1st month of AmeriCorps

Hello moriverlovin’ folks!

This is Julia from the Missouri Clean Water AmeriCorps Program, serving through the Missouri River Communities Network in Columbia, MO.

We are a nonprofit organization whose mission is to preserve and restore the historic, cultural, and natural resources of the Missouri River and its surrounding communities, and to encourage citizen participation in these endeavors.

The new AmeriCorps members recently got back from a week of training in the spider-filled Lake of the Ozarks State Park. Learning and growing.
After learning all about AmeriCorps and our supervising organization the MRCN, we made foshees, saw glow worms and then ate sand while camping on California Island. We had spent the evening with River Relief and had the tastiest food around while we were helping with their event on the island.

One of MRCN's current projects is promoting and installing Rain Gardens in residential and institutional land around Columbia. We have been making site visits to help people decide if their property is an appropriate place to put in a garden and how to best do that. We have also been doing lots of upkeep on previously installed gardens, removing invasive species, getting stuck in the mud, planting and laying down cardboard and mulch to keep the weeds away. Each work day we have had between 1-3 volunteers helping to maintain these public gardens. We appreciate all the extra hands, and are always looking for more!

Learn more about the benefits to our watershed and community on our website, www.moriver.org/
OR
Search for info from the Department of Natural Resources, where they are asking the city of Columbia to reduce rain water flow into the Hinkson Creek by 68%!
How can we do this?

LOTS OF RAIN GARDENS!