ShareText and Photos by Jo Schaper

A couple weeks ago when I went to Shannon County for the Current River public meeting, we stayed over because Eugene had work to do on the way home at Montauk on Sunday.
He and Steve Bost, the naturalist there, went off on some A/V maintenance issue, leaving me to [...]

ShareBy Jo Schaper
We try to treat everyone equally well around here, but occasionally a special request from a special person gets a special response
About a week ago, Rich Orr asked when we were going to take a picture of the old St. Clair Motel sign. He said he thought that was all that was left. [...]

ShareWhat do you think when you’re told you have to retrain someone?
You can imagine what I was thinking when I was told I’m going to have to retrain my honey bees.
Not all of them, just ones that keep sneaking into the hive from the back side.
It all started last winter, when a mouse family moved [...]

ShareLongtime conservationist Leo Drey and the L-A-D Foundation have been honored with a proclamation from the Missouri Department of Conservation, thanking them for protecting Missouri’s forests and natural areas.
Public appearances by Drey, 95, have been rare in recent years. But he took the stage last week to accept the award, delivered by MDC Director Bob [...]

ShareIt seems everyone has to comment before the National Park Service’s draft General Management Plan for Ozark National Scenic Riverways is issued, so naturally the Missouri House of Representatives has seen fit to get into the act.
This is a bit lengthy, but it is the best summary of the legislation which went into the [...]

ShareIf there’s a flower that heralds spring to me, it’s yellow daffodils.
I learned to refer to these flower with long noses as daffodils from my Illinois neighbor.
Mrs. Futrell had a small white house with a picket fence lined with the small, early yellow flowers growing under old-fashioned lilac bushes.
She would walk the fence line with [...]

SharePlease pity Jo’s husband Eugene.
There are three nature and Earth Day related festivals going on this weekend: Friday on the State Capitol grounds in Jefferson City, the Bat Festival at Onondaga Cave State Park, and St. Louis Earth Day at Forest Park in St. Louis
He’s working all three of them on behalf of bats, [...]

ShareOutdoor writer John Meacham from Chester, IL, sent this around. We thought it was good for a chuckle.
Thanks, John.

ShareYou don’t have to be a kid to get really excited about bagging your first bird.
JEFFERSON CITY–With youth turkey season in the rear-view mirror and the regular, three-week season coming up fast, the Missouri Department of Conservation (MDC) reminds hunters they can create lasting memories with the First Turkey Award.
The First Turkey Program provides [...]

Share(condensed from USFS announcement)
The US Forest Service has decided to implement Alternative 2 proposed for the Sutton Bluff ATV Trail System Project.
The trail is located near the West Fork of the Black River near Centerville. This decision will allow trail users to move from one trailhead to another without traveling on Forest Road 56-I, [...]