Support for native plants and species comes to Powder Valley

Entomologist and author Doug Tallamy will talk about the importance of native species in a virtual presentation on Nov. 1 at Powder Valley Conservation Nature Center.

When I noticed that Doug Tallamy was the guest speaker for an upcoming program at Powder Valley Conservation Nature Center, his name sounded familiar. I quickly recognized that he was the author of a great book I read recently that offered a simple plan for conservation.

My excitement was tempered when I realized he wasn’t actually going to be in Kirkwood at 7 p.m. on Nov. 1, but as I considered the situation, the virtual program option might be even better. While an author’s autograph on a copy of Nature’s Best Hope would be a nice prize, being able to hear his presentation in my home office has a real allure too.

The entomology and ecology professor’s 2020 best-seller is a follow up to his similar, previous book Bringing Nature Home. The free program at Powder Valley will highlight his latest offering, A Chickadee’s Guide to Gardening. The concept of all his works is the importance of encouraging and protecting native species.

His solution from Nature’s Best Hope is to establish miniature parks that focus on native species in backyards across the country. Not big tracts of land for someone else to maintain, but millions of individual efforts. If every suburban yard had a 10-by-10 native garden, the restored land would provide more habitat than our biggest parks combined, he says. Those locations would attract the insects that have evolved alongside the plants for millennia, providing food for birds and other wildlife that rely on them to sustain their populations.

“In the past we have designed our landscapes strictly for our own pleasure, with no thought to how they might impact the natural world around us,” Tallamy says in a press release from the state Department of Conservation. “Such landscapes do not contribute much to local ecosystems and support little life.”

As evidenced in the title of his newest book, Tallamy focuses on the role of the chickadee, one of the most common birds at our feeders. By creating landscapes that look more like places where those small birds and other species have lived forever, the benefits extend to all backyard gardening efforts.

The doors at Powder Valley will open at 6 p.m. so guests may tour the center’s exhibits and visit with volunteer staff at tables to talk about topics like Missouri native plants and pollinators. Visitors will also have the opportunity purchase Tallamy’s books. All who attend in person will have the chance to take home wildflower seed packets.

The presentation will be shown on the screen in the Powder Valley auditorium, or those who register in advance may log in and watch from their personal computer or other internet-linked device at home.

More than 100 of 250 available “seats” remained at the end of last week. To receive a link to the virtual program via email, go to http://short.mdc.mo.gov/4DH. A link will be provided before the program. All who register must provide a valid email address where the link can be sent.

Powder Valley Conservation Nature Center is at 11715 Cragwold Road in Kirkwood, near the intersection of Interstate 270 and I-44. To receive email or text alerts about future programs and events in the St. Louis area visit https://short.mdc.mo.gov/ZoP.

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.

Woolly worms and persimmons are not good weather predictors

Colorful woolly worm caterpillars are common in the fall, but they do not have power to predict winter weather.

Everyone likes talking about the weather. It’s nice to have topics most of us can agree about, and these days those things can seem rare. Any time of the year, the fallibility of the professional meteorologists can provide common ground, but for all their other idiosyncrasies, their accuracy is actually pretty good.

Despite the earned reputation for inconsistency, we still tune in when they tell us what to expect the next day, week or season. Their computer-aided guesses and “Super Predictors” miss the mark, but they certainly have a better track record for reliability than other annual “indicators” touted this time of year.

On a walk last week I spotted my first woolly worm caterpillar crossing the road. It looked like every other larva of the Isabella tiger moth I’ve seen in my lifetime. It was black on both ends and a somewhat shimmering, copper color in the middle. It’s a good looking bug.

Where the colorful crawler comes up short is as a dependable weather forecaster. The woolly bears, as they are also known, with different sized black and brown parts are simply different ages. The youngest among them are mostly black, while the older ones molt an increasing amount of brown through their life cycles, according to the National Geographic website.

The legend that says when you see them with more black than brown it means a harsher winter is “all bunk,” the website says. That doesn’t mean they are not interesting. While most larval species transform through the summer months, woolly worms will survive the winter, but not because of their thick coats. They actually freeze solid when all their liquid insides turn to ice, but they will thaw and become moths next spring.

