In Brief

Give a Gift to Nature

Your Christmas tree can be the last gift you give during this holiday season

MDC forestry staff remind you — don’t throw that cut Christmas tree into the trash after the holidays. Recycle it! Many communities have a Christmas tree-recycling program. If not, there are several creative ways to make further use of your tree. 

Place the tree in the backyard to offer cover for wildlife or under bird feeders to provide nesting locations in the branches. Add some post-holiday treats as ornaments by coating pinecones with peanut butter and adding birdseed. 

Have your tree shredded or chipped for mulch, or place cut branches over dormant plants to provide a bit of insulation during the winter and to add organic matter as the needles fall.

You can also sink the tree in a pond to enhance fish habitat by giving them a place to rest, nest, and escape predators. Multiple live trees make the best cover, so work with friends, family, and neighbors to combine efforts. Anchor the trees with concrete blocks and sink them at a depth of about 8 feet with the trees placed in a row.

If you used a balled live evergreen and your ground is still soft enough to dig, add it to your home landscape for years of enjoyment and wildlife cover.

Apply Online for MDC Spring Managed Turkey Hunts

Missouri youth, archery, and firearms turkey hunters can apply online for 2025 spring turkey managed hunts starting Feb. 1 at mdc.mo.gov/springturkeyhunts. Managed hunt details and application procedures are outlined on the webpage. Drawing results will be posted starting March 15.

Spring turkey hunting youth weekend will be April 12–13 with the regular spring season running April 21 through May 11.

Detailed information on spring turkey hunting will be available in MDC‘s 2025 Spring Turkey Hunting Regulations and Information booklet, available where permits are sold beginning in February. Learn more about turkey hunting in Missouri at short.mdc.mo.gov/Ztu.

Buy Your 2025 Hunting and Fishing Permits 

MDC reminds Missouri hunters and anglers that related annual permits expire at the end of February, including 2024 permits for small game, fishing, trout fishing, and combination hunting and fishing.

Buy Missouri hunting and fishing permits from one of the many vendors around the state or online at mdc.mo.gov/buypermits. Once purchased, permits may be carried electronically through MDC’s free mobile apps, MO Hunting and MO Fishing, available for download through Google Play for Android devices or the App Store for Apple devices.

Save time by buying hunting and fishing permits for multiple people in a single transaction. Select the Additional Customer option during the permit purchase.

Commercial and lifetime permits can be purchased only through the MDC Permit Services Unit by calling 573-522-0107 for an application.

George Seek Receives Master Conservationist Award

Retired MDC employee George Seek of Meadville received the Master Conservationist Award on Oct. 24 during a special ceremony at Fountain Grove Conservation Area (CA) in north-central Missouri. Seek worked for MDC for more than 30 years, retiring as chief of the Private Lands Division. 

The Master Conservationist Award was created in 1941 to honor living or deceased citizen conservationists, former MDC commissioners, and employees of conservation-related agencies, universities, or organizations who made substantial and lasting contributions to the fisheries, forestry, or wildlife resources of the state. 

“George Seek's contributions to Missouri's wildlife conservation efforts have been numerous, far-reaching, and lasting,” said MDC Director Jason Sumners during the ceremony. “His efforts spanned a career of more than 30 years, and continue today, even in retirement. At each step of his career, George demonstrated excellent leadership, planning, supervision, innovation, and team-building skills, both internally and with outside partners.” 

Conservation Commission Chair Margy Eckelkamp added that Seek has left his mark on conservation across Missouri, and beyond. 

“The nomination of George Seek for our Master Conservationist Award was accompanied by many letters of endorsement, including three from former conservation commissioners,” said Eckelkamp. “We thank George for his many decades of service to both conservation and our country, and wholeheartedly congratulate him on this well-deserved award.”

Before joining MDC, Seek earned a bachelor’s degree in agriculture with a major in fish and wildlife ecology from the University of Missouri-Columbia. He also received additional military training and education, including a master’s degree in strategic planning from the U.S. Army War College. 

Seek joined MDC in 1972 as a research assistant for deer and waterfowl biologists. He then served as a wildlife area assistant for Schell-Osage CA in southwest Missouri before becoming the area’s assistant manager. In 1979, Seek was promoted to a wildlife area manager for Fountain Grove CA and helped manage portions of Swan Lake National Wildlife Refuge. His responsibilities grew to include managing Grand Pass, Franklin Island, Cooley Lake, and Bob Brown conservation areas and supervising 16 staff. He was then promoted to a wildlife district supervisor in 1983 with responsibilities for the 10-county Grand River District. During that time, he was instrumental in major wetland developments at Grand Pass and Fountain Grove conservation areas. Seek became a wildlife regional supervisor in 1997 for MDC’s 19-county Northwest Region. He then became the division chief for MDC’s newly formed Private Land Services Division in 1999 until his retirement in 2003. 

During his time with MDC, Seek was also instrumental in developing the department’s first Wetland Management Plan, providing important insights from an experienced manager's perspective on the challenges of wetland restoration and management. Seek also led MDC’s initial effort and report on the Evaluation of Waterfowl and Waterfowl Hunting on MDC Areas, which provided an important basis for the evolution of public hunting to follow. He also wrote part of the department’s book, Waterfowl Hunting and Wetland Conservation in Missouri, considered the most contemporary historic overview of waterfowl and wetlands management ever published in Missouri.

After retirement, Seek focused on helping Ducks Unlimited establish the Confluence Focus Area near St. Louis for land protection to secure donated conservation easements on 25,000 acres of waterfowl habitat. Seek is also the founder and primary manager of Massasauga Flats, LLC, a private 250-acre wetland in north-central Missouri that provides diverse natural shallow wetland habitat where more than 160 different wetland birds have been documented and is a model for how to manage wetlands without dependance on crops.

He has also served as a member, vice-chair, and chair of the Wetlands and Waterfowl Resource Advisory Committee for the Conservation Federation of Missouri, the state’s oldest grassroots conservation organization. 

In addition to his extensive conservation work, Seek also retired as a colonel from the U.S. Army Reserves, following more than 30 years of service, from 1972–2003, in the Reserves and the Missouri National Guard.

To learn more about the Master Conservationist Award, visit short.mdc.mo.gov/4KA.