Wildlife Species for Consideration on the Wildlife Tests are:

Missouri Envirothon 2008

Oral Presentation Problem

Recreational Impacts on Natural Resources

Your team is the Education and Outreach Committee of the recently formed Lake of the Ozarks Watershed Association (LOWA). Review the LOWA organizational brochure (pdf), LOWA website and other additional resources below. Develop an Outreach & Education plan for LOWA to use for providing information to tourists, residents, and local businesses. Specifically target your Outreach and Education plan on the recreational impacts of boating and fishing on Lake of the Ozarks to natural resources of the lake area.  Your committee will be presenting your Outreach & Education plan to the LOWA Executive Committee and the Lake of the Ozarks Chamber of Commerce Executive Committee.

Be sure to consider the impacts to aquatics, forestry, soils, wildlife and economics of the local tourism industry.

 Lake of the Ozarks Watershed Association Brochure Feb 08

Additional Resources

http://soslowa.org/index.html

Lake of the Ozarks Watershed Association Web site

http://www.ozarksmagazine.com/index.html?p=43

Lake of the Ozarks Magazine Article

The following is an excerpt from the article in the Lake of the Ozarks Magazine

Forty  years ago, the Lake of the Ozarks was home to fishing camps, a busy Bagnall Dam strip, a comfortable number of weekend homes, family-owned resorts, and world champion water-skier Ricky McCormick.

Today, there aren’t so many water skiers, but there are nationally rated golf courses, four-star Restaurants and resorts, top-quality spas, sprawling condominium complexes, weekend homes that sell for several million dollars, and boats—lots and lots of boats.

According to Missouri’s Department of Motor Vehicles, more than 40,000 motor boats are registered in the three Lake of the Ozarks counties—Camden, Miller, and Morgan—and this doesn’t count boats trailered in on weekends.

Beginnings
It wasn’t always so. Unlike many people who grew up vacationing at the lake, Kelly didn’t get lake fever until he was already grown.

More or less at loose ends in Kansas City where he grew up, Kelly began coming to the Lake of the Ozarks with a group of friends when he was in his late 20s. Once here, it didn’t take long to figure out that he and the lake were a fit. He borrowed $10,000 from a buddy and negotiated a deal to buy the venerable Gatlin’s Boat Yard on the lake’s Gravois Arm. His future wife, Jane, left a “great job” with Southwestern Bell in Kansas City to join him.

Boats and real estate
Their energy level was high and their timing was right—currently, the two biggest businesses at the Lake of the Ozarks are boating and real estate.

 “This is a wonderful area,” he says. “There are good Restaurants, shopping, amenities. Boating here is the best in the country! In fact, we have two customers who keep their boats at the marina who are from Colorado and another one from California.”

Growth
Besides better quality boats, in the 30 years he has been in business, Kelly has also seen a steady growth in the number of people who want to buy a boat at the Lake of the Ozarks.

“The biggest growth came in the mid-1980s. That’s when we began to see condominiums here. Before that, if a person wanted a place at the lake, he had to buy a house. Then he had to buy a boat. That cost a lot of money. A small condo was doable for a lot more people.

“About the same time, it also became possible to finance a boat over 10 years with a very low down payment. This created a market. People could buy boats without having to save and wait for them.”

And they did. In the last quarter-century, the lake has seen phenomenal growth both in the number of condos—and in boat traffic.

Safety
While increased boat traffic has led to the growth of waterside Restaurants and a booming business and entertainment strip along U.S. Highway 54, there’s also a downside. The U.S. Coast Guard ranks the Lake of the Ozarks one of the nation’s worst for boating accidents. In 2003 there were 703 recreational boating fatalities nationwide; eight of those were at the lake.

To combat this problem, the state of Missouri has established “no wake” zones in some of the worst high traffic areas, most notably in the Grand Glaize arm that leads to the Lake of the Ozarks State Park and what’s known as “party cove.”

 In addition, a new Missouri law requires lake boat operators born after January 1, 1984, to take a boating safety education course approved by the National Association of State Boating Law Administrators.

Going places
As might be expected, Randy Kelly doesn’t support any more boat restrictions on his lake.

He’s quick to point out that given the millions of gallons of gasoline that run through the boats on the hundred-mile long Lake of the Ozarks, there are comparatively few accidents—a statement with which the Water Patrol’s Hughes agrees.

Kelly also dismisses the idea of limiting either size or speed of boats. “If you get rid of the big, fast boats, you’re going to get rid of the amenities here,” he says. “One of the reasons people like big boats is that they can go places.”