The caterpillar I encountered was crossing the road, so I carefully moved him to the grass on the other side to help him successfully complete his mission. The next day on a similar walk I saw another woolly bear, but this one had been smashed flat to the pavement.

If the indignity of becoming roadkill wasn’t enough – like all other insects these days – moths and their offspring face a world filled with poisons that limit their numbers. Indiscriminate and overuse of pesticides continues to make a bug’s life tough.

This persimmon tree bends like Charlie Brown’s Christmas tree under the weight of abundant fruit, but all those ripening globes doesn’t mean a harsh winter lies ahead. (Thanks to Lucky Jim for the photo.)

The other most popular, and equally unverifiable, winter weather predictor are the shapes inside persimmon pits. The folklore attributed to the Ozarks contends that the center of the seeds contain an image of a spoon, fork or knife. The spoon means to expect a lot of snow for shoveling, and the knife predicts cutting cold. The fork shape foretells a mild winter. (Do persimmon seeds in south Florida only have forks?)

As with the worms above there is no data to support the pseudo science, and I would expect it to be a safe bet that more people have injured themselves trying to open a slippery persimmon seed than ever successfully forecast any coming weather conditions.

One last natural phenomenon believed to have predictive power is the abundance of fruits and nuts produced by trees. The story says that if trees are set with scads of apples, acorns, and persimmons, the weather is bound to be bad. All that excess is provided to feed starving creatures through the cold and ensure that seeds will sprout to replace any trees that freeze to death.

While that seems mighty nice of Mother Nature to take care of her own, the abundant harvest is the result of weather activity in the past rather than a nod to the future. A late freeze in the spring didn’t nip the buds, pollinators found conditions favorable during flowering, and adequate rainfall kept the trees healthy through their growing summer season.

A climate concern that is irrefutably supported by science and data is the trending planetary temperature that may someday change how, where, when, and if we see woolly worms and persimmons in the future.

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.

Early antlerless-deer hunting opens firearms seasons this weekend in Missouri

Find all regulations for the upcoming firearms deer hunting seasons in the 2024 Fall Deer and Turkey Hunting Regulations and Information booklet.

The first of Missouri’s firearms deer hunting seasons opens this weekend, so don’t be surprised to see more than the standard amount of blaze orange attire and to hear gunshots over the next few days in Jefferson County.

Obviously, camouflage and Day-Glo are appropriate throughout the year in our community’s fashion calendar, and the repeat of rifle fire seems as common as crickets in some rural corners. Still, the shooting will begin as statewide deer population management unleashes its best tool.

The early antlerless portion was new last fall, and the initial results showed it to be an effective method for herd control. Reducing the number of female deer provides exponential benefits compared to the one-at-a-time success of shooting bucks.

During the three-day season in 2023, hunters checked 16,553 deer for a daily average greater than 5,500. Jefferson County hunters accounted for 367 of that total, which was the seventh highest among the 100 counties where hunting was allowed. By comparison, during the late antlerless-only portion in December last year, hunters took 18,916 throughout a nine-day season. Jefferson’s 232 was outside of the top 20. The two seasons accounted for more than 30,000 does not having fawns this past spring.

While population management plays the most important role for the antlerless deer seasons, hunters can see advantages for both the early and late portions. By harvesting a doe or two ahead of the regular firearms season in November, hunters may hold out for that big buck they have been waiting on, knowing they already have venison in the freezer. The late season affords the opportunity to stock the shelves if earlier hunting chances did not work out so well.

This year the early portion is open Friday through Sunday (October 11-13). Shooting hours are one half hour before sunrise until 30 minutes after sunset. In most counties, including Jefferson, hunters may purchase and fill up to four antlerless-only hunting permits throughout all firearms seasons combined.

The next firearms season on the calendar is the most important, if not the most productive. Hunters ages 6 through 15 get two days of their own to hunt. Scheduled for the Saturday and Sunday two weeks before the November portion, pre-rut activity is nearing its peak so deer activity can be excellent.

