Frank Campa retiring after 35 years with MDC

After 35 years as a conservation agent in Southeast Missouri, including the last 30 in Butler County, Conservation Agent Frank Campa is hanging up his uniform to focus on family, hunting and fishing and traveling in retirement.

Monday will be Campa’s final day with the Department of Conservation, leaving Mark Skelton as Butler County’s sole agent.

Campa, a St. Louis native, started his agent career in 1985 after graduating from the University of Missouri-Columbia and spent his first four-plus years in Scott County.

DAR/Paul Davis

In late 1989, he transferred to Butler County, where he’s remained ever since.

Throughout his career, Campa said, he’s seen a lot of things and met a lot of people - what he said easily was the best part of his job.

“I really got to meet a lot of good people and make a lot of friends along the way,” he said.

That, he said, is what he’ll miss the most.

“I’ve also seen a lot of agents come and go,” he said.

While most people think a conservation agent’s responsibility is just driving around looking for violators, that’s not the case, and, Campa said, he liked every facet of the job.

“I actually enjoyed every aspect of it,” he said. “I really enjoyed the private lands management, which agents no longer do. We did a lot of wildlife management plans and food plot seed distribution on private property over the years, and I really enjoyed that part of it.

“I also enjoyed the public relations part of it, from the newspaper articles and radio programs to different events and just getting out among the people.”

Campa also said he’s enjoyed a close working relationship with other local agencies, including the U.S. Forest Service and U.S. Army Corps of Engineers.

Working with local youths has been an important part of his job, Campa said, and hunter education instruction always has been one of his top priorities.

“Hunter education was always important to me, and I’ll still be involved with it,” he said.

He’s also is proud to have partnered with Roger Slayton to develop the Youth Hunter Education Program in Poplar Bluff, which has grown into the Poplar Bluff High School trap team.

An avid turkey hunter, Campa said, he’s proud of playing a big part in restoring wild turkey populations in Scott County while there, and he helped start the Heartland Gobblers chapter of the National Wild Turkey Federation once he moved to Poplar Bluff.

“I was the first dinner chairman for two years for the Poplar Bluff chapter,” he noted.

Campa, along with Don Carnahan and Junior Crafton from the Missouri State Water Patrol, is noted as having made the first case against cheaters in a bass tournament anywhere, one of the most interesting cases he’s worked on.

“I videoed that one, and we actually made the Paul Harvey show,” he said.

After his retirement, Campa said, he plans to stay in Southeast Missouri.

“I’d like to do a little traveling and spend more time with family,” he said.

“I’m also looking forward to hunting and fishing at optimum times,” he said with a laugh because those always were work days in the past, but no more.