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Management shift increases conservation services, facilities
MDC
April 2003
Now the emphasis is on delivering services to Missourians where they live.
JEFFERSON CITY - The Missouri Department is headed in a new direction, one that is yielding more outdoor recreation, more education and more renewable resources for the state, say agency officials.
The shift, according to Conservation Department Director John Hoskins, is from buying land to making public land accessible to all Missourians and helping them practice conservation on the private land that comprises more than 93 percent of the state's area.
It's a logical progression," said Hoskins, "and one we always anticipated. Twenty-five years ago our top priority was making sure that people would always have conservation areas where they could enjoy nature. Now that they have the conservation areas, our challenge is to provide the knowledge, the facilities and skills they need to enjoy them."
Hoskins said the change took place over a period of several years as the Conservation Department fulfilled its land acquisition goals. By the mid-1990s, the agency had acquired areas that represented the state's diverse biological communities. The acquisitions ranged from vast tracts of forest, such as 37,522-acre Sunklands Conservation Area (CA) in Shannon County, and managed wetlands like 5,296-acre Grand Pass CA in Saline County to tiny Bat Cave Natural Area in Miller County. It also was closing in on the goal of acquiring areas with excellent recreational potential in every part of the state.
"One of our early goals was to ensure that every Missourian had access to a conservation area close to home," said Hoskins. "In many other states, you can drive for an hour or more between state wildlife areas. In Missouri, many people have several areas to choose from within a short drive."
In the years immediately after voters approved the one-eighth of one-percent sales tax for conservation in 1976, the agency spent as much as 42 percent of its annual budget buying land. Since then, the portion of conservation funding used for land acquisition has declined. In Fiscal Year 2001, the agency spent only about 1 percent of its money for land. In FY 2002, the figure was about 2 percent.
With an extensive network of conservation areas in place, the Conservation Department increasingly has turned its attention to developing facilities to help Missourians enjoy state-owned wildlife areas.
The most visible developments on conservation lands have been lake and stream accesses. The Conservation Department maintains more than 500 of these facilities statewide. They tend to be small, but the boat launching, bank fishing and picnicking opportunities they offer make them much more important than their acreage would indicate. Camping is permitted at some accesses, too.
Hiking trails--a recent addition on many conservation areas--also invite heavy usage. More than 600 miles of paved and unpaved paths offer opportunities for backpackers, day-trekkers, nature photographers, anglers and hunters to reach the interior of conservation areas in every corner of the state.
To provide fishing opportunities in as many locales as possible, the Conservation Department has cooperated with cities and counties to build and maintain 125 community lakes. These often double as municipal water supplies, with the Conservation Department helping develop fishing jetties, boat ramps and sanitary facilities and handling fisheries management. In urban areas, stocking of trout, catfish, sunfish and other species supports summer and winter fishing programs in neighborhood lakes.
The Conservation Department also conducts fishing clinics around the state to show first-time anglers how it's done and introduce them to the excitement of the tug at the end of a fishing line.
Since many Missourians live in urban areas, the Conservation Department makes an effort to offer nature-related experiences within easy reach of city-dwellers. Millions of people in St. Louis, Kansas City, Springfield and other cities have a variety of conservation land within a 30-minute drive of home, thanks to judicious purchases of land around population centers.
Another way the Conservation Department serves city residents is through its growing network of nature centers. St. Louis, Kansas City, Springfield and Jefferson City already are served by such facilities. Partnerships with local communities are planned to raise funds for additional centers in Cape Girardeau, Joplin and St. Joseph. Redirecting income that once was spent on acquiring land enables the Conservation Department to staff and maintain these and other places for urbanites to stay in touch with the natural world.
With increased outdoor recreation comes increased need for enforcement of wildlife laws. Before voter approval of the conservation sales tax, the Conservation Department did well to assign one conservation agent to every one or two counties. Today, every county has at least one conservation agent. Forty-four counties are patrolled by two agents, and St. Louis, St. Charles and Jackson counties are served by three agents each. Besides enforcing hunting and fishing laws, agents serve as the first point of contact for people who need services such as wildlife damage control, hunter education programs and technical advice about forest, fish and wildlife management.
