ATLANTA — Timothy Brooks, a private lands conservation biologist with the Missouri Department of Conservation (MDC), was honored with the prestigious Joe Kurz Award at the National Wild Turkey Federation's (NWTF) annual Convention and Sport Show in Atlanta, Ga., held Feb. 21 to Feb. 24.
The Joe Kurz award recognizes wildlife managers who have worked untiringly for the wild turkey and its habitat. Wildlife managers, such as Brooks, are the unsung heroes who do the on-the-ground work for wild turkeys and other wildlife.
It’s that time of year again… time to make plans to attend the annual Missouri Woodland Owners’ Conference! This year’s event will be February 22-23 at the Marriott Courtyard Hotel in Columbia.
CFM Legislative Report
February 4, 2008
Good news! House Bill No. 2021 has made it through the General Assembly on the fast track and was signed into law by Governor Blunt last Wednesday, 11:30 am at the Runge Nature Center. This legislation gave the Missouri Department of Conservation the authorization to spend their $10,000,000 capital improvements budget for the current fiscal year.
So what is newsworthy about this? House Bill 19 did not pass last legislative session. MDC’s capital improvements funds have been tied up for several months in limbo. Thanks to Missouri’s citizen conservationists speaking up and thanks to strong leadership by the friends of Missouri outdoor folks in the legislature, the $10,000,000 is back to work for conservation. Those projects, formerly on hold, were immediately initiated.
The 94th General Assembly, 2nd Regular Session of the Missouri State Legislature has convened! Prefiling of bills began on December 1, the session has opened, committees have been assigned and activity is underway.
The first week of committee activity is concluded. We are pleased that capital improvement spending authorization for the current fiscal year for the Department of Conservation was expediently passed through the House to perfection this week. This legislation might be third read and possibly passed along to the Senate for consideration in the near future. There are several more steps, but we are very optimistic that the weeks ahead may see this vital authorization restored. As you visit with your legislators, thank them for their expediency and remind them that these funds are vitally important and the spending authorization is needed as soon as possible.
Legislation has again been proposed to allow equestrian access to many Missouri public lands. We will report more details on this and other pending legislation in the weeks ahead. As always, thank you, CFM members, for your interest and attention to these important legislative matters. Your voice is very, very important to the future of Missouri’s forests, fish, wildlife and other natural resources.
NWF's Campus Ecology Fellowships deadline is rapidly approaching. Through this program, students can receive stipends and project costs of up to $2,000 to develop project that will help reduce their carbon footprint of their campus. It would be great to see some Mizzou and/or CLC students apply for this. Please spread this around and encourage students to apply. Successful applicants should be working with others on campus to reduce their campus carbon footprint. You can get full details here:
http://www.nwf.org/campusEcology/fellowships/index.cfm
