Letters

Forestkeepers

We enjoyed Gus Raeker’s article Get Into the Forest!; [September] but were disappointed that he did not mention the Missouri Forestkeepers Network in the section on volunteering. The program is jointly sponsored by Forest ReLeaf of Missouri and the Department of Conservation. Volunteers work to protect, sustain and enhance Missouri’s forest resources through monitoring, advocacy and education. There are currently more than 2,000 volunteers statewide. You can participate as an individual, family, school group or organization. Forestkeepers observe and report on the condition of forested areas as well as trees in lawns, parks and city streets. For more information, check forestkeepers.org or call 1-888-936-7378.

Bob and Pat Perry, charter members, Rolla

Dress For The Hunt

Very nice article on fall mushrooms Fall for Wild Mushrooms; [October] however, I would add two tips for mushroom hunting:

1. Wear hunter orange. Hunting mushrooms in the fall and spring can coincide with hunting seasons. Be safe by wearing hunter orange.
2. Even if given prior permission to hunt on private land, check with the owner or person responsible for granting permission, to make sure no game hunters are also on the land that day.

This is important for safety and also out of courtesy to the hunters. I don’t hunt myself, but it is must be frustrating to a hunter to be waiting for a turkey or deer and have someone come hiking through the woods and scare potential prey.

John Morgan, Ag Dept./FFA Lexington R-5 School District, Lexington

Prairie Pride

It was with great pleasure that I opened my recent edition of the Conservationist [October] and spotted a greater prairie-chicken photo, followed up by the Grand River Grassland article.

I suppose you could call me a prairie enthusiast we purchased 121 acres in the middle of the Mystic Plains COA several years ago to help support the effort up there, and we are active members of the Missouri Prairie Foundation (www.moprairie.org).

What caught my eye in the “Note to Our Readers” was that the Missouri Department of Conservation owns 1.7 percent of Missouri’s land. Hurray! We need all the conservation land we can get. I know the Department has been intensively working with private landowners (our private land conservationist, John Murphy, has been simply fantastic) for prairie management.

Please keep up the great articles!

Kevin N. Carpenter, via Internet

Stay In Touch!

Having grown up in Missouri, but now living in New York, I want to say how much I enjoy reading the Missouri Conservationist. I used to subscribe to a New York magazine, but it is not the same. You have two of the best photographers that I have seen at capturing the outdoors as a normal resident would experience.

As an avid fly fisher, I really loved the article Kayak Angling [June]. So much of that information can be used here in New York also.

Now that I live so far away, the Missouri Conservationist keeps me in touch with home.

Thomas Wommack Batavia, NY

Editors’ note: Nearly 13,000 people who do not live in Missouri have subscriptions to the Conservationist. Out-of-state subscriptions are $7, and out-of-country subscriptions are $10. The online version is free of charge for everyone.