This blog tells the stories of our Missouri Clean Water AmeriCorps Members, and encourages Stream Teams from around the state of Missouri to participate also.
This month the MRCN AmeriCorps crew has been hard at work with rain gardens, rain gardens and more rain gardens!Every now and then, however, we do like to take a break and get messy with something other than mud.On October 17th, that something was paint!The Sustainable Living Fair was held at Columbia College from 10am-6pm, and MRCN was the designated provider of children’s activities.
We set up two fun (and secretly educational) activities at our outdoor booth.One- which actually attracted more adults than kids- is lovingly referred to as Macro Match.By overturning the rocks in our “streams,” kiddos can find “macros” and determine which stream is healthy and which stream is polluted.We didn’t have too much interest, mostly because of our second activity…
Kids and grown-ups alike could not resist helping us decorate our beautiful, demonstration rain barrel!We invited fair-goers to stick their hands in paint and place their handprint on our barrel.The end result was a colorful example of how individuals can personalize this great water-holding device.
As the weather gets chillier, we are starting to put away our fair and festival demonstrations for a winter break.But don’t be surprised if you see Macro Match and a colorful barrel when we start to festival hop again in the spring!
Hello Missouri Clean Water Stream Team Blog! With the help of a friend you all will now be exposed to my writings. Thanks Rebecca.
Lets see. So much to cover and catch up on.
On the 8th and 9th I attended a conference in KC and was able to reconnect and get to know my Americorp group. Want to give a shout out to the Rain Barrel Blueman Group. I wonder if there is a video of our skit somewhere. It would be fun and embarrassing to view.
The hotel was nice, the meetings were educational, but the best part was reconnecting with all the wonderful, awesome, intelligent, creative, and fun individuals in our Americorp group.
Learning about the Americorp Alumni also gave me a good feeling that there are so many people who consider community activism essential to the health of our communities and, well heck, the health of our political system.
Today we might go plant grasses at Bethel Park but will the weather cause a delay? Stay posted for more.
Hello! My name is Tammy Yelden and I am the assistant for Table Rock Lake Water Quality, Inc. in Kimberling City. The first month has been a whirlwind of learning about all of the different activities that TRLWQ is up to. One of the opportunities, I had this month was to assist the Missouri Stream with Volunteer Water Quality training in Springfield. This gave me the opportunity to meet with various Stream Teams in the area and see what their teams do. I also talked to many school teachers that were interested in TRLWQ Watershed festival in the spring. We are in the planning stages for that event which takes place in March. I am currently contacting local 4-H groups to conduct an “Educational Night” at one of their meetings. I am very excited about meeting the local clubs and hopefully spurring some interest in Stream Team activities for these young people.
It's National Make a Difference Day! You are being called to join a service project in your community, anyone can do it!
We are meeting at the Bluffs to plant native plants, mulch and move rocks. No experience necessary! We'll instruct you on what to do. Just come out, dressed for the weather and ready to get muddy! We'll be there from 10am -2pm, stay an hour or stay the whole time! We'd love any help we can get to transform this muddy path to a beautiful rain garden!
When: Saturday October 24th
Time: 10am-2pm
Where: The Bluffs, 3510 Bluff Creek Dr., Columbia, MO
Who: Join the Missouri Clean Water AmeriCorps Members working with Missouri River Communities Network and local volunteers
Bring:Yourself, dressed for weather and to get muddy, and gardening tools if you got 'em
Contact: booneraingardens@gmail.com or 573-256-2602
On October 1st, Rebecca and I, from Missouri River Communities Network, were featured on KOPN's Women's Issues, Women's Voices in Columbia, MO. The theme was environmental issues, and we spoke about the problems associated with storm water, and solutions such as rain barrels and rain gardens.We pretty much rocked this interview and got to have some tasty egg rolls from the restaurant across the hallway from the KOPN office on the 9th block of Broadway.You can listen to it here.
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?
My name is Rebecca, and I am one of ten new and awesome Missouri Clean Stream AmeriCorps Members!Although the past three weeks have been full of fun, I have chosen just one excellent story to share with you.
On October 3rd, I spent my 23rd birthday attending my first ever river clean-up!Although I am currently stationed in Columbia, MO with the Missouri River Communities Network, I grew up in Kansas City and could not resist a trip home to practice everything that I had been learning with MRCN.
It was a chilly morning, and one of the first things I noticed was a neon orange beanie.One of the second things I noticed was that this beanie belonged to my high school Environmental Education teacher, Mike Pisani. Without the Environmental Education program at Shawnee Mission Northwest High School, I would not be where I am today, and I was excited to see that Pisani had brought some of his students out to help clean the river.
After a chilly boat ride to our site, we were let loose on the garbage that littered the river bank.Among our finds for the day: a refrigerator door, a perfectly usable soccer ball, a red cooler, a toy hammer, LOTS of styrofoam, LOTS of plastic bottles and a beautiful pink bra.In just over 2 hours, the 21 volunteers from Team Cougar had cleaned up our stretch, and we were ready to return to Kaw Point Park.
All told, nearly 400 volunteers came out to help with the clean-up!Thanks to all involved for making my 23rd birthday a memorable one!
Hello from South Central MO! I’m Rosanna Hernandez and I am working with Top of the Ozarks, Resource Conservation and Development in Houston. I am the AmeriCorps Water Quality Specialist working with the Big Piney. There are eight RC&D’s in the state of Missouri and I am lucky enough to be working in my home town! The Resource Conservation and Development program helps people initiate, develop and maintain projects that protect the natural, social and economic resources in our local areas.
