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Some pockets still contain good numbers of quail and pheasants, but the statewide outlook isn't rosy.
JEFFERSON CITY--Find good habitat, and you are likely to find good bird hunting. That's the best advice the Missouri Department of Conservation can give quail and pheasant hunters this year.
Despite declines in the statewide populations of both species, there are areas where bobwhite and ringneck numbers have remained fairly stable for the past decade. Conservation Department biologists say they expect only minor changes in harvest totals in those areas.
Missouri's wet, cold spring hampered early nesting success, and an extremely hot, dry summer probably diminished quail and pheasants' attempts to renest. The quail count is down by 27 percent statewide, and pheasant numbers dropped about 50 percent.
The prospects are only fair for Missouri's 1999-2000 quail and pheasant seasons. That prediction is based on recent surveys of quail and pheasant populations.
The Conservation Department keeps tabs on both species' populations with surveys conducted August 1-15. During the August Roadside Survey (ARS) conservation agents count the number of quail and pheasants seen along 30-mile routes in every county except Jackson and St. Louis.
The 1999 ARS found 1.64 per pheasants per route. Hunting conditions will be best in northwestern Missouri, where the survey found an average 3.55 pheasants per route.
It is unlikely Missouri will ever have a large pheasant population. Since the bird's introduction into North America, the upper Midwest has been home to the country's largest pheasant population. The northernmost third of Missouri is on the fringe of that range. Despite efforts that date back to the 1880s, attempts to establish pheasant populations throughout the state have met with poor success.
The current pheasant reintroduction program, which began in 1986, has had limited success in stabilizing pheasant numbers in portions of northwestern Missouri. The final release of that program is scheduled to take place in Clinton County this winter.
The quail count of 3.78 birds per route is down by 27 percent from 1998. The best hunting locations for quail will be found in west-central Missouri, where counts found 11 quail per route. The quail populations in the state's northeastern and western Ozarks regions are described as moderate, with about five quail per route.
Wildlife Biologist Vicky Heidy says prospects for improving quail numbers are good, due to Conservation Department private land habitat improvement programs. "Quail have been greatly affected by the changes in Missouri's landscape," says Heidy. "Much of the land they used for habitat in the past has been planted over with thick grasses. Quail need brushy thickets, small amounts of grass and plenty of annual weeds or crops. Thickets provide nesting cover. Food plots and tall grasses with open spaces provide brood rearing areas. Some of the landowner assistance programs we now have are helping to provide those habitat needs."
Quail season runs from Nov. 1 through Jan. 15. The daily limit is eight, with a possession limit of 16. Pheasant season runs from Nov. 1 through Jan. 15 in the north zone and Dec. 1 through Dec. 12 in the south zone. Hunters may bag only male pheasants. Limits are two pheasants daily and four in possession in the north zone and one daily and one in possession in the south zone.
The north zone includes all land north of U.S. Highway 36, the sections of DeKalb and Buchanan counties south of Highway 36 and Platte and St. Charles counties. The south zone consists of Dunklin, New Madrid, Pemiscot and Stoddard counties.
- Arleasha Mays -
Aggressive land acquisition and conservation efforts have supported increases in duck fall flights and provided more hunting opportunity as well.
JEFFERSON CITY--The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service predicts that a record number of ducks will migrate through North America this season. Good weather has helped waterfowl populations rebuild from low levels in the 1980s. So has a project called the North American Waterfowl Management Plan.
Under the plan, some regions have focused on restoring waterfowl breeding habitat and others on wintering habitat. In Missouri, the focus has been on habitat that waterfowl use during their migration through the state.
Duck hunters have helped pay for the turnaround in duck numbers through their purchase of permits, taxes and donations to nonprofit groups like Ducks Unlimited (DU). According to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS), the plan is the most ambitious continental wildlife conservation initiative ever attempted.
While waterfowl hunters put up most of the money for North American waterfowl recovery, the benefits of the effort extend far beyond hunters. Ducks and geese are just a few of the hundreds of bird species that rely on wetlands for their survival. Fish, furbearers, aquatic plants and other natural resources benefit from wetland preservation, as do birdwatchers, anglers, nature photographers and other nature enthusiasts.
