A Plea for Help

I want to alert everyone that we intend to have our first ‘Common Sense Conservationists’ meeting of the Fall in Houston, Mo. on Thursday, September 14, beginning at 7:pm. We will meet in the rural firehouse building, situated just next of the Texas County Library.
I hope to have another meeting two weeks later in Owensville and one every two weeks in another town. If these meetings do not create interest among the people of the state in becoming a force to change the Missouri Department of Conservation’s focus, then I will give up the idea. But I dream of creating a couple of thousand members wanting to achieve positive results on our rivers, increasing populations of wild turkeys, protecting innocent people now charged with ridiculous citations and the downright corruption which is so evident, thru the waste of money we all give them. Almost no one knows that the Soil Conservation Service will pay landowners along the river to adopt conservation measures. WE can help those landowners receive that financial help. The MDC could, but will not.
We cannot inform people about what is going on thru the news media because the MDC controls the media in our state. They use their millions to silence so many. I got a call from the Auditor’s office asking me to investigate and report on something that is being done there in Jefferson City because the state auditor’s office cannot reveal it. I will tell you what she said during that call.
In a meeting I had earlier this year, speaking to a civic group in Joplin, I ask how many people there were who give no money to the MDC. Half the group responded that they did not. None of them knew about the 1/8 cent sales tax that makes everyone in the state pay a tax going to the MDC on most anything they purchase.
I’m asking folks who can get there on the 14th to come to that meeting to become informed about what that conservation department is becoming, and the downright criminality taking over what was a great department fifty years ago and before, when it was known as the Missouri Conservation Commission. Conservation Agents of today routinely break the law and if you doubt that, come to the meeting, and I will give you instances and the names of the agents who did it.
If we can sign up 2,000 members we can make the problems which no news media can report on, common knowledge across the state. If you can make it to the meeting that night, you can be in on the groundwork to slow the corruption and the abuse that the MDC now stands for.

landowner Jim Hacker with a Soil Conservation representative on river bottom land, gained thousands of dollars for conservation practices which built wildlife habitat, and erosion control.
If I can reach 50 concerned citizens in 20 communities with these meetings between now and spring, we will have a good start toward creating an organization that can make a change, and we can raise money to help innocent people go to court when they are targeted by MDC agents. Not only that, we can put out occasional publications to go to citizens everywhere telling what the MDC is doing.
Local chapters can grow membership with activities such as fish fries and events with well-known speakers, some of them ex- employees of the MDC who are willing to let people know what they saw and experienced.
There is so much we can do if we band together. I want to create good things in the state for those who love the outdoors we have left, and for landowners worried about their rights. Just come to that meeting if you care about what is happening. If you can’t get there at 7, come when you can.
I will assure you, those who want to join us and keep your identity unknown can do so. The MDC will never know your names. And if you join our group there will be no membership fee.
I need people to help post fliers around Houston and eventually across the Ozarks and help me set up meetings in all parts of the state. Contact me by calling 417-777 5227 or email me at lightninridge47@gmail.com– there is no ‘g’ on the end of lightnin. My mailing address is Box 22, Bolivar, MO 65613.
Our fall issue of my 120-page color magazines… the Lightnin’ Ridge Outdoor Journal and the Lightnin’ Ridge Ozark Journal will be mailed out in about ten days. If you wish to receive a copy, contact me.