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“I am Conservation”

Wanda Byrd is a retired elementary school teacher from West Plains. She has been float fishing on and off for 30 years. “The thing I like most about float fishing is the diversity of the river,” Byrd said. “It’s always different, each time you float. You always see so many different things, from beautiful wildflowers, sunning red-eared sliders, to otters swimming up ahead. I recently saw a baby barred owl that had fallen into the stream and watched as its mother coaxed it back to the bank and up a tree.” When Byrd isn’t fishing, she works part time for the Bryant Watershed Education Project. She also has completed Master Naturalist training with MDC.

—Photo by David Stonner