by Don Corrigan
In any insect popularity contest, cockroaches always are near the bottom of the barrel. Cockroaches may rate more favorably than black widow spiders or tsetse flies, but they are generally loathed by most Americans.
All is not lost for the lowly cockroaches, however. Recently they have gained some cachet as lead characters in promotions, benefits and charitable causes. Celebrity cockroaches have arrived, like it or not.
MDC Conservation Agent Jaymes Hall holds a wounded bald eagle at the Word Bird Sanctuary. MDC is seeking information from the public on the incident. Call 1-800-392-1111 to report any tips.
The Missouri Department of Conservation (MDC) is investigating the shooting of a male bald eagle near the town of Belgrade in southern Washington County. The incident occurred at the intersection of Highways C and Z and is believed to have happened on Feb. 3 or 4.
On Feb. 5 MDC Washington County Conservation Agent Jaymes Hall received a report about the injured bald eagle from the U.S. Forest Service office in Potosi. Agent Hall responded and found the male bald eagle in a field near a nest, with its mate in the nest. Conservation Agent Hall verified the eagle was seriously injured and determined it needed to be captured so its injuries could be treated. Agent Hall was able to capture the eagle with the help of Viburnum Police Chief, Hershel Shipman.
“A special thank you goes out to Chief Shipman for his assistance,” said Hall.
Agent Hall transported the injured eagle immediately to the World Bird Sanctuary (WBS) in Valley Park. WBS staff examined the eagle and found that the bird’s right wing was dislocated and severely fractured. A closer examination revealed two gunshot wounds through the joint connecting the wing to the torso. Based on the extent of tissue healing, WBS estimated the bald eagle was shot on Feb. 3 or 4.
WBS operated on the bald eagle hoping to repair its injuries and rehabilitate it. Those injuries were too extensive however, and the bird did not survive.
Newly-elected state Rep. Bruce Sassmann and his wife, Jan.
By Don Corrigan
Newly-elected state Rep. Bruce Sassmann, R-Bland, was recently appointed to the Missouri House Committee on Conservation and Natural Resources. He brings unrivaled credentials to this work to be done under the dome in Jefferson City.
Sassmann and his wife, Jan, have taken a family farm and converted it into what they call the Prairie Star Restoration Farm. They give tours of the prairie site, where they have built replicas of the outdoor shelters of Henry David Thoreau, Aldo Leopold and also a site for John Muir.
Thoreau, Leopold and Muir are praised by Sassmann as the “holy trinity of conservation.” But Sassman has brought his own brand of conservation to the farm, where he gives educational tours of the restored farm’s indigenous flora and fauna.
Pictured: American red wolf. Photo by Rebecca Bose, Wolf Conservation Center, South Salem New York.
The American red wolf is staring down extinction, with only about 20 left in the wild – but the species has an important new ally in the Saint Louis Zoo.
Responding to an urgent call to keep this species from going extinct, the Zoo is transforming part of its land in Franklin County, Mo., into a conservation habitat where 24 American red wolves will live and breed in a private, protected natural setting.
The Zoo is developing approximately 20 acres of its 355-acre property in Franklin County, known as the Saint Louis Zoo Sears Lehmann, Jr. Wildlife Reserve, with separately secured habitats for 12 mating pairs of wolves in 2021. The wolves will come from other conservation organizations in 2022. The campus will not be open to visitors, as the Zoo wants the wolves to learn natural survival skills without much human interaction in the secured facility.
Bluebirds of Happiness – Missouri Department of Conservation Virtual Program, Thursday, February 11, 1-2 p.m. Registration required. (CLICK HERE)
The Eastern bluebird is the state symbol and a symbol of conservation success in Missouri. Join us as we look at the bluebird’s history, success and future in Missouri. Plus, learn how you can attract these ‘patriotic’ birds to your backyard.
