Outdoors

As the holiday season closes, the Missouri Department of Conservation (MDC) is asking you to donate your live Christmas tree to fish and wildlife in your area as a natural, year-round shelter. Salvador Mondragon, MDC Fisheries Biologist, said live Christmas trees can easily be used to improve habitat in ponds, lakes, or even a backyard.

The Missouri Department of Conservation (MDC) is monitoring reports of sick and dead waterfowl, such as geese and ducks, across the state. The Department is actively collecting birds to determine the cause of illness but suspects highly pathogenic avian influenza (HPAI) to be the cause. Other states, including Kansas and Iowa, are experiencing similar occurrences.

It began to rain, lightly at first. But from the dark clouds building to the northwest I knew what was coming. I pulled my johnboat up on a shallow gravel bar due to that promise of coming bad weather, just minutes away. The temperature was in the low thirties, cold and wet. I picked up

Winter is the favorite time of year for many people. Between the holiday festivities, watching snowflakes fall, and toasty evenings by the fireplace, it’s easy to see why many consider winter to be the best time of the year. However, when it comes to our wildlife, this time of year comes with many more challenges.

The Missouri Department of Conservation (MDC) recently set turkey and deer hunting dates for the 2025-2026 seasons. The hunting dates were approved by the Missouri Conservation Commission at its Dec. 13 open meeting at the MDC St. Louis Regional Office in St. Charles. The Commission also gave initial approval to recommendations related to chronic wasting

The Missouri Department of Conservation (MDC) invites Missourians to drop off their live Christmas trees to be used for habitat improvement around central Missouri. MDC will accept trees at the following locations from Jan. 1, 2025, through Jan. 31, 2025: • MDC’s Central Regional Office at 3500 E. Gans Road in Columbia • Washington Park

The Missouri Department of Conservation (MDC) invites waterfowl hunters to a series of public workshops around the state to gather hunter input about duck season dates and zone boundary locations for the 2026-2030 seasons. Participants will have the opportunity to review long-term waterfowl data about weather, migration, habitat use, harvest, and hunter opinions, and discuss

Preliminary data from the Missouri Department of Conservation (MDC) shows deer hunters harvested 14,607 deer during the late antlerless portion of firearms deer season, Dec. 7-15. Top harvest counties were Pike with 477 deer harvested, Callaway with 391, and Lincoln with 382. This year’s harvest total was down from last year’s late antlerless portion harvest

The Missouri Department of Conservation (MDC) is inviting crafters interested in combining Species of Conservation Concern (SOCC) with stunning embroidery to register for Cape Girardeau Conservation Nature Center’s free 12-month Nature Needlers program series kickoff in January. SOCC include rare or declining species, due to habitat loss or disease. “This class is a series of

The most perfect Christmas trees I have ever seen are found along the highway between Springfield Missouri and Branson. They are perfectly formed, many not much wider than a lampshade and five or six feet tall. There they are there for the taking, small, medium and large; all perfectly formed due to their environment, which