Tagged: missouri department of conservation

Missouri hunters can fight hunger this hunting season. The Missouri Department of Conservation and the Conservation Federation of Missouri sponsor the Share the Harvest program, which helps fight hunger by allowing hunters to donate their deer meat to approved meat processors. The meat is then distributed to several food banks and local food pantries and given to those in need.

According to Missouri Department of Conversation, hunters had a good harvest in the urban firearms deer hunting season, which took place from Oct. 5 - 8.

This year’s urban deer hunt had a harvest of more than 1,100 deer statewide, almost double the figure from last year.

Joel Porath, wildlife regional supervisor for the Missouri Department of Conservation, said because the urban season is so short, the harvest is almost exclusively tied to weather.

The Missouri Conservation Department says it has been getting reports of hundreds of dead deer around the state.

The agency says the deer appear to have fallen victim to hemorrhagic disease, which is spread by the bites of the small midge fly.

As of mid-September, the department had received reports of about 2,800 dead deer, with the disease being the suspected cause.

The department says outbreaks of hemorrhagic disease tend to increase during droughts, when deer and flies both congregate near the diminished number of watering spots.

Campfires once again will be allowed at Missouri conservation areas, thanks to rain from the remnants of Tropical Storm Isaac this Labor Day weekend.

The Missouri Department of Conservation had issued a fire ban in June for its public properties because of the hot, dry summer.

But the department has now lifted that burn ban for all of the nearly 1,000 conservation areas that it manages. The agency says there may be some parts of the state that did not receive as much rain from recent storm, but it believes the fire danger will be reduced enough to lift the ban.

The Missouri Department of Conservation has been working to rid its lands around the state of feral hogs.