Public input sought for prairie management plans

Nevada, Mo. -- The Missouri Department of Conservation (MDC) wants to know what Missourians think about its nearly 1,000 conservation areas around the state. MDC is in the multi-year process of updating management plans for conservation areas and invites public comments. A draft plan for several conservation lands in northwest Missouri and the St. Joseph area will be available for public comment June 1 through June 30.

   To preview draft management plans and share comments online, visit www.mdc.mo.gov/areaplans.

   Management plans for seven conservation areas with a focus on tall grass prairie plants and wildlife are open for comment. They include: Taberville Prairie, St. Clair County; Wah’Kon-Tah Prairie, St. Clair and Cedar counties; Monegaw Prairie, Cedar County; Gay Feather, Bristow, Osage Prairie and Little Osage Prairie in Vernon County.

   Wah’Kon-Tah is owned by MDC and The Nature Conservancy and managed by MDC under

an agreement. Gayfeather Prairie is jointly owned by MDC and the Missouri Prairie Foundation.

   A variety of hunting, hiking and photography opportunities are available on the areas. Some rare or uncommon species that may be found include Mead's milkweed, prairie mole crickets, regal fritillary butterflies, northern crawfish frog, slender glass lizard, grasshopper sparrow, loggerhead shrike and northern harrier. Taberville and Wah’Kon-Tah prairies are at the center of preservation and restoration efforts for greater prairie chickens, which are endangered in Missouri.

   Statewide, MDC conservation areas cover almost one million public acres for the purpose of restoring and conserving forest, fish and wildlife resources, and for providing opportunities for all citizens to use, enjoy and learn about these resources. Most Missourians are within a 30-minute drive of an MDC conservation area.

   “Missourians care about conservation and use conservation areas for many different reasons,” said MDC Director Bob Ziehmer. “These areas help people discover nature through various activities, and help make Missouri a great place to hunt, fish, and enjoy other outdoor activities. We want to know how conservation areas are important to Missourians. Encouraging public comments on Conservation Area Management Plans is part of MDC’s ongoing efforts of working for and with Missourians to sustain healthy forests, fish and wildlife.”

   Conservation Area Management Plans focus on natural resource management and public use on conservation areas. The plans do not address regulations on hunting, fishing and other area uses, which are set by the Conservation Commission and enforced under the Wildlife Code of Missouri. MDC will consider all ideas received and will work to balance the issues and interests identified with the responsibility of managing areas for the present and future benefits to forest, fish, wildlife, and people. Decisions on which ideas to incorporate into area plans and on how to best incorporate them will be based on the property’s purpose, its physical and biological conditions and capabilities, the best roles of the property in its local, regional and state-wide context, and on the professional expertise of MDC staff.

Three Conservation Department employees honored

Columbia residents receive Conservationist of the Year Awards

COLUMBIA, Mo. – Three Columbia residents who work for the Missouri Department of

Conservation were honored with Conservationist of the Year Awards at the Conservation Federation of Missouri (CFM) 78th annual conference in Jefferson City March 21.

CFM’s Conservationist of the Year Awards Program honors individuals and organizations that make outstanding contributions in various conservation fields. Columbians honored this year included:

Joanie Straub, Conservation Communicator of the Year. Straub is a media specialist with the Missouri Department of Conservation. She is credited with taking conservation communication to an unprecedented level in central and northeastern Missouri. Her efforts include reaching more than 400,000 viewers and listeners through partnerships with radio and television stations.  She also coordinated the first-ever conservation awareness event at an MU Tigers football game, reaching 65,000 fans with educational messages about Operation Game Thief, hunter education, and fish and wildlife habitat.

Ann Koenig, Forest Conservationist of the Year. An urban forester with the Conservation Department, Koenig currently works on special assignment to create and implement a campaign encouraging all Missourians to appreciate their trees. This new project, known as Trees Work, is designed to increase public awareness of the aesthetic, social, health, environmental, and economic benefits of healthy trees in cities and suburbs as well as rural areas. The campaign uses the full range of media to communicate the message that trees work for Missourians in many ways.

Chris McLeland, Soil Conservationist of the Year. A private land services biologist for the Conservation Department, McLeland was recognized for his efforts to promote the benefits of cover crops for water quality, agricultural productivity, and wildlife habitat. He formed the Cover Crops Working Group comprising representatives of several agencies, universities, and the Conservation Department. He coordinated efforts to document cover crop benefits and develop a suggested do-not-plant list of cover crops that can become invasive or provide little or no wildlife benefit. These efforts led to a research grant to examine the potential effect of diverse cover crops on insects, grassland birds, small game, and other wildlife species.

