Missouri soon may allow hunting of black bears

Missouri has deer season, quail season and turkey season, among others. Soon, hunters may find themselves with the chance to participate in black-bear season.

This was one of a number of possibilities Missouri Department of Conservation deputy director Aaron Jeffries discussed at the First Friday Coffee event hosted by the Cape Girardeau Area Chamber of Commerce. The event was delayed by a week because of the Labor Day weekend.

Jeffries outlined the history of the agency, formed in 1936, and how it is funded. The organization’s budget largely is made up of revenue from the conservation sales tax, which makes up 60 percent of the budget; permit sales, 18 percent; and federal reimbursements, 20 percent.

The rest, Jeffries said, comes from timber harvests and permitting farming on conservation areas.

Jeffries discussed the agency’s return on investment. As residents pay the tax that supports much of the agency, the MDC in return supports the hunting, fishing and outdoor recreation industries.

“Those industries support 100,000 jobs here in the state,” Jeffries said, and generate over $12 billion. “One out of every four tourism dollars in the state is related to [those industries].”

The Department of Conservation has seen a number of successes in recent years, from quail recovery to elk preservation. That these native species can thrive again in Missouri, he said, is proof the environment is growing stronger.

Black bear, too, have been making their way back into Missouri’s landscape, and the agency is tracking them. If the black-bear population reaches over 500, the agency may propose a black-bear hunting season.

“If you look back to the 1930s, our Ozarks were completely cut over. Today, they’re healthy enough to support black bears, deer, wild turkey and a number of other wild species,” Jeffries said. “To me, that’s a total success to see black bears return to the state.”

But the agency faces challenges, particularly with feral hogs. Those hogs, Jeffries said, initially were introduced to the landscape for hunting purposes, and the population began to become established.

“If you have hogs in the area, you no longer have deer or turkey. You’re not going to be able to hay your fields. You’re not going to be able to raise your corn crop,” Jeffries said.

So the department’s staff is working to eradicate the feral hogs. It has eliminated 3,600 hogs this year — as many as were eliminated in all of 2015.

“So we’ve already had success,” Jeffries said.

While some species are taking over certain landscapes, others threaten to disappear. Chronic-wasting disease threatens deer herds in Missouri and other states, Jeffries said. The Department of Conservation hopes to procure samples from 20,000 deer over the next hunting season to understand where the disease can be found in the state.

Some flora, too, are facing threats as well. Emerald ash borer, an exotic Asian beetle, is wiping out Missouri’s ash trees. Thousand cankers disease, while not yet in Missouri, may threaten the state’s walnut timber industry.

“What we’re seeing in other states like Tennessee and a few others is, once it becomes established, it’s nearly impossible to eradicate,” Jeffries said.

Jeffries said the agency relies heavily on partnerships with people, businesses, communities and organizations to keep their mission going.

“We’ve had a lot of success as a department and as the state of Missouri because of resident involvement and resident participation,” Jeffries said.

The challenges the agency faces, he said, are opportunities to increase that involvement.

“We cannot rest on our laurels or past successes,” Jeffries said. “There are new opportunities and new threats every day.”

bbrown@semissourian.com

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