Watkins Creek Watershed Champions Workshop

One last post - on August 15, 14 people who live or work in the Watkins Creek Watershed voluntarily attended a 6-hour workshop on watershed issues. How inspiring to see a diverse group devote so much of their time to learning more. Each "Champion" left with a binder and CD of materials they can use to learn more and spread the word to others in their community. Many thanks to the presenters, representing the Watkins Creek Watershed Initiative, East-West Gateway, Metropolitan St. Louis Sewer District, and Missouri Department of Conservation, to Columbia Bottom Conservation Area for hosting the workshop at their beautiful facility, and an especially big thanks to all the attendees!

Stormwater Work in Northwoods

Anyone familiar with St. Louis knows the metro region is divided into something like a gazillion independent, small municipalities. This month I got to meet with representatives of one of them, the City of Northwoods, population 4,643.

Baden Creek, also known as Kinwood Creek in Northwoods, flows through the city and has been causing all of the problems typical of urban streams. Flooding and erosion are both threatening and destroying homes. The city was recently awarded a 319 grant to address the issues, and they've started a geomorphic study to assess the problems and suggest some avenues for repair. In addition to any hardscapes that might be recommended, the city has also embraced progressive stormwater control measures, promoting rain barrels, rain gardens, and native vegetation on the creekbanks. Given how often people still seem to think covering streambanks with concrete will solve their problems, it's refreshing to meet city officials who realize there might be other alternatives for restoring their creek, making it an asset to the community instead of a headache.

My role in the project is small - introducing the Stream Team program and helping them get started on a volunteer water quality monitoring program - but it'll be interesting to see how this project progresses. Won't it be great if Alderwoman Jones' vision of children catching crawdads in Kinwood Creek, like she did as a child, becomes reality.

AmeriCorps Float Trip - Current River at Round Spring, MO

AmeriCorps float trip pics

Shoal Creek Water Festival

Bev Longnecker demonstrating the groundwater flow model at the ERWIA booth during the Shoal Creek Water Festival

Joplin, MO --The 2nd Annual Shoal Creek Water Festival sponsored by the Wildcat Glades Audubon Center was a huge success. An estimated 800-900 people attended this water awareness festival, enjoying the beautiful day and all the water-related booths and activities.

Bev promoted the Elk River Watershed Improvement Association by setting up a booth with displays and handouts. She also demonstrated the groundwater flow model which is a great learning tool for people to see how water flows through the ground and how easy it could be to pollute the water.

Some of the other festival activities included a Stream Team litter pick-up before the events started, a rubber duck race, a variety of booths including master naturalists, rain barrels, and fly fishing, Stream Team water quality monitoring collecting macros, and new this year- the cardboard boat race.

This was a big hit which I'm sure will continue to grow the festival bigger every year (our family is even planning on having an entry next year!)

WATER WIZARDS, again!

The second week of July, I spent a fantastic day with club members at the Boys & Girls Club of the Ozarks, Forsyth Unit. I presented to 35 club members and they WERE engaged! Over the course of the day, I shared many of the activities I had prepared for the B&G Club, Branson Unit. In this picture, the club members are doing an activity where they pretend they are a water molecule moving through the water cycle. Most of the kids were surprised they spent the majority of their time in the ocean, lake, or in a cloud. This activity is in the Project WET book (The Incredible Journey) and had been demonstrated by Erica Cox, Project WET Coordinator for Missouri. The older members used a folded piece of paper to record their travel. For the younger members, they had a laminated map to chart their travel. At the end of each session, I passed out key chains, bumper stickers, pencils, and tee shirts from both MO Stream Team and Table Rock Lake Water Quality, Inc.