Share(Missouri DNR-DSP news release.)
If you want to take your “best friend” along on your best vacation, Missouri State Parks will provide both you and your dog a place to stay the night.
Beginning in January 2012, Missouri State Parks will make lodging units available [...]

ShareThe Camp Pin Oak dining lodge that burned down last September at Lake of the Ozarks State Park will be rebuilt with a bigger kitchen, a new outdoor patio and indoor seating for 135 people.
Camp Pin Oak originally was built by the Civilian Conservation Corps between 1934 and 1938. A fire destroyed the dining lodge [...]

ShareSara Parker Pauley, director of the Missouri Department of Natural Resources, and Bill Bryan, director of Missouri State Parks, a division of the department, announced Friday June 24 that trail users in the city of Doniphan will benefit from a new trail project, thanks to a $97,800 federal Recreational Trails Program grant.
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ShareIn our July coverage looking into whether the Ozark National Riverways’ rivers are endangered or not, Jo Schaper makes reference to an online extra transcript of answers to her questions addressed to the Missouri Department of Natural Resources. MDNR has several divisions which regulate and address the quality of Missouri streams, lakes and groundwater [...]

ShareBacteria on the beach. Blech.
For most of us, most of the time, we’d rather not think about it.
By Jo Schaper
After bacterial issues during 2010 closed major state park swimming beaches for summer weeks on end, and resulted in a major shakeup inside the Department of Natural Resources, the weekly bacteria report became as [...]

Share The Missouri Department of Natural Resources (DNR) is seeking public input on the recreational use of more than 380 Missouri waterways.
Every few years DNR must review state water quality standards. This is required by the federal Clean Water Act.
Streams are ranked by the amount of and what kinds of recreational use they get. For [...]

ShareEd. note: Over The Back Fence news is reliable information for which public attribution is not available.
Hikers who use the backcountry areas of Hawn and St. Francis State Parks, beware.
Reliable sources have reported to Traveler that feral hogs have been noted in those areas
The hogs can be dangerous if encountered unexpectedly, are sometimes [...]

ShareAccording to an AP story reported by www.stltoday.com, the Missouri Senate may take up a bill this week to reinstate numerous water pollution fees which support DNR oversight and enforcement of the Federal Clean Water Act and state regulations to keep rivers, lakes and streams clean.
These fees expired last December when the Senate failed [...]

ShareBy Jo Schaper
To paraphrase a late 1960s slogan: “Lead is not good for children and other living things.” It’s a rare month goes by when some state or federal agency doesn’t sing this refrain over and over again.
I’m not here to tell you to sprinkle some every day on your morning cereal. But I [...]

Share(Kansas City, Kan., March 25, 2011) – The Doe Run Resources Corporation and the Missouri Department of Natural Resources’ (MDNR) Division of State Parks have agreed mitigate lead contamination at St. Joe State Park and Missouri Mines State Historic Site, including off-road vehicle (ORV) riding areas, the old Federal milling plant, now preserved as [...]