With more than 700,000 acres of land in conservation areas and another 150,000-plus acres of other agencies' land under Conservation Department management, the work of the agency's Forestry, Fisheries and Wildlife divisions has grown. To ensure that management expertise and resources stay where they are needed--at the local level--the agency has flattened its administrative structure, transferring several positions from the central office in Jefferson City to the field.
The success of this strategy is evident in management success stories. Missouri's annual wild turkey harvest has multiplied nine-fold in the past 25 years. In 2001 the harvest topped 72,000, making Missouri the top turkey-producing state in the nation. The state's deer management program is working to control deer numbers, producing a harvest of more than 229,000 whitetails last year.
Bald eagles, ospreys, giant Canada geese and furbearers are among the Conservation Department's other success stories, and the agency now is turning its attention and resources to bobwhite quail restoration.
Not all the agency's efforts are directed at single species, however. Missouri is leading the way in national efforts to view and manage wildlife on a broader scale that benefits a wide array of plants and animals. The scientific underpinning needed to develop "landscape-scale" wildlife management will come from research projects like the Missouri Ozark Forest Ecosystem Project (MOFEP), a 100-year study of the effects of timber harvesting on every facet of forest ecology.
Under management programs funded by the conservation sales tax, the amount of timber on conservation areas increased by an average of 75 board feet per acre between 1975 and 1988. The agency also supports urban forestry, providing $260,000 annually to encourage community tree planting and maintenance. Each year, the George O. White State Forest Nursery ships more than 5 million tree seedlings.
Conservation Department habitat work isn't confined to forests. The agency has played a key role in implementing the North American Wetland Management Plan, which restored millions of acres of marshland nationally and was essential to restoring beleaguered North American duck and goose populations. Ongoing wetland restoration at Columbia Bottom CA in St. Louis County and creation of the 13,732 August A. Busch J. Memorial Wetlands at Four Rivers Conservation Area are prime examples of using private and federal funds to leverage state conservation money. Similar initiatives are addressing the loss of prairie land and the resulting decline in numbers of songbird species that depend on grassland for their survival.
Another new priority for the Conservation Department's changing mission is providing the information and outdoor skills that people need to use their public land. To help people find conservation areas, the agency has a free "Discover Outdoor Missouri" road map showing the location of hundreds of conservation areas and providing basic information about each. The 262-page "Missouri's Conservation Atlas" provides more detailed information about conservation areas in a bound set of county road maps for $16. Both publications are available at conservation nature centers and regional offices statewide.
The Conservation Department also offers brochures, booklet, audio and video tapes and CDs to enable Missourians to find and enjoy nature-based outdoor activities. These range from guides to float streams and hiking trails to field guides for identifying birds, wildflowers and other plants and animals.
For people who lack the outdoor skills needed to get the most out of time on conservation areas, the Conservation Department sponsors outdoor skills workshops. Hunting, fishing, camping, canoeing, birdwatching and wildflower identification are a few of the subjects Missourians can learn about at Wonders of the Outdoor World (WOW), Hands-On Outdoor Training (HOOT) and Becoming an Outdoorswoman (BOW) workshops.
Conservation education extends into Missouri's elementary school classrooms, too. The Conservation Department works with state education officials to provide curriculum materials that meld nature knowledge with basic curriculum subjects like math and English.
The Conservation Department includes people with sensory or mobility impairments in its planning. Nature centers, hiking trails, boating accesses and other facilities all are available with accommodations for special needs. The agency co-sponsors special hunts for handicapped Missourians, too.
"I occasionally am asked what the Conservation Department is going to do with its sales tax money now that we aren't buying much land," said Hoskins, "as if our job is done. Buying the land was just the beginning of the job. It's kind of like buying a farm. Now we have to work the land. The challenge now is to give taxpayers the return that they deserve on their conservation investment."
Hoskins said maintaining productivity and providing access to well-managed conservation land will require all the Conservation Department's current resources. "Missouri's conservation program has good financial support compared to many other states, but it's important to appreciate that our conservation expenditures are modest in comparison to other state agencies' budgets. The Conservation Department's entire annual budget--including sales tax money, permit sales revenues and federal aid--is less than one percent of the state's annual budget. That's a bargain to keep up the best state conservation program in the nation."