The plan ". . . seeks to restore waterfowl populations in Canada, the United States, and Mexico to the levels recorded during the 1970sa benchmark decade for waterfowl," according to information from the FWS. This promise is coming trueMissouri has new wetlands and new habitat.
The United States and Canada signed on to the plan in 1986, and Mexico joined several years later. The plan asked conservationists to develop habitat on a scale that would help ducks continent-wide. The FWS says it is this biological foundation that sets the plan apart from most other conservation efforts of its time.
Missouri launched its response to the plan in 1989 with the Missouri Department of Conservation Wetland Management Plan, and hunters will reap some of the benefits this season. "Our plan for Missouri set forth ambitious objectives for land acquisition, wetland restoration and management," says Dale Humburg, a wildlife research biologist with the Conservation Department. "Missouri worked most on habitats used during waterfowl migration. We have lost about 90 percent of our original 4.8 million acres of wetlands, and we saw a decline of more than 50 percent in fall and winter use of state and federal managed wetlands from the 1970s to the 1980s.
"This reflected the impact of habitat losses and decline in continental duck numbers," Humburg adds. "It was part of the basis for our objective to restore Missouri wetlands. We expected increases in habitat to result in duck recovery and increases in recreational opportunity as well."
Progress has been substantial in Missouri in the last decade. By 1997 more than 25,000 additional acres of wetlands were acquired at a cost of more than $25 million. Intensive wetland management programs were developed on more than 15,000 acres at a cost of more than $30 million. Some new wetlands sprang up when Missouri and the USFW bought lands damaged in big floods in 1993.
Private wetlands also played a role. By 1999, landowners had enrolled more than 70,000 acres of river bottom land in the Wetland Reserve Program. As a result of an increase in wetlands coupled with conducive weather, there are more ducks for people to enjoy seeing, and more ducks for hunters to enjoy pursuing during the fall hunting season.
"The plan has been a model of cooperative efforts by many partners and has been supported by a timely period of wet weather and extensive habitat improvement through conservation provisions of the Farm Bill," Humburg says. "In Missouri, aggressive land acquisition, development and management efforts have helped to support increases in duck fall flights and provided much more hunting opportunity as well. Both ducks and duck hunters have benefited from wetland conservation initiatives during the last decade."
Humburg also notes there has been an increase of duck use of public conservation lands, measured in duck-use days. A thousand ducks on an area for one day equals 1,000 duck-use days. Conservation areas logged 12 million duck use days in the 1980s compared to an average of 22 million from 1990 through 1996. In 1997 and 1998 usage averaged more than 36 million duck use days. This increase in ducks coincided with wetland development in Missouri.
There was no change in duck use between the 1980s and 1990s on traditional areas. Almost all of the increase came on newly established wetlands. Six new wetland developments were completed during the last five years.
The numbers of ducks that hunters shot on conservation areas increased from 20,400 in 1994 to 31,800 in 1995. By 1998 this had increased to more 60,000 ducks harvested in about 30,000 hunter trips.
"This can only partially be explained by an increase in duck numbers and a 60-day duck season," Humburg says. "Certainly, mild weather and good habitat conditions, timely migrations and additional hunting opportunity on public land combined with more ducks to prompt higher harvest."
Hunter groups like DU also have contributed to the success of the plan, as have landowners, corporations and other nonprofit conservation groups and government agencies.
According to DU, the basic tenets of the plan are based on a fundamental principle of wildlife conservationthat abundant, quality habitat is key to healthy wildlife populations over the long term. Through the efforts of all the partners in the plan, government initiatives like the Conservation Reserve Program and Wetlands Reserve Program and the conservation work of countless individual and corporate landowners, millions of acres of habitat have been restored and protected across North America.
The ducks are back, and when dry years return, as they always do, there will be more habitat available to help them get through it, thanks to the North American Waterfowl Management Plan.
- Jim Auckley -
JEFFERSON CITY--Missouri hunters killed 14,651 turkeys during the two-week fall firearms turkey hunting season. That's 602 fewer than were taken in 1998, but still a strong harvest for the fall season.
