The Missouri House gave first round approval to a bill authorizing people seeking hunting or fishing licenses to also be solicted to become voters, according to Roseann Moring of St. Louis Today, the online arm of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch.

A second vote will be taken before sending the proposal to the Missouri Senate. This seems to be controversial, because of how some perceive the demographic of outdoors people. While it is no doubt true that women licensed to fish or hunt are greatly outnumbered by men, one’s preferences beyond that are anyone’s guess. Missouri has long been a shining example in wildlife management simply because partisan politics play only a very limited role (someone has to appoint the Conservation Commission, after all) in management decisions.

We’re interested in knowing what our readers think. Leave a comment below.

People who go outside a lot are thoughtful people. Maybe thoughtfulness draws them into the quiet of open spaces…maybe the quiet draws the thoughfulness out of them once they are there. It’s hard to tell.

Noted Missouri outdoor writer Joel Vance put me on to some rather deep thought in regards to The North American Model of Wildlife Conservation recently. Ever wonder how we got this system of hunting and fishing regulations and attitudes? I hadn’t much thought about it. It was just always there. How do we maintain this model as the continent becomes increasingly urban? What intrigues me about this model is it has proponents all the way from Ducks Unlimited and the Rocky Mountain Elk Foundation to state fish and wildlife departments to people traditionally thought to be anti-hunting such as the Sierra Club. Everyone has a different slant of course, and a different part of this model they think is most important in maintaining healthy fish and game populations.

If nasty weather cancels your outdoor expedition, copy the title of this item into any browser and surf around. You might be surprised at what you find.

Barney purple? Seems the brilliant metallic blue green beetles have a thing for the color. Maybe they think it goes with their exoskeletons. Who knows? The traps are triangular in cross-section, and 1 by 2.5 feet in size. They may blend with the redbuds right now, but shortly they will stick out against the green Ozark canopy.

These will be set out in an 8 mile radius of the Recreational Area. Another 250-300 will be scattered across the state, according to the Dept. of Conservation. Scientists now believe the infestation occurred five years ago; backtracking studies show that the infestation has spread about 1.5 miles from it’s original source. Since most of the life of the borer is beneath the bark, it’s hard to determine they exist until ashes begin dying and the distinctive adults appear. To make the traps more effective, they are coated with a chemical that smells like stressed ash trees. The borers land, and a trapped, since they are not strong fliers.

MDC, DNR, U of Missouri, the Army Corps and APHIS, the USDA plant and animal inspection agency, have declared war on this pest. Wayne County wood product companies are under special regulation to prevent its spread.

Outdoors people are being asked NOT to bring firewood along, or take firewood home with them, especially if they aren’t certain what type of wood it is, or where it has been. Ashborers are picky eaters — they target ash almost exclusively, but few of the general public can correctly identify wood from a cut log or stick. (Trap photo from www.ca.uky.edu)

MDC had a five year trial starting in 1995 on Missouri’s big rivers, in which 159 people caught and reported 27 fish. Noodling has been a point of contention ever since it was outlawed in 1917. After the trial, Department fisheries biologists ruled that noodling would negatively affect catfish stock, and the ban was reinstated. Noodlers, however, are not deterred easily.  Noodling link.

By Emery Styron
River Hills Traveler

Don Collop of the Flying T—E Ranch, Rutledge, Mo., added historic flavor to the Outdoor Expo at Busch Shooting Range on Saturday, July 28.

Collop is a “cousie,” that is a chuckwagon cook, and brought along his 1910 wagon and cooking acoutrements, for the education of the many hunters, anglers, campers and others who attended the event and might want to compare notes on outdoor cooking.

Lonehand.com’s website credits Texas rancher Charlie Goodnight with creation of the prototype chuckwagon in 1866, during the era of the great cattle drives from Western lands to railheads in Kansas. Goodnight rebuilt a Studebaker wagon to carry water, firewood and provisions and cowboys bedrolls. Key features were the hinged lid of the chuck box, that dropped down to provide a work surface, and a canvas hammock suspended beneath the wagon to carry any scarce fuel collected along the way.

Collop’s wagon was manufactured by Peter Shetler in Chicago and first retailed by Roberts Bros. & Green Mercantile in Centralia, Mo. He has it outfitted with typical cowboy cooking gear. He and his wife, Evelyn, enjoy taking the wagon to schools and various events to make presentations on the cowboy way of life. Rounding out the chuckwagon gang are “hoodlums” (that’s what the cousie’s assistants were called) Hershel Linnenbringer and Gary Gooch.

