MDC alters dove hunting procedures for Eagle Bluffs Conservation Area

COLUMBIA, Mo. — The Missouri Department of Conservation (MDC) announces changes to dove hunting procedures at Eagle Bluffs Conservation Area this year in response to ongoing coronavirus pandemic.

MDC remains committed to providing hunting opportunities on managed dove hunting areas this season, which will open one half-hour before sunrise on Tuesday, Sept. 1. To ensure public health and safety, the following special protocols will be in place for the 2020 Dove hunting season at Eagle Bluffs Conservation Area:

• Check-in – Hunt cards and golf pencils will be available for hunters in a “map box” at the entrances to each field.
• Hunting Posts – Hunting posts will be available on a first-come, first-served basis, spaced roughly 50-yards apart, in each sunflower field. An interactive map of sunflower fields at Eagle Bluffs Conservation Area is available at mdc.mo.gov/discover-nature/places/dove-hunting-areas.
• Check-out – Hunters are to return their completed hunt cards at a drop box at the headquarters building, 6700 W. Route K, just south of Columbia. Check-out area will be as spread out as possible to encourage physical distancing. Staff will provide tin snips to allow hunters to clip wings and drop them in a box.

Hunters must only set up at a designated hunting post, with no more than two hunters per post. Hunters must not shoot behind their position to ensure the safety of other hunting parties.

At check-out, hunters should remove one wing from each dove harvested for use in research. Long-term studies on dove population and harvest trends inform MDC’s management decisions to maintain productive dove hunts into the future.

To protect the health of all hunters and visitors at Eagle Bluffs Conservation Area, hunters must practice physical distancing of at least 6-feet, and should wear a mask covering their mouth and nose when maintaining that distance is not possible.

For additional information about Eagle Bluffs Conservation Area, visit nature.mdc.mo.gov/discover-nature/places/eagle-bluffs-ca. For more information about dove hunting in Missouri, visit huntfish.mdc.mo.gov/hunting-trapping/species/dove.