- Jim Low -
MDC
April 2003
Now the emphasis is on delivering services to Missourians where they live.
JEFFERSON CITY - The Missouri Department is headed in a new direction, one that is yielding more outdoor recreation, more education and more renewable resources for the state, say agency officials.
The shift, according to Conservation Department Director John Hoskins, is from buying land to making public land accessible to all Missourians and helping them practice conservation on the private land that comprises more than 93 percent of the state's area.
It's a logical progression," said Hoskins, "and one we always anticipated. Twenty-five years ago our top priority was making sure that people would always have conservation areas where they could enjoy nature. Now that they have the conservation areas, our challenge is to provide the knowledge, the facilities and skills they need to enjoy them."
Hoskins said the change took place over a period of several years as the Conservation Department fulfilled its land acquisition goals. By the mid-1990s, the agency had acquired areas that represented the state's diverse biological communities. The acquisitions ranged from vast tracts of forest, such as 37,522-acre Sunklands Conservation Area (CA) in Shannon County, and managed wetlands like 5,296-acre Grand Pass CA in Saline County to tiny Bat Cave Natural Area in Miller County. It also was closing in on the goal of acquiring areas with excellent recreational potential in every part of the state.
"One of our early goals was to ensure that every Missourian had access to a conservation area close to home," said Hoskins. "In many other states, you can drive for an hour or more between state wildlife areas. In Missouri, many people have several areas to choose from within a short drive."
In the years immediately after voters approved the one-eighth of one-percent sales tax for conservation in 1976, the agency spent as much as 42 percent of its annual budget buying land. Since then, the portion of conservation funding used for land acquisition has declined. In Fiscal Year 2001, the agency spent only about 1 percent of its money for land. In FY 2002, the figure was about 2 percent.
With an extensive network of conservation areas in place, the Conservation Department increasingly has turned its attention to developing facilities to help Missourians enjoy state-owned wildlife areas.
The most visible developments on conservation lands have been lake and stream accesses. The Conservation Department maintains more than 500 of these facilities statewide. They tend to be small, but the boat launching, bank fishing and picnicking opportunities they offer make them much more important than their acreage would indicate. Camping is permitted at some accesses, too.
Hiking trails--a recent addition on many conservation areas--also invite heavy usage. More than 600 miles of paved and unpaved paths offer opportunities for backpackers, day-trekkers, nature photographers, anglers and hunters to reach the interior of conservation areas in every corner of the state.
To provide fishing opportunities in as many locales as possible, the Conservation Department has cooperated with cities and counties to build and maintain 125 community lakes. These often double as municipal water supplies, with the Conservation Department helping develop fishing jetties, boat ramps and sanitary facilities and handling fisheries management. In urban areas, stocking of trout, catfish, sunfish and other species supports summer and winter fishing programs in neighborhood lakes.
The Conservation Department also conducts fishing clinics around the state to show first-time anglers how it's done and introduce them to the excitement of the tug at the end of a fishing line.
Since many Missourians live in urban areas, the Conservation Department makes an effort to offer nature-related experiences within easy reach of city-dwellers. Millions of people in St. Louis, Kansas City, Springfield and other cities have a variety of conservation land within a 30-minute drive of home, thanks to judicious purchases of land around population centers.
Another way the Conservation Department serves city residents is through its growing network of nature centers. St. Louis, Kansas City, Springfield and Jefferson City already are served by such facilities. Partnerships with local communities are planned to raise funds for additional centers in Cape Girardeau, Joplin and St. Joseph. Redirecting income that once was spent on acquiring land enables the Conservation Department to staff and maintain these and other places for urbanites to stay in touch with the natural world.
With increased outdoor recreation comes increased need for enforcement of wildlife laws. Before voter approval of the conservation sales tax, the Conservation Department did well to assign one conservation agent to every one or two counties. Today, every county has at least one conservation agent. Forty-four counties are patrolled by two agents, and St. Louis, St. Charles and Jackson counties are served by three agents each. Besides enforcing hunting and fishing laws, agents serve as the first point of contact for people who need services such as wildlife damage control, hunter education programs and technical advice about forest, fish and wildlife management.
