October with LOWA

Caroline Toole, here, checking in with the MO Clean Water AmeriCorps Program. Make a Difference Day, Oct 24, 2009, found me on the Little Niangua, one of the rivers that flow into the Lake of the Ozarks. This is Stream Team 313 which I have had for almost 20 years. Lately I’ve been having a little trouble getting anyone to show up for my WQM’s (water quality monitoring events) and today was no exception. We’d had quite a lot of rain and the river was up (so much so that I couldn’t do the water discharge part or the critters part – the riffle was way too deep and fast moving). And, the morning was frosty and the river water was down right cold. But the day turned out beautiful as you can see in the pictures. On the left, it is still morning, and I am working with the turbidity tube and it’s cold enough to feel comfortable in many layers, ending with the AmeriCorps hoodie. On the right, I was out looking for critters in alternative habitats, and I’m down to my tshirt and waders in a 60 plus degrees (F) afternoon.
My watershed partner group is LOWA (Lake of the Ozarks Watershed Alliance) at http://www.soslowa.org/ and we have been quite busy writing a watershed management plan. I can’t believe we are almost finished. Whew. What a monster of a task! However, October also brought Camden County’s first Household Hazardous Waste Reclamation Day on Oct. 10, 2009 at Camdenton High School’s parking lot. LOWA serviced over 250 cars representing many more than 324 households. All the extra services were donated so all the grant money could go to processing the waste. Habitat for Humanity was there sorting through the paint (you never saw so much paint!) for paint usable for their projects. The top picture below is the early morning hours of the HHW day; we are setting up our canopy. The fellow in the photo is my husband; he’s also a baby boomer and I can count him in the subpopulations AmeriCorps wants us to track.

The last photo is another of LOWA’s October events. AmerenUE and LOWA host 2 soil erosion workshops each year for area builders, landscapers, and other interested persons, agencies, and companies. This fall we were at the Visitor’s Center at Truman Dam in Warsaw, at the very northern edge of the Lake of the Ozarks. (Truman Lake empties into the Lake of the Ozarks) Here I am signing up participants. Another successful event.
November should find LOWA submitting their Watershed Management Plan and then charging full steam ahead into writing their 319 grant to fund the many projects whose central goal is to take care of the watershed of the Lake of the Ozarks so the waters of the lake will be healthy and vibrant for people to enjoy for many years to come.

And, once again, LOWA would like to extend a sincere thank you to Jim and Nancy Rogers of Realty Executive in Laurie, MO for the donation of an office where LOWA can work.