The problem with the two-day season is that one bad cold front can wipe out the 35 hours of opportunity between sunrise on Nov. 2 and sunset on Nov. 3. Cold, windy, thunderstorms or other weather extremes can washout young hopes and dreams. Fortunately, this year Halloween doesn’t add another conflict for the kids.

Last year young hunters harvested 11,270 deer statewide during the early youth portion, including 108 in Jefferson County. The majority of deer checked by young hunters were antlered bucks at 6,891, but the season is much more about making memories than herd management.

Hunters may only take one deer during the two-day season, even if they have multiple permits, The late youth season opens on the day after Thanksgiving, Nov. 29 until Dec. 1. Young hunters are exempt from antler-point restrictions, which still exist in 15 counties in the state.

The November portion, which is referred to by most people as simply deer season, is scheduled for 11 days from Nov. 16 through Nov. 26. During that portion of the season last year, hunters bagged 193,885 deer, and Jefferson County was among the top five in total harvest with 2,936 deer. For anyone who thinks those are big numbers, it doesn’t appear to have dented the overall number of deer in the state, and can only leave to wondering how overpopulated they might be if hunters were not managing the herd every year.

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.

Several county routes will show fantastic fall colors this month

Vibrant fall colors will be on display throughout Jefferson County this month. Find a path to see the show.

For all of its reputations and stereotypes, Jefferson County probably does not get enough credit for its glories. Back roads and byways throughout the area offer some outstanding fall color displays this time of year.

A few weeks ago I wrote about the parks and places where you can sample spectacular views while on foot, but I neglected to mention that getting there can be almost as magnificent and may even improve if you find yourself lost on the way.

This is not meant as a ranking because the beauty is in the eye of the beholder, but Jefferson County has some great places for a Sunday drive, which can be as impressive any day of the week depending on your schedule and Mother Nature’s progress on changing the hues.

“The old highway” route along the county’s eastern border has its moments from Imperial to Festus, but it really exemplifies a colorful country drive when Highway 61 splits from Hwy. 67 south of Crystal City and heads toward Bloomsdale. Its wide shoulders are accommodating for all drivers, but for those with a sense of adventure and little concern for curves, a right turn on Plattin Road, just past Mercy Hospital Jefferson offers forested hills and wide farmland valleys for some great scenery toward De Soto.

Hwy. 110 provides a nice straight shot to the county’s railroad town, but a couple of options further south provide better views. Flucom Road does have a bit of obvious development at both ends between Hwy. 67 and the city. The other option for the same destination, Hwy. V, makes for a longer trip, but the pay off is a winding ride along the upper end of Joachim Creek.

Several options go from the southern center of Jefferson County to its western border, and the 20-plus mile trek of Hwy. Y exposes some interesting landmarks, like the Luckey Cemetery and Grandview High School. A few sharp turns and undulating hills will keep the driver’s attention, but passengers will enjoy the route.

Byrnesville Road from Cedar Hill to House Springs is a great trip past Don Robinson State Park and the county’s skate park. It is accessible from Hwy. NN north of Hwy. 30. Though it may not provide much in the way of fall color, the Gil Schroeder Sod Farm is an impressive piece of landscape along the route.

Most of Hwy. MM has more development than expansive views, but Hillsboro-House Springs Road connects those two communities through a pretty rural stretch all the way back to Highway 21 at Jefferson College. The relatively new, limited-access four-lane cuts through high hills and long valleys with plenty of natural scenery. The same can be said for new Hwy. M from Otto to Barnhart.

The color show in the county has a lot to offer once the trees begin their annual transition from dark green to yellow, red, orange and purple.

The state Department of Conservation provides an online tracker at mdc.mo.gov/fallcolor. Updates include information on which tree and brush species are displaying the most color in eight different regions of the state. Jefferson County is at the southern edge of the St. Louis area, so we may also be able to glean some information from the southeast section. The link gets updated each week until November.

