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Home Page 1. Retiring MDC Director 'Kept the Boat in the Water'
2. Spirit of Cougar Reports is Hopeful, But Body of Evidence is Weak
3. 1996 Produces Many Fishing Records
4. Handbook Is Handy Guide to Pond Management
5. Outdoor Calendar
"Conservationists fight not only for their individual homes, but for those of the whole human race, the total surroundings of man, the soil, air, water and all life with which he shares the earth . . ." -- Sigurd Olson
1.Retiring MDC Director 'Kept the Boat in the Water'
Jerry J. Presley says he worked hard to preserve the Missouri Department of Conservation's reputation and public support.
LOW WASSIE, Mo. -- Jerry J. Presley -- 66 years a Missourian and 39 years an employee of the Missouri Department of Conservation -- has seen a lot of changes in the state's forest, fish and wildlife resources. In fact, he has played an important role in many of those changes. Presley retires Dec. 31 from his job as director of the MDC.
Presley, 66, has served as director of the agency since 1987, when he was named the fifth director. Presley's nine-year stint as director capped a career that began with the job of assistant forester for the Deer Run Fire Protection District. But his conservation roots go even deeper than that.
Presley grew up in the Shannon County community of Low Wassie, a wide spot in the road that had more wilderness than employment opportunities. As a youngster, he augmented his family's income by trapping and contributed wild fish and game to the family table. He says his grandmother, who raised him almost singlehandedly, had much of the conservationist about her, and he learned early to appreciate the natural world.
Big game was a rarity in those days. Presley remembers seeing his first white-tailed deer when he was sophomore in high school and his first wild turkey when he was a senior. A high-school friend's dad was a ranger for the U.S. Forest Service. The connection helped Presley land a job fighting fires, and the impression stuck in his mind. "Getting to know that forest ranger -- a really nice man -- I thought that maybe someday that might be a pretty nice job," Presley recalls.
There were other things to be done first, though. After graduating from Winona High School, he worked as a roughneck in the oil fields of Texas, tried his hand at class-D major-league baseball and eventually joined the Navy aviation branch, which took him to Korea when war broke out there.
Like a generation of American servicemen, military service was a turning point for Presley. It qualified him for educational assistance through the GI Bill after the war, and he attended the University of Missouri-Columbia. He did well, was active in the University's Forestry Club, the Society of American Foresters and other extracurricular activities and had his pick of several jobs when he completed his bachelor's degree in forestry. He took the assistant district forester's job in Ellington so he could be near his grandmother, whose health was failing.
"I never set any goal that I would one day be director of this department," Presley says, "But I always believed that when I went to a job and did it well that I could move up to the next higher level."
That's how it worked, as he moved up through jobs as district forester, state forest land supervisor, staff forester, assistant state forester, state forester and assistant director. In July 1987, the Conservation Commission appointed Presley director designee. In succeeding Larry Gale, he became the MDC's fifth director in 60 years.
"I really can't take credit for it all," he says. "I ended up being director thanks to good luck and to support from a lot of people."
Presley says he is not a visionary, but tried, as director, "to keep the boat in the water and keep it from sinking." He says he wanted to maintain the MDC's reputation for excellence, sustain Missouri's citizens' support for the agency's work and justify their vote of confidence in voting to approve the one-eighth of one-percent sales tax for conservation. To do this, he accepted hundreds of invitations to attend dedications, ground-breaking ceremonies and other local events.
In his career, Presley has served as president of the International Association of Fish and Wildlife Agencies, the Southeastern Association of Fish and Wildlife Agencies, the National Association of State Foresters and the Karkhagne Club. He has been a member of the Forestry Advisory Council of the University of Missouri School of Natural Resources, and on numerous policy-setting committees for state and national conservation organizations. From 1968 to 1972 he led the MDC Explorer Post, and he has been active in the Rotary Club, the American Legion and many other civic groups. In 1978 he received the Forest Conservationist of the Year Award from the Conservation Federation of Missouri, and in 1996 the Federation accorded Presley it's highest honor, the Conservationist of the Year Award.
