Longtime Radio Personality Marv Luten interviews guests, shares community updates, National and Local sports and more. The Marv in the Morning Podcast is a production of O’Quinn Media.
For guest or sponsorship opportunities, email tracy@oquinnmarketing.com or marvinthemorning53@gmail.com
— Automated Transcript —
**Intro**
Welcome to the Marv in the Morning Podcast. Now, here’s Marv.
**Podcast Opening**
Welcome to another episode of the Marv in the Morning Podcast on the Fort Not Lost in the Woods podcast site. Brought to you by Free Brothers Meat Company at Link Creek, Bailes Construction, the Bank of Crocker, Paul’s Furniture, Shelter Insurance Agent Dave Hallot of Richland, St. Robert Auto Supply, Sieger Toyota, the Pulaski County Health Center, STR Glass of St. Robert, VFW Post 3168 of Laquoy and TK’s Pizza.
Well, it’s been hot, humid, and mostly dry in this 8th month of the year and word came last week July was the hottest it’s been in the country since the Dust Bowl days back in the 1930s. Our July was really not all that bad, but August has picked up where July left off. The grass has turned brown and crackly with no or very little moisture coming from above.
It’s been the first week or so of summer I have not been on the lawn mower sometime during the duration cutting the grass. Our lawn did get some water due to my wife trying to save her gardens and continue with the veggies growing, but that’s come to a slow roar recently even with the garden hoses going. This is the time of the year when asking people what’s your favorite season. Many say fall or autumn is their favorite because they’re flat tired of the relentless heat and humidity. Hang tight. Things are going to change. Not sure when, but fall is on its way. And so is the Labor Day holiday the first weekend in September and that’s just 10 or so days away as we drop this week’s episode.
It has been a rather crappy week at the farm. Even though I have not used the lawn mowers, I have been on tractors and there is the problem this time around. I was hauling my last rounds of hay last week. Yes, it’s too late, but because of the June and July rains, the hay was cut a little later than normal. I had two more loads to get and planned on getting that last Saturday.
I did the second round last Wednesday, had podcast duties Thursday and Friday. So, I jumped in the truck Saturday, headed over to the fields where the hay was, loaded up the first of one of two trips, returned to my farm, got out of the truck and headed for the tractor only to see one of my front tires was flat. Bummer.
Not many tire shops to fix flats are open on the weekend. After removing the tire, I headed into town and found one that was open. They got me in, took the tube out, checked it, put in a new stem, which they said was the problem. I headed home. But it was about 1:00 or 2:00 in the afternoon and the sun was beating down. My SUV said it was 101, and I decided to wait until Sunday morning early to put the tire back on. I don’t do well in extreme heat anymore.
Got after it about 7:00 AM Sunday. Checked the tire in the back of my pickup truck where it was as flat as it was when I put it in there the day before, and now it’s Sunday. Nothing getting done that day. So it was back to the grind Monday trying to find a tube for a tractor and getting the tire repaired. Well, I can tell you that did happen. I wasn’t sure it was going to, but right now I’m pretty disgusted with farming and I’m not the best mechanic when it comes to fixing things. So that enhances the problem. The song don’t worry, be happy does not apply. By the way, I did get the hay done.
Back to DC, we go this week and I’ll keep this short. Our president and head of the War Department are in the news again side by side. I was watching some of the Sunday morning news shows last week instead of getting the last of the hay taken care of due to those tractor headaches and news came on the sailors on the USS Lincoln, which is deployed in the Mideast and has now been for almost 300 days with no port calls because in the Mideast, US soldiers are not safe anywhere. The aircraft carrier is now headed home and will be replaced by another one. But the comments made by the president and the Secretary of War are far from what the families of these sailors wanted to hear.
There is still no indication this war or conflict with Iran is going to end anytime soon. So the price of gas and groceries are going to remain high. The more pressing news coming out of Washington, DC now is the progress of the East Wing renovations and other BS that has nothing to do with the economy and ending this war with the Iranians.
**Guest Interview: Casey Simmons**
**Marv:** Today on the podcast, we visit with one of our conservation agents Casey Simmons, who was involved in the water rescue operations that went on in mid-July in the small town of Lesterville about two hours southwest of St. Louis when 12 inches of rain fell in a short period of time in a place where the terrain is filled with hills, valleys and small creeks and streams that turned into one huge lake. We’ll also talk about the upcoming hunting seasons, which are coming up quickly. It’s lengthy, but very interesting, especially the rescue operations in Southeast Missouri. Casey will join us next.
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**VFW Post 3168 Ad**
Meet you at the V. Is a popular saying in our neck of the woods, and for a good reason! VFW Post 3168 at Exit 150 off I-44 is a popular place, especially on Friday and Saturday night because it’s steak night from 4:00 to 9:00 where folks come from miles around to get some of the best steaks at a price that makes even the most thrifty smile. With several cuts of juicy steaks cooked the way you like, complimented by salad, baked potato, and a veggie. Their canteen is open Monday through Thursday from 3:00 to midnight, and Friday from 3:00 to 1:00. And they open at noon on Saturday and Sundays. Their kitchen is open from 5:00 to 9:00, Mondays through Thursdays with daily specials. And did I mention steak nights, Fridays and Saturdays, and there’s karaoke Tuesdays through Saturdays from 8:00 to close? Plenty of TVs to catch up on all the big games and a huge meeting room for rent for your special occasions. Queen of Hearts runs every Tuesday and check out their website for Bingo nights and every second Saturday of the month from 12:00 noon to 3:00 PM, they host a Veteran Service Officer event. Lake Way VFW Post 3168 Exit 150 off I-44. See why more people are heading to the V every day!
