FINS, FEATHERS AND FUR

POPLAR BLUFF -- Congressman Bill Emerson (R-Cape Girardeau) will join state Rep. Mark Richardson of Poplar Bluff Tuesday as guest speakers at the Southeast Missouri Friends of the National Rifle Association banquet and auction.

Emerson will discuss national issues concerning people's right to own guns.

More than 350 people are expected to meeting, to be held at the Poplar Bluff Elks Lodge.

Tickets to the banquet area $20 each. Additional information is available by calling (314)-785-2545 or 785-6627.

The Missouri firearms deer season will get under way Nov. 13.

The Conservation Commission has established dates for the nine-day firearms deer season in Missouri for Nov. 13-21.

Deer hunters using muzzleloaders will have a split season, Nov. 13-21, and Dec. 4-12.

Archery deer and turkey seasons, which started Oct. 1, will run through Nov. 12, and from Nov. 22 through Dec. 31.

Last year's firearms deer harvest was up 1 percent, with 148,764 deer taken.

Conservation officials say a record harvest is possible in 1993.

The Frank Bellrose Waterfowl Reserve was dedicated recently.

The 2,100 acres, located southwest of Perks in Pulaski County along the Cache River, within sight of Interstate 576, was added to the Cypress Creek National Refuge.

Officials say about 350 acres of the addition is of good to excellent quality native swamp and bottomland forest. the rest of the land has been cleared and must be restored.

Restoration efforts involve two volunteer organizations Ducks Unlimited and the Nature Conservancy and the Illinois Department of Conservation and U.S. Fish land Wildlife Service.

The new area will be managed by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.

PEORIA, Ill. Flying arrows may join planes on the grounds of the Greater Peoria Regional Airport.

Airport manager Ron Burling told the Airport Authority board Wednesday that the airport has authority from the Illinois Department of Conservation to allow hunters to "harvest" the problem deer herd during the hunting season.

Only bow hunters are allowed, and only in areas specified by the airport during the season in November and early December.

"The deer population out here is so great we can't control it by ourselves," Burling said. "Since last fall we've harvested 16 animals and still have a herd out there."

Airport safety officers have authority to kill deer only when they invade the airfield. They use a shotgun with scope.

The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers will start collecting recreation user fees at many of its day use areas, starting with the 1994 recreation season.

Fees will be charged for the use of beaches, picnic areas, boat launching maps and other day use areas.

MACON Anglers in northern Missouri soon will be able to catch hybrid striped bass closer to home.

The Missouri Department of Conservation (MDC) recently released 49,000 of the voracious predators at Thomas Hill Reservoir southwest of Macon.

The fish still are too small to provide fishing action, according to Devona Weirich, MDC fisheries management biologist. She said the fish were an average two inches long when released in June. However, they are expected to grow rapidly, reaching weights of 4 to 6 pounds within three years. By then, some should have reached the 20-inch minimum length limit MDC has set for hybrids.

"Hybrids are a cross between white bass, which are native to Missouri streams, and ocean-going striped bass," said Weirich.

The current state record for hybrid striped bass is 20.5 pounds, so they have real trophy potential."