Ozarkapedia:About

In short

Ozarkapedia is intended to supplement resources like the Missouri Paddler's Guide with information that would be of interest to paddlers, bank anglers, and boaters.

Paddlers

The first audience that Ozarkapedia serves are Paddlers. The Ozarks has a rich tradition of supporting tourists on the water through float outfitters, businesses that rent kayaks, canoes, rafts, and inner tubes. Guests might spend a half day on the water in an inner tube, or pack a boat for camping on gravel bars for up to a week or more. Those who are more angler-oriented might focus on catching smallmouth bass, trout, and other panfish, while some paddlers just enjoy the scenery and exploring new waterways. There are also a significant number of rambunctious revelers, the vast majority of whom are friendly, but may only have passing appreciation for quiet solitude and wildlife that others hold dear.

Boaters

Boaters have similar information needs to Paddlers, but will have separate concerns for ramp and river qualities. Ozarkapedia aims to help boaters by providing pictures of ramps, along with data about facilities nearby. Hazards are discussed from the perspective of boat operators as well as paddlers, because they tackle risks differently. River sections should discuss the prevalance of one group or another on any given stretch, and how both groups can minimize conflict.

Bank Anglers

There is some overlap between a rough kayak access and an excellent bank fishing location. Bank anglers have many of the same concerns as paddlers when it comes to public right-of-way and easements. Ozarkapedia can help anglers understand their rights at popular or rumored fishing accesses, expanding "spots" to fish and reducing conflict with landowners at the same time.

Community Ownership

An important distinction between Ozarkapedia and other resources is that it is created by the community, for the community. Our philosophy is that knowledge of the outdoors facilitates greater understanding of nature through transformative experience, which we hope will lead individuals to active stewardship of the earth.

Research and articles on Ozarkapedia are published under a Creative Commons license, which you can read more about on this page. In a nutshell, we use a Creative Commons license called CC BY-SA 4.0. This means folks are free to copy, share, and change the content, even for business use. They must give credit back to us, the original authors, and they must share their new work under the same license. This helps keep knowledge open and available for everyone. It lets people learn, improve, and build on each other’s work while making sure creators are recognized.

It also means that when you give us a picture or update an article, the work you're doing is for the community, not for an owner who runs web advertisements and keeps the revenue for themselves.