This story originally appeared on KAXE.

ONAMIA — Jordan Williams wouldn’t go so far as to call this year’s wild rice a bumper crop, but he will say the rice is looking really, really nice.

Williams is a wildlife biologist for the Mille Lacs Band of Ojibwe Department of Natural Resources. The agency monitors many lakes in and around the reservation and throughout the 1837 ceded territory, which stretches west into Wisconsin.

“[Lake] Onamia’s always really efficient, always has lots of rice, so that’s not really any surprise there … really thick, tall rice,” he said.

“I think if you know of any other place that typically has wild rice, it’s probably going to have just a little bit more this year.”

Lots of Minnesota’s rice beds have struggled in recent years. Wild rice is sensitive to ch

See Full Page