Any resident of Missouri is eligible to be nominated for a Conservationist of the Year Award. Visitbit.ly/1hcuO5j for more information.

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MDC celebrating 75 years of conservation in Missouri

Image via Wikipedia

Missouri’s unique, citizen-led conservation agency began in November 1936.


JEFFERSON CITY Mo -- The Missouri Department of Conservation (MDC) is celebrating its 75th anniversary through October 2012. Throughout the next year, the MDC-produced magazine, Missouri Conservationist, will highlight the Show-Me-State’s unique, citizen-led conservation story, successful conservation partnerships and programs and future challenges. To read the Missouri Conservationist online or to subscribe, free to Missourians, visit http://mdc.mo.gov/conmag. MDC will also host anniversary events throughout the coming year at nature centers and other locations throughout the state. To follow anniversary activities, visit http://mdc.mo.gov/about-us/get-know-us/75th-anniversary.

“Conservation in Missouri is unique,” said MDC Director Robert Ziehmer, “unique in its history, unique in the way it derives its authority and funding from citizens, and unique in the passion, partnerships and commitment of Missourians to perpetuate this legacy.”

Ziehmer added that Missourians have achieved some amazing results.


“Working together, the Department and citizens have restored and conserved dozens of fish and wildlife species,” he said. “We have ensured that Missouri is a great place to hunt and fish, transformed forestry into a sustainable industry, created a system devoted to serving both rural and urban private landowners, invested in the hearts of major urban areas to encourage participation in the outdoors, developed an accessible network of public lands and facilities, and partnered the entire way with citizens and communities throughout the state.”

The need to protect, conserve and sustain Missouri’s fish, forest and wildlife resources began well before the creation of the MDC. During their expedition in the early 1800s through what is now known as Missouri, explorers Lewis & Clark described the stunning abundance and variety of fish, forests and wildlife. However, by the 1860s, our state’s fish, forest and wildlife resources were depleted through unchecked hunting, fishing, logging and burning of land. By the 1930s, the existing Missouri Department of Game was underfunded and largely a token gesture weakened by powerful interests.

These circumstances set the stage for citizen-led efforts to begin the restoration of Missouri’s fish, forest and wildlife resources 75 years ago. In September 1935, Missouri sportsmen met and formed the Restoration and Conservation Federation of Missouri. They drafted an amendment to the Missouri Constitution aimed at creating an apolitical conservation agency and set to work getting it passed. On Nov. 3, 1936, voters approved Amendment 4 to the Missouri Constitution, creating the Conservation Commission and the apolitical, science-based conservation agency with authority over fish, forests and wildlife. On July 1, 1937, Amendment 4 took effect.

“Not in their wildest imaginations could those early sportsmen have imagined what has been achieved,” said Dave Murphy, executive director of the Conservation Federation of Missouri. “On the same landscape, at the same time that our human population has doubled, we’ve seen the restoration of wild turkey, deer, geese, river otters, raccoons, black bass, elk and so much more.”

In 1970, the Conservation Federation of Missouri led an effort to establish dedicated funding for conservation through the Design for Conservation. Passed in 1976, it included a pledge to obtain land for recreation, forestry and protection of critical habitat, increased services to the public in the areas of wildlife and forest conservation, the creation of conservation nature centers throughout Missouri, and funding through the 1/8-of 1-percent conservation sales tax.

This sales-tax revenue makes up 58 percent of MDC’s annual operating budget with no funding coming from the state’s general revenue. Permit revenues from fishing, hunting and trapping account for approximately 20 percent of the Department’s annual revenue. MDC also receives 14 percent of its funding in the form of federal reimbursements from sources including the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service’s Wildlife and Sport Fish Restoration programs.

Efforts to ensure healthy forests, abundant fish and wildlife and productive waters provide benefits to citizens’ quality of life and the state economy. Today, hunting, fishing and wildlife watching, along with forest industries support about 95,000 Missouri jobs and generate more than $11.4 billion annually to state and local economies.

The Department is led by the Conservation Commission, which consists of four commissioners appointed by the Governor for six-year unpaid terms. Current Commissioners are: Don R. Johnson of Festus; James T. Blair, IV, of St. Louis; Don C. Bedell of Sikeston; and Becky L. Plattner of Grand Pass.

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