Copyright ©2008 Conservation Commission of Missouri. All Rights Reserved. Privacy Policy | Terms of Use
1. Canada geese pose problems in cities
2. Missourians earn laurels for hunting, fishing skill
3. Otter committee outlines goals
4. Awards honor tree planting efforts
"Possibly I'll give up shooting again and for good one of these years, but I believe the killing itself can be relevant. To see and kill and pluck and gut and cook and eat a wild creature, all with some knowledge and the pleasure that knowledge gives, implies a closeness to the creature that is to me more honorable than the candle-lit consumption of rare prime steaks from a steer bludgeoned to death in a packing-house chute . . . ."--John Graves, "Goodbye to a River"
Eliminating features attracting birds to your home is the key to preventing nuisance goose problems.
JEFFERSON CITY--Great habitat, little hunting pressure and well-meaning residents who offer handouts have made Missouri's two largest cities paradise for Canada geese. Increasingly, goose utopia is becoming a nightmare for city residents who must endure droppings, property damage caused by the animals and the risk of attacks from nesting birds. Most St. Louis and Kansas City residents will be able to reduce their nuisance goose problems with advice from experts and a little effort.
A few simple landscaping and lifestyle changes can help urbanites peacefully coexist with Canada geese, according to Missouri Department of Conservation Wildlife Biologist Dave Graber. Geese thrive on short green grasses and will take advantage of readily available food sources for as long as possible. The well-manicured lawns at urban homes, businesses and parks and handouts from humans provide comfortable living conditions that encourage the geese to become lifelong inhabitants of the cities. Taking away their ideal habitat, Graber says, will force the geese to forage more widely for food, making them less likely to spend time in one location.
"A lot of people that feed the geese think they're helping the birds," says Graber. "While we appreciate well-meaning people who enjoy the outdoors and who are concerned about wildlife, they need to know the problems they can cause. Feeding causes the geese to concentrate in larger numbers than they ordinarily would, often resulting in too many geese in the wrong locations. Often the birds are fed junk food, which isn't proper nutrition for them. Even corn is bad for geese during certain times. Wing deformities are fairly common where geese are regularly fed. Birds with deformed wing bones are unable to fly and most eventually fall prey to dogs or other predators."
Concentrations of geese also can be detrimental to humans. Geese that flock at or near airports sometimes get pulled into aircraft engines and can cause planes to crash. Urban birds lose their natural fear of humans and may attack people who enter their territory during nesting periods. Graber says while the goose attacks usually cause little harm, people have fallen or been knocked down by the geese and have suffered broken bones as a result. He says the majority of those injuries occur among the elderly.
Large amounts of droppings and denuded lawns also are consequences of geese concentrating in urban areas. A goose produces about one quarter of a pound of droppings per day. Large gatherings of the birds quickly foul sidewalks ponds and other areas used by humans.
The long-term solution to ending goose nuisance problems, says Graber, is making your property unaccommodating to the birds. For starters, he suggests removing readily available food sources by prohibiting artificial feeding.
Reducing the amount of manicured lawn and letting your grass grow taller discourages geese from using an area, because they tend to avoid areas where they have difficulty watching for predators. Adding trees and shrubs to your land also can reduce open space. Because geese typically walk rather than fly from water onto the adjacent lawn, a three-foot high fence can help discourage them from entering your property.
Removing nesting tubs from ponds will make an area less hospitable to geese. Further deterrence can be achieved with flashy plastic tape or by using dogs trained to harass geese.
The Conservation Department has taken several steps to help control local goose populations. This year, for example, a hunting season from Oct. 3 through 12 was implemented in most of the state to increase opportunities for hunters to harvest local populations of Canada geese, and the daily bag limit has remained at two. Graber says those changes help offset the annual 9 percent increase in the number of Canada geese that nest in the state since 1993.
When hunting, harassment and eliminating attractants fail to remedy nuisance problems disturbing the geese or their nests and lethal control may be required. Permits from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service ( FWS) can be obtained through the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) and are required to use these more drastic control methods.
For assistance in controlling nuisance goose problems, contact the nearest office of the Conservation Department, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service or the USDA.
-Arleasha Mays-
2. Missourians win laurels for hunting, fishing skill
At home and abroad, Show-Me State hunters and anglers show their mettle.
JEFFERSON CITY--Living up to their state's nickname, two young Missourians have shown the nation and the world that the American heartland carries on a proud tradition of superlative outdoor skills.