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**Marv:** On the podcast today, another visit with Conservation Agent Casey Simmons of the Missouri State Conservation Department, who has taken some time to join us today. We’re going to talk a little bit about some hunting regulations because that season is coming up. Thanks for being here, buddy.
**Casey:** Yeah, glad to be here.
**Marv:** Another round of you and I shooting the breeze and talking about what’s coming up, but before we ever get to all the hunting stuff because it’s going to be a busy time of the year come September the 1st. You were involved in probably something that you’ve trained for, but hoped that you never had to use back in mid-July. Uh, July the 10th. What were you doing that morning? Do you remember?
**Casey:** Well, when I first got the call, I was, I was actually at home prepping some stuff on the computer and I honestly wasn’t 100% privy to what was going on until I got a, uh, first an email and then a few text messages and then the phone just kind of blew up with, you know, the devastation that was occurring over there in and, uh, uh, in Reynolds County and and parts of Iron County over there.
**Marv:** They got 12 inches of rain in what, um,
**Casey:** I don’t even know. It was a very short time frame and it was, it was devastating to that whole community.
**Marv:** And if you’ve ever been to Lesterville, Lesterville is over by Elephant Rocks State Park, Johnson’s Shut-ins State Park, Tom Sock Mountain, which is a hydroelectric power plant, and a lot of hills, a lot of valleys in that neck of the woods. It is very rough.
**Casey:** It’s rough. Tom Sock’s the highest point in Missouri, you know, um, there’s some really steep places and some really deep draws and it’s, it’s, it’s about as rough a terrain as you’re going to find.
**Marv:** Yeah, we think it, we have it hilly here. It is nothing like it is over in Lesterville, which by the way made the national news because I was watching it and they said Lesterville, Missouri. I said, Oh man, I used to hang out there.
**Casey:** I’m familiar with that.
**Marv:** You’re very familiar with it. Went to a church camp in Arcadia when I was a young kid, visited Elephant Rocks and they call them Elephant Rocks for a reason. They are huge, huge rocks.
**Casey:** Yeah, if folks around here have that are listening have never been there, um, I’ve talked to a number of folks over the years that, you know, they’ve heard of it, but they just never ventured over there and, uh, you know, it’s worth the drive going over there to see. It’s completely free, you know, it’s from here, it’s probably a to Elephant Rocks, it’s about a two-hour drive, you know, maybe just a little over two hours. It’s a great place, I mean, as an adult to see it, but if you want to take a place for kids to have a ball. The Elephant Rocks are just that. They’re rocks the size of elephants and they’re not big, some, I mean, some of them have jagged edges, but they’re amazingly, you know, round and, uh, it just, it, it doesn’t fit anything else on the landscape that we certainly that we see around here for sure.
**Marv:** And Johnson’s Shut-ins, they’ve got a lot of rocks there where parts of the St. Francis River rolls through it and you can sit under a rock and get soaked by the water. And again, these are state parks. Both Elephant Rocks and Johnson’s Shut-ins. So, again, uh, doesn’t cost you a whole lot to go and really get wet and enjoy a day, but 12 inches of rain in that area in a short period of time sent you and I, how many other,
**Casey:** Oh, goodness. I don’t, I don’t,
**Marv:** departments were involved in this rescue?
**Casey:** Yeah, a lot. Um, we were contacted by, uh, Sema, which is the state Emergency Management Agency, Highway Patrol, and then ultimately once, once I got down there, um, I think there was probably, uh, five or six of us, uh, in our region, conservation agents that initially responded, but we ultimately ended up having probably, I don’t know, 10 or 12 that by the end of the day, uh, but you know, power was out in Lesterville. And so they actually had to move their, their kind of their base of operations, their command post, all the way to Ironton just to have a facility that was suitable to kind of, you know, make sure that everything was running smoothly. And, uh, when I got there, I was, I, it was, I was kind of taken back because there was, I mean, there was, there was people rolling in, fire departments and, uh, law enforcement agencies from as far away as Branson and St. Charles, and I’m just all over the state. And so to say how many agencies were involved, I, I honestly don’t know. I mean, I bet it was from what I saw on Friday, probably, 30 to 40, and that’s probably low, honestly. Uh, there was a lot of, of first responders of, of some type there. Uh, both from, you know, a rescue standpoint to law enforcement, uh, medical, and it was all needed. Fortunately, we had more people, more, uh, first responders there than, um, we could even utilize, but that was a good thing, you know, it wasn’t like we were suffering for, um, handling calls, you know, uh, there was, there was plenty of resources there.
**Marv:** And there’s a lot of camps down there and we saw what happened down in Texas a while back where they, what was it, the Guadalupe River, I think, came up and took the lives of 25, 26 girls at a campsite. There’s a lot of campsites down in there. Of course, the state park, a lot of campers down there and everybody was caught off guard.
**Casey:** Yeah, you know, and there was a, um, I forget the name of the, the camp itself, but, uh, I think one part of that that made the, the news was, you know, fortunately they were able to get a lot of those campers, those young campers out from low ground and they were able to get them up to high ground, uh, up near Tomsock Lake. However, you know, with, with the rising waters and the conditions, you know, blocking roadways, they were safe where they were at, but they weren’t easily accessible as time went on. And so that’s where the National Guard came in and pretty amazing when you’ve got, you know, uh, an emergency like that, how quickly resources are available and agencies can work together. There’s times where, you know, efficiency may suffer at times, you know, but it did not that day. I was, I was extremely impressed.
