Outdoor News Daily

Citizen conservationists and natural resource professionals spent time thinking about the future in 2009. They also faced new challenges and got glimpses of the future as they kept pushing the envelope of conservation progress.

JANUARY

The first news of the year found Missourians looking backward, however. A tally of deer checked by Show-Me State bowhunters between Sept. 15, 2008, and Jan. 15, 2009, showed a record harvest of 44,434. The previous high was 42,322, in the 2006-2007 season.

That was not the only good news about deer in 2009. The frequency of deer-vehicle accidents reached a 15-year low, according to the Missouri Highway Patrol. In 1991, a deer-vehicle collision happened ever 2.6 hours, on average. By 1996, the frequency had increased to one collision every 1.7 hours. In 1995, the Conservation Department began applying the brakes – to deer numbers in areas with too many. Longer hunting seasons and an increased emphasis on shooting female deer paid off when the frequency of deer-vehicle accidents leveled off, then began a steady decline. By 2007, the frequency was back to 2.6 accidents per hour, where it had been in 1991. Deer-vehicle accident statistics for 2008 have not been released yet.

Perry May of Dexter gigged a 2-pound northern hogsucker in the Current River Jan. 31, setting a new alternate-methods record for that species.

FEBRUARY

A massive ice storm struck southeast Missouri and the Ozarks, snapping more than 16,000 utility poles and sending thousands of trees crashing across roads. An estimated 54,000 Missourians were without electricity, unable to reach shelters and inaccessible to emergency workers and utility crews. Hundreds of workers with the Missouri Department of Conservation streamed into the stricken area with chainsaws and heavy equipment and pitched in with other forces marshaled by the Missouri State Emergency Management Agency.

MARCH

The Missouri National Archery in the Schools Program held its first statewide tournament in Linn, drawing 174 contestants from 17 schools. They left so energized that preparations now are now under way for regional tournaments, and the statewide event is expected to draw 500 shooters. If other states’ experience is any indication, this program is likely to continue rapid growth.

Brian Clapp of Butler caught the second state-record fish of the year, a 1-pound, 7-ounce yellow perch taken from a Bates County farm pond for a pole-and-line record.

APRIL

State and federal officials began putting out traps to determine the extent of an emerald ash borer infestation in Wayne County and detect any new outbreaks in the rest of the state. The news is good so far, but trapping will ramp up next year to ensure timely responses to any additional outbreaks.

Gov. Jay Nixon hosted 10 hunters in the first Governor’s Invitational Youth Turkey Hunt. Only one participant bagged a gobbler, but all gained experience and got the thrill of hearing tom turkeys gobble lustily at dawn. Sponsors of the event included the Conservation Department, the Missouri State Chapter of the National Wild Turkey Federation, the Conservation Federation of Missouri and the Missouri Legislative Sportsmen’s Caucus.

Members of the Missouri Native Plant Society discovered a rare orchid never before documented in the Show-Me State on an outing in southeastern Missouri. A patch of showier flowers distracted most of the botanists, but Justin Thomas took time to snap a few photos of the Southern twayblade orchid (Listera australis). Only later, as he examined his photos, did he realize his find.

Missouri got its third state fishing record of the year April 17, when Lucas Dement of Ste. Genevieve shot a 46-pound, 8-ounce smallmouth buffalo with a bow at Duck Creek Conservation Area.

MAY

Another state fishing record fell when Vince G. Elfrink of Walnut Shade caught a 1-pound, 11-ounce yellow perch from Bull Shoals Lake May 3. He was fishing for white bass with a pole and line. His fish edged out the one caught by Brian Clapp six weeks earlier.

On May 16, the year’s tally of fishing records reached five, when Gerald W. Wright of Independence caught a 2-pound, 14-ounce shorthead redhorse on pole and line at Truman Reservoir.

A violent storm spawned tornadoes and straight-line winds of up to 90 mph across a wide swath of southern Missouri May 8, damaging an estimated 204 million board feet of timber on 113,000 acres of public and private land. The damage was estimated at $12 million. Some of the damaged trees were salvageable. However, the difficulty of reaching downed timber and the sheer magnitude of the job made it unlikely more than half the potential salvage would occur before rot sets in.

