Neosho’s Conservation Partnership Efforts to be Honored

By Francis Skalicky, Missouri Dept. of Conservation

First posted on 06-07-2012

Missouri Department of Conservation (MDC) staff will recognize the city of Neosho for its conservation efforts on Sunday, June 10, at the Conservation Federation of Missouri’s summer board meeting in Neosho. The meeting will be from 9 a.m. to noon at the Civic Center.

For the past year, Neosho has been a focus city for MDC’s community conservation efforts in the southwest part of the state. The partnership between MDC and the city has resulted in the creation of a habitat improvement project at Morse Park, an Ozark Cavefish recharge delineation survey, a forestry stewardship plan for the city, a community workshop, an urban deer survey, a Hickory Creek “trout opener” event to raise awareness about urban fishing opportunities and an urban stream publication. MDC Community Planner Ronda Headland will talk about this partnership and will present city officials with a framed print.

Though MDC and the Conservation Federation of Missouri are closely linked organizations, the Federation’s history precedes MDC’s. In 1935, sportsmen from throughout Missouri came together to form the CFM. They organized with the purpose of taking conservation out of politics. Their initiative petition campaign in the months leading up to the 1936 general election resulted in the creation of the Missouri Department of Conservation – a non-political conservation agency that has been a model for other states. Since then, the Federation has undertaken many successful battles to ensure Missouri continues to be the leading state in conservation policies and funding. In 1976, CFM spearheaded the efforts that led to the passage of the conservation sales tax and, in so doing, created a stable, broad-based funding for the state’s outdoor resources.

Today, CFM is the largest and most representative conservation group in Missouri. It is a citizen’s organization with 80 clubs and 85,000 members. CFM is the Missouri affiliate of the National Wildlife Federation.