**Marv:** Kind of like the government, the left hand don’t know what the right hand’s doing.
**Casey:** It can happen, you know, for real. And, but, you know, they, they were able to evacuate all of those, um, those campers and the adults that were with them, uh, safely and they brought them back to Ironton and they were able to reunite them with their families and, um, you know, over the course of the next few days, um, you know, there was multiple people that were that suffered loss, unfortunately, you know, uh, we’re, we’re very lucky, it wasn’t more tragic than it was, you know, there was, there was lots of property loss, loss of human life was, uh, on the very low end and that and we’re certainly thankful for that.
**Marv:** So when you pulled up down there, what did you do immediately? Were you in contact with central command per se and where to go and,
**Casey:** Yeah, I’d been given some direction through our, you know, our chain of command as to who to, who to talk to and, um, truthfully when I arrived, I didn’t get there till probably, um, I don’t know, noon, somewhere in there. Once I got there, I mean, everything was already in place. A lot of things that, you know, the, the initial catastrophes had mostly been handled. There was just a few, uh, immediate calls for service that were needed that needed to be handled. And from there, it was more or less, um, just kind of backtracking and making sure that there wasn’t, uh, you know, somebody that, you know, was stranded somewhere that didn’t have access to a phone, um, or some way of reporting, you know, uh, that they needed help, you know, it was more of a, um, a double-check and and kind of a a patrol, you know, to make sure that that, uh, we weren’t leaving somebody out in the, in the wet and flooded areas. So,
**Marv:** So did you rescue anybody?
**Casey:** I did not, I did not. No. When I got there Friday, truthfully, because it, it was just by circumstance. I was the first one to arrive there with one of our swift water boats and, um, shortly thereafter, some a few of our other, uh, agents arrived and, um, most of what I did on Friday as well as even on Sunday was, um, just kind of communicating what efforts were needed, relaying it back to, uh, to our people, both our, our, you know, our administration and then, um, the, the teams that were coming in. Um, we assisted with a variety of things, especially on Saturday. There was, uh, you know, uh, as the water level started to recede, there was, you know, guys with our department and and obviously other departments that were, you know, patrolling the waterways to make sure that there wasn’t people stranded, you know, uh, there was, you know, vehicles underwater, um, basically just making sure that there wasn’t help that was needed, uh, that, that, you know, the resources were unaware of. So, Nathan was involved with, uh, a lot of that on Saturday. On Sunday, I went back and, um, and things were, things were pretty well under control at that point. It was just kind of, uh, Sunday was more or less going back over retracing steps, making sure that there wasn’t, uh, you know, something that got overlooked or, you know, new incidents that needed handled.
**Marv:** This involved some I think like four counties, Crawford, Reynolds, St. Francis, and Iron Counties. All part of the flood waters that came down in Lesterville.
**Casey:** Yep. Yeah. A lot of the, uh, you know, a lot of the news, I think, the news clips that probably made headlines were probably focused more towards, uh, Lesterville, you know, and and, and to Ironton there. Uh, Ironton itself didn’t have really any, you know, there, there’s really not much water right there, but, but that, that area probably received most of the coverage, but, you know, in Crawford County on the Meramec and Huzzah and Courtois, those, um, that water came up extremely quickly. They, uh, lots of the campgrounds, um, in that area were, were evacuated and fortunately, you know, I think folks were able to between the park rangers and Highway Patrol and, and, uh, some of our folks and, and other agencies were able to get folks out of harm’s way, you know, kind of ahead of time and there wasn’t, uh, fortunately, any, uh, more tragedies than than what we’ve seen. So,
**Marv:** And this could have been a lot worse because this is the Ozark National Scenic Waterways. That’s the Courtois, the Huzzah, I think the Jacks Fork, the Current River all involved in that. And Jacks Fork was just a little bit too far south, but the Current River, the Black River, St. Francis River all experienced a lot of water in a short period of time.
**Casey:** Yeah, the Black, Black River and St. Francis especially. And, uh, you know, there were, there were some people on the river floating that day, but fortunately, it was, you know, it wasn’t on a, a Saturday, you know, at least when it the initial flood occurred. And so, I think we got lucky there, you know, had that occurred on a over overnight on a Friday, there would have been more people out there and that amount of water, that wall of water that comes with that amount of rainfall so quickly, you know, it could have been much more tragic.
**Marv:** Yeah, you take a look at the Current River. There’s like, I don’t know how many canoe outfitters are on the Current River, but it’s at least 10 times what we have here along the Big Piney.
**Casey:** Oh, by far, yeah, just number of outfitters and then just the sheer number of people that they put on the water at each, you know, at each outfitter. And, um, both on the current and, you know, some on the Jacks Fork, uh, right there mainly centered around Eminence upstream and and, and and down to some degree. Um, but in Crawford County, you know, I mean, honestly, the, the largest number, the, the outfitters that are the biggest, uh, if you were to look at a, if you were to take a glance on a, on a summer weekend, uh, what area of the state probably has the most, uh, floaters on the water on a Saturday per capita. I mean, it’s, uh, Crawford County takes it hands down, you know, uh, probably because it’s the closest place to St. Louis, but there’s, you know, the infrastructure is there, the, the outfitters are there. Um, there’s, there’s literally thousands of people on the river every, every weekend and even, you know, their numbers that kind of dwindle during the week, uh, certainly probably exceed what we would consider a busy weekend on the river here in Pulaski County. Even though we’ve got, you know, we’ve got a few outfitters on the Gasconade and, of course, on the Big Piney. I guess it, it, it depends on your, your point of view, but we, we’re fairly fortunate in that, that we don’t have those big crowds all the time here. We have some busy weekends, don’t get me wrong, but, but if you were to compare it to, you know, that section of the Meramec, it, it’s, it’s, it pales in comparison.
