Friday, May 29, 2009

Mason Ridge 4th Grade Service Learning Project



Students at the various learning stations with Barbara Maynard at Macro Mayhem station in the top right and Darlene Haun at creek chemistry comparative station bottom right.













On May 18th, eighty 4th graders from Mason Ridge Elementary came to Love Park in St. Louis for a learning experience outside the classroom. The students rotated through four learning stations which included a live macroinvertebrate display, a creek chemistry comparative demonstration, an invasisve garlic mustard removal station, and an environmental active game station. The students sorted through rocks and sticks in trays filled with water to find and identify the macroinvertebrates hiding under them; compared creek water and water polluted with fertilizer for nitrates and creekwater kept cold in the shade versus in the sun for dissolved oxygen; and learned to identify and remove the non-native, invasive garlic mustard choking out the natives in the park. Through playing a game of tag known as Macro Mayhem, the students illustrated how pollution and other environmental stressors effect macroinvertebrate populations in a stream. Stream Team AmeriCorps members Stacy Arnold And Barbara Maynard helped organize the event and came out to work that day along with Darlene Haun from MDC and several other dedicated Stream Team volunteers. The event proved to be educational for both the students and the teachers. One of the attending teachers wrote, "Thank you, thank you, thank you for ALL of your hard work!! The kids really learned a lot and so did we!"

Friday, May 15, 2009

Rocheport Day of Caring

Students and parents planting trees and picking up trash along the River Walk Trail
Photo by Lea Langdon

It was one of those days when you weren't quite sure what the weather was going to be like when the event actually started. It looked like it was going to rain, but then again it is always possible that the rain would hold off until it was all over, and for the most part it did indeed hold off. On Saturday, April 18 we joined up with Maria Dorsey (an AmeriCorps-Vista), Friends of Rocheport, the French Club from West Junior High (here in Columbia), and Missouri River Relief to have a Day of Caring in Rocheport, MO.

With the help of about 60 students and parents, we planted 350+ trees along the Moniteau Creek, the River Walk, and in a couple of parks in town. On the clean up side of things, they had 73 volunteers and a total of about 5.7 tons of trash cleaned up, which includes an old rusted bed frame that I and couple of parents pulled out of the ground near where we were planting our trees... woohoo! You can read River Reliefs summary of the day at their Rocheport Results Page.

Look to see another post by me either later today or tomorrow (gotta get March up!)

Thursday, May 14, 2009

Labarque Conservation Area

A group of 4th grade students from the College School were among four other groups that visited LaBarque Creek in the same week. These groups came to learn more about water quality, and to see what this Conservation Opportunity Area has to offer. A Conservation Opportunity Area is a priority place where habitats are managed not just for one species, but for ALL of the plants and animals living there. LaBarque Creek Watershed offers the highest level of diversity in the St. Louis area. Labarque Creek is home to some 42 species of fish. This area also supports several plant species that can only be found in a few other places in Missouri.


Shown to the left is a group of 4th graders from the College School learning how to measure stream discharge.

Monday, May 11, 2009

Rain Barrel Art Show


I am so pleased to announce the success of our first Rain Barrel Art Auction and Revue. In April, MRCN hosted it's first Rain Barrel Auction. We enlisted the help of 10 local artists who donated their time and paint to create some beautiful barrels. The barrels were clear coated by a local auto dealership and placed on display at First National Bank branches in the Columbia area prioe to the public show at Orr Street Studios. Later the barrels were posted to eBay and raised nearly $700 for MRCN and our partnering programs. Thanks to donations from local businesses and the talents of some great central Missouri artists our event was a great success in raising awareness of water conservation and how to make it fun!

Over the River-Oral History Project

Hi all, I wanted to post this really neat website & blogsite from a lady who is doing oral histories right now across the midwest of long time river activists to include our own Mark VanPatten of Stream Team! You can also view all of the other river advocates on her blog, Over the River: Stories from River and Watershed Defenders, all of which have interesting stories I'm sure.

Here's the link:

http://madronaarts.org/content/programs/over_the_river.shtml

Sunday, May 10, 2009

Stella Raingarden Project



Stella Raingarden Project


Left: The community helps with the planting.

Right: Ronda Headland, landscape architect with the MO Dept of Conservation, drew up the plans for the project.

After many months of planning and delays, the raingarden project at Moses Eagle Park in Stella, MO was finally completed. On a Saturday in April, around 50 people from the community showed up to plant over 2200 native plants including some shrubs and trees but mostly grasses, sedges, and forbs. The village of Stella has only a couple of hundred people in it, but their spirit of community is great. It was wonderful working with them to enhance their already beautiful little park by Indian Creek, and to teach them a little bit about raingardens and how they are important for helping with the water quality for their stream. That point really hit home when they got an inch of rain in a downpour about an hour after we were done planting, and the three raingardens pooled with water! There are plans to make a hiking trail from their school (about a half mile away), signage for the park about the raingardens, and also plant identification markers. By fall, these plants should be well-established and starting to fill in. I'll post more pics then.
Left: All ages turned out to help plant!
Right: Finished raingarden. By fall these plants should be big enough to see!

Tuesday, May 5, 2009

Earth Month in St. Louis


Earth Day seems to have turned into Earth Month, with everybody eager to contribute this time of year. The month was packed with activities, including a prairie planting with the Grace Hill Trail Rangers (another AmeriCorps group) along the Riverfront Trail in St. Louis, a stream clean-up at the headwaters of Watkins Creek, plantings in the four Hazelwood Middle School rain gardens, and a tree planting/trash pick-up/honeysuckle removal along the Riverfront Trail with the Trail Rangers and AB-InBev employees (pictured above). We even had one volunteer from England and another from Belgium, both InBev executives in town to visit AB. By the end of the day, 200 oaks had been planted, about 30 bags of trash removed, and untold invasive honeysuckle bushes cut down in their prime.