Top fall turkey harvest counties were Macon (484), Adair (477) and DeKalb (360). Northeastern Missouri led regional harvest totals with 3,397 birds checked, and northwestern Missouri was second with 3,264. The west-central region was third with 1,955, and the east-central region was fourth with 1,475.
Two fall turkey hunting accidents were reported. Neither was fatal.
- Jim Low -
Hunters should find stellar shooting in areas with good habitat.
JEFFERSON CITY--More than 100 million ducks are projected to be in this fall's grand migration of waterfowl, and hunters should end the millennium on a high note.
It's the largest flight on record. This fall flight outlook is well in excess of the average during the 1970s (82 million) or the 1980s (65 million). The mallard fall flight of 13.6 million projected for 1999 (11.7 million in 1998) is lower only than the 1997 index of 14.3 million.
Prognostications aside, weather during the season and the presence or lack of water always play a large role in the number of ducks hunters actually will harvest.
"The bottom line is there is no lack of birds; we expect the migration will occur during the season," says Dale Humburg, a wildlife research biologist with the Conservation Department. "The unknowns right now are whether we will get enough rain to make Missouri more attractive and whether an early freeze-up will affect hunting in shallow-water habitat. It's kind of one of those good news-bad news deals. But generally we are sitting on good news if we get a little bit of improvement in habitat conditions."
Humburg sees this season as a contrast to 1998. "Last year, when we had mild and wet weather through the fall and early winter and migrations were right on time, we harvested 100,000 more ducks in Missouri than any year on record. This year it's very dry as we go into mid-October, but food conditions generally are good to very good, and we expect primary migrations to occur during the hunting season."
"The season will be 60 days long for the third consecutive season, which is the longest since the 70-day season in 1958. So we are dealing with unprecedented hunting opportunity. The fall flight of birds this year is at a high level. What we would like to do is have Missouri a little more attractive as they arrive so that they stick around for a while, and that means we need some rain.
"In a dry year like this, specially managed wetland areas tend to provide the best hunting. Last year, when it was wet, a lot of the traditional spots were flooded too deeply, so there were birds scattered all across the Missouri landscape. Many of the flat areas in the flood plains were attractive. The result was that Missouri attracted and held birds for an extended period in 1998. This year the opposite appears to be true . . . unless we get some rain."
Because the Conservation Department can flood some managed wetlands at will using pumps, some of the better hunting may be on public conservation areas (CAs), where there will be water regardless of seasonal rainfall.
Missouri is divided into three duck zones and two additional goose zones for waterfowl hunting purposes, and hunting dates vary by zones. Full details of waterfowl hunting regulations are contained in the 1999-2000 Migratory Bird Digest, available wherever permits are sold.
In setting waterfowl regulations, the Conservation Department looked at duck populations, improved Canada goose status and high snow goose populations as the primary considerations. A concern for migratory Canada goose numbers is reflected in more goose hunting days early in the season, when resident geese are present but migratory birds have not yet arrived in large numbers.
The Conservation Department has held its drawing for duck blinds at 14 managed wetlands, and hunters who applied can now check by telephone to see if they were successful. Applicants should call 800/829-2956 and have their Conservation ID number at hand. The ID number is on Conservation Heritage Cards and hunting permits. If you have neither, you can get your conservation identification number from any hunting permit vendor statewide.
Reservations were issued for half the hunting opportunities at each of 14 areas. The remaining hunting slots will be given to hunters without reservations through a random morning drawing. Each day, reservation holders and walk-in hunters will take part in early-morning drawings to decide where on each area they will hunt.
This was the first year hunters could apply for reservations by phone or via the Internet, and it's the first year they can check the outcome by telephone. Hunters were allowed to apply for anyone living in their immediate households, but reservation holders must be present at the hunt for reservations to be valid. Applicants could request the first available weekend date, the first available weekday or the first available date, another detail that was new this year. Last year the only choices were first available date or first available date on a particular day of the week.
Some hunters will be disappointed to find a favorite hunting site at Duck Creek CA in the Bootheel closed this year. The Conservation Department had planned to keep part of the area dry this year to rejuvenate the popular "green-tree reservoir." Drought has increased the area that will be left dry.