As a result of the diminishing amount of daily sunlight, the deciduous trees in our yards and forests are beginning to make less chlorophyll allowing colors other than green to show through. Some of the earliest turners have started the transition, and you can begin to see yellow and other shades among the tree leaves.

Sassafras, sumac, and Virginia creeper are among the first to change in mid-September. In late September, black gum, bittersweet, and dogwood are turning, said Russell Hinnah, state supervisor for forestry field programs. Trees like maple, ash, oak, and hickory are at the peak of their fall display by the middle of October.

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.

Voluntary CWD testing in Jefferson County gets additional locations

The freezer at the Festus Crystal City Conservation Club is back and available for hunters to have the deer they harvest tested for chronic wasting disease.

John’s Butcher Shoppe in Festus joins the list of six places in Jefferson County where deer hunters can voluntarily have the deer they harvest tested for chronic wasting disease. With so many options hunters here have no reasonable reasons for not getting their game checked.

Testing is provided at no charge to the hunter, and results are available online at the state Department of Conservation website in about three weeks. The process involves removing lymph node tissue from the deer’s neck and head area and sending it for analysis.

The state website says, CWD is a neurological disease that is fatal to deer and an infected deer may show no symptoms. The only way to identify the disease is to have the deer tested. Although there have been no known cases of CWD affecting humans, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommends against consuming meat from a deer that has tested positive.

In addition to John’s, partnership locations for testing in Jefferson County include Belmar’s Taxidermy at 7100 Valley Drive in Arnold, Bilbrey Studio at 7878 South Engle Creek Road in Barnhart, D and D Quality Deer Processing at 5471 South Byrnesville Road in House Springs, Robertson’s Taxidermy at 134 Gettysburg Court in Dittmer, and Larry’s Lifelike Taxidermy at 18 Beffa Street in Festus.

Locations just beyond the county lines are K and A Meats in Labadie, Nature and Wildlife Solutions in Gray Summit, and Oder’s Taxidermy in Desloge. Availability and hours vary at each business, so hunters should call before visiting the locations.

Another opportunity available for hunters is even easier if not as conveniently located. The department has 87 freezers around the state for hunters to leave their deer heads. In Jefferson County there is a freezer at the Festus-Crystal City Conservation Club ay 2567 US Highway 61.

In our surrounding counties freezers can be found in Sullivan, New Haven and Union, Farmington, Ste. Genevieve and Potosi. The self-serve stations have trash bags, zip ties and data sheets. Hunters should leave just the head and about six-inches of neck at the drop site.

The instructions from the department also indicates that antlers should be removed from bucks, but hunters who want to keep the antlers from their deer are better advised to go to one of the participating taxidermy shops.

Since its inception in Missouri, John’s Butcher Shoppe has been participating in the state’s Share the Harvest program, which provides ground venison to area food pantries through the approved meat processors. Any deer taken from areas where chronic wasting disease has been found must be tested before it can be donated to the program.

Voluntary CWD testing locations are not available during the mandatory testing days at the beginning of the November portion of the fall firearms season. Any deer harvested in one of the CWD zone counties during opening weekend must be submitted in person for testing on that Saturday or Sunday.

The three mandatory testing locations in Jefferson County are the same as they have been since the disease was first discovered in neighboring Franklin County in 2015. Hunters must bring their deer to the VFW in Cedar Hill, the state Department of Transportation facility on Hwy. 110 in De Soto, or to the parking lot across from Buchheit in Herculaneum.

Seventy-one counties across the state are included in CWD Management Zones and 43 of those counties have mandatory sampling stations. The locations are open from 7:30 a.m. to 8 p.m. on Nov. 16 and 17 this fall.

While most of the results of the annual sampling come from the opening weekend, most of the new positive tests last year were found outside of the management areas, which led to an expanded number of counties this year. Last season the department reported 14 cases found inside the management zones and 21 discovered in other areas statewide. That data proves the importance of getting deer tested whenever possible regardless of where it was harvested. Of the state’s 114 counties, Jefferson has the fifth highest total of CWD positive tests with 43. Ste. Genevieve has the highest number at 102.

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.

