The weather made putting out the May issue of Traveler a real trial. First it was quite warm in March and everything from trees to fish spawning was advanced. Then came April with a return of winter which killed the buds of most trees and many bushes that were blooming at that time. It also put fish back in winter mode.

Normally we'd have mostly stories of floating and fishing in the May issue. But this time around, the only floating was a year-ago adventure that had not yet seen ink on page. And most of the fishing news was about fish not doing what they should be doing - water temperatures too cold for spawning. More about the freeze in a following story, below.

But weather had nothing to do with the fact Missouri Natural Areas Program was 30 years old in April. Traveler marked the anniversary with a trek up Hughes Mountain. It has an unusual geologic formation called the Devils Honeycomb and is also a fine example of the mostly bald tops of the St. Francis Mountains. It was designated a Natural Area in 1982.

Bill Cooper was looking ahead to squirrel season which opens Memorial Day weekend. Looks like a huge crop of squirrels this year.

The first of a two-part series on Ozarks folklore by Jim Featherston was in the May issue.

A commentary in April about a national hunting writer being fired for saying military style rifles look like terrorist weapons prompted a number of letters to Traveler.

There was a story on plinking, and recipes and seasons, and a sunrise/moonrise table. There were several travel maps.

Crappie were the subject of a couple stories. Bob Todd small found crappie eager to bite, but the big ones were not yet in spawning mode. Howard Helgenberg had to fish most of a day before the crappie turned on, but then he and companions caught a nice mess.

The Ozark National Scenic Riverways announced a cointinued crackdown on rowdy behavior on Current and Jacks Fork Rivers. This year, kegs and other volume drinking devices are being banned and sound rules are to be enforced - no more air horns and boom boxes.

News of the outdoors in southeast Missouri is covered, and it was announced this web site has been greatly revamped.

Cold snap turned trees black in the Ozarks

By Bob Todd
It was back in the 1960s and we’d moved back to Missouri. I was working for the Southeast Missourian at Cape Girardeau. A late freeze of epic proportions came through that spring, turning the Ozarks from green to black.
Sound familiar?
We and our wildlife friends can only hope it is another 50 years between extreme cold spring cold snaps like the one in April. We had three mornings straight with 19 degree lows, following all-night temperatures below freezing. Our situation was not uncommon.
Making it worse, this followed several weeks of record high temperatures which encouraged plants to rush ahead with development and blooming.
Gotcha!
A few late freezes are normal for the Ozarks. Typically they are localized. Often, a layer of cold air will settle in, killing oak blooms in a band along a ridge or around a mountain. Seldom do we have a universally strong acorn crop, and this is often the reason.
Some freezing is even beneficial. Orchard growers wish for the perfect freeze - one that will kill just some of the blossoms, thus thinning the crop and ensuring larger fruit.
But a siege as long as the one this April, the lows reached and repeated . . . . that’s pretty drastic.
We couldn’t help think about the hummingbirds that usually begin showing up in mid-April. Usually, there’s something in bloom when they get here and more coming on. They say they eat more bugs than nectar. But the bugs they eat are also a product of the blossoms. Other insect eaters are in for a hard time too, until bug numbers rebound.
Seed eaters won’t face the same impact immediately. But a tight belt may be in store for them later. We understand even some grasses won’t bloom this year.
The main fear in the Ozarks is for the acorn crop. But it may not be as bad as you could imagine. Red and black oaks set acorns last year that will mature this year, presumably unhurt by the cold snap.
White oaks, however, will be a virtual wipe-out this year. The red and black oak damage will show up next year. If white oaks produce well next year, however, we may coast through with shortages, but no real acorn famine in the woods.
Fishermen found the spawning patterns disrupted. Council Bluff fishermen found the red ear sunfish that should be keeping fishermen busy in April were not yet on the spawning beds due to low water temperatures.

As May approached, the hills were finally beginning to green up. But some who remember the freeze in the 60s say things just won’t look the same for the whole season.
We should also note that seldom does anything negative happen without a bright side. It may be a something a year or two down the road from now, but something beneficial will come of this.
One thing. The forest floor has been getting a whole lot more light than usual and understory plants are growing like no body’s business. They’ll produce foods that will partly offset the losses.

Two dozen years ago, May 1983

Sort of a crappie summit was held in Cape Girardeau with representatives from several midwestern fish and game agencies. The approaches of the different states was quite rather sharply defined.
Missouri, it was noted, is heavy on research and as a result, had restricted crappie creels in western Missouri lakes.
Meanwhile, Kentucky and Tennessee biologists saw their job as getting fishermen and crappie hooked up.
Illinois biologists were working to increase crappie populations by giving young crappie cover to survive.
Arkansas said it was working on the whole fish population situation rather than trying to concentrate on any one species.
The Irish Wilderness was about to come into being after several compromises reached in Washington. It was to be the last official wilderness approved for Missouri.
There was a float trip on Courtois Creek that made a picture story. Editor Bob Todd found some of the swimming holes he likes - deep and swift with strong eddies - but it was too cool to try them out.
Eagles were nesting at Mingo National Refuge for the third year. Observers were hoping they’d be successful in raising young this year.
Nearly 1500 bass were tagged in Lake Wappapello to get a handle on fishing pressure on this species. In theory, anglers should catch a percentage of the tagged fish that corresponds with the percentage of untagged fish being caught. High returns would indicate a lot of angler pressure.
At Clearwater, the Corps closed the gates of the dam to dewater the spillway basin to make repairs. Forty years of erosion had left reinforcement rods exposed.
As this is a time when heavy rains can raise the lake rapidly, folks had their fingers crossed. A better time from the standpoint of flooding would be July, our driest month. But high temperatures would probably produce fish kills in the areas below the dam, it was explained.
The annual flower tour at Mingo was the subject of a series of photos.
Pinewoods Lake near Ellsinore was opened May 11, 1983. Access was limited to what you could carry down the bank and only electric motors were allowed.
The cover for May was an Al Agnew pen and ink, showing a canoe floating toward a bluff on Eleven Point River in the Irish Wilderness.

Click here for a FREE TRIAL SUBSCRIPTION.