**Marv:** When I was living in St. Louis, we went one time on the Current River. One time and I said, never again. Way too many people. So we started driving a little farther and came down here to the Big Piney.
**Casey:** Yeah, you know, and,
**Marv:** And enjoyed it a lot more in our neck of the woods.
**Casey:** The fishing’s better in my opinion, you know, uh, here. I think just because you don’t have, uh, well, one, I mean, it it depends on which section of the river you’re in, but, but overall, we have really good habitat here and, you know, you get that many people on the river consistently, you know, it, it is going to impact, um, maybe not the health of a fish population if, if things are kept in check such as littering and, you know, what have you, but, um, but just that disturbance overall, you know, if even on the, you know, say the upper Big Piney where we have great habitat and really excellent fishing, um, you go on a Saturday behind, um, a large group of floaters, you know, where there’s a busy weekend. Fishing can be a little bit slow just because the water gets stirred up and lots of disturbance there, you know, but, uh, yeah, it’s, the Current River, you know, if if folks aren’t aware, um, Montauk State Park, you know, the, the trout park. Um, it basically starts there in Dent County and then runs all the way down into Arkansas. It runs through, uh, out of Dent, through Shannon, um, down into Ripley County. Um, and then of course, the Jacks Fork starts, starts actually in east, southeastern Texas County and then runs, um, runs east, uh, over into Shannon County and with where it, where it meets up with, with the Current River. And I was on the Current River, uh, earlier this week for several days. In fact, Nathan’s just getting back from there this morning. Uh, we had our training academy, uh, there, the, our class of recruits, uh, they spend, uh, one week on the river, uh, basically running, learning how to operate jet boats and, um, there’s a lot of other things that they get exposed to, trapping and a variety of different things during that week, but, uh, they also get a week at, uh, uh, operating lake boats at a different area, but, um, we do most of our training for, uh, for the academy on the, on the Current River. And it’s, it’s a, it’s a beautiful river. The water is clearer than it is here. Um, depending on where you’re at, it’s typically a little bit cooler, you know, there’s stretches of the Piney or Gasconade where in the summertime, the water temperatures can, can get pretty warm. Um, it, it stays fairly steady because of the springs that we have, but they have a, a, a lot more springs that feed into the river there and large springs on the, on the river and it’s, uh, if folks from around here have not ventured over there, it’s not a far drive. I mean, it’s, um, you can be on any portion of that in a couple hours and, um, either float yourself, you know, because there’s a lot of public accesses, especially on that upper end of the, of the Current River where you can, you know, drop one in and and take out just a little bit further down, say Highway 19. But lots of commercial outfitters over there too.
**Marv:** Gorgeous part of Missouri, unless it rains 12 inches in a short period of time, and then it’s not a whole lot of fun. This is not the first rescue you’ve probably been in, is it?
**Casey:** No, um,
**Marv:** I’m sure you’ve been in a few around here because when the river flows here, things happen here too.
**Casey:** Yeah, you know, when we’ve had the, the bigger floods and, uh, I’m trying to think what year that really, the first one was where we had, uh, you know, where the Ruby Doo came up in, in Waynesville there. Um, 2008, maybe somewhere in there. Um, you know, we, we, we’ve been involved with, um, a variety of different duties when it comes to to flood response. And there’s a few of us, myself and Nathan have both, um, been through swift water rescue training. And so, uh, that helps, generally, if, if if we get called out, especially by Sema, the first, um, agents that they’re going to call are, are going to be the ones that have been through swift water rescue. And so it’s, it’s something that I enjoy and, and, and Nathan does too, and it’s it’s a skill that you have to kind of stay on top of, you know. I mean, there’s, there’s certain parts of it that’s just common sense, but, you know, when we train for it, typically, not always, but generally our, our training grounds are down below Pomme de Terre Dam and and in the spring, they’ll tend, they’ll try to hold back water and then we’ll have training days to where they release, um, kind of a, uh, abnormal amount of water so that we have high flow, high water conditions to train in. And I think I went through it, um, that 2005, I don’t know, somewhere in there. Number of years ago. And when we first started, started training there, um, if, if anyone has ever been down below Pomme de Terre Dam, um, it’s, it’s different than Bagnell Dam, you know, Bagnell Dam, if you look at it, there’s multiple gates going across it. Pomme de Terre basically, there’s just like one chute. And it’s, it’s a blasted out rock canal, you know, and there’s one gate at the, at the head of it. And so when they release water, it’s coming out of there in pretty full force. And it’s white, frothy water. When I first went through, since since then, they have actually concreted in the sides of that channel and, and in the lower portion of it anyway. It eventually opens up into the river down below about 100 yards below it. But, um, one of the first exercises that that we did and and the training I went through was actually put on by the, uh, the water patrol at that time. This was back before they merged with the Highway Patrol. Um, we do, we do our own training now, but, but then, I mean, we one of the first exercises was, um, jump in the canal and save yourself going down river. And of course, a lot of us in order to go to this training, you had to pass a swim test. And there was some criteria to, you know, to make sure that you weren’t going to, um, you know, that at least a safe there was a safety, uh, measure taken there. And so it’s a little bit intimidating standing on that wall and then looking at at this white frothy water, you don’t know where the bottom is and, you