Serving Nature and You

Our Responsibilities

1. Manage Missouri’s Forests, Fish, and Wildlife

• We work for and with Missourians to sustain healthy forests, fish, and wildlife.
• Conservation successes are many and include forests, streams, white-tailed deer, turkey, fish, and other plants and animals.
• We enforce the Wildlife Code of Missouri to provide current outdoor opportunities and to ensure future generations will have those same opportunities to hunt, fish, and enjoy the outdoors.
• Research and citizen input informs decisions on the future of Missouri’s forest, fish, and wildlife resources.

2. Educate Missourians

• We help educate Missourians as they discover nature and improve their outdoor skills.
• Missouri has a rich conservation heritage of a quality outdoors that is being passed along to the next generation through free school materials.
• Hunter education, archery, fishing, shooting skills, and nature-viewing classes empower citizens to enjoy the outdoors.
• Citizens learn about the outdoors through an award-winning Missouri Conservationist magazine and children’s Xplor magazine, along with Web, video, and print information.

3 Help People Be Outdoors

• We provide close-to-home outdoor opportunities in urban, suburban, and rural areas throughout the state at conservation areas, boat ramps, public lakes, nature centers, interpretive centers, shooting ranges, and fish hatcheries.
• We partner with tens of thousands of landowners to help restore, improve, and sustain Missouri forests, waters, and wildlife habitats.

Participation in Missouri

• 1.7 million view wildlife; over one million fish; and over
• 500 thousand hunt.
• Hunter education graduates total over 1.1 million since 1987.
• More than 6,000 volunteers help the Department educate citizens and deliver conservation each year.
• More than 34,000 landowners, conservation organizations, agricultural groups, and communities work with the Department each year to improve Missouri’s forest, fish, and wildlife resources. More than 75 years of successful conservation!
• A statewide Constitutional vote established the Department in 1936.
• A statewide Constitutional vote established dedicated funding for conservation in 1976.
• The Missouri Department of Conservation receives no general revenue from the state and always has a balanced budget.
• A citizen’s committee led the effort to establish the Department.
• Missouri citizens continue to be important partners for advancing conservation.

For more information, visit mdc.mo.gov or call 573-751-4115

Our Forests, Fish, and Wildlife

• Conservation is a partnership. Missouri has more than 44 million acres, over 90 percent are privately owned.
• There are nearly 1,000 conservation areas that provide close-to-home outdoor opportunities on nearly one million acres.
• Healthy forests, fish, and wildlife enrich our economy and the quality of life for all Missouri citizens.

Conservation Pays Its Way

• Conservation generates $12 billion dollars each year in economic impact and continues to be a wise investment.
• One of every four tourism dollars in Missouri is spent on fish and wildlife recreation.
• 89,000 Missouri jobs are supported by fish and wildlife recreation and the forest products industry.