The annual scoring event at Jay Henges Shooting Range and Education Center this Saturday will have several stations for hunters to have deer antlers measured.
Most of the chatter following last year’s firearms deer hunting season was about the reduced harvest totals. Rationale such as weather, acorns, moon phases and timing didn’t appease the skeptics, but when reviewed over time, things certainly were not that bad.
The overall harvest total was down 15% from the record set the previous year and 8% below the most recent five-year average, but there were still 276,272 deer taken by hunters. Of those checked from all seasons combined, 129,252 were antlered bucks.
Which brings me to promotion of this weekend’s annual free antler scoring event at Jay Henges Shooting Range and Education Center near High Ridge. The open house is scheduled from 9 a.m. to noon on Saturday, March 15. Shed antlers and racks from previous years may also be scored.
The event is free, but hunters may choose to have their trophies recognized by Pope and Young, Boone and Crocket, and Missouri Show-Me Big Bucks Club record books for a fee. The Boone and Crocket registry includes deer taken with firearms, while Pope and Young provides the same kind of certification for bow and arrow hunters. Show-Me Big Bucks Club recognizes trophy white-tailed deer harvested or found in Missouri, in typical and non-typical categories.
Advanced registration is not required for the open house event. The Henges Range is at 1100 Antire Road, near its Interstate 44 intersection. For more information call 636-938-9548.
The overall harvest total may have been down this past season, but archery hunting numbers statewide were about 1% higher than last year. Jefferson County held onto its position as the archery champion, exceeding its own record-setting total of 1,445 deer by nearly 10%. Top counties for the 2024-25 season were Jefferson with 1,579, Franklin with 1,216, and St. Louis with 994.
John Winkelman has been writing about outdoors news and issues in Jefferson County for more than 30 years and was the Associate Editor for Outdoor Guide Magazine.
Cold weather will not curb the crowds at Meramac Springs or any of the trout parks during opening weekend.
When opening day of trout fishing season comes this weekend there will be plenty of reasons for celebration at Montauk State Park and big crowds of people at all four of the state’s trout fishing parks.
Montauk was devastated by historic flooding in November and remained closed throughout the winter catch-and-release season, but contractors, state staff and volunteers worked throughout the past three months to assure the facility would be ready by opening day.
March 1 carries holiday status for many people who live and love the sport of cold water fishing. When the opener matches up with the weekend on the calendar, the crowds reach their peak in the four places in Missouri where the slender salmonidae are readily available.
“Missouri State Parks team members and volunteers have been working hard to get the park opened and cleaned up, but there ias work to do,” said Justin Adams, Ozarks regional director, for Missouri State Parks.
While Montauk will be open, some of the campsites will not have full-service electricity available. Other areas are still affected with layers of sand throughout the park, covering some grass and woodland areas.
Park staff will be reseeding areas of the campground and other day-use areas in an effort to reestablish grass, and efforts continue to get electrical service restored. Generator use is not permitted during quiet hours in the campground.
In addition to the efforts of the park’s paid personnel, more than 70 volunteers visited on Feb. 1 to lend a hand to the cleanup, said Laura Hendrickson, Missouri State Parks Director.
“Well over half of the volunteers drove more than two hours to help,” she said. “Some of them had never even been to the park before Saturday. It turned out to be a great day.”
Montauk is near Salem, Missouri, and will be ready for fishing on March 1. The same situation awaits anglers at Maramec Springs near St. James, Bennett Springs near Lebanon, and Roaring River in the southwest corner of the state. The Department of Conservation operates trout hatcheries at all of the parks and will stock fish based on the anticipated crowds each day.
With a Saturday start, crowds are usually significantly larger than when March 1 arrives mid-week. As many as 10,000 anglers could try their luck in the four parks this weekend if the weather forecast is favorable.
The state stocks fish in the trout parks daily until Oct. 31. More than 600,000 trout will be released at the four trout parks throughout the during the catch-and-keep season. Most of the fish will be rainbow trout that are 10 to 12 inches long, but larger fish and some brown trout are also included in the stocking plans.