Asked what went into his decision to retire, Presley said, "There comes a time when people should step aside and let some new blood take over. Right now, we're pretty much on track with all the goals and objectives and programs in place, and we have the confidence of the people of the state. What better time for me to leave?"
2. Spirit of Cougar Reports Hopeful, but Body of Evidence Weak
Conservation Department officials say they would be pleased to confirm the existence of a free-ranging cougar population in Missouri . . . if they had convincing evidence.
JEFFERSON CITY -- Two men illegally shoot a mountain lion in Carter County. A group of people in Reynolds County videotape a live cougar in the presence of a conservation agent. A woman catches another cougar on videotape in her yard on the outskirts of Springfield. What do you conclude?
People who want to believe that Missouri still has wild mountain lions take those sightings as proof that they have survived here. But Gene Kelly, wildlife programs supervisor for the Missouri Department of Conservation, says that a wildlife biologist, after looking at the facts and asking some key questions, comes to a different conclusion.
"The most honest answer that we can give to the question of whether Missouri has wild, free-ranging mountain lions is, 'We don't know for certain, but it seems very unlikely,'" says Kelly.
The three cases mentioned above are just a few of the most recent verified reports of mountain lion sightings in Missouri. Kelly doesn't doubt the veracity of those well-documented reports. And they readily acknowledge that Missouri has mountain lions. Fifty-four Missourians have permits to keep captive mountain lions. But Kelly and other MDC officials say the facts of mountain lion sightings don't support the conclusion that Missouri has wild mountain lions.
On the surface, says Kelly, the sighting of two live cougars in a month seems like pretty convincing evidence that the animals are roaming Missouri's hills and valleys. But the devil is in the details.
"The cat that was seen in Springfield was in a developed area," he says, "and the one video taped in Reynolds County hung around while people with spotlights and video cameras came within a few yards of it, talking all the while. That's not typical behavior for a wild mountain lion. They are extremely shy and elusive. I doubt whether a wild mountain lion would be that tolerant of human presence. If you believe these animals have eluded humans in isolated pockets of wild country, that's hard to square with this kind of behavior."
One of the things that initially lent credence to the belief that the Reynolds County cat was wild was the fact that it had a dead white-tailed deer when it was spotted. That made it sound as if the cougar had killed the deer. Most captive mountain lions lack the skill to bring down large prey, so it sounded like this wasn't just a cat that had escaped or been released from captivity. But after the cat abandoned the deer, MDC officials skinned the carcass and found none of the classic signs of a fatal cat attack on the body.
"There were some slash marks on the hind quarters," says Kelly, "but nothing around the head. The slash marks on the rear could have gotten there when the cat tried to move the carcass, but to kill the deer, it almost certainly would have bitten it on the head, neck or throat, or at least have swatted it in that area to bring it down. There was no evidence that the cat had killed the deer."
Kelly said MDC investigators checked with people who are licensed to keep mountain lions in the area around the Reynolds county cougar sighting, but none reported losing any of their captive animals. "It's hard to say where that cat came from," said Kelly. "It's not uncommon for us to find people keeping mountain lions without the required permit. One reason for doing this is to avoid having to comply with stringent standards for safe, humane confinement facilities. Escape is much more likely if you're keeping a mountain lion in a flimsy cage or just in a room in a house. And letting one of these animals escape can result in a fine. There are a number of ways for captive mountain lions to end up on the loose."
There also are a number of ways for rumors about mountain lions to end up on the loose. Kelly recalls one instance where a captive cougar's owner got tired of the cost and inconvenience of keeping the animal. His solution was to shoot the animal in its cage and take it to a taxidermist. From there, the story got out that someone had shot a mountain lion and taken it to the taxidermist. Before long, the MDC received a rash of calls about the killing.
"The only thing harder to kill than a rumor is a rumor with a grain of truth at its core," says Kelly. "You'll never convince someone that the story about this cougar was false when they know people who actually saw the body."