County archers look to continue 12-year deer harvest streak

Archery hunting season opens on Sunday in Missouri and while it may not carry the fanfare of other openers on the statewide outdoors calendar, it certainly will get the attention of quite a few Jefferson County residents.

For 12 consecutive years Jefferson has been the top archery harvest county in the Show-Me State. Over the past five years the county has averaged more than 1,500 deer taken by bow and arrow each season. No other county has surpassed 1,400 deer in one season over the same time period.

There are several changes in the county and throughout most of the state that hunters will notice as they prepare to head into the woods on September 15 and until January 15 excluding the 11 days of the November portion of the firearms hunting season.

Bowhunters who happen to encounter wild turkeys on the woods this fall must purchase a separate turkey hunting permit this year.

Most notable is the change that eliminates the automatic turkey hunting permits for archers. In the past, hunters received two deer permits and two turkey permits for the fall season. This year hunters may purchase two turkey permits separately that can be used to hunt with bow and arrow throughout the archery season, or hunt with a shotgun during the fall turkey firearms season in the month of October.

The other change this year is a price increase for the archery deer permit. Resident hunters will pay $20.50 for the two any-deer permits that allow harvest of deer of either sex, with the exception that only one antlered buck may be taken prior to the opening day of the November portion of the fall firearms season. Hunters can purchase and fill an unlimited number of antlerless-only archery deer permits for $7.50 each.

Due to the spread of chronic wasting disease antler-point restrictions have been removed in several more counties in 2024. Beginning this year only 25 counties will continue to have the regulation that requires antlered deer to have at least four points on one side.

Audrain, Boone, Cole, Howard, Lewis, Maries, Monroe, Osage, Phelps, Randolph, Scotland and Shelby counties no longer have protective regulations for younger bucks. Archery antlerless permits can now be used statewide with the addition of the state’s four Bootheel counties this fall.

Archery hunting is the only allowed method for taking deer on seven state Department of Conservation-owned properties in Jefferson County. Bow-and-arrow hunters can harvest deer at LaBarque Creek, Myron and Sonya Glassberg Family, Pacific Palisades, and Hilda J. Young conservation areas, Merrill Horse Access, and Valley View Glades and Victoria Glades natural areas.

Archers may use long bows, recurve, compound bows, crossbows, or atlatls during the season. Illuminated sights and scopes are allowed, but a sighting device that casts a beam of light on game is prohibited.

Archers are invited to participate in the conservation department’s annual Bowhunter Observation Survey to aid wildlife biologists’ efforts to monitor deer, turkey, furbearers and other animal species. Since 1983 hunters have assisted with collecting data on population trends through information about what they see while they are in the woods.

To register online, bowhunters should visit the department’s webpage at mdc.mo.gov/wildlife/wildlife-surveys. Hunters are asked to submit the information after hunting each day online or through an app. Details to provide include date, time, hours, county and numbers of animals seen.

Smokey Bear celebrates 80 years of prevention messaging

Smokey Bear’s first-ever appearance was on a poster approved in August 1944 to promote putting out campfires and preventing accidental fires.
(USDA Forest Service image)

August 2024 marks the 80th birthday of the U.S. Forest Service icon Smokey Bear. (Please note.) “The” is not Smokey’s middle name. While the blue jean clad, hat-wearing, bare chested bear does not have a real identity crisis, almost everyone (myself included occasionally) wants to add the extra syllable. Mickey the Mouse, Donald the Duck and Bugs the Bunny never endure such indignity, but Smokey is stuck with the innocuous, inaccurate noun marker.

Smokey first showed up in 1944 on a wildfire prevention poster from the U.S. Department of Agriculture dousing an unattended campfire above the text: Smokey says – Care will prevent 9 out of 10 forest fires! In 1947 the slogan changed to “Only YOU can prevent forest fires,” and in 2001 it was tweaked again to change the last words to “wildfires.”