After a fun filled week of training, there was an optional event to attend that Saturday. To celebrate the 20th Anniversary of Missouri Stream Team, MO River Relief organized a big clean-up for the Jefferson City River. Since I’ve never attended a river clean up, and soon I will be organizing them, I figured it to be a good idea to participate. It was such a great experience, I would recommend it to everyone. Obviously it’s fun to be on the river in a boat, but when you get off and start picking up litter, it’s very eye opening to see the imprint the we leave.
My crew, which was lovingly named Team ARGGGGH!, (pirate themed clean up) consisted of a group of high school girls and their sponsor, some sisters from the Jeff City area, and one veteran river cleaner. It was really cool to meet people from central MO that drove up to an hour on their day off, to participate! We all had a great time and felt very connected through the mud! We learned very quickly why people call it the Big Muddy. We had to walk on sticks and branches as much as possible so we wouldn’t sink! I am not what some may consider graceful in slippery (and smelly, might I add), mud.
We dispersed along our area which consisted of riverbank and forestry and collected our findings. What did we find, might you ask? Mostly plastic bottles, a few cans here and there, pieces of plastic, caps and bottle lids, Styrofoam pieces and cups as well as plastic bags. There was also a tin roof, a tire inner tube, and what we decided was a 100 gallon diesel fuel barrel (empty thankfully). A couple girls found it in the wooded area and we rolled out the barrel…
This clean up experience made me realize a few things. 1. Plastic disposable water bottles are a waste of money and plastic. Luckily for me, my tap water is better than anything that comes out of a bottle, so instead, I will use my re-usable water bottle and take an extra minute out of my day to fill it up. I'll also be saving some cash! 2. When out in nature, leave no trace. Pick up after yourself as well as others, it only takes a little extra time and how cool are you, helping the planet! 3. Always keep trash bags with you, you never know when you’re going to have pick stuff up or protect your belongings from muddy boots!
Hey everyone!I’m Noelle Wyman, and I am the Clean Water Program AmeriCorps volunteer with Missouri Coalition for the Environment in University City (St. Louis for our purposes).I’m excited about getting more involved in water issues here in St. Louis and around Missouri, and so far it’s been a great start to the year!
Missouri Coalition for the Environment (MCE) works primarily through policy initiatives, legal defense, and citizen actions to promote a healthy environment here in Missouri.I will be working in our Water Program, which focuses on enforcing the Clean Water Act and educating people about clean water issues.
The “great story” I would like to share with you all from these past few weeks is from the Green Homes Festival, which was held at the end of my first week here.It was especially meaningful for me to be able to attend and volunteer at the Festival because I helped to plan it last year but was unable to attend since I had to go back to school.
The Festival is organized as a joint effort between MCE, spearheaded by my former supervisor Erin Noble, and the EarthWays Center, which is a division of the Missouri Botanical Garden devoted to green living and promoting sustainability.In many ways, the Green Homes Festival is like the many other outdoor fairs that are happening around the region this time of year—it is full of vendors, children’s activities, and food.However, unlike so many of the other fairs, the Festival is focused on being, building, eating, acting and understanding being green.There were green builders, a solar oven, organizations advocating for legislation on climate change, and workshops given by individuals well versed in various aspects of green living and environmental issues.There wasn’t necessarily a lot to buy, but there was a ton for people to learn.It was, to put it simply, very cool.
All week, Erin had been asking for everyone’s hopes and prayers that it wouldn’t rain.We talked about it so much that I still remember that they were forecasting a 40% chance of rain.That Saturday dawned cloudy and windy, but no rain… yet.The Festival was being held at Grandel Square in MidTown; for those of you familiar with St. Louis, you know that there virtually no green space there.I helped MCE set up with the River Des Peres Watershed Coalition along the side of the street.The neatest thing about our booths was that there was a HUGE map of the St. Louis region where people could identify their watersheds and see what they could do to help.We also had, of course, plenty of information about rain gardens and barrels and stormwater runoff.
Did you know that a 40% chance of rain doesn’t mean that there’s a 60% chance it won’t rain at all?It means that 40% of the area will receive rain.I bet you do know that most weather forecasts are wrong; I’m pretty sure the entire St. Louis area got a downpour that day.Most people took cover in the main booth where they had a lot of tables—but the water found its way in.You guessed it: we had a mini-flood of stormwater runoff!I, of course, seized the opportunity to talk about the issues with stormwater in St. Louis with the unwitting couple sitting next to me whom I had rescued from getting their feet wet.They, and everyone still at the Festival, got to see firsthand the problems that traditional, non-green infrastructure can cause.(The couple next to me was privy to a discussion about combined sewer systems, water quality, and rain gardens and barrels as well.)
Thankfully, the weather cleared up and the day ended with a rainbow—I’m not being campy, there actually was a rainbow.I’m looking forward to being a part of, as well as organizing, more educational and outreach events with MCE this year.I will also be monitoring and commenting on CAFO and wastewater treatment facility permits, which I’m affectionately referring to my poop projects.I’m also going to be spending a lot of my time on UAAs (Use Attainability Analyses) that will work with local residents gain protections their streams throughout the state.
I’m looking forward to seeing everyone in Kansas City at the end of this week and hearing more about your respective experiences in the past few weeks!
