VOLUME 80, ISSUE 7, JULY 2019 MISSOURI SERVING NATURE & YOU CONSERVATIONIST BeCoMe HuNtEr EdUcAtIoN CeRtIfIeD OnLiNe ToDaY! Missouri adults 16 and older can complete hunter education training all online. _ Flexibility to learn _ Access _ No in-person skills at your own pace 24/7 session required The all-online course includes engaging video and animation on hunter safety, firearm safety, ethics, regulations, and wildlife management. LeArN MoRe aBoUt MDC’s hUnTeR education pRoGrAm at mDc.mO.gOv/huntereducation MISSOURI CONSERVATIONIST JULY 2019 Contents VOLUME 80, ISSUE 7 10 ON THE COVER A bobolink enjoys a caterpillar : NOPPADOL PAOTHONG 500mm lens +2.0 teleconverter f/8, 1/320 sec, ISO 200 GOVERNOR Michael L. Parson THE CONSERVATION COMMISSION CHAIR Marilynn J. Bradford VICE CHAIR David W. Murphy SECRETARY Don C. Bedell 16 MEMBER Wm. L. (Barry) Orscheln DIRECTOR Sara Parker Pauley DEPUTY DIRECTORS Mike Hubbard, Aaron Jeffries, Jennifer Battson Warren MAGAZINE STAFF EDITOR 22 Angie Daly Morfeld ASSOCIATE EDITOR FEATURES Larry Archer STAFF WRITERS Bonnie Chasteen, Heather Feeler, 10 Kristie Hilgedick, Joe Jerek Helping Landowners CREATIVE DIRECTOR Stephanie Thurber Protect Missouri’s Rare ART DIRECTOR Places and Species Cliff White DESIGNERS Partnerships and funding Les Fortenberry, Marci Porter key to meeting unique PHOTOGRAPHERS ecological challenges. Noppadol Paothong, David Stonner by Bill Graham CIRCULATION MANAGER Laura Scheuler 16 mdc.mo.gov/conmag A Force for Nature DEPARTMENTS Tom and Cathy Aley have spent their lives advancing karst 2 Inbox studies and securing the future 3 Up Front With Sara Parker Pauley of Tumbling Creek Cave. Nature Lab by Bonnie Chasteen 4 5 In Brief 22 28 Get Outside Hunting Snipe and Rail 30 Places To Go Download this A waterfowl hunter’s solution to issue to your the late-summer doldrums. 32 Wild Guide phone or tablet at mdc.mo.gov/mocon. by Danny Brown 33 Outdoor Calendar Blackberries Download for Android Inbox Letters to the Editor URBAN FISHING Submissions reflect I really enjoyed your article on urban fishing readers’ opinions and [50 Years of Urban Fishing in St. Louis, April, may be edited for length Page 10]. My younger brother and I shared and clarity. Email fond memories of a little pond in Clifton LOVE FROM ACROSS THE POND [email protected] Park. Although I now live in New Jersey, I still Thanks to our dear friends in Warsaw, we receive the or write to us: have family and friends in Missouri and enjoy Conservationist every month. We love your articles and MISSOURI CONSERVATIONIST reading the Missouri Conservationist. wonderful photographs. Missouri certainly seems to lead PO BOX 180 John Burghardt Mullica Hill, NJ the way in conservation. We always pass on the magazines JEFFERSON CITY, MO 65102 to a neighbor here in North Yorkshire. His sister lives in Your article in the April magazine reminded America and as a true countryman from a farming family, me of the many wonderful hours my brothers he loves to read them. We often talk about some of the and I spent fishing the ponds in Forest Park wonderful times we have spent in your lovely state. during the late 1950s. We would stop by the Sue Oswell North Yorkshire, England local grocery store and the butcher would supply us with liver and off we would go with UNUSUAL VISITOR our cane poles in hand. One of the ponds we Early one morning, our doorbell rang. My wife answered, frequented was located next to the Municipal but no one was there. This went on several more times. Opera. Not only were we able to enjoy trying With the help of my walker, I hobbled to the door. I looked to catch a channel cat or a carp, but we could through the screen window and hanging onto the bar next hear the beautiful music that was being to the door was a giant raccoon, staring me in the face rehearsed only a few yards from us. What an as if to say, “Let me in!” I banged on the door a couple experience for a 10-year-old. times, but it didn’t Danny Marshall Steelville seem to bother him. The doorbell kept ringing. WELCOME TO MO FALCON PRIDE I called the Carthage We absolutely At Van Horn High School, we love receiving Police Department and love this the Missouri Conservationist each month an animal control officer publication. As because our biology teachers use it to arrived. By this time the newcomers to supplement their instruction. You can imagine raccoon had given up Missouri, we learn the excitement when we saw a peregrine ringing the doorbell and something new falcon on the cover of the April issue. We are was laying down asleep each month. the home of the Fighting Falcons and it was in front of our door. The Ruthann Rackawack great to learn about our mascot and how they officer had no problem Caulfield are making such a great comeback in our getting the raccoon in a state. Thank you for producing such a great cage. I told the officer it magazine for our students and teachers. Fly to was so friendly and not the sky Falcons! Ka-Ka! afraid. She agreed. Dr. Justin Woods Principal Norman Knight Carthage Connect With Us! Conservation Headquarters Have a 573-751-4115 | PO Box 180, Jefferson City, MO 65102-0180 Question for a /moconservation Commissioner? Regional Offices Send a note using @moconservation Southeast/Cape Girardeau: 573-290-5730 Southwest/Springfield: 417-895-6880 our online Central/Columbia: 573-815-7900 Northwest/St. Joseph: 816-271-3100 contact form at @MDC_online Kansas City: 816-622-0900 St. Louis: 636-441-4554 mdc.mo.gov/ Northeast/Kirksville: 660-785-2420 Ozark/West Plains: 417-256-7161 commissioners. 