The public service announcement message spread rapidly in 1950 after an orphaned black bear cub was named Smokey following his rescue from the smoldering ashes of a fire in the Capitan Mountains of New Mexico. The Forest Service took the injured baby bruin to the Smithsonian National Zoo where he became symbolic of efforts to prevent wildfires. Smokey lived at the zoo until his death in 1976. The “the” in his name is attributed to a popular song written in 1952, according to the smokeybear.com webpage.

Worries about wildfires began in earnest following the bombing of Pearl Harbor in 1941. Fears of incendiary bomb attacks on the US mainland brought attention to the possibility of devastation and death throughout the nation’s forests.

In 1942 the popularity of Walt Disney’s movie Bambi stoked America’s interest even more. The company loaned its cartoon character images to the effort, but only for one year. Smokey was created to carry the torch for the “please don’t be careless” message originally championed by Bambi, Thumper and Flower. (Those one-name stars apparently never needed deer, rabbit or skunk last names.)

I remember Smokey from my childhood, and he certainly helped me understand the danger of accidental fires, careless burning, and potential destruction. In the late 1990s, two Missouri farms where I hunted deer were burned extensively in separate wildfire incidents the same summer, so I have some first-hand experience.

I’ve long known about nation’s smoke jumpers, and locally our rural fire protection districts spend their summers chasing “brush fires,” but it seems like the wild blazes continue to get bigger and badder every year. Smoke from California, Colorado and Canada routinely finds its way into our Midwest weather forecasts. These uncontrolled burns are measured in square miles now rather than acres.

Whether the blame belongs to the heat, drought and other factors of a changing climate, or neglected and unfunded maintenance, we must all acknowledge Smokey’s birthday by exercising extreme caution and following his suggestions.

Campfires are a great component of an evening outdoors, but you must make sure campfire sites are appropriately located, fire pits are correctly designed and assembled, fire size remains manageable, and a plan for extinguishing or emergencies has considered all contingencies.

Backyard burning projects are another activity fraught with fire danger. Before you begin, check weather conditions and local ordinances. Make sure there are no overhead branches or power lines. Keep a water source and shovel handy, and make sure your fire size remains manageable. Always stay with your fire until it is completely burned out, and repeatedly douse and stir the ash pile to eliminate all embers.

To learn more about fire (including its benefits), prevention tips, Smokey’s story, and some fun new PSA videos, visit smokeybear.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.

Organization works to gain access for disabled hunters and youth; Fundraiser Aug. 17

Special track wheelchairs allow people with mobility issues to access woods and waterways like the stream at Montauk State Park.

Everyone should have the opportunity to enjoy the excitement and challenges that hunting and fishing have to offer. The Missouri Disabled Sportsmen group works to reduce barriers for people who want to enjoy the woods and waters.

Founded in 2008, the statewide organization relies on volunteers and donors for 100 percent of the experiences it creates for people with mobility issues, as well as youth and people with terminal illnesses. An upcoming hunting event in Bloomsdale will be hosted during the first anterless-only season this fall.

Registration is through the state Department of Conservation online application process. Twenty hunters will be given the opportunity to participate in the Marvin Drury Memorial Antlerless Deer Hunt October 11-13 at the Drury family property. The Missouri Disabled Sportsmen organization will provide meals, experienced mentors, blinds and meat processing for participants.

Rich Cook of Crystal City recently volunteered with the organization and is looking forward to helping a hunter at the upcoming hunt and other outings in the future.

“I’m willing to give up my opening day to help someone else,” he said. “I could go and take another deer to hang on the wall in my basement, but seeing the excitement for someone else is a lot more thrilling.”

Cook said he began following Missouri Disabled Sportsmen on Facebook. When he saw pictures they posted of anglers in wheelchairs that could go into the water at his beloved Montauk State Park, Cook was hooked.

Through partnerships with volunteers, state agencies, private landowners, and other organizations, the 401(c)3 not-for-profit has offered deer, pheasant, turkey, and waterfowl hunting outings, along with fishing and other outdoor educational events throughout Missouri and around the country, said Jeff Roth a Ste. Genevieve County resident and organization vice president.

