eBay Giving Works for Non-profits

Hi Clean Water Enthusiasts!

Since it has been so cold outside, and our Columbia/Boone County Rain Garden Grant Program is winding down, I have been focusing on more planning for MRCN's 2nd Annual Rain Barrel Art Review!

I have already mentioned that we are having artists design and paint rain barrels, that we will then post around downtown Columbia to raise awareness of water conservation and Best Management Practices of using rain barrels and rain gardens.

However, our search for artists isn't over! We are extending the call to artists throughout January. If there are any artists or anyone who likes to paint, please let them know they still have the opportunity to share their talents and help the environment by painting a rain barrel. We currently have 10 barrels being painted and would love to have 5-10 more completed by Feb 5th, 5pm. If interested, please email: booneraingardens@gmail.com or call the office (573)256-2602.

The other aspect of the Rain Barrel Art Review is the online auction, hosted on eBay, to sell the barrels to continue to fund our educational programs. While researching for this event, I discovered MissionFish and eBay Giving Works. Giving Works is a part of eBay where non-profits can auction/sell items and be charged no fees! Also, their name is added to a list and sellers can opt to donate a portion (10-100%) of their proceeds to the non-profit. Or, individuals can donate items to the non-profit to sell/auction for themselves, again, with no fees! Additionally, people can use eBay to donate directly to the non-profit.

This is a great opportunity for non-profits to raise funds, sell items and receive donations. Anyone out there in a non-profit should register with MissionFish for free, who will verify your tax exempt status. Then you are ready to be featured as a non-profit on eBay Giving Works. I hope you check it out and can take advantage of this benefit to non-profits!

Let me know if you have questions about the process.

Thanks for reading!

Cold Weather=Invasive Removals

So, it has been a successful and busy month at the Confluence. National Bush Honeysuckle Removal Day brought out over 50 volunteers to the St. Louis Riverfront Trail. With the help of the Grace Hill Trail Rangers, volunteers from AmeriCorps St. Louis (and their chain saws) and the volunteers we removed a record setting amount of Honeysuckle!

The next weekend I worked in conjunction with AmeriCorps St. Louis at Washington Park Cemetery where I assisted in the removal of more honeysuckle. This time it was far a community organization. The cemetery is in desperate need of upkeep and we started with the honeysuckle removal while other volunteers mowed the grass.

Currently, I am helping Living Green in Watkins Creek finish up the last 3 months on their 319 grant. If you don't know what the 319 Grant is here is a small tidbit of information on it...

" Congress amended the Clean Water Act (CWA) in 1987 to establish the section 319 Nonpoint Source Management Program because it recognized the need for greater federal leadership to help focus State and local nonpoint source efforts. Under section 319, State, Territories, and Indian Tribes receive grant money which support a wide variety of activities including technical assistance, financial assistance, education, training, technology transfer, demonstration projects, and monitoring to assess the success of specific nonpoint source implementation projects."

Here are some Upcoming Events with The Confluence

Eagle Days at the Old Chain of Rocks Bridge Public Event: January 16-17, 2010 9AM-3 PM

MLK Jr. Day Branch Street Clean Up: January 18, 2010...following the march.

Save the Date: 2nd Annual Confluence Trash Bash March 27, 2010

We are looking for volunteers for all the events above!!!

Join us on Facebook http://www.facebook.com/pages/The-Confluence/201683368975?ref=ts

Sleepless haze to horray's

Hello all,
This has been a month full of activities! We had Family Volunteer Day with Boy Scout Troop 4. The invasive honeysuckle at Kiwanis Park and Trinity Church suffered greatly. The Scouts were full of energy, positive attitudes and hard work. I was worn out 30 minutes into the removal so having those energetic boys around helped.

Ok, now what I really want to talk about. Part of my job here is to get some sign frames made for the wonderful signs for our Rain Gardens. After pricing steel, I began to get worried as the price was very close to going over budget, and the evening welding instructor was not returning my phone calls. After a sleepless haze caused by accidentally purchasing and using 24-hour energy toothpaste, I began to get very nervous and even considered making the signs out of wood. Then, I was reminded by the secretary of the Columbia Area Career Center that there was a daytime welding instructor. I called him and he was very accommodating. Julia and I went to meet with him to discuss this project. After a few minutes of discussion, Mr. Henneke, the welding instructor, agreed to have his class build the signs for MRCN, costing us only the price of the steel. He said he would call in a few days with a quote. He did, and his quote for steel was one-half of that quoted by the steel companies. He said they got a deal because they were a school and used a lot of steel. The sign frames will be done soon. They still need to be painted, installed and have the sign screwed to the frame, but hey, no problem.