Fourteen-year-old Nick Muckerman of Chesterfield was among 270 youths who competed in the 13th Annual International Youth Hunter Education Challenge July 27 through 31 at Raton, N.M. Muckerman, a freshman at Marquette High School in west St. Louis County, won first place in the junior division. Earlier in the summer, he won the Missouri state competition with enough points to have made him senior division champion if he had been one year older.
In August, Tecumseh resident Aaron Taylor traveled to Wales in Great Britain as part of the first United States youth team to compete in the World Flycasting Championships. No one expected great things from the American youngsters, since America's adult team placed 15th out of 18 teams in 1997. Before the competition, Taylor said winning was unimportant compared to the honor of representing his country in an international event. But after the first of two days of competition, the American team was in first place.
This prompted belittling remarks about "American luck" from some of the Europeans, but when the sun set on the second and final day's competition, the American team had scored a second-place upset, and one of Taylor's teammates, Norman Maktima of Glorrietta, N.M., walked away with the gold medal in the individual competition. The Czech Republic, another dark horse participant, took first place in the team competition.
"There is nothing finer than to win a medal for your country," says Taylor "We expected the Welsh and Irish teams to have a home-court advantage, but that didn't turn out to be true. It turned out that we were really well trained in Welsh fishing techniques."
Part of the American team's formula for success was a helping hand from the other side of the Atlantic. One-time Welsh individual fishing champion Davy Wotton helped the American coach, Duane Hada of Arkansas, tutor the American youths in the fishing techniques they would need.
Taylor, 17, says he was impressed by the easy camaraderie that existed outside the competitive events. Most of the contestants spoke English, so communication was easy, sometimes too easy.
"Normally, fly fishermen are constantly talking about the flies or techniques that worked for them that day," says Taylor. "That made it kind of hard. We had to stop ourselves a lot of times when we were about to tell something and remember that it was a contest and we were supposed to keep secrets. But at the banquet where the medals were presented after the competition, we could finally talk, and everybody was doing what fly fishermen do, comparing notes about how we fished."
Besides Taylor, the American Youth Fly Fishing Team included two anglers from Arkansas, two from New Mexico and one from Colorado
The Youth Hunter Education Challenge is sponsored nationally by the National Rifle Association. Participants compete in events that simulate field hunting conditions with rifle, shotgun, muzzleloading rifle and bow and arrow. They also demonstrate their ability to identify wildlife by reading tracks and other signs, navigate with map and compass and negotiate a hands-on hunting safety course.
YHEC participants must be between the ages of 11 and 18 and must have successfully completed a certified hunter education class. Information about the program is available by calling 800/492-4868.
Despite his youth, Muckerman is a published outdoor writer whose work appears in "Outdoor Guide," an outdoor recreation tabloid published in St. Louis. He also is a member of the Missouri Outdoor Communicators.
-Jim Low-
Panel recommends studies of possible fish declines in Ozark stream fishing.
JEFFERSON CITY --Citizens and conservation professionals have drawn a course of action for the Conservation Department to follow in assessing the impact of river otters on Ozark fish populations.
In a Sept. 26 meeting in Jefferson City, the panel, which was formed when citizens in some Ozark counties expressed concern about a lack of fishing success in local streams, suggests the Conservation Department:
--Continue research into the food habits of river otters;
--Document the system effects of otters on fish and other animals, and
--Inform and involve both the public in general and people such as landowners and anglers with a special interest in the situation.
The first item may be the most important. "What do otters eat, and how much do they eat?" asked one committee member. According to Wildlife Research Biologist David Hamilton, the Conservation Department continues to investigate the potential problem of river otters and fish populations, including otter food habits.
Fisheries biologists, at the same time, suggest stream quality may be a factor in any fluctuations in the number of fish in Ozark headwater streams.
Conservation Department Deputy Director John Smith greeted the 15-member group by assuring them that the Conservation Department is addressing their concerns about possible otter depredations on sport fish such as smallmouth bass and goggle-eye. Smith said he hoped that products resulting from the forum would help guide the Conservation Department in future otter management programs.
Otters had been extirpated from most of Missouri until 1982, when the Conservation Department began reintroducing live-trapped animals from Louisiana. Over a ten-year period, the Conservation Department released 845 otters across the state.
The Conservation Department once believed the Ozark region had relatively low quality habitat for river otters, but trappers took nearly a third of the total harvest of otters in last year's trapping season from the Ozark Plateau. Biologists estimate the state may have as many as 10,600 otters and that, with a harvest of 10 to 16 percent annually, the animals' numbers will continue to grow until they reach Missouri's river otter "carrying capacity."