With more than 700,000 acres of land in conservation areas and another 150,000-plus acres of other agencies' land under Conservation Department management, the work of the agency's Forestry, Fisheries and Wildlife divisions has grown. To ensure that management expertise and resources stay where they are needed--at the local level--the agency has flattened its administrative structure, transferring several positions from the central office in Jefferson City to the field.
The success of this strategy is evident in management success stories. Missouri's annual wild turkey harvest has multiplied nine-fold in the past 25 years. In 2001 the harvest topped 72,000, making Missouri the top turkey-producing state in the nation. The state's deer management program is working to control deer numbers, producing a harvest of more than 229,000 whitetails last year.
Bald eagles, ospreys, giant Canada geese and furbearers are among the Conservation Department's other success stories, and the agency now is turning its attention and resources to bobwhite quail restoration.
Not all the agency's efforts are directed at single species, however. Missouri is leading the way in national efforts to view and manage wildlife on a broader scale that benefits a wide array of plants and animals. The scientific underpinning needed to develop "landscape-scale" wildlife management will come from research projects like the Missouri Ozark Forest Ecosystem Project (MOFEP), a 100-year study of the effects of timber harvesting on every facet of forest ecology.
Under management programs funded by the conservation sales tax, the amount of timber on conservation areas increased by an average of 75 board feet per acre between 1975 and 1988. The agency also supports urban forestry, providing $260,000 annually to encourage community tree planting and maintenance. Each year, the George O. White State Forest Nursery ships more than 5 million tree seedlings.
Conservation Department habitat work isn't confined to forests. The agency has played a key role in implementing the North American Wetland Management Plan, which restored millions of acres of marshland nationally and was essential to restoring beleaguered North American duck and goose populations. Ongoing wetland restoration at Columbia Bottom CA in St. Louis County and creation of the 13,732 August A. Busch J. Memorial Wetlands at Four Rivers Conservation Area are prime examples of using private and federal funds to leverage state conservation money. Similar initiatives are addressing the loss of prairie land and the resulting decline in numbers of songbird species that depend on grassland for their survival.
Another new priority for the Conservation Department's changing mission is providing the information and outdoor skills that people need to use their public land. To help people find conservation areas, the agency has a free "Discover Outdoor Missouri" road map showing the location of hundreds of conservation areas and providing basic information about each. The 262-page "Missouri's Conservation Atlas" provides more detailed information about conservation areas in a bound set of county road maps for $16. Both publications are available at conservation nature centers and regional offices statewide.
The Conservation Department also offers brochures, booklet, audio and video tapes and CDs to enable Missourians to find and enjoy nature-based outdoor activities. These range from guides to float streams and hiking trails to field guides for identifying birds, wildflowers and other plants and animals.
For people who lack the outdoor skills needed to get the most out of time on conservation areas, the Conservation Department sponsors outdoor skills workshops. Hunting, fishing, camping, canoeing, birdwatching and wildflower identification are a few of the subjects Missourians can learn about at Wonders of the Outdoor World (WOW), Hands-On Outdoor Training (HOOT) and Becoming an Outdoorswoman (BOW) workshops.
Conservation education extends into Missouri's elementary school classrooms, too. The Conservation Department works with state education officials to provide curriculum materials that meld nature knowledge with basic curriculum subjects like math and English.
The Conservation Department includes people with sensory or mobility impairments in its planning. Nature centers, hiking trails, boating accesses and other facilities all are available with accommodations for special needs. The agency co-sponsors special hunts for handicapped Missourians, too.
"I occasionally am asked what the Conservation Department is going to do with its sales tax money now that we aren't buying much land," said Hoskins, "as if our job is done. Buying the land was just the beginning of the job. It's kind of like buying a farm. Now we have to work the land. The challenge now is to give taxpayers the return that they deserve on their conservation investment."
Hoskins said maintaining productivity and providing access to well-managed conservation land will require all the Conservation Department's current resources. "Missouri's conservation program has good financial support compared to many other states, but it's important to appreciate that our conservation expenditures are modest in comparison to other state agencies' budgets. The Conservation Department's entire annual budget--including sales tax money, permit sales revenues and federal aid--is less than one percent of the state's annual budget. That's a bargain to keep up the best state conservation program in the nation."
- Jim Low -
