Blog Posts from Fresh Afield - 2009

Several Missouri hunters have contacted me recently because they are wishing to plan their vacation time for 2010 around turkey and deer seasons.

If you’ve been out exploring the countryside on a cold morning recently, you may have encountered the short-lived frost flower.

Waterfowl hunters are the original cockeyed optimists.

I just checked the tally for the ongoing Antlerless Portion of Firearms Deer Season and found that hunters have checked a little more than 13,600 deer since Nov. 25.

It’s easy to focus too much on negative changes to our natural world, be it increasing urban sprawl, threats from invasive exotic species or natural disasters like flooding and ice storms.

I never thought I cared about antlers until I shot this 10-pointer.

Firewood looks harmless, but it can harbor the emerald ash borer, a devastating forest pest. Hunters are urged not to move firewood to and from their camps. Instead, buy firewood locally and burn it all before returning home.

The Missouri Conservation Commission named Bob Ziehmer as the new director who will replace John Hoskins when John retires Jan. 15, 2010. Bob is currently one of our assistant directors.

The literary naturalist Loren Eiseley described the way vegetation reveals its secrets in the fall and winter, when the lush growth of summer is reduced to the freeze-tolerant mechanical parts of stems, bark, wood, leaves, fruits and seeds.