missouri VP-HIP/ WIHA

[oldandnew]

Well boys, I see all our neighboring states got into the Federal grant money for open field/waters, Walk in Hunting. Missouri nothing. I decided to call the Missouri Department of Conservation and ask why. They are still going to get back to me. I don't want to tell you what a run around it is to find a live person at MDC, who knows anything. Suffice to say the usual suspects are pushed forward as roadblocks. First the MDC tried a program to pair up hunters with landowners who reported deer damage, but no landowners were receptive. This convinced them that such a walk in program would be poorly recieved. Second, I was told that compared to Kansas and Nebraska, we had a huge amount of public ground. I looked it up, and 93% of Missouri is privately owned. 75% of Missouri's public ground is in the southern 3rd of the state and valuable for hunting only deer and turkey. The rest is managed for either waterfowl exclusively, and closed for other hunting, or managed for multi species, ( read deer and turkeys). I have reached the point of disgust. Missouri's band aid approach with a whopping 10 quail emphasis areas is a joke. The "only" pheasant emphasis area is Bilby, which is great, and crowded, and a lot more could be done with it. smaller corn and bean fields for one, leaving more real prairie grass and annual weed fields. Even Bilby follws a trend I notice on MDC properties, with really healthy stands of fescue waterways. if I hear from anyone further from MDC, I'll let you know. As far as the MDC, it's no wonder that we have no quail/pheasants and darn near no quail hunters. Would it kill them to pilot a program to provide access to private ground, with little expense, to provide a worthwhile experience for upland hunters? It kills me to see Kansas with a more progressive view than Missouri has. We used to be the Premier Conservation program in the nation, now????? We are going to stock elk in the Ozarks, yet another glamour species.

[setterbud]

now you are going to get me going again , I 've said it before they need to fire the people running the upland program. every year less and less, but all you hear is how great a job they are doing to get the birds back, i wish they would do nothing and go back to the 80's and remember what the ca area's did then, these areas were rated good - excellant, then they started changing things( they won't admitt it for the deer abd turkeys) 15 bucks a tag, screw the bird hunters. these so called quail empis areas are a joke and almost all are rated fair, they are so full of bs. Last year i asked them a simple question, good luck in getting a answer.

hope you have a good season, and will see you in Kansas

[oldandnew]

Hey, setterbud, I have read a few of your posts, and realize youget out and around Missouri some. Do you see all the fescue waterways, and road edges on interior MDC roads within their Areas as we see on the west side? What's with that, they rail about fescue, yet from Bilby on south you stagger and trip through countless waterways and road/trail edges with fescue so thick you can hardly stand it. They get 1/8th cent sales tax, income from farmers which contract to farm the CA's ground. Any of that really get invested in the resource. Hunter training a joke compared to other states from what I read here. We have an urban, inner city nature education center( WHAT!), here in Kansas City and I suspect St.Louis. I suspect we will have Elk in Clay county, eating my bushes in the front yard before I hear another quail around here. At least we already have the cougars to eat the deer. Maybe we'll go to Kansas together.

[setterbud]

Yes to the fescue, took the dogs out today to whetstone, went to a spot 2-3 covies, it is so growded up could hardly walk thru it, will need beeper collars on the dogs. last years corn never picked, well another spot ruined by them. will it it again next week, a differant spot

[KU Pheasant Hunter]

Kansas Conservation Budget $56,000,000
Missouri Conservation Budget $145,500,000

What are they doing with all that money?

Oh, I checked on line and here is some info:

The agency had enough money to hire a New Age pianist from Oregon to entertain small crowds, spend half a million dollars to run ads promoting itself on television and pay an additional half million for better time slots for its own TV show.

â??They've got more money than they know what to do with,â? said Robert Eck of Rolla, who donated land to the agency in 1989 but now regrets it.

â??It is time that the public be made aware of the amount of money that the Conservation Department is receiving and spending on some unnecessary projects simply because they have so much money to spend.â?

[oldandnew]

Even better, the arogant so and so's won't even call you back. i remember voting for the 1/8th cent sales tax. Now all I get is "urban" enterpretive centers, and elk stocking in the Ozarks. You might think they could scrounge a million to at least provide upland habitat, and access for the voters. I'd vote to strip the money away now.