“Despite production challenges due to historic flooding experienced last year, we expect to have a successful trout season with ample fishing opportunities for anglers,” said state Department of Conservation hatcheries manager Clint Hale.
Trout anglers are required to purchase a daily trout tag to fish in the state’s trout parks. The cost of a daily trout tag is $5 for adults and $3 for those 15-years-old and younger. Daily tags can only be purchased at the four trout parks. Resident anglers ages 16-64 and nonresidents 16 and older also need a statewide fishing permit in addition to the daily trout tag.
The daily limit for trout in the parks is four, and each location has restrictions for the types of bait or lures that can be used in certain segments of the streams.
John Winkelman has been writing about outdoors news and issues in Jefferson County for more than 30 years and was the Associate Editor for Outdoor Guide Magazine.
Because they do most of their traveling and hunting at night, we are more likely to smell a skunk than to see one this time of year.
The middle of February may be too soon to start looking for the signs of spring in our area, but if you rely on a few other senses you can get the sense that times are beginning to change.
Early last week I was surprised to hear the familiar sound of honking geese flying overhead. Had I been relying on my sight alone I never would have noticed the little specks forming V-shaped lines high in the bright sky, but the chorus was unmistakable.
There were too many to count, so I was sure they were snow geese starting on their annual trek back toward the tundra where they will nest this summer. There is no doubt that we will see more cold and snowy weather before winter officially checks out for the year, but it was certainly heartening to watch those flocks heading north over Hillsboro.
Many other birds will begin to filter back into and through Missouri over the next few months, but snow geese are notable because they are among the first to fly by, and about 15 million of them will use the middle North American and the Mississippi flyway. If you haven’t seen them yet this year, keep listening.
Another not so subtle sign will be noticeable and even more out of sight. Striped skunks begin their mating and courting activities this month. Young males will be challenging others for territory and marking their turf in a method that is easily identifiable by smell.
Throughout most of the year a skunk uses its odoriferous abilities in self defense. The aroma is unmistakable, and it is likely to begin showing up in a neighborhood near you. Jefferson County features many areas with preferred habitat for skunks including forest edges, permanent water locations, brushy fields, and rocky outcroppings.
Because they do most of their hunting at night, they are more likely to be smelled rather than seen. While we may find fault in the lingering evidence a skunk leaves behind, we should be grateful for the work they do. They are effective catchers of mice and rats, and they eat insects including wasps and bees, just be sure not to make one cross if you cross his path.
As the days begin to get longer and the afternoons a little warmer, one more sound we should all be anticipating is the mating call of tiny chorus frogs. Spring peepers start singing well before the equinox. The males will find some standing water that is big enough to last most of the year, but small enough to not be home to fish. Swampy woodland areas are likely to be ringing with their welcome tune very soon.
A quiet evening interrupted by the high-pitched peeps of hundreds of little amphibians is music to the ears of anyone who says they are “over winter.” The calls could begin any mild day from mid February through March. It is possible to hear them anytime of the day, especially when its cloudy or rainy, but they are most active when the shadows get long and dusk turns into darkness.
Barely an inch long spring peepers are always easier to hear than see, and when you move in for a closer look, they know to not make a peep. As you walk away they’ll quickly get back to making music. The most widespread of five species of chorus frogs in the state, they are also closely related to green and gray tree frogs, and Blanchard’s cricket frog.
While the tree frogs are a slightly larger than their cricket and chorus cousins, the most common way to identify all of them is by the songs they sing. The spring peepers’ songs are simple and seemingly endless. The state Department of Conservation Field Guide description says, “The peeping call is repeated about once per second. A chorus of spring peepers can sound like hundreds of small jingle bells.”
That’s a sound of the season we can all look forward to.
John Winkelman has been writing about outdoors news and issues in Jefferson County for more than 30 years and was the Associate Editor for Outdoor Guide Magazine.
Lying on my chest contemplating all the ways she could easily kill me, our cat has lived a long and healthy life since we took away her opportunity to roam outside of the house.
Fifteen years ago I became a cat owner for the first time. Actually, I’m more of a co-owner, and in all reality, we are the ones who are owned. We have had a few barn cats in the past, but that was more akin to co-habitating on the same property than ownership.