Pictured: Brandon Butler’s Ozark cabin retreat after it was set on fire in a possible retaliation incident for reporting a poaching incident.
by Don Corrigan
The great outdoors is not always idyllic. It can be full of blood-sucking chiggers and mosquitoes, unhappy skunks, thieving bears and obnoxious rodents. Then there are other humans, who can be disagreeable, destructive and downright dangerous.
Missouri Outdoor Communicator Brandon Butler had an experience with the human kind recently that left him with a cabin reduced to burning embers and what he calls “a sad deal.”
Butler is pretty sure his cabin in the Ozarks near Timber was burnt to the ground in retaliation for reporting a poaching incident. The incident involved deer hunting infractions at the beginning of the rifle portion of deer season in November.
Photo courtesy MDC.
The Missouri Department of Conservation (MDC) and Dickerson Zoo in Springfield have teamed up to host MDC’s first online-only Eagle Days celebration Feb. 6. The event will be held virtually this year due to COVID-19 health concerns.
As part of this year’s Eagle Days events, Dickerson Park Zoo will provide participants with an up-close view of a live, rehabilitated eagle and peregrine falcon. Characteristics of these two birds will be discussed, and Q&A opportunities will follow each program.
Advanced registration for MDC Eagle Days is recommended: See below or (CLICK HERE).
The event is the latest example of the longstanding partnership between MDC and Dickerson Park Zoo. The program is known to raise awareness about bald eagles and is also credited with helping our national bird achieve a triumphant return to Missouri.
Pictured: Bruce Sassmann by Jessalynn Cairer Photography.
By Don Corrigan
Take a tour of Prairie Star Restoration Farm, between Bland and Belle, Mo., and you’re likely to get an earful from landowner Bruce Sassmann. Yeah, some of that earful will be a load about composting, but a lot of it will be quotes from his conservation idols.
Sassmann loves conservationists and has built guest shelters on the property that are replicas of historic haunts of Henry David Thoreau, Aldo Leopold and John Muir. Thoreau’s house on Sassman’s farm even includes a pond – think Walden Pond.
A tour of Prairie Star Restoration Farm will take you past fields of wildflowers on the way to the replica cabin of Henry David Throeau on Walden Pond.
As you approach the Leopold site modeled after the original shack in Sand County, Wisconsin, Sassman will start quoting the famous conservationist in a low whisper. Sassman is kind of a conservation whisperer.
“We abuse land because we regard it as a commodity belonging to us,” begins Sassman, with his low Leopold recitation. “When we see land as a community to which we belong, we may begin to use it with love and respect.”
According to Sassmann, “If I picked only one Leopold quote to savor, I think Aldo would approve of that one. Aldo Leopold is my conservation hero. He weaves his philosophy and ecology into poetic science.”
Missouri State Museum invites the public to attend a virtual program, Missouri’s Santa Fe Trail at 200, as part of its ongoing “Landing After Hours” series at 7 p.m., Wednesday, Feb. 3 on the Missouri State Museum Facebook page: facebook.com/MissouriStateMuseum/
Pictured: Van McElwee
Artist Van McElwee’ “Time Fork” at Laumeier is part of the sculpture park’s thematic exploration – “The Future is Present: Art & Global Change” – which runs through the late spring. The theme covers such topics as environmental crisis, tech waste, deforestation and astronomical phenomena. In part, McElwee’s art piece invites us to think about past civilizations, including the Mississippian settlements such as Cahokia Mounds just across our major river.
Cahokia Mounds once had more than 30,000 inhabitants and in 1150 was larger than any European city, including London. It was the largest city in North America until Philadelphia surpassed it in the late 1700s. Anthropologists speculate that when the Cahokia Mounds was abandoned about 1350, it may have been because of environmental degradation. Wanton tree cutting and erosion hurt the sustainability of crop lands and increased vulnerability to catastrophic river floods. For more on this, check out author Martin W. Sandler’s, “Lost To Time.”
