Copyright ©2008 Conservation Commission of Missouri. All Rights Reserved. Privacy Policy | Terms of Use
1. Special events mark Hunting & Fishing Day
2. Information Chief James F. Keefe remembered
3. Rabbit numbers holding steady
4. Correction concerning gigging season
5. Outdoor Calendar
Available via Internet at: http://www.mdc.mo.gov/news/out
"Do not dishonor the earth lest you dishonor the spirit of man."Henry Beston, "The Outermost House"
Events around the state will help Missourians step outside and learn how to enjoy catching fish, hiking or breaking clay targets.
JEFFERSON CITY--Outstanding fun awaits those who accept the Missouri Department of Conservation's invitation to step outside. On Sept. 25 you can enjoy fishing, hiking and other outdoor activities at Conservation Department facilities holding National Hunting and Fishing (NHF) Day events.
The annual NHF Day celebrations recognize the contributions people have made to protect natural and wildlife resources and seek to increase participation in outdoor recreational activities. Many of this year's events will provide hands-on training to those who want to learn or improve outdoor skills.
The Bois D'Arc Conservation Area (CA) in southwest Missouri will be the site of "Great Outdoors Day." The family event from 8:30 a.m. to 4 p.m. will include opportunities to try out shooting sports, archery, fishing and nature hikes. Other activities will enable Girl Scouts and Boy Scouts to meet badge requirements. Food and exhibits will round out the fun. For more information, call the Conservation Department's Southwest Regional Service Center at 417/895-6880.
Youngsters ages 11 through 15 can learn about waterfowl hunting at the Schell-Osage CA Youth Waterfowl Clinic. Duck calling, waterfowl identification and shotgun shooting are among the activities in which the teens will participate. Retrieving demonstrations and instruction on waterfowl hunting techniques also will be available. All clinic participants must be accompanied by adults. The event is free, but you have to register by calling 417/876-5226.
Kids of all ages can enjoy shooting sports at the "Step Outside" event at Scrivner Road CA near Russellville in central Missouri. Local experts will be on hand to teach participants how to shoot rifles, shotguns and bows and arrows. Those who prefer fishing can cast lines at Winegar Lake. "Step Outside" will be held from 10 a.m. until 4 p.m. More information on the event is available at 573/526-5544.
Trap shooting and a trap shooting clinic are just part of the activities planned at the Lake City Range and Training Center NHF Day. Other features of the event are a turkey calling seminar, free bore sighting for rifles, air rifle shooting for kids and drawings for free prizes. Members of the National Wild Turkey Federation (NWTF), Quail Unlimited, Pheasant Forever, Missouri Trappers Association and United Bow Hunters of Missouri will have information booths at the event. The Lake City Range is in Independence on Argo Road north of Blue Springs. For directions to the range call 816/229-4448.
The open house of the new St. Louis Regional Conservation Office will highlight activities at the "Step Outside with Us" event at August A. Busch Memorial CA. Conservation Department staff will provide tours of the new facility and give lessons at the shooting range. Other attractions include exhibits and demonstrations of a variety of hunting and fishing techniques. The event takes place from 9 a.m. until 4 p.m. Call 314/441-4554 for more information.
The Heartland Gobblers Chapter of the NWTF will sponsor its sixth annual JAKES Day event at the Missouri National Guard WETS site near Wappapello. The event provides training in outdoor skills to children ages 6 through 18. Planned activities include instruction in archery hunting and safety, wildlife calling, rappelling, shotgun shooting and demonstrations of the Firearm's Training System. Jakes Day activities begin at 7:30 a.m. Contact Felix Baker at 573/686-5600 for more information.
The Conservation Department's Northwest Regional Office in St. Joseph will hold a NHF Day event Sept. 26. Budding nimrods can enjoy archery, and aspiring anglers can learn casting. All will have a chance to meet Smokey Bear. Activities for adults include fly tying, wildlife art and falconry demonstrations. The NHF Day celebration takes place from 1 until 5 p.m. For more details on the event, call Baker at (573) 686-5600 or Donnie Shipman at (573) 568-2857.
