The Missouri Department of Conservation says rising costs and a tight budget have led to the decision to eliminate 106 jobs by March 2027. Deputy Director Aaron Jeffries told Missourinet tough decisions had to be made.
“The department has looked at our revenues, our ongoing, what I would call fixed costs related to retirement as well as health insurance, and the need to take care of our infrastructure,” said Jeffries.
The agency has a lot of infrastructure that was built in the 1980s and 1990s.
“Nature centers, shooting ranges, hatcheries, wetland areas, a lot of those areas are requiring some significant upkeep. With rising construction costs, you know, these are some of the difficult decisions we have to make,” according to Jeffries.
He said the jobs impacted are agency-wide, ranging from administration to field work. The changes will result in some efficiencies, such as a reduction in supervision across the agency.
“We actually met with impacted staff a couple weeks ago,” said Jeffries. “We sent out an e-mail to the entire agency notifying of the upcoming plans. We’ve actually already posted jobs that will be open for staff to apply for.”
What can the public expect?
“They will likely see less mowing and maintenance around parking lots and conservation areas,” he said. “We’ll allow those areas to return to a more natural state. But a lot of the programs that they see at our nature centers, shooting ranges, private land programs and habitat work will continue to occur.”
The department is funded through a variety of ways.
“We are funded through the conservation sales tax, federal reimbursements, and permit sales. We don’t receive any general revenue, so we really do have to run the agency like a business,” he said.
According to Jeffries, the agency is not offering employee buyouts.
“We have made some minor adjustment to hunting and fishing permit prices, but those have really barely kept up with inflation. Sales tax growth is coming in right around 3%, which is barely keeping up with inflation. There are some things, some levers that we can pull to lessen the impact, but some of these are uncontrollable,” he said.
Jeffries said raising permit prices would have a small impact.
“Permit sales only make up around 17 to 18% of the Commission funds, – same with federal reimbursement. Really, the challenge there is we continue to see hunter and angler numbers remain steady to declining as many of our hunters are starting to age out,” he said.
Jeffries said the department is not interested in asking voters to increase the conservation sales tax in order to increase profits. He said the department is grateful for the revenue it gets from the tax.
Copyright © 2026 · Missourinet