Our now 15-year-old cat has been living the large life with all the creature comforts she can demand, but her life did not start out so rosy. I first spotted her with her mother, who was teaching three kittens that hiding close to a bird feeder made a strategic ambush position.
The lessons continued for a day or two while I hoped they would all move on, but then Mom was gone and the other two kittens were never seen again. Either they tricked the little black and white fluff ball and made a dash for it, or Mom advised, “Don’t worry these saps will take you in.”
Whatever the ruse, she was seemingly left to fend for herself on the mean streets of Crystal City. “We” went to the store to buy kitten food and placed it to be found in decreasing proximity to the back door: the patio, the deck, the screen porch, and eventually welcoming the food and kitten all they way into the house.
For a while it worked OK. She could get some dry kitten chow from us as regularly as she wanted, but then she was free in the woods to catch and consume whatever she could. When something bigger out there got its claws on the cat, the veterinarian bill convinced even the most cold-hearted among us, that our mostly outside pet needed to become an exclusively inside cat.
She still watches the bird feeder almost as intently as I do, but now the screen porch is as close as she gets to the outside world. While I admire our feathered friends, I’m pretty certain she is thinking, “I could catch that bird for lunch, if I wasn’t so comfortable on this padded bench.”
I recollected this old story after a Christmas break vacation to the warmer temperatures of Texas. We were repeatedly surprised by how frequently we saw cats on the prowl in each of the three towns we stayed in on our trip.
I always believed the Cornell Lab of Ornithology numbers to be a little fantastical, but what we saw was revealing. We started counting the cats we saw between where we were staying and where we were going each day, and the numbers were comical except in the ways they are not.
The bird brains at Cornell estimate that cats kill 2.4 billion birds each year in the United States. Habitat loss is the only things that has a bigger negative influence on bird populations in this country, and none of the other human causes are even close to the catastrophe we have created with free-roaming felines.
By comparison, collisions with building windows kills a mere 600 million birds, a fourth of the number caught by stray cats. Automobiles account for 200 million deaths. I know my vehicle and I have accidentally crossed a flight pattern or two in the past, but those incidents are relatively rare. Power lines and transmission towers are responsible for an estimated 37 million bird fatalities annually.
The best data on bird deaths caused by wind-powered turbines has been updated for 2022, and from most sources, the highest estimate is 1.2 million birds each year. That’s a lot of death, and improvements can be made, but the math indicates that it would take 2,000 years for all the wind farms in America to kill as many as prowling cats catch each year.
I understand and have witnessed the importance of a crew of cats for controlling vermin around a cattle and grain operation or other farm endeavors. But it is important to make strides where we can in limiting the number of feral felines.
All owned-cats should live indoors with the people they own. Pets and those that work alongside the livestock must be spayed or neutered, as should all the free rangers we can get our hands on. Being a deadly predator is inherent to a cat’s nature, but keeping them safe while protecting their victims is a measure we all must consider more fervently.
John Winkelman has been writing about outdoors news and issues in Jefferson County for more than 30 years and was the Associate Editor for Outdoor Guide Magazine.
An 800-acre expansion at Johnson’s Shut-In State Park connects Goggin’s Mountain and Bell Mountain wild areas. Missouri State Parks photo
While many people look for more ways to exploit the earth and its resources, it is heartening to known that places still exist that are dedicated to preservation of our planet in its almost natural state.
On Dec. 31, 2024, in recognition of the 60th anniversary of the Wilderness Act of 1964, the Missouri State Parks system designated the Bryant Creek Hills Wild Area within the new Bryant Creek State Park near Ava, in southwest Missouri.
The area is the 13th in the state to be designated based on the criteria of the Wilderness Act, which states the area represents unspoiled property “where the earth and its community of life … appear to have been affected primarily by the forces of nature, with the imprint of man’s work substantially unnoticeable.”
Several of these special places are located in the Jefferson County region, with the closest being the 2,256-acre Coonville Creek area at St. Francois State Park, and 2,080-acre Whispering Pines at Hawn State Park in Ste. Genevieve County.