know, the, the top layer of it is, uh, depending on how many cubic feet per second are coming through there, uh, when you jump down into it, you’re, you’re eventually hitting water that’s got a very strong amount of current to it, but the upper eight to 10 feet or more is just this white froth that you really, it’s, it’s not, it’s water, but you don’t it it’s kind of an environment that you won’t ever experience anywhere else because you don’t have complete control, you know, if you’re swimming in water, if you move your arms or your legs, you can, you, you can kind of dictate which way you’re going. When that froth, it’s kind of like you’re just in dead air space, you know. And so the training itself is, is partially self-rescue and then, uh, we operate, uh, different types of boats going up into that chute, um, and and out of the canal down below. But getting accustomed to how a a a prop boat operates in, uh, you know, drastic water conditions like that, how a jet boat operates, and they, they’d operate a lot differently. And we’ve even taken some of the, you know, mud buddy type motors up in there just to experiment and see what they do. But, um, the boat operation and then the, the final portion of that is more, uh, like high line rescue exercises. And that’s probably the most technical skills that we learn there just because there’s so many different knots and different, uh, pieces of equipment, uh, to create, say a high, a rescue high line. And, and honestly, in my career, um, I’ve only been involved with a couple different situations where some version of that was used. Uh, it doesn’t get used that often, um, at least in my experience here, but we’ve got the skill to, to use it if, if needed. And if folks are interested in seeing what some of that is, there’s some YouTube videos on, on YouTube. You can search, you know, Missouri Swiftwater Rescue Training and there’s a number of different videos out there from our department and the Highway Patrol, Water Patrol, older videos.
**Marv:** I’m sure there’s a lot of people in Lesterville that are thanking you and the rest of the people who came in to help them out.
**Casey:** Oh, sure. It was a, definitely a team effort from everybody that was involved. I mean, we, we played just a very small part in it, you know, but that’s, that’s, that’s the fortunate part is that we have the resources and the ability to, uh, you know, come together at, when a, you know, the, the need is there. And, uh, you know, in, in my career, Sema, especially, um, has advanced a lot as far as, uh, being able to receive their efficiency and being able to receive, uh, the go-ahead from, you know, the governor’s office and, and things move a lot more quickly now than, you know, say 20 years ago. And, uh, I think as, each time that Sema has had to, uh, come into play for different incidents, I think, you know, they learn from it as with anything. And it just makes us, makes the, the entity more efficient and, um, kind of makes us all, um, work together as a team even better each time we have to get deployed.
**Marv:** Teamwork. That’s what it takes.
**Casey:** That’s what it takes.
**Marv:** We’ll be right back with Casey Simmons, Conservation Agent here in Pulaski County, one of our two. And we’re going to talk a little bit about what’s coming up because the Conservation Department’s getting ready to be real busy with the fall hunting seasons knocking on the door. Back after this.
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**Marv:** We’re back with Casey Simmons, one of our conservation agents here in Pulaski County. He, along with Nathan Engle, you’re still the only two here right now, right?
**Casey:** Yeah, we’re the only two and, you know, currently as it sits, um, you know, Aaron Ponder retired last, uh, I guess late last October and, uh, just due to a variety of circumstances, uh, we have yet to have his position filled. Um, we’re hoping to have that done this fall. Uh, so we’ve, I won’t say that we’re a man short, unfortunately. I feel very fortunate that there’s two of us here, you know, because for the longest time it was, it was Aaron and I, but, uh, that, you know, when he left the field years ago to promote, they, they didn’t, uh, his, his, second position here was, was left vacant. And so, um,
**Marv:** And then you were gone for a while in training.
**Casey:** I was gone for a while. Yeah. And so it was just Aaron and, uh, and Nathan. And so, uh, it’s not that we’re, we’ve probably spent an equal amount of time, you know, with, well, truthfully, over the years, I mean, we’ve had this amount of people or less, you know, commonly. Uh, we’ve been fortunate at times to actually have three. And so, depending on who, uh, promotes and gets into that lieutenant, lieutenant position for this area, um, it, you know, it, it, they may not be here in Pulaski County. So there may not be as much presence, you know, um, in the future, but that remains to be seen. So,
**Marv:** Coming up we have, of course, uh, dove season going to start on the 1st of September, and then, of course, archery deer and turkey season on the 15th of September. If my memory serves me correctly, blue tongue, have we had any blue tongue that has popped up here?
**Casey:** You know, not that I’ve, that, that I’m aware of or that has been reported to me, but we’re in that time of year where we’re going to start to see it and would have expected to have seen it. We’ve had, you know, generally with blue tongue, um, when you’ve got really dry conditions, uh, those cases teen, uh, tend to be more, more common, you know, um, when, when deer are congregated to limited water sources, ponds, typically is what we see. Um, the, uh, the way that EHD or, you know, sometimes it’s referred to as blue tongue is, is, um, is spread is through an insect. And, and when deer are congregated in, in smaller areas, it makes it easier for those insects to target the deer. And, um, we’ve not seen it yet that I’ve been that any that’s been reported to me, but, um, it, it could very easily happen, you know. I think we it feels like we’ve had a fairly wet year here, you know. Um, so I wouldn’t expect that it would be a, uh, if if we do have some cases showing up this year, my, I guess prediction would be that it would be pretty limited in, you know, the impact area.
