Outdoor News
Bakersfield’s track relay team competed at sectionals last week, and while they didn’t advance to state, the team did achieve a personal record. Shown are Nathan Watlington, Gaige Samuels, Coach Tammy Lamb, Jacob Watlington, Brooks Amburgy, Amani Kowiti and assistant Kurt Watlington.
As of Thursday, Aug. 4, the latest data available, Ozark County was designated as a D2 (severe drought) designation. Updated maps can be found at droughtmonitor.unl.edu.
The University of Missouri Extension office in Gainesville is hosting a free upcoming seminar titled ‘drought and your farm’ from noon to 4:30 p.m. Thursday, Aug. 25. Attendees are required to pre-register before Monday, Aug. 22. When residents call to pre-register details on the seminar's location...
Carol Cooper is pictured here with a monarch that she helped raise from an egg laid on her milkweed plants in her front yard last year. Cooper regularly brings eggs in after they’re laid and provides a controlled environment where the insects have less predator pressure. She releases full grown Monarchs after they hatch.
Gainesville resident Carol Cooper says she’s been checking her blooming milkweed everyday, but the lack of Monarch larva on the plants is making for a disappointing summer.
“No Monarchs. No eggs yet,” she told the Times last week, adding that in past years she’d helped to raise the Monarchs who...
The eagle had what would be the equivalent as a dislocated elbow in a human, Kiger says. The bird was able to be rehabilitated at the zoo, and Kiger released the eagle near the location where it was found.
By Jerry Kiger, MDC
Ozark County conservation agent
On May 24, I received a call about an injured bald eagle here in Ozark County.
I went to the area where the caller told me the eagle was and found it lying on the ground just inside the fence in a cow pasture. As I started getting everything...
Winners in the Pontiac spearfishing tournament held June 18 on Bull Shoals Lake were, from left: first place Regan Blackburn, second place Lola Wade and third place, Scott Gunzenhauser.
Regan Blackburn, an 11-year-old girl from Pontiac, swept the competition in the June 18 annual spearfishing tournament held in Bull Shoals Lake at Pontiac Cove Marina with a whopping 14 pound 15 ounce catfish.
Regan completed her certification to scuba dive last May when she was 10. She is the...
Gainesville resident Mike Ellison killed this 5x6 bull elk Oct. 19 while hunting on public land in Shannon County.
Gainesville resident Mike Ellison made Missouri hunting history last month, earning the title as the only Ozark Countian and one of fewer than 10 Missouri residents to kill an elk in the state within the last century.
“I’m grateful for the opportunity,” Ellison told the Times, talking about the Oct...
MDC is hosting a hunter education skills session at Gainesville High School on Saturday, Oct. 2.
The Missouri Department of Conservation will host a hunter education class at 8 a.m. Saturday, Oct. 2, in the Gainesville High School community room (the former library).
To be eligible for the class, students must be at least 11 years old on the date of class. Participants must register online. To...
Editor’s note: W. Kim Sexton is a retired third-generation newspaper editor and publisher who still handles investigations of his choice. This story completes his goal of visiting the site of a Missouri fishing record on the date of its diamond anniversary.
A diamond anniversary sparkled in the...
Photo courtesy Jeff Girdner Gene Guilkey of Liberty harvested this 6x7 bull elk on public land in Shannon County Dec. 16, 2020, during Missouri’s first elk-hunting season, which ended Dec. 20. Four other hunters who were drawn for permits were also successful in harvesting elk during the season. Missouri’s second year of elk seasons will be Oct. 16-24 (archery) and Dec. 11-19 (firearms).
Five permits for hunting bull elk will be issued for Missouri’s second annual elk-hunting season in 2021. At least one permit will be for qualifying area landowners with the remainder for the general public.
The Missouri Department of Conservation has designated a nine-day archery portion running...
Spring fishing is well under way on Bull Shoals Lake. To say it’s predictable or consistent is not really accurate right now. The fish should be migrating toward the banks, but they can’t seem to make up their minds, which is keeping our local anglers guessing a little bit. We expect it to get...