He looks around. “We all take this for granted. People live here for the lifestyle, even if they live off the lake. They just like the package—there’s low crime, great public school systems. There’s really, really good places to eat, great choices for entertainment, great water—it’s not shallow and there are no tides, channels, or currents.”

OZARKS MAGAZINE retains the First North American Serial Rights of published articles and single electronic publication rights to photographs. If an article is subsequently published elsewhere, a tagline of "This article originally appeared in OZARKS MAGAZINE" should appear, plus a link back to OZARKS MAGAZINE if the reprint is done electronically.

http://www.businesslakemo.com/life/index.html

Lake of the Ozarks Regional Economic Development Council Web site

The following is information from the Lake of the Ozarks Regional Economic Development Council web site, about recreation.

Recreation

Recreational activities include boating, fishing, swimming, tennis, water skiing, golfing, hunting, camping, and canoeing or tube floating. The region boasts over 100 marinas, more than 40 waterfront restaurants and many more fine dinning restaurants off the water for the “land lovers”. Then after a full day in the sun there are hundreds of shopping opportunities. Its easy to see why the Lake of the Ozarks region is one of the most popular tourist areas in the Midwest.

Over a hundred resorts, hotels, motels and B & B’s provide a limitless selection of accommodations. Two large resorts offer convention and business meeting rooms for groups large or small. An exhibition center offering nearly 100,000 sq. ft. is in the planning stages and will compliment our existing capabilities.

The community offers many shopping experiences from the largest brand name factory outlet mall in Missouri, to the quaint antique and specialty shops that are scattered throughout the lake area. On weekends visitors can be seen strolling the Bagnell Dam strip which offers a variety of shopping opportunities at fantastic bargains.

Other favorite activities include golfing at one of the 14 magnificent courses encircling the lake; exploring Bridal Cave and Jacob’s Cave; touring historical buildings that capture the areas history; visiting Ha Ha Tonka State Park which has 12 hiking trails, 8 caves, picnic areas and unique castle ruins; and horseback riding in the Lake of the Ozarks State Park, the largest State Park in Missouri.

http://ded.mo.gov/researchandplanning/industry/retail/retail.stm

Missouri Department of Economic Development

Missouri Retail Findings 2002

The following is information from the Missouri Department of Economic Development about the key findings of a report done on retail sales in Missouri in 2002.

KEY FINDINGS

· In 2002, retail sales in Missouri amounted to $39.62 billion. Compared to 2001, there has been little growth in retail sales (0.02 percent increase), when $39.61 billion was generated, (adjusted to 2002 dollars). Compared to 1998, this is an increase of 0.73% when retail sales amounted to $39.34 billion (adjusted to 2002 dollars).

· The majority of 2002 retail sales in Missouri were from miscellaneous retail stores (26.4 percent), general merchandise stores (21.1 percent) and food stores (17.3 percent).

· Branson, the Lake of the Ozarks, Springfield, Cape Girardeau, Joplin, Liberty and the larger rural towns located near interstates continue to experience the largest gains in retail consumers/sales from outside their county borders.

· Based on 2002 pull factors, 8 counties (7 percent) experienced the largest gains in retail consumers/sales from outside their borders. These included Taney, Camden, Greene, Cape Girardeau, Jasper, DeKalb, Miller and Clay counties.

· Retail gains in Camden and Taney counties are due to the presence of major tourism/recreation

http://continuouswave.com/ubb/Forum7/HTML/000089.html

Continuous Wave provides on-line information for boaters, including photographs, stories, and encyclopedias of boats.

The following is an excerpt from a “Whaler”(kind of boat) Moderated Discussion forum on continuouswave.com. Remember, this is one person’s opinion.

“We extended our boating season by driving 730 miles south and west to Missouri from Michigan in order to go boating on the Lake of the Ozarks.

Often cited as one of the "Ten-Best" trailer boat destinations in the country, Lake of the Ozarks was created in 1931 by the damming of the Osage River by the local electrical generating company. The impounded water also flooded parts of the Grand Glaze, Gravois, and Niangua Rivers, creating a huge lake that contains over 1,500 miles of shoreline and stretches over 90 miles upstream to the next dam on the river.

The water of the lake is not quite the pristine clear blue we enjoy in the Great Lakes, yet it is much less muddy than say Kentucky Lake. The passage of a storm and very heavy rain immediately before our arrival turned the lake a bit more brown than it usually would be.

We found Lake of the Ozarks to be a nice place to go boating--in mid-October. Based on comments from the locals I would never go there in mid-summer. From May to September the lake appears to be hopelessly crowded, over run with high-speed "testosterone" boats, and churned by big wakes from plowing 40-footers cruising the lake.