**Marv:** Well, we are recording this in mid-August. And the rivers for mid-August this time of year, they’re looking really nice.
**Casey:** Yeah, we’re, we’re, we’ve been for, you know, the last few years, we’ve been fairly fortunate. I mean, um, the amount of rainfall that we get in, even though we’ve, we’ve had some dry stretches. And you know, you go further south like down towards West Plains. I mean, they’ve had, um, more or less drought conditions for the most part, uh, for the bulk of the summer, but, you know, here we’ve been fortunate enough to to, uh, at least have a decent amount of rainfall, um, and so, obviously that’s that’s translated to our rivers being, uh, at a little bit better level than what you might expect. I can think of years past where, you know, um, especially in mid-July and into early August where, you know, portions of the Gasconade River, you could step across them, you know, I’ve seen it that way a few times and, um, that’s that’s not good for anyone.
**Marv:** No, won’t even get your ankles wet, right in some places. Any changes coming up for the upcoming hunting season?
**Casey:** Uh, there’s, there’s a few changes. Um, you know, the, in regard to CWD, um, it’s a little bit deceiving. Our, uh, if, if folks aren’t aware, the, uh, the new regulation booklet for this fall’s deer and turkey regulations is out. It’s printed. Uh, it should be available certainly at any MDC office or location, but, um, you know, a lot of the vendors, you know, Walmart will have them. Um, and it’s available online. You can go to the website down and, and either look through it there or you can even download a, like a PDF version of it to where you can just flip through it on your phone if you want to or your computer. But, you know, kind of an easy way to look through this booklet is, you know, there’s a lot of material in here. There’s, uh, 72 pages in this booklet. But if you’re kind of wanting to just catch the highlights like the seasons, what’s involved there and, you know, what changes are there, look at the back cover, you know, there’s a, there’s a box at the at the bottom portion of it on the very last page. And it kind of gives a a rundown of, of what has changed. Um, what’s applicable to this area is, um, not too much. So, in regard to CWD here locally, we’re not doing any, any, uh, targeted culling, uh, efforts. Uh, we didn’t this past year, uh, and we, we don’t plan to do that. Instead, in select portions of the state, we’re trying to implement, uh, a program similar to what we, we did try here for one year, a couple years ago in Pulaski and that’s enabling, uh, private land owners, especially that are impacted in those core areas to be able to harvest those deer themselves, you know, legally through tags, uh, during season, you know, And, um, CWD is one of those things that, uh, you know, it, it, it’s hard to reach an agreement by anyone person. Um, it’s, it’s contentious, um, and our approach has always been to try to look at what science is there, try to mitigate the risk and knowing that there’s not clear answers to everything, you know, it’s just that we know that, you know, it is a fatal disease and it long-term if left unchecked, uh, if the prevalence rate reaches a certain level in a population, uh, that population’s going to suffer. And so, kind of what that equates to in simple terms is, you know, if, if, if it’s allowed to go unchecked and it spreads far enough into a population, um, generally above 26% or so, 26 to 40%, um, that population is inevitably going to decline and probably decline rapidly, you know. And so, it’s not something that, the hard part that a lot of folks, I think, look at is, you know, they, they look at what’s out there, you know, it’s, we’ve had CWD regulations for long time, you know, in some capacity across the state. And, um, some of those regulations are, uh, a little bit unpopular, you know, and they, and they feel like, um, they haven’t seen the, the impact of CWD, you know, one of the questions that is naturally asked and I would ask it too if I was just learning about it was, you know, why aren’t we seeing a lot of deer that are dead from CWD? Well, fortunately, because we’ve been monitoring it for a long time, um, we, we have very few areas where the prevalence rate is very, very high. You know, we’ve had it here in Pulaski County. We’ve only had three positive cases. Um, and so the prevalence rate compared to, you know, three positive cases to thousands of deer that have been tested, means it’s really low. And so that’s good, you know, that’s where we want it to, want it to stay. Um, it, it’s largely unpopular just because I think folks, especially in today’s society, we kind of look at like what’s in front of us. Um, CWD is one of those things that, um, if left unchecked, we’re probably not going to see a huge impact of it in the near future. It’s one of those things where the next generation, you know, 10 years, 20 years, 30 years down the road, it’s going to look a lot different. The drastic case of it would be comparing the deer population of Missouri in 1915 to 2015. Uh, our deer population was, was much lower than and, and would it look like that across the board? No, probably not. If totally left unchecked and unregulated, potentially, yeah, maybe it could eventually get there over a long period of time. We’re just trying to mitigate that and and lessen the chances of it, of it spreading unnecessarily.
**Marv:** Well, I will say, I think, uh, you guys have done an outstanding job, uh, putting a lid on it. If you have put a lid on it, so far, looks pretty good. Any extra tags that anybody would be available to get this year?
