The Northwest Region of the Missouri Department of Conservation escaped without the immediate loss of any conservation agents, although two facilities will close, according to Roger Wolken, protection regional supervisor at the St. Joseph office.

The Missouri Conservation Commission on Sept. 18 approved a new staffing plan to reduce expenses in an attempt to deal with a drastic reduction in revenues over the past two year.

The Hartell Conservation Area Field Office in Clinton County and the Brookfield Maintenance Shop in Linn County are among those to be affected. They are among 13 office facilities from throughout the state that will close or end their lease agreements by July 2011.

The commission’s approved staffing plan focuses on reducing personnel costs compared to other expenses. Conservation Department Director John Hoskins said the plan, which is expected to save MDC around 7.5 million dollars annually, will help keep the agency on a sound financial footing.

The economic downturn has impacted the department’s two largest revenue sources, the conservation sales tax and permit revenues, both of which have not kept pace with inflation, according to MDC. From 2000 through mid-2009, both permit revenues and conservation sales tax revenue increased less than inflation by double digits.

Around 60 percent of MDC’s budget is funded through a one-eighth of 1 percent conservation sales tax, which incidentally dropped $6.4 million lower in Fiscal Year 2009 than the previous year. This decrease came on the heels of a $400,000 reduction of sales tax revenues in FY 2008.

“The fiscal year 2009 decrease was the largest one-year decline in conservation sales tax history,” Hoskins said. “It also is the first time that conservation-sales-tax revenues have decreased two years in a row.”

The majority of expense reductions in this staffing plan will be achieved by keeping vacant positions from throughout MDC unfilled. In all, nearly 173 positions are expected to be left vacant over the next 20 months, resulting in a loss of over 10 percent of MDC’s total full time staff.

Hoskins said the majority of the office locations to be closed have six or fewer employees, with most of the staff spending the majority of the time in the field.

“It just makes sense to have them work from other MDC facilities in the region or even from home,” Hoskins said.

The department also will reduce hours of operation at six of its seven nature and education centers from as many as seven days per week to five days per week.

The Northwest Region did lose a naturalist position due to reassignment.

“This is a position involving a tremendous amount of school programs. Unfortunately, the downside is, we may not be able to offer the same quantity of programs as we have in the past,” Wolken said.

The last several years have brought with them a significant decline in revenue from the conservation sales tax, explained Wolken. Permit sales are not the reason for the decline and revenues from permits have risen due to the increase in nonresident fees implemented last year.

“So far this fiscal year (July 31-June 31 for MDC), things don’t appear to be showing much improvement,” Wolken said. MDC’s accounting department recently revealed that total revenues, including permit sales and sales tax funds, are down just over 4 percent already, although the summer months tend to be a slow period for permit sales, Wolken said.

“We are also trying to go to a more web-based layout to reduce printing costs, and we’re encouraging everyone with internet access to take advantage of MDC’s online offerings to obtain maps, brochures, regulations and much more,” Wolken said. “Printing is a high-cost item that if reduced would make a significant impact on MDC’s budget.”

In addition to all these other changes, the Northwest Region will also probably cut back on some maintenance items such as mowing. Areas that are mowed may not be mowed as frequently, and other areas may not be mowed at all, Wolken said.

“Simply put, less revenue means we need to reduce expenses and staffing levels, which means we must adjust the number of facilities we have and the levels of services we can provide,” Hoskins said. “We have to live within our means, just like our fellow Missourians.”

Outdoors correspondent Jeff Leonard can be reached at outdoors@npgco.com