Minnesota DNR expands outreach to Karen and Hmong communities for job opportunities

MINNEAPOLIS (FOX 9) - The Minnesota Department of Natural Resources (DNR) is hoping to work with people in underrepresented communities. 

The agency is expanding its outreach to the Karen and Hmong communities and is looking for candidates who are interested in the Fish and Wildlife division and other recreational opportunities within the division, including hunting, to fill two job openings.

Minnesota is home to the largest Karen population in the U.S., with more than 25,000 refugees currently living in the state. The Karen comes from the country of Myanmar, formerly known as Burma. Many of them left their countries and came to the U.S. due to the political situation and former military dictatorship there. The Hmong community is the largest Asian group in Minnesota. It’s estimated nearly 95,000 Hmong people live here today.

The need for this type of outreach is great. The DNR has been translating its regulation booklets into several different languages, and Deb Beyer, the DNR’s Fish and Wildlife Outreach Section manager, says people value having those resources in their language.

"We just came to that realization quite recently here so we’re interested to see if we continue to see that trend and really confirm that’s what we’re seeing. We do print those translated versions too and it’s been a challenge getting them into the hands of the right people, the people who need them and want them," said Beyer.

In 2023, the translated booklets were downloaded more than 922,000 times, which is 45% of the total number of times the English version booklets were downloaded that same year.

Applications for these positions can be found on the Minnesota careers website, mn.gov. The deadline to apply is Tuesday at the end of the day.