**Casey:** Uh, through CWD, there are, uh, some programs. I, I don’t have that information in front of me, but there are, as far as tags go, um, the, in the last couple of years, we have really liberated the number of, uh, doe tags that, that hunters, uh, can get. Uh, you’re able to buy four doe tags, uh, which are $7 a piece, $8 a piece. Uh, I think they’re still $7 a piece in addition to your any deer tag, which would be the tag you would use for a buck if you chose to do so. Um, with, for archery hunters, you can purchase an unlimited number of, of doe tags. So, uh, if, if folks are wanting to just harvest deer either, either for, you know, managing a particular tract of land or fill in the freezer or donating it to somebody else. It’s, it’s, you know, you can certainly do it. And you don’t have to go very far. You know, it used to be that, uh, if you wanted to kill a lot of deer, you had to kind of go up north, you know. And so, uh, that’s not the case here, you know, we’ve our deer population in Pulaski County especially has, has grown since I’ve first arrived here. Um, you know, there was it always has seemed like there was portions of the county that had had higher deer numbers than others, but, uh, even those areas that kind of seemed to lag behind a little bit, we’re, we, we’ve seen those those numbers grow to, uh, what I would consider pretty healthy levels. I mean, there’s, there’s certainly areas that we, I’m certainly glad that we have liberal hunting seasons because we’ve got to keep those numbers in checks. Otherwise, uh, the frequency of, you know, deer vehicle collisions, you know, crop damage, the, those are the things that we’re, uh, along with the health of the population. We’re trying to keep those in check. And so, um, there’s, there’s lots of opportunities for hunters to be able to get out and enjoy the resource and, and quite honestly, I mean, we’ve got, um, we’ve got some, we’re in a really good spot if, if folks aren’t really familiar with what hunting opportunities are here locally. I mean, between the, the vast amount of national forest, um, and a few extra hoops to jump through, but Fort Leonard Wood is another, um, location where folks can go and and, uh, experience some really excellent deer hunting, uh, both in terms of just sheer numbers and, um, you know, if, if, if large antlers are, uh, something that appeals to you, there’s not really a shortage of those, especially when you get into the some areas of Fort Leonard Wood. And, um, even kind of the northwest and, uh, northern tier of our county, you know, uh, we commonly see, uh, good quality deer here, you know. Our the bucks that we have here, their body size is generally not as big as what you’re going to see maybe like on the far western side of the state or up north, but, uh, we have some nice deer and they’re, they’re certainly much bigger than what you’re going to see further south.
**Marv:** The antler restriction was removed what, a couple of years ago?
**Casey:** Uh, yeah, it was removed from here. Gush, goodness. Uh, I’m going to say probably six years ago when we had that first CWD.
**Marv:** That been that long?
**Casey:** Yeah, when we first, when we first had that, first case of CWD pop up and then we implemented, uh, when this basically became a, a CWD zone at that time. Um, they removed the antler point restriction, which is kind of standard practice across the board. Um, one of the new regulations for this year is they’ve removed the antler point restriction statewide. And so the, the reasoning for that is to increase, uh, harvest opportunity for everyone. And, you know, when it was implemented years ago, it was cut there was, there was kind of a two-prong purpose for that. One it was to, um, encourage doe harvest, you know, if you had, you know, four deer out in the field and one of them was a six-point buck and then three does, you know, um, if that’s your last opportunity before dark, you know, it prior to that regulation, some folks might have just shot the buck because it had antlers, but, uh, you know, the byproduct of that too is it allows potentially for those younger bucks to be able to, to grow to an older age class, which is, um, certainly has some benefits, but it certainly appeals to, to hunters that are, you know, more selective in what bucks they want to harvest too.
**Marv:** And if you want to trim the herd, you have to take the does.
**Casey:** That’s right.
**Marv:** Because they’re having two kids every year and,
**Casey:** Yep.
**Marv:** Pretty soon, we’re going to be overrun with deer. When you’re overrun with deer, more car accidents, you have CWD problems and everything else that goes along with it. So thinning out the herd and that’s what the hunting season is all about. Still two youth seasons.
**Casey:** Uh, yeah, two youth seasons. Um, the first one is November, well, let’s see. The early youth portion is October 24th and 25th. And then the late portion is November 27th through the 29th. The one, I guess, biggest change that probably impacts us locally is the last couple years, we’ve had a CWD season. So, basically our November rifle season, you know, starts on a Saturday and would run till that following Tuesday. The CWD season would pick up Wednesday and basically carry it all the way through the next weekend. So, it lengthened our rifle season effectively by five days. They’ve eliminated that season, um, across the state. So,
**Marv:** You still got the 12 days.
**Casey:** So, we still have the 12 days. And then we have, you know, that Tuesday is the is two days prior to Thanksgiving. So, you’ve got Wednesday, Thursday, uh, 24th, the the the Friday after Thanksgiving, that Friday, Saturday, Sunday is the, um, the late youth season. And so, uh, of course, archery season opens back up during that time too. So, you know, it’s not like you’re out of opportunities to hunt. But we also have the late antlerless season that, uh, is in early December. It runs the 5th through the 13th. Uh, we have that here. And then, of course, the, uh, the alternative or what some older folks might remember as the muzzleloader season. Uh, that’s, uh, December 26th through January 5th. Uh, so, still ample opportunities for, uh, firearms harvest. The only real difference is just that that five-day CWD extension has been eliminated.
