Category Archives: Missouri

Missouri to Ban Porous-Bottomed Waders

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On March 1, 2012 a Missouri Conservation Commission rule banning the use of — not just felt-soled waders, but all porous-soled waders and footwear will take effect.In a press release, the Missouri Department of Conservation (MDC) defines the ban as including “waders or footwear incorporating or having attached a porous sole of felted, matted, or woven fibrous material.”

The rule is stll subject to a public comment period through that state’s Secretary of State’s office.

“Porous-soled waders and wading boots, worn by many trout anglers, appear to be a likely pathway for the spread of didymo,” MDC Fisheries Biologist Mark VanPatten explains in the release. Didymo is an invasive algae that, in some rivers, grows so thick that fish must move elsewhere, and the small creatures they feed on suffocate. Swimming and boating become unpleasant, if not impossible.

“The soles hold moisture for days and can harbor cells of this alga,” VanPatten is quoted as saying in the release. “Individual cells cannot be seen with the naked eye and only a single cell is needed to establish a stream-killing colony. Anglers who visit waters with didymo can, unknowingly, transfer these cells to the next stream they visit.”

Read the release from the Missouri Department of Conservation here.

This article from the Springfield News-Leader merely condenses the press release.

Photo: This is didymo, but it’s not in Missouri, which so far remains didymo-free. It’s been used to illustrate didymo stories for years, but this time it’s courtesy of the Missouri Department of Conservation.

Love, Lizards and Prescribed Burns

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Alan Templeton, a scientist at Washington University in St. Louis, has been studying collared lizards for decades and has been in love with them since he was a teenager. He found that the lizards only survive as far east as Missouri in an unusual fire-dependent ecosystem. But after a population decline, prescribed burns on these ecosystems didn’t help the lizard’s recovery much. It took landscape-level burns to get the ecosystem back in working order so the lizards could thrive.

Templeton’s paper on the lizard study is on the cover of the journal Ecology this month. 

Read the story from Washington University here.

Read the original press release from Washington University here.

Read the paper in the journal Ecology. (Free access.)

Banning felt waders

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Maryland, Vermont, and Alaska are the first states to ban felt-bottomed fishing waders in an effort to slow the spread of the algae known as didymo, and other invasive species. (Well, the Alaskan ban doesn’t take effect until next year, but it is on the books.)

Idaho and Oregon tried to ban felt waders, but the legislation didn’t pass, reports this USA Today story on the wader ban. Nevada will consider a ban as part of an invasive species plan, the article says.

Missouri has taken another route. It is using wader washers at the state’s four trout parks. Read all about it in the Missouri Department of Conservation press release. Info about the wader wash stations is half-way down, below the list of phone numbers. One Ozark skeptic opines here, but gives many more details about Missouri’s attempt to slow didymo by educating anglers.

Photo: What’s on your waders? A biologist conducts a fisheries survey in Wyoming. Courtesy US Fish and Wildlife Service

Are you missing a mountain lion?

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Chesterfield, MO

Are you missing a mountain lion? Missouri has it. Sort of.

There have been six confirmed mountain lion sightings in Missouri since November. One of the mountain lions, photographed on a trail camera in December, appears to be wearing a radio collar with a VHF antenna. While that suggests the mountain lion’s participation in a tracking study, Missouri Department of Conservation resource scientist Jeff Beringer has not been able to find the researcher who collared it.

“I have made a lot of calls to other states trying to identify that animal, but so far my only lead is a missing, collared, sub-adult male from Utah. That would be one heck of a move – but not impossible,” said Beringer in a recent press release.

Two of the other Missouri mountain lions were shot by hunters. Their DNA has been tested, and shows that they are from either the Black Hills of South Dakota or from northwestern Nebraska, which are the two closest wild populations of mountain lions to Missouri. There was no evidence that the animals had been held in captivity. Those mountain lions were young and male, which is consistent with the department’s theory that these animals are traveling into Missouri from their home areas. Young male mountain lions are known to travel long distances in search of their own territory.

Linn County, MO

Much more information is available from the Missouri Department of Conservation. It includes the press release with information about the DNA results (in the middle of the page, after the DNA results from a Great Lakes wolf found in the state).And background information on mountain lion sightings in the state, including a map.

Photos: Courtesy Missouri Department of Conservation. The Linn County animal is the one with the radio collar. Go to the original photo accompanying the press release for a closer view.