Projects

The Missouri Department of Conservation (MDC) has developed a Bat Habitat Conservation Plan (HCP) to address the potential for covered forest management activities to cause incidental take of five listed or otherwise at-risk bat species over a period of 50 years. The plan covers Indiana, gray, northern long-eared, little brown, and tricolored bats. 

The primary goal of the MDC Bat HCP is to obtain authorization for incidental take of the five covered species for specific management and monitoring activities as administered by MDC. 

The Missouri Ozark Forest Ecosystem Project (MOFEP) is a long-term, landscape-level experiment measuring the living (i.e. birds, plants, trees) and non-living (i.e. soil, water, weather) parts of a forested ecosystem. MOFEP provides science-based information to forest managers so they may employ management practices that ensure healthy and sustainable forest, fish and wildlife resources while also providing opportunities to all citizens to use, enjoy and learn about their forest resource.

This project determines the effects of forest management on small mammal composition, species richness, and relative abundance in Missouri Ozark oak-hickory forests.
MDC is conducting research to determine the growth rate and size of the black bear population and to also examine bear habitat use and movement patterns.

The MDC Deer Program surveys deer hunters to gauge public opinion regarding deer numbers and management strategies and for indicators of deer population trends in each county. We greatly appreciate the responses we receive which help make our surveys an effective management tool! 

Our surveys ask questions about