Missouri’s spring turkey harvest outstripped predictions by more than 1,800 birds, reflecting a fair crop of young turkeys in 2008, relatively good hunting weather and hunters’ determination. The harvest for the three-week season was 41,830. Young hunters bagged another 2,883 birds during the youth turkey season, bringing the spring harvest total to 44,713.

One-hundred-fifty conservation leaders from across the state convened in Columbia May 28 and 29 for a Summit on the Future of Missouri’s Outdoors. They hammered out a vision for the state’s outdoor future. Outdoor education, water conservation and connecting families with the outdoors topped the list of priorities the leaders agreed should guide conservation for the next three-quarters of a century. The gathering took place nearly 74 years after another groups of concerned Missourians met at the Tiger Hotel in downtown Columbia. That group founded the Conservation Federation of Missouri and launched the initiative petition drive that gave Missouri the nation’s first politically independent conservation agency.

JUNE

Missouri observed another anniversary in June, as Missouri Stream Team celebrated its 20th birthday. The joint effort of the Conservation Federation of Missouri and the departments of Conservation and Natural Resources got its start on Feb. 1, 1989, when the Roubidoux Fly Fishers became Stream Team No. 1. Since then, an estimated 80,000 citizens have formed 4,000 Stream Teams. Since then, Missourians have removed more than 6,000 tons of trash from streams, not to mention planting trees in flood plains, mapping watershed, monitoring streams and lakes for zebra mussels and dozens of other stream-conservation activities.

JULY

July brought the appointment of a new Conservation Commissioner. Don Bedell, a 68-year-old businessman from Sikeston, began his six-year term July 1, replacing Lowell Mohler of Jefferson City. His experience includes starting more than 100 companies and service on numerous boards of directors. He is a Life Sponsor of Ducks Unlimited, a Life Member of Quail Unlimited, Inc., a Sustaining Member of the Conservation Federation of Missouri, a Diamond Sponsor of the National Wild Turkey Federation and a Life Member of Safari Club International. Bedell has fished and hunted around the world, but his roots are firmly planted in the Missouri Ozarks. He has lived, fished and owned property along the Current River in Carter County for most of his life.

The Conservation Department and the Missouri Department of Transportation joined in a battle against spotted knapweed, a tenacious plant that came from Eurasia. The invader has roots that produce chemicals toxic to other plants. This trait helps it root out native plants and livestock forage, making it a threat to both agriculture and wildlife. Seeds dropped from contaminated hay spread the plant along roadsides, which then serve as beachheads for attacks on wild land and farmland. The two state agencies are mounting a counterattack with a combination of pesticides, pulling and weevils that attack the invasive plants.

Meanwhile, Chinese mystery snails have invaded the Niangua River. No effective control exists for the chicken-egg sized mollusks, so the Conservation Department is monitoring their spread. The agency asks citizens to report new sightings and not dump bait or aquarium pets into Missouri waters.

AUGUST

August brought more news of invasive species, as zebra mussel larvae cropped up in water samples from Pomme de Terre Lake. The lake’s location upstream from Truman Reservoir makes the spread of zebra mussels into the larger lake a virtual certainty.

At the Conservation Commission’s August meeting, Director John Hoskins announced his plans to retire Jan. 15. Hoskins began his career in August 1977 as a conservation agent and rose to lead that division prior to assuming leadership of the Conservation Department in July of 2002. His 7.5-year administration was the seventh in the agency’s history. Hoskins’ announcement launched a national search for his replacement.

The Conservation Department and the USDA Forest Service used the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) to offer six grants of almost $1 million each to public schools southern Missouri counties for “Fuels for Schools” projects. The money will help schools in heavily forested areas install and operate boiler systems that use woody biomass from local public and private forest land to heat and/or cool their facilities. Besides reducing dependence on fossil fuels and reducing energy costs, the projects will provide local jobs and support healthy forests.

SEPTEMBER

The Conservation Department announced it had killed more than 200 hogs on conservation areas and adjacent private land. It said other state and federal agencies had killed approximately 200 more. These accomplishments marked the high water mark so far in Missouri’s battle to eliminate wild hogs in areas with small populations and prevent the spread of the pests where they are well established.