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One of our stops, for example was the Franklin D. Roosevelt Memorial, overlooking the Tidal Basin. Touring the site reminded me that it was FDR’s jobs programs that put the craftsmen to work who built the stone entrances, lodges, waterways and other structures that give Missouri State Parks their distinctive, attractive appearance.

We toured the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, next to an ancient red brick building with the familiar green emblem of the U.S. Forest Service out front. If this obsolete structure is the only home of the Forest Service in the nation’s capital, I wonder if the agency has the tools to do its job.

Somewhere near the capital, we saw a statute of General U.S. Grant on horseback. According to biographer Jean Edward Smith, Grant took command of the Union army on August 30, 1861, at Cape Girardeau.

Grant’s footprints, of course, are all over St. Louis, where he even has a car wash named for him. Grant was posted to Jefferson Barracks after graduating from West Point. He met his wife, Julia, in St. Louis, and they built a home called Hardscrabble, which still stands, and lived later on Julia’s home place, White Haven, on Gravois Road. We’re all familiar with Grant’s Farm, where you can tour Grant’s cabin.

When he was president, Grant intervened to help his friend James Eads finish his bridge over the Mississippi River, over the objections of steamboat interests, according to information published by the St.Louis Public Library.

You can’t walk around downtown D.C. without dealing with the National Park Service, which manages the National Mall and many of the monuments. I couldn’t help but think of the Park Service and its stewardship of the Ozark National Scenic Riverways.

Congress was in July 4 recess and many Washingtonians had fled to avoid the crush of tourists like us, so we didn’t see many of the elected officials and agency employees whose decisions have so much impact on our daily lives in Traveler Country and beyond.

As I gazed down on the empty House of Representatives chamber from the gallery, I was reminded how interconnected we all are in this representative democracy.

That’s how it is and how it should be.

Emery Styron
River Hills Traveler

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Traveler encountered Charlie and Sue Johnson of Bettendorf, Iowa, taking a break from camping at the Madison Inn in Fredericktown. The couple is on a three-month ride from the Quad Cities in Iowa to Mobile, Ala., then to Owen Sound, Ontario, north of Toronto.

This is their fourth major summer ride. Previous trips took them from Washington to Maine, California to Florida and Oregon to Virginia.

The pair found some of Missouri’s highway signage confusing but the countryside beautiful.

They had overnighted in Lesterville, and came to Fredericktown on Missouri 72, which they planned to take to Cape Girardeau. They found Fredericktown appealing and decided to stay an extra night to take in the rodeo and attend church. Then it was off to Cape in hopes of finding a good bike shop before heading to Mobile.

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Jim grew up in Piedmont, earned an ag degree at MU, and worked in agribusiness in Iowa, Kansas and Colorado before buying the Shady Lane Cabins and Motel in Eminence five years ago. He’s a wealth of information about the Current and Jacks Fork.

The night before we fished, we drove out to see some of the wild horse band that roams the Scenic Riverways. As many Traveler readers know, the horses are descended from those turned loose by farmers in the Great Depression of the 1930s and have been the subject of much controversy and publicity over the years.

It was fun to watch the stallion, mares and colts graze and frolic in the dusk. Jim tells me the National Park Service culls the herd to keep the numbers around 40.

So far as the fishing goes, we caught enough to keep things interesting but nothing to brag about. Jim’s an excellent guide and didn’t want me to be skunked. I don’t think he went so far as to put a fish on my hook when I wasn’t looking, but he worked hard to make sure I caught something.

One lesson learned is to be careful about pulling on lures caught in tree limbs. I had one, I think it was a Rooster Tail, come flying back across the river and knock the right lens out of my glasses and cut my cheek. I’m lucky not to have lost an eye. Snipping the line or at least ducking my head would have been the wiser course. Hindsight’s 20/20, even out of one eye.

It was also nice to renew the acquaintance of Shane Van Steenis at Harvey’s
Alley Spring Canoe Rental. Shane hails from Bloomfield, Iowa, near where I worked and lived the past several years. He and Jim both report a good start to the season on the Jacks Fork and Upper Current.

Emery Styron
River Hills Traveler

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Water was a little higher than normal for this time of year and a stiff wind blowing upstream made it a little hard to get started. We eventually learned how to travel with the current and found the going easier.

It was the first time in a canoe for young James Styron, who sighted a muskrat, several turtles and herons and a kingfisher.

We enjoyed getting acquainted with Mike and Wendy Jones, friendly proprietors of Hufstedler’s Canoe Rental at Riverton.

More photos from the float trip are on the Photo Gallery section of this site.

Emery Styron
Traveler publisher