In addition to the acknowledgment for Bryant Creek Hills, the state Department of Natural Resources announced an 800-acre expansion of the 5,000-acre Goggins Mountain Wild Area at Johnson’s Shut-Ins State Park.
That section of land bridges the gap between the Goggins Mountain Wilderness Area and Bell Mountain Wilderness Area (9,143 acres) in the Mark Twain National Forest. With the state park and national forest lands combined, there is now a total of nearly 15,000 acres of continuous wilderness. Only the 16,277-acre Irish Wilderness Area in Mark Twain National Forest near the the Eleven Point River is larger in the state.
“The addition to Goggins Mountain Wilderness Area and connection to Bell Mountain Wilderness Area make a great through-hike on the Ozark Trail, consisting of rugged topography, igneous glades and spectacular vistas for wilderness users,” said Allison Vaughn, natural resource ecologist with Missouri State Parks. “This connection has long been a wish-list item for the wilderness community in Missouri.”
The Ozark Trail includes 400 miles of hiking opportunity in Missouri with the expressed goal of establishing a through-hike that connects the St. Louis area to the Ozark Highlands Trail in Arkansas to create a 700-mile long hiking opportunity.
The Indian Creek Wilderness Area is part of Trail of Tears State Park near Cape Girardeau.
Other designated wild areas in southeast Missouri include the 1,110-acre East Fork area at Johnson’s Shut-Ins, 1,300 acres called Indian Creek at Trail of Tears State Park near Cape Girardeau, and the 4,420-acre Mudlick Mountain area at Sam A. Baker State Park.
The Rock Pile Mountain Wilderness, southwest of Fredericktown is 4,238 acres inside Mark Twain National Forest. Its name reflects its most unique feature, which is a large circle of granite stones that humans had at some time in the past brought to the top of the 1,305-foot summit. A three-mile long trail connects Little Grass Mountain to Rock Pile Mountain.
As acknowledged by their wild designations, these areas are not places to find ample amenities or even easy to find trail markers. Hiking requires additional preparations, precautions and equipment. Most of the areas have no access to potable water, and cell phone reception in the National Forest is spotty in its best locations.
For more information on state parks and historic sites, visit mostateparks.com.
John Winkelman has been writing about outdoors news and issues in Jefferson County for more than 30 years and was the Associate Editor for Outdoor Guide Magazine.
Controlled burning is a traditional land management tool. Proper training and equipment makes it safe and effective.
Mired in a month of actual winter this January, the idea of a meeting about fire and its benefits might attract a crowd just for the warm thoughts. The newly formed Mid Mississippi Prescribed Burn Association of Missouri is more than just a hot idea; the group helps landowners work together to manage their properties safely and effectively.
Combining people and resources from Jefferson and Ste. Genevieve County, the organization is ready to recruit members at an open meeting at 10 a.m. on Saturday, Feb. 8, at the Festus Crystal City Conservation Club near the intersection of Interstate 55 and Highway 61 south of Festus.
The association’s stated goal “is to promote the responsible use of prescribed fire, assist with prescribed burns and promote safe management practices of prescribed fire.” The two-county organization is one of 17 similar groups in the state that unite people from adjacent counties to work together on a local basis.
The first groups in the state were established in 2015 and quickly proved successful in pilot programs. The concept brings together experience, assistance, and equipment to allow land managers to utilize a tool that predates European settlement in America.
“Historically fire played an important role determining which plant species could survive in a given location, therefore shaping the natural communities in Missouri including prairies, savannas, woodlands, glades forests and even wetlands,” according to the moprescribedfire.org website.
“Fire occurred naturally from lightning strikes and was used by Native Americans as a tool to distribute grazing bison. Since then, fire has been suppressed for the protection property, but this has led to build up of vegetative fuels.”
Adam Mikesch serves as president of the Jefferson-Ste. Genevieve County PBA, which began as public interest meeting in September at the Festus VFW. About 50 people attended that meeting and 10 volunteered to consider forming the group.
“I own 254 acres in northern Ste. Gen County, and I was working with the conservation department for habitat enhancement and improvement,” Mikesch said. “The Ste. Gen County Private Land Conservationist Luke Wehmhoff helped me plan and execute the burn on my property.”
