ShareIt’s a fact that Don Corrigan of the Webster-Kirkwood Times, the South County Times, and probably more publications, is known to Traveler staff. After all, we carry his nature books: Show Me Natural Wonders and Show Me Nature’s Wrath. We’re entirely separate publications, but in these days, newsprint people need to stick together.
In [...]

ShareBy Jo Schaper
I’m a country girl at heart. Though I’ve always lived on that undefinable border between St. Louis Metro and rural Missouri, I really hate to go into the tall-towered heart of the city, neither downtown St. Louis nor, especially, Clayton.
Last night I spent five hours in Clayton, two outside with the [...]

ShareIf St. Louis County Executive Charlie Dooley was trying to get the public’s attention, his 2012 budget plan to close 23 out 50 county parks and cut 175 jobs did the trick. In fact, he may have aroused a sleeping tiger.
Some 60 members of the public attended a County Council meeting in Clayton last night, [...]

ShareCommentary by Jo Schaper
Much of the last week’s protest and calls to action in regards to the proposal to close St. Louis County parks is being coordinated through Facebook. This is not news. But, despite their claims, Facebook is not ubiquitous. There are the other 7/8ths of the planet who are not into social media. [...]

ShareOf all the stories and pictures in this month’s Traveler, Alex Biehl’s piece on Page 15 rang my bell the loudest.
In one story, there’s despair, hope, nostalgia and common sense that can be applied to our everyday problems.
First, the despair. Vandals with a pipe wrench opened the floodgates at Noblett Lake this summer, draining the [...]

ShareWhat are the federally-protected, free-flowing Current and Jacks Fork doing on a national environmental group’s list of America’s Most Endangered Rivers?
Naming the Ozark National Scenic Riverways to American Rivers’ Most Endangered Rivers list looks to us like a tactic to pressure the National Park Service. The goal is to have the ONSR apply national [...]

ShareElk bring opportunities
W
hether you’re fur ‘em or agin ‘em, the long awaited elk are now at home on the Peck Ranch in Carter County. The Missouri Conservation Commission’s controversial decison to restore elk to the state will brings with it significant problems and exciting opportunities.
The negatives are clear — potential for disease,  property damage [...]

ShareHere’s some good news for fans of Marble Creek Campground. A Perryville couple, James and Doris Rehkop, have been awarded five-year concessionaire contracts to manage Marble Creek Campground and Silver Mines Campgrounds, both on Mark Twain National Forest’s Potosi-Fredericktown Ranger District.
For the past four years, Marble Creek was managed by Friends of Marble Creek Campground, [...]

ShareThe Missouri Department of Conservation is surveying anglers on possible changes in smallmouth and goggle-eye regulations. As Bill Cooper correctly points out in an article on Page 9, more regulations will reduce the wealth of choices Missouri anglers now enjoy. The question MDC must weigh is how much regulation is enough?
Missouri now has a statewide [...]

ShareState Rep. John Cauthorn (R-Mexico) introduced on Feb. 16 a bill in the Missouri General Assembly to sunset the 1/8-cent sales tax funding the Design for Conservation.
If this bill, titled HJR 22, becomes law, Missouri voters will decide every 10 years, beginning in 2012, whether to renew the 1/8-cent conservation sales tax approved in 1976.
This [...]