the state’s Karen community. The agency also posted a similar job targeting the Hmong community.
The DNR is accepting applications for Hmong and Karen community outreach coordinators through Tuesday, March 12, and Jeff Ledermann, the hiring manager, said the department has already received a significant amount of interest.
“A couple handfuls of people have reached out to me to ask and find out and let me know they’re interested, so it’s been really good,” Ledermann said.
The two positions, which are both full-time and located within the DNR’s Fish and Wildlife Division, represent a significant investment in the agency’s outreach to the Hmong and Karen communities.
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In the case of the Hmong community, it’s a return to a level of investment that the DNR had for decades.
Ledermann said the DNR has done dedicated outreach work with the Hmong community since the 1990s, but that when the department’s Hmong outreach staffer retired just prior to the COVID-19 pandemic, the position was never filled. Now, after the state Legislature passed a bill that included outreach positions, that will change.
The investment in outreach to the Karen community, meanwhile, is a milestone. The Fish and Wildlife Division briefly had a Karen community outreach coordinator working in a temporary capacity in 2019 and 2020, but has never had a full-time Karen community outreach position.
Outreach coordinators will help develop programs and policies that get community members engaged with fishing, hunting, and other outdoor activities. Those activities have, for a variety of reasons, been less accessible to newer immigrant communities.
It’s the kind of work that can make a major difference in the lives of newer immigrants and community members who might be interested in engaging with outdoor pursuits, but aren’t sure about how to take advantage of the opportunities on offer or comply with the associated rules.
During the pandemic, Khu decided he needed to find another outdoor activity after he could no longer play recreational soccer, and his mind went back to fishing. It was a success—Khu bought a boat so he can take his family out on the water at his leisure—but it requires plenty of work. Khu said he reads the DNR website before every fishing trip to keep abreast of the latest news and rules.
But for some community members, that can be a barrier to participation.
“Due to the language barriers, not a lot of people can go onto the DNR website and read some of the things they would like to know or find out the information they need or call them and ask a question,” Khu said. “Having someone who speaks the language from the department who understands those rules and regulations will be very helpful for the community.”
If that happens, it will be a boon to Ledermann and his DNR colleagues on multiple fronts.
“It’s healthy, it gets people outside and gets them connected with nature,” Ledermann said of reaching new communities. “But our funding in natural resources—fish and wildlife—a good percentage of it is linked to license sales. So we have that motivation also to get folks out there.”
The DNR does not track the ethnicities of people who purchase fishing and hunting licenses, but Ledermann noted that the department’s former Hmong outreach coordinator used surveys to track community participation.
For the DNR, more participation in fishing and hunting means more funding for its work in wildlife population and resource management, fishing and hunting surveys and research, and more.
Though the DNR doesn’t have detailed demographic data on licenses, it does have evidence to suggest that the state’s ethnic communities are eager to learn more about its offerings and outdoor opportunities.
Starting in 2021, the DNR has translated the hunting and fishing regulations posted on its website into Spanish, Somali, Hmong, and Karen. Last year, there were more downloads of the fishing regulations in non-English languages than there were in English.
“It’s still astounding to me—if you take those four languages and the four books that we’ve done, in 2023 we had almost a million downloads of those documents,” Ledermann said. “So we know there’s interest; we know they’re having value and people are using them.”
Now, the department will be able to do more intentional work to engage those communities. The state legislature also provided funding to hire staff members in the enforcement division to work with the Hmong and Karen communities as well.
The DNR has worked with the Karen Organization of Minnesota in the past on a grant to provide outdoor education to the community, and Khu said he’s excited to see what the new outreach position will offer.
“I see the department is purposefully or specifically trying to look for a Karen-specific person to hire, which is great,” Khu said, “because hunting, fishing is what a lot of Karen people like to do.”
How to apply for the Karen and Hmong community outreach coordinator positions
The deadline to apply is March 12, 2024.
Apply by:
- Visiting https://mn.gov/mmb/careers/.
- Click on “search open positions.”
- In the “search jobs” field, enter the job ID number 73954 for the Karen community outreach coordinator listing and hit “enter.”
- To find the Hmong community outreach coordinator listing, enter the job ID number 73959.
