ShareBy Jo Schaper
With the National Park Service in the final stages of preparing draft alternatives of the General Management Plan for the Ozark National Scenic Riverways for expected release sometime in late winter or early spring, Missouri environmental groups turned up the political heat with petition events and signature turn-ins to federal officials this [...]

ShareTraveler can’t cover, nor even wants to report every movement of Governor Jay Nixon and his wife Georgeanne. It’s part of their official duties to be there for ribbon cuttings, press announcements, job creation and so forth, all across the state. Even so, this one struck a chord.
Gov. Jay Nixon and First Lady [...]

ShareIf you are of a need to getting into the holiday season in Traveler Country, there is no better way than to take three minutes and listen to this unforgettable translation of C. L. Moore’s poem “Twas the Night Before Christmas.”
The You Tube translation is by Dr. Dale Haverstick, of Eminence, who [...]

ShareAccording to this report in the Springfield News-Leader, 4000 signatures calling for tougher restrictions in the yet to be released Ozark National Scenic Riverways General Management plan were given to the offices of Senators Roy Blunt and Claire McCaskill Nov. 30.
The petition drive is sponsored by environmental organizations including the Eastern Missouri Group- Sierra [...]

ShareDecade-Long Collaboration of Zoo and Federal, State Scientists Yields 63 Baby Hellbenders
The Saint Louis Zoo’s Ron Goellner Center for Hellbender Conservation and the Missouri Department of Conservation today announced that Ozark hellbenders have been bred in captivity—a first for either of the two subspecies of hellbender. This decade-long collaboration has yielded 63 baby hellbenders
The [...]

ShareVan Buren, MO – The Nature Conservancy (TNC) is seeking to construct an improved gate to protect Bat Cave on property it owns in Shannon County, Missouri. Bat Cave is located on the Upper Current River, as an inholding in Ozark National Scenic Riverways, and is a significant hibernaculum for federally endangered Indiana bats. Missouri [...]

ShareCelebrate an Old Fashioned Christmas and Open House at
Alley Spring General Store
Eminence, MO – On Saturday, December 10th beginning at 10:00 am, Ozark National Scenic Riverways is hosting an old fashioned Christmas celebration for the public at the Alley Mill General Store.
Bring the whole family and your friends to view Alley Mill and [...]

ShareBy Jo Schaper
Photos and captions courtesy of Shea Bergman, Missouri Dept. of Conservation.
How do you take 33 Urban Ranger Corps inner city youth (and six of their leaders)* on a three-day, 48-hour canoe trip with two nights of camping on the Current River?
Ask Shea Bergman, Steve Jacobsen, Brandon Pope and Pat Whalen of the [...]

ShareJo note: I haven’t done an “Over the Back Fence” recently: these are a bunch of mini-stories and breaking news snippets from the region. Enjoy.

ShareWatercress Park, operated by Mark Twain National Forest, along the Current River near Van Buren, reopened August 5th. Reopening was schedule for earlier this summer, but work was delayed for a while due to the floods this spring, where the Current reached up to 25 feet deep.