When so much else slumped in 2020, nature took off The outdoors lured new participants in 2020. December 26, 2020 — 6:05pm Text size Copy shortlink: When the world changed in March and most fish and wildlife workers retreated to work from home, licensing center employees at the Department of Natural Resources reported to the office to keep issuing permits of all kinds. They kept open the machinery that fed the story of the year in Minnesota's outdoors: an unprecedented embrace of fishing, hunting, camping, hiking, biking, boating and trail riding. To escape the constraints of the global coronavirus pandemic, people flocked to the state's lakes, rivers, woods, parks, trails, campgrounds and wilderness areas.