Hunters checked 22,771 turkeys during the first week of Missouri’s spring turkey season, the smallest number in 10 years. The Missouri Department of Conservation predicts a harvest of approximately 50,000 turkeys for the three-week season.

Top harvest counties were Franklin, with 476 turkeys checked, and Callaway and Ste.…[more]

LITTLE ROCK – It’s been many years in the making, but the Arkansas Game and Fish Commission today announced that it had reached an agreement to purchase one of the largest private parcels of land along the Buffalo National River. During the regular monthly AGFC commission meeting, commissioners said they soon will be purchasing 2,761 acres in Searcy County.

The property is southwest of the town of St.…[more]

After reviewing mounting evidence that catfishing regulations are too liberal, the Missouri Department of Conservation has voted to end a two-year experiment with handfishing. Fisheries biologists say that carefully selected fishing regulations could increase the number of large catfish available to anglers within a few years significantly.

The Conservation Commission voted at its meeting April 20 to approve a recommendation from the Conservation Department’s Regulations Committee to discontinue…[more]

Kids Fishing Days at Missouri’s four trout parks give children age 15 and younger special opportunities to enjoy unstructured time outdoors with friends and family. For information about these and other youth fishing events, visit http://www.mdc.mo.gov/4164. (Missouri Dept. of Conservation photo)
Each of Missouri’s four trout parks sponsors a special…[more]

One of the many jewels in the Harrison, Arkansas area is the famed Crooked Creek.  Beginning its journey south of Harrison near the Boone and Newton County lines, Crooked Creek lives up to its name making endless twists and turns through Boone and Marion Counties before arriving at its final destination, about 80 miles later, the famed White River.

Crooked Creek has long been known as one of…[more]

In his classic book My Health is Better in November, Havilah Babcock wrote, “It is always disillusioning to weigh your fish and measure your golf drives. Smart men estimate them.” Babcock had a deep understanding of outdoor pursuits and human nature. However, he might have given different advice if, like Resource Scientist Jeff Beringer, he had been responsible for managing game animals.

Beringer is the Missouri Department of…[more]

JEFFERSON CITY-Rex Martensen wasn’t thinking of tick-borne disease when he skinned a raccoon after a hunt on Christmas Day in 2005. He wasn’t thinking of the raccoon when he got sick. He thinks of both now, every time he works with wild game.

Martensen is a private land field programs supervisor for the Missouri Department of Conservation in Jefferson City. As a wildlife expert, he knew that handling…[more]

Bolingbrook, Illinois: A light breeze ruffles the surface of Kankakee Marsh and suddenly the rustle and flapping of wings taking flight is accompanied by the calling and honking of Canada geese in the pre-dawn light.  If you look up you can catch them beginning their journey down the Mississippi flyway to the Southern Illinois Cypress Swamps

In a wooded thicket, possibly in the Golden Triangle, whitetails stop pawing…[more]

Missouri’s spring turkey season opens earlier than ever before this year, eight days sooner than last year. Hunters will find plenty of turkeys, but they may hear fewer gobbling birds in some areas, due to a decreased number of two-year-old birds. (Missouri Dept. of Conservation photo)
Hunters may hear less gobbling…[more]

A child’s life is a series of firsts - the first tooth, the first step, the first word and the first birthday. The Missouri Department of Conservation has a program to commemorate one of those signal events - a young angler’s first fish.Conservation Department program commemorates proud moments in young anglers’ lives. [more]