We also began to get started on the Rain Barrel Art Review. This year we decided to prime the rain barrels, thinking the artists would like that. My old employer, Wayne Guariglia, owner of Oakstone Homes and Columbia Showcase Cabinets, offered to let us use his spray room in his cabinet shop. With the help of Rebecca and a volunteer named Mark we got them sprayed in one morning. Thanks for the use of your spray gun Jason Neirmier.

I am beginning to get started on The Healthy Watershed Series, so keep a lookout for updates concerning that.

Keep up the good work AmeriCorp members!

Aquatic Bugs invade Local Classrooms

Here at Table Rock Lake Water Quality, we have many projects going on all the time. Recently, I have taken the initiative to travel to local schools and speak on the topic of water quality. November has been busy with starting educational presentations at local schools on stream biomonitoring. I bring in live macroinvertebrates and the students solve a pollution problem for a simulated fish kill case study. They identify the macroinvertebrates and determine the water quality rating for each of their sites. I discussed the potential different types of pollution such as stormwater run-off and as a class, we discuss possible solutions. Table Rock Lake Water Quality is bringing awareness of stormwater runoff through introducing the causes and effects. I am helping spread the word about stormwater problems when I visit the schools and many of the students mention that they have never thought about pollution in this way. TRLWQ is writing a new grant proposal to demonstrate methods of stormwater retention in the lake Table Rock Lake area. I am excited to help educate the public about these issues so that we may start to talk about solutions to stormwater runoff pollution. The educational presentations have been a great experience and the middle school students are always excited to look at all the aquatic bugs. I have catered the presentation to certain age groups so middle school and high school students can be equally challenged. Middle school students use a picture key to identify the macroinvertebrates while high school students use a dichotomous key. Not only are the students learning about water quality but they are developing laboratory skills as well! I am continuing to travel to local schools and speak about water quality issues. If you are interested in having a “hands-on” presentation to your school or citizen group, just contact Tammy Yelden at (417) 739-4100 or tammyyelden@lvbw.net .

Dominated Honeysuckle

There is a big park in a small city that brings the locals together. Castlewood State Park, a very popular park for west St. Louis county, is experiencing the Honeysuckle effect. Most say to leave this invasive plant, that it cannot be managed or destroyed. I say otherwise.

To really be effective in what we do as Americorps Members and all of the other conservation and preservationists, we absolutely must give back and show all of the information and knowledge that we gather. It is not our knowledge alone, every single person has a right to it. And so, in an effort to make a difference I have chosen to clear out one rather large section of Honeysuckle in the front of Castlewood State Park. I must say it was a HUGE undertaking at first, but by sticking with it and consistently going out there and removing the Honeysuckle, the section is now perfectly cleared of it. It looks as parklands should look.

Just by being out there, I've had numerous park lovers ask me why I am cutting down the green stuff. And so I go off into my rant about why it's bad and how we are destroying it. By the end of this project people will be able to look to their right and see a Honeysuckle laden forest, and to their left and clear woodland.

My interest in this park started when I chose Keifer Creek as my number one water quality monitoring site, close to a year and a half ago. Keifer Creek has now become of interest to many people and I have made it a long term goal to do everthing for this park and this creek that I can. There will be a Keifer Creek monitoring day where we perform water quality monitoring on all of the sites from the start of Keifer Creek all the way to the Meremac. I am excited to be apart of bettering an area that people can really see the difference and learn something new.

