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MDC adjusts duck blind usage at Montrose area
Clinton, Mo. – Low water conditions have prompted the Missouri Department of Conservation (MDC) to close three waterfowl hunting blinds and one wade-and-shoot position at the Montrose Conservation Area. But 10 hunting blinds and one wade and shoot position remain open for use.
MDC leases the 2,750-acre area from the Kansas City Power & Light Co (KCP&L). The utility uses Montrose Lake on the area for cooling water for a coal-fired electrical general plant. KCP&L has dropped water levels to perform maintenance on the dam.
Hunting blinds 3, 4 and 6 along Deepwater Creek on the area's west side can no longer be reached by boat and are closed. One wade-and-shoot position in that vicinity is also closed. Those blinds are upstream of the Route RA bridge.
Hunting blinds 8 and 18 are open but water conditions are extremely low near them, said Monte McQuillen, MDC wildlife management biologist.
Montrose Conservation Area is in the Middle Zone for Missouri's duck and coot hunting season, which opened Nov. 7 and closes Jan. 5. Hunters participate in a morning draw for assignments to blinds provided by MDC on the area.
Hunters are having some success at the area in the season's early days. They averaged 1.7 ducks harvested per hunter during the opening weekend. MDC biologists estimate about 5,500 ducks of mixed species are using the area.
For more information on Montrose Conservation Area, visit http://on.mo.gov/1Qkuf0l.