Feral hogs threaten Missouri’s ecology, because they compete with wildlife for food, eat ground-nesting animals, destroy plant communities and pollute streams with their feces and cause erosion by rooting up soil. They threaten Missouri’s economy because they carry diseases that could devastate the state’s livestock industry. The Conservation Department is shooting feral hogs from a helicopter, trapping them, shooting them using night-vision equipment, and killing them with the aid of dogs.

The year’s sixth fishing record came on Sept. 15, when James M. Lucas of O’Fallon snagged a 1-pound, 8-ounce skipjack herring at Sandy Slough, just off the Mississippi River in Lincoln County, Sept. 15.

Also in September, the Conservation Department announced staff reductions totaling approximately 11 percent of the agency’s full-time workforce. Most of the vacancies will be created by not replacing retirees, and service reductions will be minimal. The agency does plan to close 13 field offices and reduce hours at nature centers. Savings realized through these measures will enable the agency to maintain core services in spite of record revenue declines.

OCTOBER

The Conservation Department’s Private Land Services Division celebrated its 10th birthday. Since its creation in 1999, the division’s 50 private land conservationists have provided management advice to 150,000 landowners, made 50,000 site visits and used millions of federal and state funding to leverage landowner dollars to benefit forests as well as game and nongame wildlife. Among other things, this landowner assistance has contributed to significant gains in bobwhite quail restoration.

The discovery of adult zebra mussels at Lake Lotawana in Jackson County this month drove home the message that boaters and anglers must take care to clean, drain and dry boats and trailers before putting them into another body of water to avoid spreading zebra mussels. Also, it is illegal to dump unused bait into Missouri waters unless the bait comes from the same location. The lake is not in a watershed where zebra mussels have been discovered previously, so the mollusks had to have been brought in from another body of water.

NOVEMBER

By opening day of the November deer season, more than 800 Missourians had taken advantage of the first full year of online hunter education. This was a significant help to aspiring hunters who live far from the nearest traditional hunter education class. To ensure quality outcomes, the Conservation Department requires online hunter education students to demonstrate mastery of hunting-safety concepts and skills in person at field days in addition to passing the online test.

At its November meeting, the Conservation Commission announced its selection of Assistant Director Robert L. Ziehmer to succeed John Hoskins as Conservation Department Director. Ziehmer, 42, is a native of California, Mo. Other positions he has held during his 19-year career include biologist, policy specialist and government relations specialist. He will assume duties as director Jan. 15.

Missouri anglers’ record-setting ways continued late into the year, as Scott Sandusky of Arnold caught a 28-pound, 12-ounce brown trout at Lake Taneycomo The fish bested the previous record – another Taneycomo fish – by more than a pound. It measured 37 inches from nose to tail. Conservation Department fisheries experts say Lake Taneycomo could harbor a world-record trout.

Sandusky’s catch was the seventh state-record fish of the year. Missouri averages four or five fishing records a year, making 2009 a banner year for Show-Me State anglers.

DECEMBER

The year ended as it began, with records. With more than two weeks remaining in the 2009-2010 archery season, bowhunters already had checked more than 45,000 deer, compared to the record of 44,434 set during the 2008-2009 archery season. This month, archers also surpassed the fall turkey harvest record of 2,939 set in 2006-2007.

With the record archery count continuing to tick upward and a strong early effort by firearms deer hunters, the combined total deer harvest is all but certain to exceed the 2008-2009 figure of 283,253. Harvests from the urban, early-youth, November and antlerless portions of firearms deer season already total 229,876. Add in the 45,000-plus archery kills and a muzzleloader harvest of 8,000 and counting at press time, and you have a grand total of more than 283,000. The late portion of youth deer season will take place Jan. 2 and 3 and likely will add another 1,000 to 2,000 deer to the annual tally, not to mention what muzzleloader and archery hunters contribute during the remainders of their seasons.

Conservation officials say the era when deer and turkey harvests routinely set records is past. Now that these species have filled available habitat, their populations will fluctuate around relatively stable levels. Annual changes in both populations and harvests will depend largely on how weather affects reproduction and hunter success rates.

In mid-December, Missouri already had recorded a statewide average of 49 inches of precipitation. This, added to the all-time record high precipitation of 57 inches in 2008, makes the past two years the wettest in the 115 years the Show-Me State has been keeping weather records.

 Email This News

You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.