Missouri Department of Conservation

Only a few decades ago, it wasn't unusual to see fields of rocks in the Ozarks or acres upon acres of broomsedge, that indicator of worn-out land. Today, fields of bare rocks are rare, and broomsedge have largely been replaced with improved pastures. Wildfires are nowhere nearly as common as they were, and reforestation cloaks hills that were formerly cut, goated and burned.

On the first day of July 1937, E. Sydney Stephens was confronted with the necessity of coming up with some sort of organization. Amendment NO. 4 had passed by a sizable majority, indicating that the public was ready for a nonpolitical, scientifically-based wildlife and forestry program. But how do you go about starting one?

Bode had one trained wildlife biologist, Harold V. Terrill, who had been hired by Ramsey in September. He needed more biologists to get some sort of wildlife program going, and he needed someone to head up a forestry program. Both he and Stephens shared a dream of improving the position of the game warden by giving him a larger role in the management of wildlife and forests. That needed organization and personnel.

In November of 1941, Irwin T. Bode had officially completed four years as director. He brought this fact up at the January 1942, Commission meeting and was given a vote of confidence and reappointed for another four year term.

William E. Towell became the Department's second director in 1957. A native of St. James, Towell's achievements included streamlining the Department's administration and locating all sections and divisions under one roof for the first time.

Larry Gale took the oath of office February 1, 1979, swearing to uphold the constitution and serve conservation.

All thirteen fisheries employees listed in 1937 worked in hatcheries. In fact, for the first two years the entire fisheries program of new Conservation Commission consisted hatching and releasing fish, plus some fish-rescue work. It was the program inherited from the old Fish and Game Department.

In any fish and wildlife department, protection or law enforcement has always been one of the basic management tools. The enforcement division usually has the most manpower, and in many places law enforcement was the major activity of the department until modern fish and game management came to the front in the 1930s.

To an organization like the Department of Conservation, a good public information program is a vital part of its overall aim, because public knowledge and support is necessary for any other program to succeed. This is even more true of an agency born of initiative, because citizens take a proprietary interest in their creation.

Prior to 1937, the amount of funding for the Fish and Game Department from sportsmen's fees depended on how much the legislature saw fit to appropriate. The legislature also stipulated how much could be spent on each function of the Department. Any unexpended funds reverted to the general revenue fund.

When the Department began operations in 1937, no one was designated to handle personnel management responsibilities. Each division, and often each supervisor, shouldered the duties.

As early as 1942, the Forestry Division recognized a need for services that were later to become duties of the Operations Section. State Forester George O. White hired Robert F. Wells, a former U. S. Forest Service employee and CCC foreman, to do construction work.

Browse this gallery of MDC Commissioners from the first 50 years.

The story of conservation in Missouri is told pictorially by the murals of Charles W. Schwartz which grace the foyer of Department headquarters in Jefferson City. These murals trace the history of the fish, forest and wildlife resources of the state from the pristine conditions of 1700 through the era of settlement and exploitation to present conservation efforts.

Chronology Part II details events related to Missouri wildlife and forests and the Department of Conservation from 1969-1986.