A 16-acre cedar glade had grown over and included significant underbrush. The burn took most of a day and had nearly a dozen of volunteers, but the resulting return to the natural habitat was almost immediately evident.
“This summer there were turkeys nesting in it and wild flowers like I had never seen,” Mikesch said. “The day before turkey hunting season I had four gobblers out there strutting right in front of the trail camera at the edge of the glade.”
The local PBA has three levels of membership. Full members pay annual dues of $25, volunteers and associate members don’t pay dues, but do not get access to the organization’s trailer full of equipment for conducting prescribed burns on their property.
“The people on our board come from all walks of life. We have landowners, hunters, and naturalists who just like to help native wildlife and plant communities. We support all of that,” Mikesch said. “There is not one particular audience; we’re all just people who are passionate about the outdoors.”
Landowners, managers and area residents are all invited to the Feb. 8 meeting to learn more about the organization. For more information about the Mid Mississippi Prescribed Burn Association email midmspba@gmail.com, find the group’s Facebook page, or visit the Missouri Prescribed Fire Council webpage at moprescribedfire.org.
John Winkelman has been writing about outdoors news and issues in Jefferson County for more than 30 years and was the Associate Editor for Outdoor Guide Magazine.
A cedar waxwing eats an eastern red cedar berry in this Missouri Department of Conservation photo by Noppadol Paothong.
Driving on Interstate 55 north of the construction zone earlier this month I earned a new bit of respect for the eastern red cedar tree. While I still harbor some ill feelings, seeing several small soldiers poking through the piles of plowed snow, sleet, slush and slop in the chunk rock median proves the tree’s toughness.
I guess those little guys go mostly unnoticed among litter and other debris in the ditches the rest of the year, but their twigs of green extending through the winter muck was almost inspirational. You’ll have to look for them yourself because from the car window at 70 mph is not a very opportune photo op.
You can see an eastern red cedar just about anywhere else you look in Jefferson County. A native species, it has some characteristics of an invasive, but it also harbors a host of interesting idiosyncrasies, starting with the fact that it is not a cedar tree at all. It is also not a pine tree like most of Missouri’s other evergreens.
The eastern red cedar is a juniper and a member of the cypress family. Ashe’s juniper is the state’s only other native in the class, but it is limited to the southwest corner of the Ozarks, according to the state Department of Conservation‘s online Field Guide.
One other neat name note about the tree may only be interesting to word nerds like me. Experts have attempted to have the tree’s name spelled as one word, redcedar, to differentiate it from the cedar genus, but just like its name, people are going to call it what they want and spell it in a way that suits themselves.
Prior to Christmas tree lots and farms growing spruces and pines for in-home holiday decorations, the eastern red cedar was the choice in most American homes that celebrated by bring a sawed-off symbol indoors.
Some solid Ozarks folklore follows the cedar tree, according to the state website. “It was considered ‘very bad luck’ to bring cedar boughs into the home – except during Christmas, and then, they had to be removed completely before 12 a.m. on January 6 (Epiphany).”
Transplanting a red cedar is also considered bad luck. Folklore collector Vance Randolph described several examples of people refusing to move cedar trees because they thought it would bring an early death to them or someone in their family, the online source says.
I take some pride and joy driving past our old house on Four Ridge Road in House Springs and seeing the cedars that I moved from the woods to the road edge. Those four little spades-full of dirt have become a mighty green wall in the past 30 years. Hopefully whatever relative I may have cursed can forgive me.
That example of indestructibility highlights the tree’s pluses and minuses. If they can grow in a rocky highway median, they certainly can proliferate in places with even a little amount of soil. Floating down a Missouri stream it is not uncommon to see a scraggly cedar clinging to a sheer rock bluff.
“Some gnarled cedars on Ozark bluffs are over 1,000 years old,” the website states.
Prior to European settlement those cliffs where fire couldn’t reach were the only places the trees grew abundantly. In places like Valley View and Victoria Glades Natural Areas near Hillsboro, the trees have to be controlled to keep them from out-competing the native plant species.
