How a DNR copter pilot pulled off a risky nighttime rescue in the Boundary Waters [Video]

Grace Zeller’s cell phone rang in her Brainerd home at 7:30 p.m. on Saturday, May 18, and she could see on the caller ID that her boss Jake Willis was ringing her up.

Zeller, 35, is a helicopter pilot with the Department of Natural Resources Enforcement Division. She knew Willis wouldn’t phone on a weekend just to chat.

“What’s up, Jake?” she said, picking up the phone.

Willis, chief pilot of the division, oversees seven pilots. Typically their assignments include moose surveys, invasive plant eradication and other conservation work, as well as assisting conservation officers.

Occasionally, they also fly the search part of search-and-rescue missions. But usually they leave the rescuing to Minnesota State Patrol pilots and their specialized aircraft.

This night would be different.

“I was at my deer hunting shack doing some work when I got a call from St. Louis County about canoeists who had gone over a falls in the Boundary Waters,” Willis recalled. “It was too late to send …