One fellow told me, "They kill two or three people every year out there [in boating accidents]."

The lake is only about a half-mile wide at most points, and the shoreline is typically steep bluffs which tend to reflect the waves. This contributes to the rough water conditions experienced in the summer. The lake snakes back and forth, so you experience upwind and downwind legs no matter which direction you travel or where the wind blows from. The longest fetch might be 5 miles, so wind driven waves build only to very modest height.

The lake is quite deep, often 80 feet or more, and carries deep water right to shore. The lake level varies, controlled by the outflow from the Bagnell Dam. Because of these factors, all docks and piers are floating. Practically every boat is stored on a floating lift, out of the water.

There does not seem to be any unusual navigational hazards in the lake. A few detached shoals were marked with large sign boards declaring "DANGER". In the shallower water of the upstream branches we saw a few snags or deadheads. There were no official navigation aids or systems of lateral buoyage that we encountered anywhere on the lake. The were, however, thousands of white "NO WAKE" buoys placed near shore to discourage boaters from making wakes when passing. Fishermen have also filled parts of the lake with their own system of floats and markers, the most popular buoy being made from an empty gallon plastic jug of off-brand 2-cycle outboard oil. These dot the water of the lake and appear to be placed by anyone and at anywhere. At night they would be hard to spot.

Judging from the boats we saw at the many dealerships surrounding the lake, the typical Lake of the Ozarks boat is:

--a 36-foot "cigarette" boat with twin 500-HP engines and no mufflers;

--a 18-foot bass boat with a 200-HP outboard;

--a 23-foot bowrider or deckboat;

--a 40-foot (or larger) SeaRay, Carver, or other 'cruiser'.

Out on the water, we actually saw very few other boats. The most common boats we encountered were welded aluminum working boats, hauling floating dock sections or boat lifts around the lake.

The launching ramps are all of the "Kentucky" style, that is, they are just ramps that go into the water and do not have a dock alongside them. Everyone launches and recovers by using the drive-off/drive-on style of getting the boat off/on the trailer.

Arriving on a Sunday, we found practically every marina facility closed and their gates locked. Launching the boat began to look like a problem. Because of the high bluffs that surround the lake there are some astonishingly steep roads that descend from these hilltops to reach the lake shore. We did manage to find an open marina and get down one of these roads to launch. Once at the bottom we had to pay a rather pricey $10 ramp-fee. The fee covered only the launch, and the marina operator expected another sawbuck when we recovered the boat to the trailer. Faced with this robbery and the 30-percent grade of the road up the hill, we decided to go elsewhere to reload the boat!

The State of Missouri has a wonderful facility for boaters on the Grand Glaze Arm of the lake. They have two huge ramp facilities ($3 fee), as well as a large marina with dockage available for transient boats. Overnight docking in a covered 30-foot slip was a ridiculously low $12/night (flat rate), although the marina operator cautioned that the price would be going up a dollar or two next season. (Compare to $54/night at Bay Harbor in Charlevoix!).

A unique feature on the lake: self-service marina gasoline pumps. You tie up, swipe your credit card, gas up, and go!

We stayed near Marine Mile-27, a location which allowed us to avoid the over built and crowded section of the lake nearer the Dam, while at the same time putting us close to the Osage, Niangua, and Grand Glaze arms.

We did not do any fishing, but our LOWRANCE X-65 marked fish almost everywhere we went. Interviews with some fishermen revealed that the fishing was better "last week" or "yesterday", a trend which we have seen elsewhere.

The communities of Lake Ozark and Osage Beach have developed into artless strips of vacation-oriented establishments, offering tee-shirts, tanning oil, miniature golf, go-kart rides, bungee-jumps, and other enticements to lure money from visiting teenagers. Traffic along Rte-54, the central highway must be clogged to a standstill in summer.

Lake of the Ozarks is about three hours from either St. Louis or Kansas City, and just an hour from Jefferson City (the capital), and thus it has a huge population of vacation or second-home residents.

Some very large condominium complexes have been built, ten storey edifices of balconies that over look the lake and stand out from the natural shoreline in a very unpleasant way. Prime bluffs and hilltops are often crowned with homes of enormous size, owned we presume by moguls of the country-western music business or some other equally profitable enterprise.

In total, we enjoyed our visit to Lake of the Ozarks. Our timing was fortunate, as by visiting the lake in October we were able to avoid all the drawbacks associated with it, yet still enjoy the boating opportunities it offers.”