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Letters to the Editor

Submissions reflect readers’ opinions and may be edited for length and clarity. Email Magazine@mdc.mo.gov or write to us:

Missouri Conservationist P.O. Box 180 Jefferson City, MO 65102

Photo Blind

I enjoy your great magazine each month. I am always impressed with the beautiful photographs taken by Noppadol Paothong. He must spend all his time in a blind with his cameras.

Perry Jenks, via email

Inspiring Nights

Although I have lived in five other states in the 35 years since I left Missouri, my twin sister gifts me the Missouri Conservationist annually. While I love the magazine, and devour it each month when it arrives, I’ve grown fond of reading Sara Parker Pauley’s Up Front. She has such a reflective style, integrating life circumstances with nature. I’m always curious how she has interfaced with the outdoors and connected her experience to life. Keep up the inspirational messages. We need them now more than ever!

Camille Consolvo, Great Falls, MT

Missouri’s Least Wanted

I appreciated the article in the April issue about invasive species [Missouri’s Least Wanted]. I hope it helps people realize what a nuisance they are and stop planting them, and nurseries stop selling them. In my area of Jackson County, it’s especially true of the Callery pear. To me, these are the kudzu of the tree world. I have enjoyed the Conservationist since the 1950s. Great job MDC!

Ted Tompkins, Blue Springs

King Bird

The article on the eastern kingbird [June] was timely as we have had a nesting pair on our deck the last four years. I recently identified them as eastern kingbirds. Our pair is currently raising their second clutch of three babies. Thanks for the great photos and information on this species.

Don Hellmann via email

Kids Love the Conservationist

My husband and I have always loved reading the Missouri Conservationist, but now our daughter (20 months) has started “reading” it before we get a chance. Thank you for all the great wildlife pictures. She especially liked telling us that the bear had to go “night night” [Living With Wildlife, June].

Maggie Jones, Boone County

The Missouri Department of Conservation is so wonderful. The Missouri Conservationist is my son’s favorite reading material. (He is 18 months old.) He loves to turn the pages and look at all the animals, people, and plants! The beetles and crawfish in recent magazines have been wonderful. I have had to repair the magazines with tape and staples — not because he tears them but from sheer frequency of use! He brought me the center section, very concerned, when the staples finally gave out and released. Recently, he led me from my parents’ house to a small creek on conservation land in Cape Girardeau that he had played in the day before. He led me on the half-mile walk on the way there, taking the correct turns (until we got to the last segment and he had to run ahead).

Thank you to the Missouri Department of Conservation! Thank you to the magazine and the Nature Center staff, the agents, and the people who maintain the trails, and everybody else!

Jennifer Ann Layton, Johnson St. Louis

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Conservation Headquarters

573-751-4115 | PO Box 180, Jefferson City, MO

Regional Offices

• Southeast/Cape Girardeau: 573-290-5730
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• Northwest/St. Joseph: 816-271-3100
• St. Louis: 636-441-4554 Ozark/West Plains: 417-256-7161

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