John Karel

John Karel was a former director of parks in Missouri and Tower Grove Park in St. Louis. He was inducted into the Missouri Recreation and Parks Hall of Fame in Jefferson City in 2019. He graduated from the University of Missouri-Columbia in 1977 going on to play a leadership role in Missouri Natural Areas System and the Missouri Natural Areas Committee. During his tenure the designated natural areas in state parks were expanded and he helped to establish a new State Wild Area System which now includes around 23,000 acres in nine state parks.
In his role as direction of DNR's Division of Parks and Historic Preservation he became the only state park director with degrees in history and natural resource management, he was closely involved with the development of Missouri's Park and Soils sales tax. Under his leadership parks appropriations reached their highest levels.
He cofounded the Missouri Wilderness Coalition which was envisioned as an informal coalition of conservation organizations and individual activists. The MWC became a center to distribute communications between different organizations and activists in the chaotic conditions of the wilderness legislative campaign. These early efforts to organize were successful and in 1969 the board of directors of the Missouri Conservation Federation passed a resolution requesting the Forest Service begin to identify areas that could be designated Wilderness Areas. In 1976 Congress designates the first Wilderness areas in Missouri; these are Mingo and Hercules Glades. Four other areas are set aside Bell Mountain, Rockpile Mountain, Paddy Creek and Piney Creek.

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