ShareIt’s not often you get to interview a vulture expert.
We’re still a month out from the swallows going back to Capistrano, California, and it’s the depths of the off-season in Branson.
Time to celebrate vultures, according to John Miller, interpretive center manager for Missouri Department of Conservation’s Shepherd of the Hills Hatchery, on Lake Taneycomo [...]

ShareJoe Jerek, communications person for the Missouri Dept. of Conservation passed along these two YouTube links on hellbender conservation efforts. One is from the St. Louis Zoo:
httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qbkGQvrE7pc
And the other is from Shepherd of the Hills Hatchery at the foot of Table Rock Dam:
httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qSgTXAn-Fq4
Enjoy.

Share(U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service news release)
The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service today designated the Ozark hellbender as endangered under the federal Endangered Species Act (ESA) and also finalized its decision to list the Ozark and eastern hellbender in Appendix III of the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora [...]

SharePresident Barack Obama tonight granted a request by Gov. Jay Nixon for a major disaster declaration for areas across Missouri hit in April and May by severe storms, tornadoes and flooding.
The counties designated are Butler (Poplar Bluff), Mississippi (New Madrid Floodway), New Madrid (New Madrid Floodway and Mississippi River) in or near the [...]

ShareIt’s spring and an outdoors person’s fancy turns to thoughts of river gages.
Since many Traveler readers have the same obsession Jo does about river and lake water levels…whether for floating, floods, to know if you can get into your own driveway or sheer curiosity, I’m listing a few online river gage pages:

ShareNo jokes about brown trout, please.
At the January 29 meeting of the Missouri Conservation Commission, commissioners authorized spending $256,311.50 at Shepherd of the Hills Hatchery, Branson, to upgrade the domestic wastewater lift station and install a pressurized pipeline to the Branson sewer system. Flat Creek Excavating LLC, Cape Fair, will be doing the work.