Consequently, biologists look for other evidence to support the idea that the mountain lions sighted are wild, not escaped captives. Kelly says that in areas that have wild cougar populations the animals make their presence known.
"An adult mountain lion is among the most capable predators around." Invariably, says Kelly, wild cougars kill some livestock, but the MDC has never been able to verify a big cat killing any livestock in Missouri.
Even in areas with very small mountain lion populations, one is killed by an automobile occasionally. Such road kills don't happen in Missouri.
Some reports of mountain lions in Missouri are just cases of mistaken identity. Kelly says yellow Labrador retrievers, large bobcats and coyotes that have lost most of their hair to mange all can look like big cats when seen at a distance, only for a moment, or in the fading light of dusk.
Some reported "facts" about mountain lions are just plain bogus. An example is a recently published newspaper column, whose author noted that the Arkansas Game & Fish Commission once hired three expert mountain lion trackers to look for the animals in extensive tracts of wilderness in the Ouachita and Ozark mountains. He said their finding was "that there were quite a few mountain lions in north and west Arkansas."
But in fact, the mountain lion experts -- Roudy and Roy T. McBride and Jenny L. Cashman of Alpine, Texas -- came to the opposite conclusion. Their final report said that the lack of livestock depredation, road kills or physical evidence, along with their failure to find any mountain lions during intensive ground surveys with hounds, made it extremely unlikely that free-ranging mountain lions survived in Arkansas.
Still, Kelly says he doesn't fool himself that these arguments will convince everyone. He remembers getting a call from a man who said he and his girlfriend had seen a "black panther" cross the road in front of their vehicle. "He was very excited, said he had gotten a clear look at the animal and found the tracks it left," says Kelly. "I asked him if he could see the claw marks in the tracks, and he said, yes, they were very clear. I told him that cat tracks don't show claw marks, and he said, 'yes, my girlfriend is a vet and that's what she said, too. But I know it was a panther; you can't tell me what I saw.' And he was right, I couldn't."
"If we had a choice, we'd rather have wild mountain lions than not," says Kelly, "but we're not going to stock them, and we're not going to say we've got them unless we have credible evidence."
3. 1996 Produces Many Fishing Records
Missouri anglers took to heart the saying "records are made to be broken," by setting 18 new state fishing records in 1996.
JEFFERSON CITY -- Record fish were biting for many Missourians in 1996. The Missouri Department of Conservation (MDC) has certified 18 state fishing records this year. The MDC recognizes state-record catches in two categories -- "Pole Line and Lure" (PLL) and "Other."
Dennis Shafer of Stover became the year's first record setter in April when he snagged a 53-pound bigmouth buffalo at Lake of the Ozarks.
May turned out to be a great month for catching big fish. Robert Redmon of Independence broke a record that had stood for nine years when he took a 54-pound black buffalo from Wappapello Lake. A longnose gar weighing slightly more than 32 pounds taken from Bull Shoals put Greg Rippee of Willard into the record book. Dexter resident Bill Willmert reeled in a 5-pound 10.08-ounce spotted gar at Mingo National Wildlife Refuge to take over the PLL category. David Ward of Advance used a limbline to capture his 4-pound, 4-ounce largemouth bass. A 12-ounce skipjack herring taken from the Osage River helped Mike Jackson of Bourbon set a PLL state-record catch. Douglas Stilts of Wappapello used a limbline to get a 6.5-ounce redear sunfish and set a new record. St. Louisian Ron Thornburgh claimed the top spot in the other category with his 4.48-ounce rock bass from the St. Francis River.
It became commonplace to haul in record common carp this spring and summer. Robert Barnhill of California started the trend using archery gear to take a fish weighing just over 12 pounds from Lake of the Ozarks. Using the same method Dave Morelock of Springfield pulled a 19-pound 8-ounce common carp from Lake Taneycomo May 29, only to have his record broken a day later when Mark Scott from Golden caught a 20-pound carp. Blue Springs resident Leroy Montgomery took over the state-record slot in the Other category in June using archery gear to haul in a 29-pound, 14 ounce common carp from Lake Taneycomo.