Over the years, the trees in Pool 3 at Duck Creek CA have suffered from lack of natural fluctuations in flooding. Early, prolonged flooding each fall is taking a toll on the health of the bottomland forest that makes hunting in a green-tree reservoir appealing. The Conservation Department plans to vary water levels to ensure tree survival and allow seedlings to sprout and take their place among older trees. The agency will make improvements to water control structures and boat lanes while the area is dry, making it an even better place to hunt in the future.
In dividing the state into waterfowl management zones, this year the Conservation Department added a Southeast Zone. "The purpose of the new zone is to add more Canada goose management flexibility," Humburg says. "Most of the Canada geese taken by hunters in southeast Missouri are from a different population than those taken in the rest of the state. Canada geese get there later in the year than they do in much of the northern two-thirds of the state. We want to be able to manage the northern two-thirds as a block.
"The birds that used to go to Swan Lake now are found throughout the northern two zones. We found that we needed more flexibility than we had with just the Schell-Osage Zone and the Swan Lake Zone. Basically we eliminated the Schell-Osage Zone and added the Southeast Zone.
"In effect, we have expanded the Schell-Osage Zone into all of middle Missouri," Humburg adds. "That way we can protect goose populations that need a little bit of help, and at the same time provide increased opportunity for populations that are doing wellgiant Canada geese most notably."
- Jim Auckley -
A fresh-water mussel and a butterfly not previously known to live in Missouri are candidates for the state's endangered species list.
JEFFERSON CITY--Creatures that are largely overlooked by most people are on the cusp of endangered species status in Missouri. The scaleshell mussel will probably be added to the federal endangered species list soon. And the Hine's emerald dragonfly, already on the federal list, has been discovered in Missouri. Both creatures probably will land on Missouri's own endangered list eventually.
Missouri is rare mussel's last stronghold
"When the scaleshell mussel is listed by the federal government as endangered, we will automatically add it to our state endangered species list too," says Amy Salveter, endangered species coordinator with the Conservation Department."
Of 65 mussel species in Missouri, 28 are rare or faring poorly. "Missouri happens to be the last stronghold for the scaleshell, but range-wide the outlook is bleak," Salveter adds. The Meramec and Gasconade rivers in Missouri are thought to harbor the only reproducing populations of the scaleshell throughout its U.S. range. It is considered extirpated from the upper Mississippi River and the entire Ohio River system.
If the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS), lists the scaleshell as endangered, that agency must prepare a recovery plan that describes actions needed to help the scaleshell survive.
The scaleshell's range overlaps with several mussel species that already are federally listed as endangered or threatened. Steps needed to conserve and recover the scaleshell are likely to be similar to measures already in place for those other species. In general, according to the FWS, recovery actions are likely to focus on controlling pollutants and sedimentation and minimizing their effects on mussels.
Water pollution hurts mussels because they must stay in one place and they are easily harmed by toxins and changes in water chemistry from pollution. Pollution that comes from diffuse sources harms mussels. Such pollution can come from pastures, confined animal feeding operations and sewage discharges. Missouri has no laws controlling this type of pollution.
Sedimentation also harms mussels. According to the FWS, a stream bottom blanketed with mud from erosion can suffocate freshwater mussels. Muddy water also makes it difficult for them to feed, which can lead to decreased growth and survival. Dams also can cause problems for mussels.
Rare Dragon Haunts Missouri Fens
Linden Trial wasn't out to save the federal government $10 million when she visited Grasshopper Hollow, but that could be the net result. Trial, a fisheries research biologist for the Conservation Department, visited the area in Reynolds County with a butterfly net, hoping to catch some interesting insects.
Among her catch was a Hine's emerald dragonfly, a federally endangered species previously known to live only in three other places, all in the upper Midwest. The endangered dragonfly can be taken off the endangered list when six viable populations of at least 500 individuals are known to exist. In writing the recovery plan for the species, the FWS estimated the cost of achieving this goal at $10,686,000. If biologists can find more viable populations in Missouri, the federal government may not have to spend that money.