The Conservation Department uses several means of determining the size of the otter populations. Because counting the actual number of otters in Missouri is impossible, the Conservation Department relies on annual surveys of various kinds to produce population indices. These surveys include looking for signs of otter activity along established routes on streams, reported sightings by bowhunters and aerial surveys conducted when the ground is covered by snow, increasing the visibility of otters and signs of their activity.
These have shown a dramatic growth in the number of otters since 1991. According to Hamilton, population demographics based on tooth aging and reproductive assessments also suggest a growing otter population.
After two seasons of allowing trappers to take otters, researchers have seen no reduction in spring otter population indices. Hamilton says a carefully regulated trapping season is among the few reasonable responses to complaints about damages to fisheries.
The primary food of otters is crayfish, but the animals are highly effective predators that also eat fish. Crayfish go dormant in Ozark streams during the winter, and during this time otters may be forced to turn to fish for the bulk of their diet. Otters may be particularly predacious where fish are present in shallow ponds or in isolated pools in streams during periods of low water. Both researchers and citizens have found otter droppings that included fish scales.
Citizens on the committee expressed concern that bass congregate in deep holes in streams during the winter, are sluggish at that time and are easy prey for otters. One fisheries biologist on the panel suggested that surveys on the headwaters of a major Ozark stream showed fish populations similar to those present before the reintroduction of otters. An Ozarks resident questioned the findings, saying that Conservation Department fish surveys he had attended produced no smallmouth bass over the 12-inch minimum length limit.
Another Conservation Department committee member told the group that fish and otters coexisted in Missouri for a long time before the otters were extirpated. If that is true, he questioned how otters would be hurting fish populations now. He suggested there may be other problems suppressing bass populations, ranging from poor water quality caused by nutrients from sewage and animal wastes, to silt and sand clogging stream beds.
He noted that, on one stretch of the Big Piney River, there was a 600 percent increase in sand and silt. These materials cover the stream bottom where it once consisted of boulders and cobble-size rocks. This site was downstream from a gravel-removal operation. Smallmouth bass do not do well under such conditions. He also reminded the committee that anglers commonly catch and keep most bass as soon as the bass reach a size of 12 inches.
Bass, like otters, also eat crayfish, and one committee member suggested that competition for this food item could be affecting bass populations. One citizen member of the committee agreed that otters and fish have coexisted in natural habitats in the past, but they have been reintroduced into unnatural habitats because of the changes in Ozark streams. In reference to an overabundance of gravel in streams, he mentioned the hundreds of miles of gravel roads in rural counties and their impact on streams.
Members of the committee agreed that their dialogue and interchange was one that addressed a difficult conservation problem. After recommending the three items as a course of action for the Conservation Department, they agreed to further assess the situation before planning additional meetings.
-Jim Auckley-
Tree planters make their communities greener, better places to live.
JEFFERSON CITY--The Missouri Department of Conservation will recognize 20 public and private institutions for tree plantings which contribute significantly to their communities. On October 23 at the Runge Conservation Nature Center in Jefferson City, Mrs. Jean Carnahan and Conservation Department Director Jerry Conley will present Missouri Treescape Awards and Citations of Merit for those entries which were judged best in the annual competition.
Tim Frevert, Missouri Treescape Awards coordinator for the Conservation Department, says the awards are for planted trees which will have lasting impact on Missouri towns of all sizes. "Award applicants who consistently submit entries have ongoing tree programs which will insure healthy, attractive trees for the future."
Awards are available in several categories, based on the type and size of institution, business or community competing. There are 10 winners of Missouri Treescape Awards this year: Sansone Group, Promenade at Brentwood (commercial/industrial category); St. Louis County Parks (governmental category); Lovers Lane Association, St. Joseph (residential category); Westchester School, Kirkwood (primary schools category); Main Street, Inc., Savannah (volunteer group); City of Kahoka (municipal, under 2,500 category); City of Chaffee (municipal, 2,500-5,000 category); City of St. John (municipal, 5,000-10,000 category); City of Crestwood (municipal 10,000-20,000 category); and City of Chesterfield (municipal, over 20,000 category).
Winners of the Citation of Merit are Harris Elementary School, St. Charles; Inman Elementary School, Nixa; East Prairie Recreation Corporation; Citizens of Ethel; City of Fenton; Department of Parks, Manchester; City of Marshall; City of Columbia; City of Kirkwood; and Department of Parks, Cape Girardeau.
-Jim Low-
Copyright ©2008 Conservation Commission of Missouri. All Rights Reserved. Privacy Policy | Terms of Use