New records in the "Other" category were set for several species of fish. Jerry Brown of High Ridge hauled in a 15-pound 3.2-ounce drum from Lake Wappepello. Palmyra resident Travis Moore used a trotline on the South Fabius River to take home a 5-pound 13-oz walleye. David Smith of Cape Girardeau established a new state-record in the other category with his catch of a 3-pound, 7-ounce spotted gar. A 1-pound, 0.12-ounce spotted bass and 4-pound 2.8-ounce American eel from the Castor River secured the second and third records this year for David Ward. Douglas Stilts set his second record for the year with a trotline catch of a 15.04 ounce white crappie.
To receive details of how to certify state-record catches or receive a copy of the Missouri State Record Fish sheet, contact: Fisheries Division, Missouri Department of Conservation, P.O. Box 180, Jefferson City, MO 65102-0180, or visit our web-ste at http://www.mdc.mo.gov/ fish/fishing.html.
Besides keeping all-tackle and line-class records, the Fresh Water Fishing Hall of Fame recognizes records for fish kept and for those caught and released. For more information, contact: Fresh Water Fishing Hall of Fame, Box 33, Hall of Fame Drive, Hayward, Wisc. 54843. Phone: (715) 634-4440.
4. Handbook Is Handy Guide to Pond Management
Advice on building them, maintaining them and managing the fish and vegetation in them. It's all contained in this handy reference book from the Missouri Department of Conservation.
JEFFERSON CITY --If you've ever considered building your own fishing pond or improving fishing conditions for an existing pond, you should read the Missouri Department of Conservation (MDC) "Missouri Pond Handbook." Phil Pitts, fisheries programs coordinator for the MDC, says the handbook is ideal for people who want information on pond development and management.
The book contains general guidelines for creating good fishing opportunities. The 64-page handbook is broken into four segments that provide technical information on how to develop a new fishing pond, manage a new pond, manage an old pond and common pond problems and possible solutions for those problems. Each segment contains tips, warnings and other suggestions designed to help you avoid problems that could negatively affect your enjoyment of your pond.
For those interested in building ponds the handbook provides guidelines for choosing a good location and how to properly construct a pond. If a landowner understands the basics of a pond project, Pitts says, he or she will be able to knowledgeably discuss the project with contractors and determine which contractor is best suited for the job. "Most people can't build their own ponds, but if they have learned the basics about pond construction they will be able to give the contractor a clear understanding of what they want. The handbook also will help landowners assess the contractor's ability to do the job. If a contractor suggests doing something that the book advises against, that*s something the landowner should check out. I think it's a good idea to talk with and evaluate several pond builders before you hire one."
After your new pond is built use the handbook for tips on how to manage it for better fishing opportunities. Recommendations on stocking a new pond, and feeding and harvesting fish are among the topics covered in the new pond management segment of the book.
The pond handbook has a wealth of information for managing existing ponds and trouble shooting problems. Instructions in it can teach you how to maintain, and even improve, a pond so that it yields a plentiful supply of the fish species you want to harvest. Easy to read directions will enable you to evaluate fish populations and make changes to your pond to improve fish habitat and water quality. Other information addresses pond leaks, fish diseases and parasites.
Phil Pitts says MDC is optimistic that the Missouri Pond Handbook will enhance fishing opportunities for Missourians. "It's our job to protect the resource," says Pitts. "A lot of fishing takes place on private lands that have ponds. Encouraging pond development and proper management of those lands will increase opportunities for people to enjoy fishing."
The Missouri Pond Handbook is available at MDC offices throughout the state. To receive a copy by mail write to: Fisheries Division, Missouri Department of Conservation, PO Box 180, Jefferson City, MO 65102-0180. -arleasha mays-
Contact: Jim Low (News Services Coordinator)
(573) 751-4115, ext. 243
January 15 MDC Headquarters, Jefferson City, MO
(For additional information contact the Department Director.)
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