Josh Froelich grew up as a self-proclaimed “city kid”. His family didn’t hunt and with no access to hunting land, wild game wasn’t a big part of his young life. As an adult, Froelich is an accomplished competitive shooter, husband, father of two, landowner, and avid hunter. How did he find himself here? His journey to shaping his land and providing the bear necessities of life revolves around two things – food and family. The forefront of his journey into land management…bear hunting.

The Hunt for Food

“I’m a relatively new hunter,” says Froelich. He bowhunted whitetail a handful of times and shot a duck here and there, but it wasn’t a serious part of his life until college. “I didn’t grow up with my dad hunting or my family hunting, so I kind of learned on my own just because it was something I was really interested in,” says Froelich.

As a college athlete, Froelich was looking for a quality meat source to fit his clean, high protein diet. As hunters know, venison is a fantastic and lean alternative to beef – and venison is about as clean and organic as it gets. “That’s what got me back into the woods! It was interesting to get my own food and it was an adventure to go out and learn this new thing.” Froelich was instantly hooked on hunting as a way of providing quality food for himself.

He continued to hunt and harvest whitetail every year through his young adult life, but land access was still a challenge, and he didn’t expand on his hunting endeavors.

Food for the Hunt

Fast-forward a few years to 2012, Froelich and his wife bought a 9-acre property on the outskirts of a Minneapolis suburb – a small haven for his young family. And land access! For a relatively small property, it offered a diverse landscape with lowlands, timber, and bordered a small environmental lake. Froelich hunted waterfowl and whitetail on the property and began to see opportunities to improve the hunting.

“That was my first glimpse of land management and doing small things to the landscape to make it better for the animals, which would in turn lead to hunting,” says Froelich. There’s only so much that can be done on 9 acres, and he did as much as he could to enhance the hunting on the property.

After a few years, the effects of suburban sprawl began to close in on Froelich’s 9-acre property and he started to think about expanding. Pressure from encroaching suburbia negatively affected the wildlife in the area. In 2019, Froelich purchased a 150-acre farm in northern Minnesota and has focused his attention on land management to get value out of nature for his family. 

Froelich manages his 150-acre property for whitetail, turkey, waterfowl, and black bear. “We work really hard to create something special in the area. And now it’s far more than just shooting a whitetail every year,” says Froelich. His family works every day to make the farm a better habitat for the animals. 

When it comes to managing land for wildlife, Froelich stresses that you have to think about food, cover, and pressure. And you have to think about what the animal wants to do. For example, black bears want to stay in nice cover and feed on food sources where they feel safe. 

To entice the bears to hang out on his property, he planted blueberries and raspberries along black bear trails. His land borders state land on one side, so he chose to plant three batch patches on the opposite side of the public land pressure. The berries, plus sweet corn food plots – that’s Mother Nature’s recipe for a black bear feast.

Froelich believes that the increase in midsummer bear activity is due to some of the improvements he’s made. The berries and sweet corn help attract the bears to his property in mid- to late-summer, just before he’s able to start baiting in Minnesota. They’re coming for natural reasons and sticking around to munch on the bait. These efforts should improve the bear hunting on his land for years to come. 

“I get the kids involved in all the things we do,” says Froelich. “They’re along for the ride and they’re both super excited to get into hunting.” Froelich’s daughters are now 8 and 9 years old and help him with property management projects and are responsible for their own chores on the farm, like keeping their chickens fed and the coops clean. “It’s a lot of work for little kids, but I believe that type of hard work will help them stand apart when they grow up,” says Froelich.

Bear Necessities of Life

It can be easy to take the convenience of grocery shopping and pre-packaged food for granted in our chaotic daily lives. As hunters, it’s important for us to take a step back and understand where our food comes from and the effort it takes to acquire. Sometimes getting a glimpse of this process through a child’s eye can give perspective on how important it is to value nature and the outdoors. 

When the Froelich family moved to their farm, his 6- and 7-year-old daughters’ eyes lit up – “We can grow blueberries?!” Yeah! It’s natural forest food, no chemicals, and no plastic containers from the grocery store.

Reconnecting with nature and finding ways to provide for his family from the land is at the center of Froelich’s land management efforts. Food and Family are intertwined. The berry patches that nourish the black bears also nourish his family. Sweet corn is a whitetail and black bear favorite…and it’s also a Froelich family favorite. 

“We have an opportunity to produce food, whether it’s through the berries or the corn or the meat that we harvest,” says Froelich. “One way or another, we get to enjoy fine meals together.”

As a self-proclaimed “city kid”, Froelich says it’s neat because his whole family is involved in planning and executing their land management projects. The whole family is involved in harvesting the berries, corn, and the wild game – and everyone gets involved in processing food for their table.

Froelich is determined to demonstrate to his daughters that you can create positive change with effort. “My kids work. We work together. They’re involved in things and then they get to see that it pays off. My kids are going to understand that working hard, you can change things for the better and they’re seeing it first-hand year after year,” says Froelich.

Froelich’s effort to shape his land into an oasis of habitat will have a lasting impact on the local wildlife. But more importantly, involving his daughters in the process and instilling a healthy work ethic will leave a long-lasting impact on their lives and humanity. The extent to which he is able to provide for his wife and daughters through managing his land for wildlife is a point of pride for Froelich and motivates him to continue his Journey. 

Unbearable & Ideas Bruin

Despite relentlessly bear hunting this year, Froelich didn’t harvest a bear in 2021. Unfortunately, the bear activity on his bait wasn’t as good as he hoped. “I don’t think I had enough sweet corn this year,” said Froelich. A neighboring farmer still had about 20 acres of sweet corn in that had been devastated by black bears, which might explain why the bears weren’t on Froelich’s bait. 

“I’ve got some creative thinking to do,” he said. He had more success last year when that field was in soybeans. “I might have a challenge with losing bears on years when the nearby fields are in corn.” 

“Next year I’m going to try some new things, but I don’t even know what they are yet! I’m going to do a bunch of research over the winter and try to figure out what I need to do on the farm to entice them to stick around,” said Froelich. The bear hunting Journey continues…

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Follow Josh Froelich on Facebook and Instagram. Find him online at www.joshfroelich.com.