"The Hine's emerald dragonfly is not on the Missouri state endangered species list, because we did not know it was here," Trial says. She is currently considering other areas to look for the insect and would like to find more. "One capture is no guarantee that they live here," she says.
The dragonfly favors "fens," wet meadows that meet their habitat needs. The scarcity of such areas leaves the species vulnerable to extirpation due to habitat loss. Grasshopper Hollow contains one of the largest series of fens in the Ozarks. The USDA Forest Service, the Nature Conservancy and Doe Run Minerals Corporation, which own the land, have voluntarily enrolled it in Missouri's Natural Areas System, giving it a degree of protection.
According to the FWS, the Hine's emerald dragonfly was listed as endangered in January 1995. It is known to live in three populations from Illinois, Wisconsin and Michigan. It probably once lived in Ohio and Indiana, but is believed extirpated from those sites. The insect occupies marshes and sedge meadows fed by calcareous groundwater seepage and underlain by dolomite bedrock. Loss of this already rare and restricted habitat to agriculture, development and quarrying is the primary cause of the species decline, according to the FWS's recovery plan for the species.
- Jim Auckley -
Thirty-three years of service earned the International Association of Fish and Wildlife Agencies' highest honor.
JEFFERSON CITY--Jerry Conley, director of the Missouri Department of Conservation, is the recipient of the 1999 Seth Gordon Award from the International Association of Fish and Wildlife Agencies (IAFWA).
Conley, a native of Cape Girardeau, received the award at the IAFWA's annual meeting Sept. 21 in Killington, Vt. The award is reserved for fish and wildlife agency administrators "who have worked steadfastly and effectively for fish and wildlife resources."
Conley also recently received the National Society Daughters of the American Revolution Conservation Medal. Nominations for that award mentioned Conley's skill in building teamwork that has facilitated the achievements of conservation agencies where he has worked.
Conley began his conservation career in 1966 as a regional fisheries biologist for the Utah Division of Wildlife Resources. He subsequently served as superintendent of fisheries with the Iowa Fish and Wildlife Division. From 1977 to 1980 he was director of the Kansas Department of Wildlife and Parks. He served as director of the Idaho Fish and Game Department from 1980 through 1996, and has been director of the Missouri Department of Conservation since then.
During his career he has been active in regional and national conservation efforts. He has served as president of the IAFWA and has chaired several committees for that group, including the Executive Committee and the Nongame and Endangered Species Committee. He has served as president of the Western and Midwestern associations of fish and wildlife agencies and has chaired the Pacific Marine Fisheries Commission, the Columbia Basin Fish and Wildlife Authority and the Interagency Grizzly Bear Committee.
Other honors Conley has received include the Idaho Forest Supervisor's Centennial Conservation Award, the Kansas Governor's Distinguished Service Award and the IAFWA's Ernest Thompson Seton Award.
In conferring its award, the IAFWA noted that Conley "is a skilled communicator who insists on effective teamwork as the way to achieve success. He recognizes the importance of cooperation and coordination between the state fish and wildlife agencies and, while administering some of our largest and most demanding state wildlife programs, he managed to remain an engaged and productive member of the International Association."
Zebra mussels are small in stature but can cause big problems.
JEFFERSON CITY--Exotic zebra mussels from Europe appear to be expanding the beachhead they have established in Missouri. Conservation Department fisheries biologists recently found hundreds of zebra mussels in a pond near St. Charles. The pond, which is on private land, was flooded by the Missouri River in 1993.
In August, researchers from Southwest Missouri State University also reported finding zebra mussels attached to native mussels in the Meramec River at the I-55 bridge near St. Louis.
A possible second sighting of zebra mussels in the Meramec River came from near the Highway 30 bridge at Fenton, several miles upstream from the I-55 bridge. Sue Bruenderman, a fisheries research biologist for the Missouri Department of Conservation, says this second sighting indicates that the exotic pests are hitching rides upstream via boats, boat trailers, barges and bait buckets.
The discovery in the Meramec River is particularly disturbing because the location is home to an endangered mussel called the pink mucket. Zebra mussels will cover any solid surface, including the shells of other mussels. Once an infestation on another mussel is heavy enough, the mussel suffocates.
