This year I have been visiting conservation areas looking for new plants for my Dent County Flora project. Missouri is special having so many of them.
Since I do my plant research only in Dent County, I looked up the conservation areas in the county. To my surprise, there were seven of them.
ShawneeMac Lakes
I have long been familiar with this conservation area. It is on the edge of town and popular for fishing, hiking and picnicking. The parking areas are large, the trails nice and the archery range is used.
There are several plants there I do not find at home. Much of the time the trails are quiet as they go around the two lakes with a loop through the woods.
Gerhild and Graham Brown
I found out about this conservation area by accident. It isn’t very large, but is a nice place to visit. I’ve found some new plants here too.
The other thing I’ve found out is how rarely some of these places are visited or maintained. There is a small parking lot. Sometime this spring someone ran a bush hog down to make a hiking trail. It is now growing up which is fine with me as I find several plants easy to photograph there.
Visiting Conservation Areas
I’ve asked around. Many of these areas have very few visitors. Some have trails, some have rutted roads, some have nothing. Most have visitors only during hunting season.
Perhaps I understand why few people go visiting conservation areas in rural areas. I spend most of my hiking time near home as I have lots of land to look over. And city people seem unwilling to go off into wild areas unless they look like city parks.
The media is full of warnings about ticks. I pick up a few, especially when I forget to spray up more than my pant legs.
People are afraid of snakes. I rarely even glimpse one. Besides, snakes are our first line of defense against ticks as they eat the rodents supporting the population.
Reason for Concern
This year the conservation/state park sales tax comes up for renewal. It isn’t much, only a penny on eight dollars spent.
Conservation areas are great places to visit. Perhaps, if more of us used them, there would be more trails. But, without the sales tax, there won’t be these places.
Please vote Yes on Proposition 1. Then go visiting conservation areas and find out what makes them and Missouri special.