**Marv:** Did we have an early antlerless season last year?
**Casey:** Uh, we did. Yeah. Yeah, we have had. And we have one this year as well. I kind of glossed over that, but it’s October 9th, 10th and 11th. Uh, we don’t typically we haven’t seen a large participation in that just mainly because of weather, you know. Um, however, um, if if if you’re not, you know, if if archery is not your thing, um, and you want to get out there and and put a few does in the freezer, um, ahead of, uh, you know, the, the rest of the seasons, it’s a great opportunity to do it. And honestly, this last year, we had, um, decent weather for it. Uh, we held a, uh, uh, deer processing class, uh, over at Buckhorn, um, after that the final day of that season. Uh, had a good turnout. We had, uh, 50 plus people attend there. And we basically just used a few deer that, uh, we had harvested the previous couple of days. And, um, from what I can recall, those, those two previous evenings, um, it’s still warm, but it wasn’t, uh, it wasn’t like it was 90 degrees at 6:00, you know. Um, so, there’s some extra care that you have to take in that in those warmer conditions. You don’t definitely want to, uh, make sure that you have a shot on that deer that’s, um, uh, going to be quick and as, as with any shot that you would want to take, but you don’t want to have to be looking for a deer for an extended period of time. You want to get, get it field dressed as quickly as possible and and cooled off. Uh, uh, either sent to the processor or quartered and put in a cooler. You know, a number of different methods you can use, but, uh, a few extra steps. You can’t certainly leave it hang that time of year, but it’s, it’s a good, uh, good opportunity to get out there and and take some of the surplus.
**Marv:** Well, buddy, I could go on and on and on, but we are completely out of time. We’ve kind of went a little long with this podcast.
**Casey:** We tend to do that a lot.
**Marv:** We do. We often do. My 20-minute shows on the radio with, uh, you or Aaron or Nate than used to go, uh, a little bit longer than that. The boss would get on me, you know, you don’t have a whole hour here to do a show. So, Casey, thank you so much for your time.
**Casey:** Yeah, thank you, thanks for having me.
**Marv:** Casey Simmons, one of our conservation agents here in Pulaski County. Fall hunting season right around the corner. Get ready. We’ll be right back.
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Now it’s on to sports brought to you by Three Brothers Meat Company at Lynn Creek. And there’s still plenty of outdoor grilling weather left, and the deals at Three Brothers Meat Company are far from over. And you might want to make that short trip over A Road out of Richland and cash in on delicious.
Now as we drop this podcast, it’s Jamboree time for the Waynesville Tiger football team and for many other sports in Tiger Town and around the Frisco League in the upcoming week. Football Tigers will travel for their Jamboree and hook up with Rolla, Columbia Hickman and Union. And as usual, it’s in Rolla. The official start to the fall season is coming up next week on the 27th. The football Tigers open up at home against Willard on the 28th. Now, there will be fall baseball, softball, boy soccer and girls volleyball Jamborees prior to the start of the fall campaign in Waynesville and all around the Frisco League, which again will begin next Thursday for the start of the fall season. But many of the fall sports official games will be on the 28th and beyond. The Waynesville Girls tennis team will open up on the 27th on the road at Osage.
Kansas City Chiefs played their first pre-game last Saturday against the LA Rams, and most of the predicted starters sat on the bench as expected. Kansas City used three quarterbacks including Justin Fields acquired in the off-season as a free agent. He has started many NFL games and will be the starter in the season opener if Patrick Mahomes is not fully recovered from ACL surgery from last December. Kansas City starts the 2627 season against the Denver Broncos.
St. Louis Cardinals are not gaining much ground in the wild card chase despite winning their last four series against the Yankees, Colorado, Philly and the Cubs. They didn’t lose any ground either, which is almost as important. St. Louis did make major league baseball history last weekend when they brought up a rookie outfielder from Triple A, Joshua Baez. In his first three major league at bats, three home runs. Never been done before in major league baseball history until last Saturday in Chicago and against the Cubs. His home debut was this week at Bush Stadium, and it was rocking when he came to the plate for the first time. This could be the punch this team needs to make a big splash at the playoffs. And they’re not far away right now, but there’s still about a month and a half left of the regular season. Can the pitching hold out, and can this team come together to make a run at the post season? Stay tuned. Still nothing new for the Kansas City Royals, still in the AL Central seller and probably too many teams to jump for a playoff bid without a serious winning streak of about 10 in a row. And that still may not be enough. And that’s some sports this week brought to you by Three Brothers Meat Company at Lynn Creek, on A Road just a hop skip and a jump from Richland on the way to the lake. We’ll be right back.
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**Podcast Closing**
Well, that’s this week’s episode brought to you by Three Brothers Meat Company, Bailes Construction, the Bank of Crocker, Paul’s Furniture, Shelter Insurance Agent Dave Hallot of Richland, St. Robert Auto Supply, Sieger Toyota, the Pulaski County Health Center, STR Glass of St. Robert, VFW Post 3168 of Laquoy, and TK’s Pizza.
Thanks again to those sponsors. Thanks to my producer, Tracy. And thanks to you, my podcast faithful, for allowing me to be a part of your lives for at least a short period of time. If you’re enjoying the Marv in the Morning Podcast, we invite you to leave a review on whatever app you are listening on. We would also love for you to share the episode with family and friends on your social media accounts. Be sure to follow our podcast on Facebook on the Marv in the Morning Podcast page and you’re also invited to join us on Facebook on the Fort Not Lost in the Woods Podcast group. This podcast is a production of O Quinn Media. Join me next week when we visit with St. Robert Mayor James Breckenridge on some of the events happening in the city, including some demolition, some construction going on, and the Labor Day lineup and what’s going to be open and closed, and the scoop from the latest City Council meeting, and what’s happening at the 159 mile marker on I-44 with the construction continuing. Until then, later.