“It all started with a deer hunt, then more and more people were interested,” Roth said. “I have beagles, so we’ll go rabbit hunting. I have the stuff for waterfowl, so we have goose hunts. I like predator hunting. We pretty much can make anything happen. If they want to go squirrel hunting, we’ll go squirrel hunting.”

The group’s primary fund-raisers is scheduled for Saturday, August 17, with a fish fry, auctions, raffles, and a poker run for Jeeps and side-by-side sports utility vehicles. The third annual “Making it Possible” event begins and ends at the Knights of Columbus Hall in Bloomsdale.

The fish fry meal will be available from 2 to 6 p.m. and the band Kicking Kountry will play from 7:30 to 11:30 p.m. From 6 to 7:30 p.m. the silent auction, live auction, and several fund-raising games will take place, Roth said.

Registration for the poker run begins at 10 a.m. and each $15 registration includes a ticket for the fish fry meal. Additional poker hands may be purchased for $5 each. Proof of insurance is required, and all UTVs must have a flag or slow-moving vehicle placard.

Roth said the fund-raiser evolved from an appreciation event he hosted for volunteers and the disabled hunters the organization helped.

“I fish a lot, so my friends and I always have a lot of fish, so we started the fish fry dinner several years ago. One year my brother said, ‘you ought to get a band.’ The next year the band had such a good time they said, ‘you ought to turn this into a fund-raiser.’ Now it’s our biggest event of the year,” Roth said. “The Jeep and UTV poker run is a new thing this year.”

The auctions, raffles and games rely on donations from many of the organizations sponsors. Items that are available can be viewed on the group’s Facebook page and raffle tickets may be purchased online through the social media site until August 13.

For more information on Missouri Disabled Sportsmen and its upcoming events visit missouridisabledsportsmen.org or call Roth at 660-346-7476.

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.

Upcoming webinar to discuss invasive plants and deer management

A program that combines deer hunting and invasive species appears almost tailor-made for me by featuring two of my top topics for outdoor news.

The free Invasive Plant Control for Deer Management webinar begins at 6 p.m. on Tuesday, July 30. Use this link to access the Zoom call at meeting time: short.mdc.mo.gov/4XS.

The program is the third of at least four cooperative presentations by the National Deer Association and the state Department of Conservation this year. A recording will be available through YouTube in the near future. I have watched the two previous discussions and found them to be informative and enlightening. Both are just more than an hour long.

Chronic wasting disease was the first topic covered. Kevyn Wiskirchen, a wildlife programs supervisor from the conservation department, led the discussion with updated details on the effect the disease is having on deer herds in Missouri and nationally. I like to believe I am fairly well versed in the topic, but I discovered several new notes to add to my understanding.

The greatest prevalence of CWD in our state is in the cluster that includes Jefferson and Ste. Genevieve counties. At 1.76 percent, the ratio of positive tests compared to all sampling in the area is just a nudge ahead of the Linn and Macon counties region where the disease was first discovered in free-ranging deer a dozen years ago.

While that number can be looked at as good or bad news, it pales in comparison to places like southwest Wisconsin where more than half of the mature bucks and nearly 40 percent of does test positive for the disease.

Aggressive efforts to identify and limit spread of the disease in Missouri seems like the best strategy. Political pressure in the Badger State – when CWD was first found there – forced a wait-and-see approach that can be attributed to the current crisis.

I had known Wisconsin’s wasting disease woes, but I learned about trouble in Tennessee from the presentation. Just a few years ago the state claimed no cases, but also admitted that testing was only slightly more than non-existent. The “what you don’t know won’t hurt you” plan came unraveled when 10 positive cases were discovered there in December 2018. Now the prevalence east of Memphis is recorded as high as 18.4 percent.

The other previous program in the series was directed to farmers and property managers regarding crop damage. Cheyne Matzenbacher, the deer outreach specialist in southern Missouri for the National Deer Association, led the discussion for that meeting, which was recorded in early June. Suggested methods for protecting corn, soybeans and other crops from deer damage included fencing and natural barriers, harassment with noises and other nuisances for the animals, repellents that can reduce attractiveness of the growing plants, and trapping or harvest options among other ideas.