Eastern red cedars tend “to invade glades and prairies that are not burned periodically, damaging prairie plants’ ability to survive, and ultimately turning a grassland into a forest,” according to the field guide. “Prescribed burning and cutting of woody plants like cedars helps prairies and glades to survive.”
We cut them down and remove them regularly in the woods where we go deer hunting. Their thick crowns block long views and their shade prohibits other plants from growing beneath them. Lest you think our cedar eradication efforts could remove too many, I can tell you with ultimate certainty that when you think you have cleared them all from an area there are many more underfoot than you can count.
Eastern red cedar wood is popular for chests and clothing storage because of its aroma, and its rot-resistance makes for great posts and other in-ground applications. Many birds eat the trees’ little blue berries, and once those seeds make their way through the birds, more sturdy sprouts are going to appear in the woods, fields, road side ditches, and highway medians.
John Winkelman has been writing about outdoors news and issues in Jefferson County for more than 30 years and was the Associate Editor for Outdoor Guide Magazine.
A Cooper’s hawk dines on a bird it caught in the snow.
Bird watching in the winter has its perks even if it isn’t prime time for following our feathered friends. While most of our spring and summertime regulars have fled for warmer weather, we do get the opportunity to see a few who find our cold clime just fine.
The biggest advantages are the lack of leaves on the trees allowing improved spotting and the chance to watch a wide swath of the woods from indoors or in the car when the outside temperatures are uncooperative. A back yard bird feeder buzzes with activity when winter dishes out its worst.
Big birds of prey are easier to spot as they perch along highway power poles and high in bare trees studying the ground for any signs of movement. Missouri is home to more than a dozen different species of raptors including hawks, falcons, eagles, owls and vultures.
Every year the state Department of Conservation gives area residents an opportunity to meet some of these magnificent birds at An Evening With Raptors event at Powder Valley Conservation Nature Center in Kirkwood. The free, annual program is available in-person or online and is open to all ages from 7 to 9 p.m. on Friday, Jan. 24.
Doors will open at the nature center at 6 p.m. for visitors to tour exhibits and learn more about the birds of prey in the state. The main presentation will begin at 7 p.m. in the auditorium followed by a meet-and-greet with falconers, their birds and equipment.
Falconry is the art of training raptors – birds of prey like hawks and falcons – to capture wild game, so that bird and trainer essentially become hunting partner, explained Powder Valley assistant manager, Robyn Parker.
“Several area falconers will gather to offer the rare chance to observe and learn about these fascinating feathered hunters,” she said. “They will also explain how those interested can get started in this age-old sport.”
For those who choose to stay home on a January night, the auditorium presentation will be available via the internet. To sign up for the virtual event use the link: http://short.mdc.mo.gov/4r6. An email will be sent with log-on information for the Webex meeting.
Those who want to attend in person also must register in advance for the program, educational activities and the opportunity to meet the birds and their trainers. That registration link is http://short.mdc.mo.gov/4r2.
The easiest raptors to see from home or during a walk in the woods are turkey vultures, which soar on thermals high in the sky. Unlike the others they are not likely to kill their prey. They regularly dine on remains of animals killed by someone else. Owls and eagles are apex predators in the bird world, but they get their own programs.
Falcons and hawks are featured this month. As mentioned earlier this is a good time to look for hawks in our area. While a trained eye may be required to identify each species, they have traits that help them standout from the crowd.
The red-tailed hawk is a couple of inches taller than a red-shouldered when each are measured from the top of their heads to the tips of their tail. That difference can be difficult to judge from a distance. The most distinctive distinction is in the sound they make. The red-tailed hawk screams a one-note high pitched call, while the red-shouldered hawk screeches a repetitive KEyar- Keyar-KEyar.
Other hawks that may be visible this time of year include the sharp-shinned hawk and Cooper’s hawk which look similar except for their size difference. Cooper’s hawks are similar in size to a common crow, while the sharp-shinned hawk is significantly smaller.
The falcons we may see in the wild include the American Kestrel, which is the most common falcon in Missouri. About the size of a blue jay, they are notable for their hovering tactic before they attack their prey. The peregrine falcon looks similar, but is larger and recognized as the fastest animal on the planet with a diving speed estimated at 200 miles per hour.