Mona Terrace: Reconnecting the River Des Peres to University City

Hello everyone, my name is Theodore M. Smith, a new member of the Missouri River Communities Network. I am an AmeriCorps member working with the River Des Peres Watershed Coalition (RDPWC) located in University City, Missouri (U.City). It is a non-profit organization committed to the preservation and restoration of the River Des Peres (RDP) and its tributaries. The watershed drains approximately 115 within the St. Louis metropolitan area. One of the areas the RDPWC is focusing on within the watershed is a site called Mona Terrace. Mona Terrace is located in University City south of Mona Road, between Groby Road and North and South Road. The Mona Terrace site and areas downstream of it have been subject to flooding in the event of heavy rainfall; As seen in the remnants of Hurricane Ike during September of 2008.
At Mona Terrace, the River Des Peres is not channelized and flows in a natural state. The use of green space and the natural state of the river are being used to reconnect Mona Terrace with the community. This can be seen with the creation of a bike/pedestrian path. This section is located in a residential neighborhood, but with close proximity to various businesses on nearby Olive Boulevard, a major arterial road in St. Louis County. Organizations involved with habitat management activities at the Mona Terrace site include Great Rivers Greenway, River Des Peres Watershed Coalition and U.City in Bloom. I went to the Mona Terrace site on Monday November 30th, Wednesday December 2nd, Friday December 4th. Habitat restoration work has been conducted on a 900 feet stretch of streambank along the RDP. During the fall Mona Terrace has been the site of Honeysuckle Hacks, Native Species plantings, and Stream Cleanups, in which I have the opportunity to participate. The species of plants, planted include River Oat, Willows, Virginia Wild Rye, just to name a few.
Over the course of the week of November 30th, I braved the cold and on Wednesday, rain and ventured to the RDP to conduct cleanups along the river. While there on my visits I collected 3 bags of trash; including plastic bags, bike parts, aluminum cans, rugs, and plastic and glass bottles. With the winter weather setting in work within the Mona Terrace area, is slowing down. Though much work has been done to improve the habitat of the river, there is still more to do. Including more cleanups to remove the more difficult items in the river like shopping carts, box springs, and even fallen trees. We anticipate in the Spring of 2010, of planting a 700 feet by 4 feet area on the southern streambank with native plants. Hope you all enjoy the photos and I am happy to have the opportunity to share a portion of the River Des Peres with you.

Greetings from the Lake of the Ozarks

Greetings from the Lake of the Ozarks! Caroline Toole, here, working with LOWA (Lake of the Ozarks Watershed Alliance) and AmeriCorps (MO Clean Water AmeriCorps Program, hosted by MO Rivers Communities Network (MRCN)), in service to our community! Do you realize how large the entire watershed of the Lake of the Ozarks (LOZ) is? If I say the watershed is over 8.6 million acres, that may sound like a lot, and it is, but it’s hard to visualize. If I say the LOZ watershed begins at Bagnell Dam and extends westward, well into Kansas, that might help a little. Many people think about the area draining from Bagnell Dam to Truman Dam, at Warsaw, as being LOZ’s watershed. But the water making up the Lake of the Ozarks comes from many different sources, not only from far away, but also from here at home and everywhere in between.
I’ve been using the term, watershed, quite a lot, but how many people understand what a watershed is and what it means to live in the watershed for a body of water? A watershed is the area of land that, when it rains, drains to a particular body of water, like a creek, or a river, or a pond, or a lake. A little watershed is part of a bigger watershed, which is part of an even larger watershed, as for example, a creek flows into a river, which flows into a bigger river, until the water eventually reaches the ocean. For example, that means that my stream team site, at Howards Ford on the Little Niangua near Climax Springs (see photo below), is in the watershed of the Little Niangua. Historically, the Little Niangua flowed into the Niangua, which flowed into the Osage River. Now, of course, with the Lake of the Ozarks, the Little Niangua becomes part of LOZ before it even reaches the Niangua, which also becomes part of LOZ well upstream of its historical junction with the Osage. Lake of the Ozarks, at Bagnell Dam, becomes the Osage River again, and the Osage flows into the Missouri River just south of Jefferson City and the Missouri flows into the Mississippi River just north of St. Louis, and the Mississippi flows into the Gulf of Mexico, down around New Orleans, Louisiana. The Gulf of Mexico is connected to the Atlantic Ocean, and the Mississippi Watershed is the largest watershed in North America.