2 Missouri Conservationist | July 2019 Want to see your photos in the Missouri Conservationist? Share your photos on Flickr at Up flickr.com/groups/mdcreaderphotos-2019, email [email protected], or include the hashtag #mdcdiscovernature on your Instagram photos. Front with Sara Parker Pauley _ There is such a beauty to community, particularly when in times of need, a community rises to the call. As I think back over the last couple of months with the flooding and storms that have ravaged our state, I’ve witnessed Missourians rally- ing to rescue, reinforce, and rebuild. MDC alone has had more than 180 conservation areas and accesses impacted by recent flooding. While some MDC staff has worked tirelessly to keep floodwaters from impacting 1 hatcheries or other vital infrastructure, conservation agents around the state performed swift water rescues and assisted 1 | Victoria Glades with other emergency response efforts. Conservation Area 2 This round of flooding was even more personal for me. Close by carrico17, to the Missouri River, our community came together to fortify via Instagram our neighbor’s levee in an effort to save his fields, but ulti- 2 | Millstream Gardens mately the river won. Still, it was powerful to see neighbors Conservation Area by path_less_ showing up in a time of need to offer their best efforts. traveled_19, Also, beautiful is a community that comes together for the via Instagram longer haul, such as neighbors working together to nurture 3 | Longear sunfish their land collectively to further the conservation cause. In in the Black River by a state with over 90% of our lands in private ownership, we Monica Laramie, simply cannot protect and connect with nature on public lands via email alone. Aldo Leopold comes to mind when he said, “Conserva- 3 tion can accomplish its objectives only when it springs from an impelling conviction on the part of private landowners.” In this issue, you will read of such conviction on Page 10 and witness again the amazing and persevering power of community. SARA PARKER PAULEY, DIRECTOR [email protected] The Missouri Conservationist (ISSN 0026-6515) is the official monthly publication of the Missouri Department of Conservation, 2901 West Truman Boulevard, Jefferson City, MO (Mailing address: PO Box 180, Jefferson City, MO 65102.) SUBSCRIPTIONS: Visit mdc.mo.gov/conmag, or call 573-522- MISSOURI CONSERVATION COMMISSIONERS 4115, ext. 3856 or 3249. Free to adult Missouri residents (one per household); out of state $7 per year; out of country $10 per year. Notification of address change must include both old and new address (send mailing label with the subscriber number on it) with 60-day notice. Preferred periodical postage paid at Jefferson City, Missouri, and at additional entry offices.POSTMASTER : Send correspondence to Circulation, PO Box 180, Jefferson City, MO 65102-0180. Phone: 573-522-4115, ext. 3856 or 3249. Copyright © 2019 by the Conservation Commission of the State of Missouri. Equal opportunity to participate in and benefit from programs of the Missouri Department of Conserva- tion is available to all individuals without regard to their race, color, religion, national origin, sex, ancestry, age, sexual orientation, veteran status, or disability. Questions should be directed to the Department of Conservation, PO Box 180, Jefferson City, MO 65102, 573-751-4115 (voice) or 800-735-2966 (TTY), or Don Marilynn David Barry to Chief, Public Civil Rights, Office of Civil Rights, U.S. Department of the Interior, 1849 C Street, NW, Bedell Bradford Murphy Orscheln Washington, D.C. 20240. Printed with soy ink mdc.mo.gov 3 Nature by Bonnie LAB Chasteen Each month, we highlight research MDC uses to improve fish, forest, and wildlife management. SPECIES OF CONSERVATION CONCERN Bats and Wind Energy _ As entities consider more wind energy projects in Missouri, the state’s bats face the threats of Silver-haired bat habitat loss and devastating diseases like white- nose syndrome. What level of wind-generated power development can occur without further harming Understanding whether wind turbine-caused already-stressed bat populations? Study bat fatalities in an area could cause bat population Missouri State Bat Ecologist Kathryn Womack- suggests declines requires data.