Conservation Dept. seeks Nodaway Lake input
TONY BROWN/DAILY FORUM
A solitary angler waits for a bite Thursday morning while fishing from the jetty at Nodaway County Community Lake north of Maryville. The Missouri Department of Conservation is currently seeking suggestions and comments about the 73-acre lake from the public as it seeks to update the area’s management plan.
MARYVILLE, Mo. — While Mozingo Lake gets most of the attention these days, Nodaway County Community Lake just off Highway 148 north of Maryville offers its own quiet charms to anglers seeking to hook bass, crappie, and catfish.
The Missouri Department of Conservation is currently seeking comments from the public about the 73-acre impoundment and surrounding 320-acre conservation area as it prepares to update the lake’s management plan.
The request for input is part of an effort to gather user information on nearly 1,000 MDC conservation areas statewide so that their plans can be revised to reflect current conservation needs and objectives.
To preview draft management plans and share comments online, go to www.mdc.mo.gov/areaplans. Nodaway Lake input will be accepted through June 30.
The lake includes a parking lot, boat ramp, wheelchair-accessible fishing jetty, and privy. Wildlife food plots and native warm-season grasses have been established in the surrounding fields.
Statewide, MDC conservation areas cover almost a million acres of forest, fishing lakes and streams, and wildlife habitat open to the public for a variety of activities, including fishing, hunting, bird watching, and hiking.
The agency states that most Missourians live within a 30-minute drive of at least one MDC area.
Conservation area management plans focus on natural resource management and public use, but do not address hunting and fishing regulations, which are set by the state Conservation Commission and enforced under the Wildlife Code of Missouri.
MDC will consider all ideas submitted with regard to Nodaway County Community Lake, then make decisions on which suggestions to incorporate into the management plan based on physical and biological conditions as well as the property’s capabilities as they relate to local, regional, and statewide conservation goals.
