Conservation Federation of Missouri!

JEFFERSON CITY–Bowhunters posted increases in both deer and turkey harvests during Missouri’s 2011-12 archery deer and turkey hunting seasons, topping the previous year’s figures by more than one-third.

Hunters checked 52,671 deer during the four-month archery season. That is an increase of 10,299 (24 percent) from the previous year. Archers checked 2,923 turkeys, an increase of 739 (33.8 percent) from the 2010-2011 season.

JEFFERSON CITY Mo – The Missouri Department of Conservation (MDC) received two positive test results for Chronic Wasting Disease (CWD) from 1,077 tissue samples taken from free-ranging deer harvested by hunters in north-central Missouri during the 2011 fall firearms deer season. Both positive test results were from adult bucks harvested by Missouri hunters in Macon County, and are the first CWD-positive results for free-ranging deer in Missouri.

Happy New Year, 2012!

As we look forward to another great year in the Missouri outdoors, I wanted to personally thank you for your lifelong commitment, considerable hard work and leadership role in support of conservation in Missouri. Wise use of our precious natural resources by us and by our ancestors has produced a legacy for forests, fish and wildlife and all Missourians. This has not happened by accident. The future will not be bright without our continued efforts.

Already this year, proposed legislation has been filed which would put politics back into conservation in Missouri. Since 1937, we citizens have protected conservation from special interest favoritism, this year we face a very, very serious threat. The proposal, SJR 27, would expand the MDC Commission, assigning each commissioner to a district of Missouri. To some, this may sound like a good idea, but immediately forests, fish and wildlife lose. Under such a system, regional interests would be pitted against each other for funding and personnel. The results of such confict would be decisions based on political influence instead of the interests of forests, fish and wildlife.