Earlier this year, zebra mussels were discovered on a water intake at a power station downstream from Sioux City, Iowa. Strong current may prevent zebra mussels from establishing populations in the Missouri River downstream of Sioux City, but adult zebra mussels can easily travel upstream to more hospitable surroundings, as they have in the Meramec River.
Zebra mussels compete with native wildlife and are costly to control when their dense colonies clog water intake pipes at power plants or water treatment facilities. Zebra mussels are costing Great Lake industries $3 million per year to remove from their operating systems.
The invading mussels feed on plankton, the microscopic plants and animals that form the basis of the aquatic food chain. This puts them in direct competition with native mussels and young fish, including bass, bluegill and other popular sportfishes. Zebra mussels can attach to power boats' drive units and clog water intakes, causing damage to engines.
Zebra mussels arrived in the U.S. from Europe in the mid-1980s. They apparently first escaped into the St. Lawrence Seaway by hitching a ride in ballast water carried by oceangoing ships. After spreading across the Great Lakes in five years, they jumped from southern Lake Michigan into the Illinois River. Their spread downstream from there was easy. Biologists first documented zebra mussels in the Mississippi River 1991.
Anglers can unknowingly transfer microscopic zebra mussel larvae to uninfested waters by filling bait buckets or live wells with water at an infested lake or stream and dumping it in another location. The greater the number of successful rides upstream, the greater the likelihood of these "hitchhikers" establishing themselves.
"Don't pick up hitchhikers," says Bruenderman. "Missourians can slow the spread of the zebra mussel by draining all bilge water, live wells, bait buckets and any other water from their boats and equipment before moving from one body of water to another."
Bruenderman also said boaters should dispose of leftover live bait and should inspect boat hulls, drive units, trolling plates, prop guards, transducers, anchors and trailers.
"Scrape off and trash any suspected mussels, however small," says Bruenderman. "Remove all water weeds from boats and trailers. Flush boat hulls, drive units, live wells, bilges and their pumping systems, trailers, bait buckets, engine cooling water systems, and anything that got wet with a hard spray from a garden hose."
If your boat was in infested waters for more than a day or two, Bruenderman suggests towing boat and trailer through a do-it-yourself carwash and "demusseling" them with hot, high-pressure water. Dry boat and trailer for two to four days in the sun before next launching.
Bruenderman says running boats frequently helps reduce zebra mussel infestation. Small juvenile mussels are soft and are scoured off the hull at high speeds.
If possible, avoid leaving outboard motors or the drive units of inboard motors in the water when not in use. Hulls and drive units should be inspected periodically and scraped free of mussels. Pumping hot water through engine intakes prevents zebra mussel growth in the cooling system.
- Jim Auckley -
Hunters who don't buy permits before Nov. 7 could face unpleasant choices.
JEFFERSON CITY -- Hunters who want a shot at antlerless deer in November must buy deer tags by Nov. 7.
Sales of Any-Deer and Bonus-Deer permits will be suspended at midnight Nov.7, the Sunday before the start of the firearms deer season. From then through the end of the November portion of the deer season Nov. 23, the only deer hunting permits available will be bucks-only Firearms Deer Permits. Bonus and Any-Deer permits will be back on sale Nov. 24 through Jan. 11.
Holders of Any-Deer and Bonus-Deer permits may harvest up to three deer, only one of which may be antlered. But hunters who don't buy Any-Deer or Bonus Deer permits by Nov. 7 face an unpleasant choicebuying a single bucks-only permit so they can hunt in November or skipping the November hunt so they can buy multiple deer permits for the December and January portions of deer season.
A Firearms Deer Permit can be used anywhere in the state, but it restricts the holder to harvesting one antlered deer during the entire season. Those who buy bucks-only permits cannot buy Any-Deer Permits later in the season, and they can't take part in the January Extension of firearms deer season. The January Extension is open only to hunters with unfilled Any-Deer and Bonus-Deer permits.