John Winkelman has been writing about outdoors news and issues in Jefferson County for more than 30 years and was the Associate Editor for Outdoor Guide Magazine.
Due to the inclement weather and unsafe travel conditions, the chronic wasting disease meeting scheduled for this evening at 6 p.m. at the Festus VFW has been canceled.
The state Department of Conservation encourages interested parties to attend similar meetings Thursday, Jan. 9 in Perry County at 6 p.m. at the Perry County Center, and Monday, Jan. 13 at 6 p.m. in Ste. Genevieve County at the Ste. Gen Progress Sports Complex.
Maybe I’m obsessed with chronic wasting disease. This column marks the fourth time I’ve written about it in the past four months, but on the other hand, it is the first time this year.
While there are people who are quick with theories attempting to discount the deadly deer disease, I am more aligned with the state Department of Conservation position that CWD is “one of the greatest conservation challenges of our time and is likely the greatest threat to Missouri’s deer population since the species almost disappeared from the state a century ago.”
The situation has become personal to me because in the past four years, two of the six deer I have killed on a farm south of Festus have tested positive for the disease. Another antlered buck harvested by an adjoining property owner last year had the disease as well. CWD is big news in south central Jefferson County.
Nothing about this buck appeared abnormal when it approached my bowhunting stand this fall. He tested positive for chronic wasting disease.
The eight-point buck I shot during archery season is one of 12 deer taken by hunters this fall that tested positive in a concentrated area of about 50 square miles. For those who say the disease is rare, this year’s positive tests bring the county total to more than 50 in that triangle of land.
Archery deer hunting season will continue for two more weeks, and post-season targeted culling is likely to add more positives since it will be conducted on properties where the disease has been detected. County totals will continue to rise with additional testing.
Including all of the deer tested in the state, the rate of positive cases is about 0.3 percent. That may be inconsequential to some people, but the rate for me since 2021 is 33 percent, and for antlered bucks, I’m two for two this decade.
The conservation department returns again this year to provide an update on chronic wasting disease in our area at 6 p.m. on Jan. 6 at the Festus VFW Hall, 900 VFW Drive. Similar meetings are scheduled on Jan. 9 in Perry County and Jan. 13 in Ste. Genevieve.
I have always had a great deal of respect for the men and women who chose a career in wildlife science and protection. They are going to earn their state-funded salaries when they stand in front of the crowd and fend off questions about deer health beyond the biology.
I will talk to anyone regarding the things I know and believe about CWD, but I frequently find myself on defense against some amazing allegations. A central theme is almost always that you can’t trust the government. While that may certainly be a safe bet regarding federal bureaucrats and state administration politicians, I find it hard to believe that hundreds of researchers, agents and other conservation employees are conspiring to eliminate the white-tailed deer that are the state’s cash cow.
Among the other entities often blamed are the insurance companies. (I’m not inclined to defend them any more than the politicians.) The unsubstantiated claim is that they are pumping piles of cash into conservation coffers rather than pay out for deer versus vehicle accident claims. Jake, Flo, the gecko and emu have been rolling in the dough for decades despite the deer population. The math doesn’t make that idea plausible.
I have heard complaints about federal funding as a feeder for the concerns about CWD. I haven’t been able to identify that specific source of government largesse, but the state has been receiving federal tax dollars for many years for conservation. If they are getting more to fight a deadly disease, it’s probably because CWD could become a national epidemic. It has been discovered in 35 states, five Canadian provinces, Norway and South Korea.
The states that haven’t found it yet, probably are not testing. Refusing to submit samples is a head-in-the-sand approach to self-preservation.
Missouri’s Department of Conservation was founded after unregulated hunting until the early 1900s decimated deer, turkey, and other wild populations to near extinction in the state. Since then those game animals, along with black bears, elk and many other smaller species have made a resurgence. All activities designed to find and limit CWD protect our white-tailed deer.
John Winkelman has been writing about outdoors news and issues in Jefferson County for more than 30 years and was the Associate Editor for Outdoor Guide Magazine.
Don't Call Me Outdoor John 