- Arleasha Mays -
"Gentleman Jim's" legacy lives on in the minds of millions of readers and viewers whose conservation ethics he helped mold.
JEFFERSON CITY--Some celebrated conservationists have changed Missouri's landscape with tree plantations and food plots, fish hatcheries and game surveys. James F. Keefe created a lasting conservation legacy with a pen and a typewriter.
Keefe, who headed the Missouri Department of Conservation's Information Section from 1957 to 1985, died Sept. 11 at University of Missouri-Columbia Hospital Medical Center in Columbia following a brief illness. He was 75.
Starting as an information writer for the Conservation Department in 1951, Keefe served as managing editor of Missouri Conservationist Magazine from 1955 until 1985. During that time the magazine's monthly circulation increased from 20,000 to nearly 400,000. He penned hundreds of articles and monthly editorials in which he articulated the Conservation Department's philosophy and explained its policies to millions of readers. Conservation Commissioner Ron Stites once called Keefe "Missouri's conservation conscience."
In 1958 the Conservation Commission promoted Keefe to head its Information Section. He continued in that capacity for 27 years, building a public information program that won national and international acclaim for its magazine, books and nature films.
In 1985, the Conservation Commission assigned Keefe to write a history of the Conservation Department's first five decades. "The First 50 Years," begins with voter approval of a constitutional amendment in 1936 giving the Conservation Department autonomy in administering science-based conservation programs. It continues through full implementation of the state's conservation program with a dedicated conservation sales tax approved by voters through another constitutional amendment in 1976.
Keefe himself was instrumental in convincing voters of the need for stable funding for conservation programs. At the same time, he also was active in national conservation information efforts. He served as president of Association for Conservation Information and the Missouri Outdoor Communicators and was active in the Outdoor Writers Association of America, earning that group's highest conservation honor, The Jade of Chiefs Award, in 1980.
The Conservation Commission named him a Master Conservationist in 1998, and the Conservation Federation of Missouri honored Keefe with its Conservation Communicator of the Year Award in 1970.
Keefe's coworkers remember his ability to get things done without making a fuss.
"Jim could guide people without seeming to," said Joel Vance, who worked under Keefe for many years. "He was a great writer, which was often overlooked because he was editor of the Conservationist. His monthly editorials were pertinent, incisive and enormously influential."
Ed Stegner, who was executive director of the Conservation Federation of Missouri for more than 40 years, remembers a soft-spoken manner that belied Keefe's persuasiveness. "Jim had a deceptively low-key approach that allowed him to pursue goals aggressively without seeming to push," said Stegner. "Because of that and because he was there so long, Jim was able to make a big contribution to conservation."
Retired Conservation Department filmmaker Glenn Chambers remembers Keefe for his vision. "He had a terrific understanding of the problems that conservation would have to confront in the future, and he had a way of conveying that understanding to other people. That ability to anticipate challenges and make them part of popular awareness was evident in his books, his film scripts and everything he worked on."
Malcolm "Mac" Johnson, himself a long-time Conservationist editor, recalled that Keefe fostered a sense of community among his staff by spending time with them outdoors. "It was part of the job to him to go out and do the things we wrote about in the magazine," said Johnson. "He not only loved to hunt and fish, he had a deep understanding of natural history. That's why he was so good at writing scripts for nature films."
Conservation Department News Services Coordinator Jim Low remembers Keefe as a mentor who encouraged aspiring conservation communicators. "Jim was never too busy to spend time with a green journalism student who had a fire in the belly to write about the outdoors," said Low. "He possessed a quiet gentility that enabled him to make everyone feel their work was important, and that they could make a difference.