Hunters who buy early can take part in three firearms deer hunting season segments. In the first segment, Nov. 13 through 23, hunters may use any legal method to pursue deer in the units for which their permits are issued. During the Muzzleloader Deer Season Dec. 4 through 12, hunters can use only muzzleloading firearms to take deer in units for which they have permits. The January Extension Jan. 8 through 11 allows hunters with unused Any-Deer and Bonus-Deer permits to hunt in deer management units 1 through 17, 20, 22, 23, 24, 58 and 59, but for antlerless deer only.
For more information on deer hunting regulations changes, refer to the back page of the 1999 Fall Deer and Turkey Hunting Information guide or call your local conservation agent or the nearest Conservation Department regional office.
- Arleasha Mays -
Duck and goose hunting opportunities will be reduced drastically this year at southeast Missouri's premier public duck hunting area.
PUXICO, Mo.--Only a "toad-chokin' rain" could salvage waterfowl hunting opportunities at Duck Creek Conservation Area (CA) this year, according to area manager Dave Wissehr.
At 6,234 acres, Duck Creek is southeast Missouri's oldest and largest public waterfowl hunting area. Its flooded timber, lake and marsh areas make it the destination of choice for hundreds of duck and goose hunters each year. But hunting opportunities at Duck Creek CA have withered during a four-month dry spell.
"Since June 20 we have had less than three inches of rain," says Wissehr. "Rainfall from June through September was the lowest since the dust bowl years of the 1930s."
Water for wetland management at Duck Creek CA comes from area streams whose excess flow is diverted into the 1,800-acre lake known as Pool 1 at Duck Creek CA. In most years, Pool 1 has enough water to allow area managers to divert some into Pools 2 and 3, flooding bottomland hardwood forest to create "green-tree reservoir" habitat that draws waterfowl like a magnet. In good years, there is enough water to flood Pool 8 at nearby Mingo National Wildlife Refuge, creating even more waterfowl habitat and hunting opportunities.
But this year there has been virtually no water to draw from streams. In late September, Pool 1 was within one foot of minimum pool. Releasing water to flood Pools 2 and 3 would mean running the risk of a major fish kill in Pool 1, where anglers enjoy fishing for much of the year.
"Normally we would start putting water into Pool 2 around the 12th to the 25th of October," says Wissehr. "Given the present conditions, there is little hope that Pool 2 will be flooded for waterfowl seasons. Unless we get a toad-chokin' rainsay six inchesPool 2 will stay dry through the entire waterfowl season, and so will Pool 8 at Mingo."
Duck Creek will still have hunting at two boat-in positions on Pool 1, eight blinds in Unit A and two wade-in positions in Field 48S and Pool H.
While Wissehr isn't happy about the loss of hunting opportunities due to the drought, he admits there is a small silver lining. The dry conditions will help with ongoing efforts to rejuvenate Duck Creek CA's green-tree habitat.
"This was going to be the first year in a management program where we would vary the flooding dates for Pool 2, Pool 3, and Pool 8 in an effort to mimic natural flooding patterns," he says. "In some years, one of the three pools would stay dry. This year, Pool 3 will remain dry. The idea is to let young trees sprout so they can replace mature timber as it dies of old age. We're trying to ensure the future of green-tree reservoir habitat at Duck Creek. This isn't how we planned to do it, but in wildlife management you work with the conditions that nature provides."
- Jim Low -
Any hunter 16 or older needs a Migratory Bird Hunting Permit.
JEFFERSON CITYAn error in the 1999-2000 Missouri Migratory Bird Digest could mislead older hunters into going afield without a required hunting permit.
Due to an editing error, an entry on page 3 of the digest says that a Missouri Migratory Bird Hunting Permit is required for hunters age 16 through 64 to hunt waterfowl or other migratory game birds. This is incorrect. According to the Conservation Department the Missouri Migratory Bird Hunting Permit is required for all hunters 16 years and older who hunt migratory birds.
Hunters 16 and older also must have a Federal Migratory Bird Hunting and Conservation Stamp.
A Missouri Small Game Hunting Permit is required for hunters age 16 through 64 who hunt migratory game birds. Those age 65 and older are exempt from the small-game permit requirement, as are Missouri resident landowners hunting on their own land.
Full details of waterfowl hunting regulations are outlined in the Migratory Bird Digest, which is available free of charge wherever Missouri hunting permits are sold.
- Jim Low -
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