“Having zero deer damage to your crops is not a realistic or achievable goal,” Matzenbacher says. “Light deer browse is OK, and in some cases even good for your crop. None of the methods is foolproof, but they can be used to help reduce deer-crop damage to a low, tolerable level.”

My favorite item in the presentation was a comment at the end when the presenters asked for the farmers and landowners who viewed the information to share any tips and tricks they know to help control deer damage. Telephone numbers and email addresses for the specialists were available at the end of the show.

The fourth webinar in the series is scheduled for September and will focus on hemorrhagic disease in deer. Save this link and click on it on Sept. 10 at 6 p.m.: short.mdc.mo.gov/4Xq.

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.

Managed hunt application process in July marks the start for deer season dreams

Deer season unofficially begins in July when hunters who want to participate in the managed hunts offered throughout the state must apply for the opportunity. Other hunters would do well to get a copy of the annual regulations booklet, which is now available online and wherever permits are sold.

The managed hunt application process is open through July 31. With more than 100 options to consider, it requires some study to make an informed choice of the one hunt to try. Hunters who apply, but do not get selected, earn preference points to improve their chances for future drawings.

The 2024 Fall Deer and Turkey Hunting Regulations and Information booklet is now available from the state Department of Conservation. It is a must-read for all hunters, and includes information on all managed hunts available in the state.

None of the managed hunts are in Jefferson County, but there are several to consider in neighboring counties if you base your choices on proximity to home. Because managed hunts are utilized for deer population control, St. Louis County has the most. A muzzleloader hunt is planned at Robertsville State Park in Franklin County, and a modern firearms hunt is scheduled at St. Joe State Park in St. Francois County.

The most interesting opportunities are archery hunts at several St. Louis County parks, including Jefferson Barracks where the abundant deer have quite a reputation for their numbers. Creve Coeur, Greensfelder, McDonnell and Queeny parks also will invite bow-and-arrow hunters to help thin the herd.

The number of hunters selected for each hunt range from five at McDonnell Park to 45 at Greensfelder, but what really makes a difference is how many people apply. Last year 389 applied for Creve Coeur, 205 for Greensfelder, 256 at Queeny, and 997 took a shot at getting picked for 20 spots at Jefferson Barracks.

Hunters can take up to three deer during the 25-day season in the county park program from Oct. 21 through November 15, but they must check-in at least one antlerless deer before they can harvest an antlered buck. Selected hunters must attend a mandatory pre-hunt orientation to participate.

Other archery hunting opportunities of interest in St. Louis County – for their potential and proximity to Jefferson County – include three, week-long hunts at Fabick Nature Preserve near Fenton; two, two-week seasons at the massive Columbia Bottoms area at the confluence of the Missouri and Mississippi rivers, and five different events at Rockwoods Range and Rockwoods Reservation near Eureka.

Muzzleloader hunting opportunities, like the one mentioned above at Robertsville, are also offered at Babler and Castlewood State Parks and Forest 44 Conservation Area. Last year 36 hunters took 44 deer in the hunt at Robertsville State Park.

Most interesting and most challenging is a hunt at Pelican Island in north St. Louis County. Those 2,200-plus acres are usually only accessible by boat. There were 219 applicants for 80 spots last year, and 44 deer were harvested in the three-day hunt.

There was not a modern firearms hunt at St. Joe State Park last year, but a similar event was held at nearby St. Francois State Park in 2023. The two-day hunt on Nov. 9 and 10 this year will allow 30 hunters to take up to three deer each, but two antlerless deer have to be checked in, before taking an antlered deer. Difficult weather conditions can spoil a two-day hunt pretty easily. Forty-eight hunters harvested only nine deer at St. Francois last year.

The program also has managed hunts for youth, people who have never hunted, and for anyone who is required to use a wheelchair. The application process is online at the state Department of Conservation website. Managed hunt statistics including the numbers of people who apply and their success rates, can also be found at mdc.mo.gov. All of the hunts are outlined in the annual 2024 Fall Deer and Turkey Hunting Regulations and Information booklet.

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.