"The conservation program that Missouri has today couldn't have been built without a solid foundation of public understanding and support. Jim Keefe nurtured Missourians' love of the natural world and gave them a clear vision of what was needed to preserve it. That's his greatest legacy."
- Jim Low -
Rabbit numbers are still depressed over the long term, but hunters who can find pockets of good cover will continue to enjoy a winter tradition.
JEFFERSON CITYThe Conservation Department's survey of rabbits shows a population similar to last year's, which reflected a slight rebound.
Rabbit season runs from Oct. 1 through Feb. 15, with a daily limit of six rabbits and a possession limit of 12. Only two of the daily limit may be swamp rabbits, which are found in southeastern Missouri.
Populations of rabbits have been down on private land for a number of years. The bright spots are on public lands managed for wildlife and private lands that still have pockets of brush and native grasses.
Conservation agents survey the rabbit population statewide each year by counting rabbits they see while driving 20-mile routes during two weeks in July. "The area in the state that looks the best is the Northern River Breaks," says Vicki Heidy, a wildlife research biologist with the Conservation Department. "Poor areas include the Ozark Border and Ozark Plateau."
Some areas of the state had a wet spring, and that might have affected rabbit production. "It's spotty," Heidy says. "There are areas where rabbit hunting is going to be good, areas with pockets of really good habitat. In good habitat, the weather doesn't have near as much of an effect on the population. Finding some habitat is still going to be the key to good hunting."
A Conservation Department program just getting under waythe Open Lands Initiativeultimately could improve conditions for rabbits, birds and other grassland wildlife. Federal programs like the Conservation Reserve Program (CRP) also can help.
The River Breaks Region mentioned by Heidy includes much of northeastern Missouri. Hunters looking for public lands in that region would do well to check "Missouri's Conservation Atlas," a book of county maps published by the Conservation Department. It gives descriptions and complete directions to all Conservation Department areas. Federal lands also appear on the maps. The 264-page, spiral-bound book in soft cover is $15, plus 6.225 percent sales tax for Missouri residents. You can order the book from Nature Shop, Missouri Department of Conservation, P.O. Box 180, Jefferson City MO 65102-0180, or telephone your order to (573) 751-4115, ext. 325.
- Jim Auckley -
The Sept. 3 issue of All Outdoors included a story about gigging season that contained incorrect information concerning season dates and restricted zones. The following item contains the correct information.
JEFFERSON CITYCool nights and clear waters are conditions that lure many anglers to Missouri streams mid-September through January. They are drawn by opportunities to capture nongame fish with multi-tined gigs.
Nongame fish may be taken with a gig from streams and impoundments between sunrise and midnight from Sept. 15 through Jan. 31 and from impounded waters between sunrise and sunset throughout the remainder of the year
Gigs may not be used to take fish on the Current River from Montauk State Park to Cedar Grove, the Eleven Point River from its confluence with Greer Spring Branch to Turner Mill, the North Fork of the White River in Ozark County from the upper outlet of Rainbow Spring to Blair Bridge and Roubidoux Creek from the elevated utility cable crossing approximately one-half mile below the Business I-44 bridge in Waynesville to its confluence with the Gasconade River.
Gigging allows Missourians to take advantage of a little-used resourcenongame fish. The limit is liberal20 nongame fish daily and 40 in possession. On the Current River from Cedar Grove downstream to the Arkansas state line, no more than five of the daily limit may be hogsuckers.
"Nongame fish" includes only those not defined as game fish in the Wildlife Code of Missouri. The fishes synonymous with gigging are suckers, torpedo-shaped bottom feeders that thrive in clear, gravel-bottomed Ozark streams. In terms of size, they are well worth pursuing. The state-record redhorse sucker weighed 14.5 pounds. They are tasty, too. Properly prepared and deep-fried, sucker meat is well worth the late-night labor required to obtain them.
- Arleasha Mays -
Copyright ©2008 Conservation Commission of Missouri. All Rights Reserved. Privacy Policy | Terms of Use