All those watersheds for one little stream team site on the Little Niangua is a lot of different watersheds. But, are they really different watersheds? Yes, and no, however, they are all connected watersheds. With everything being connected, what we do in one part of the watershed does have an effect on other parts of the watershed. LOWA is concerned with the part of the LOZ watershed that drains from Truman Dam to Bagnell Dam, and has recently been involved with writing a watershed management plan for the Lake of the Ozarks. This watershed management plan, or WMP, is really just a beginning step in the long term effort to maintain and improve the water quality of the Lake of the Ozarks – no little task! This WMP, like all watershed management plans, is written as a living, dynamic document, open to updates, amendments, and modifications. Copies of the document, once approved by MO Dept. of Natural Resources, will be made available to everyone. An electronic copy will be online at http://www.soslowa.org/ and a loose-leaf paper copy in a binder will be available at the LOWA office, presently in Laurie at Realty Executives (office space and office equipment donated by Jim and Nancy Rogers at lakebuy.com). These copies will be updated as changes arise and are made. In addition, bound hard copies will be available for public viewing at public library branches and county court houses in the 4-county LOZ watershed, which includes Benton, Camden, Miller, and Morgan Counties.
Writing a watershed management plan is 100% a service to the community. Not only is this a researched document presenting problems (impairments) in a watershed and solutions to these problems (Best Management Practices – BMPs), but the entire community can now utilize this document to springboard their own community development plans and projects. A WMP is written with input from the community, and is written for the community’s use.
Your local, grassroots watershed alliance (LOWA) is now using this WMP to plan and design exciting community service watershed activities like the LOWA LILs program (LIL = Low Impact Landscaping), a cost-share program where home owners can receive back part of the cost of installing rain gardens and other innovative stormwater treatment projects designed to reduce stormwater runoff. There’s a lot of work ahead of us and LOWA can always use some volunteer help on many different levels, from writing thank you letters, calling volunteers, and filing in the office, to helping to write grants, organize events, and design projects. You can call me, Caroline Toole, at 573 374 1331 ext 16, call Donna Swall at 573 434 4400, email LOWA or me at ckingtoole@yahoo.com, or visit the LOWA website at http://www.soslowa.org/, and contact us there.
Please remember, we all live in a watershed and what we do does matter. Every little bit helps. Think globally, act locally is more than a slogan. There is a large dead zone where the Mississippi empties into the Gulf of Mexico where, because too many of nutrients like nitrogen and phosphorus make low oxygen levels in the water, life cannot exist. When we over fertilize, or allow wastes to get into the lake, we are contributing to that dead zone, as well as contributing to a less healthy, more stressed Lake of the Ozarks. LOWA has some great ideas and exciting projects brewing! Stay tuned, educate yourself, and keep in touch! Happy Holidays to you and yours!

Quality Soil Means Quality Water

This month I had the opportunity to attend a Steering Committee Meeting in beautiful Mammoth Springs, Arkansas. The steering committee is associated with the USDA- NRCS South Missouri Water Quality Project. The local Soil and Water Conservation District gave a presentation on what they are working on, but I was most impressed with the presentation on Soil Quality: The Building Block to Water Quality. Steve Hefner, Team Leader for SMWQ demonstrated the importance of good soil and how it affects the quality of water. In the picture, you will see two glass jars filled with water. Inside them they had a piece of fence to hold the clump of soil. The jar on the right had dirt from a man’s farm that sat right under a fence line. It is for the most part untouched by humans and animals. The jar on the left held a dirt clump from the same man’s garden area that is regularly tilled and worked.
As you can see, the jar on the left is murky and the water on the top even has a film on it, while the jar on the right is clean and clear. The clump of dirt on the left just fell apart. It was like watching a mini mudslide. Loose pieces here and there fell off initially in the jar on the right, but as time went on, it slowed down and never was the water brown. The amount of time this picture was taken was about 10 minutes after Steve gently placed the clumps of soil in the jar. At about 15 minutes, there wasn’t much left of the clump on the left while the clump on the right was still there.
Moral of the story, be nice to your land, don’t over graze or till and when you are thinking about your water, don’t forget what’s holding it there in the first place.

Quick question- Which jar would you rather drink out of?

Rain Gardens are GREAT!

Hello again!

I hope everyone thoroughly stuffed themselves at their Thanksgivings, because that’s the way it should be.
So, I had a very eventful November. A couple of weeks ago, the Coalition had our 40th anniversary party, which was quite the classy affair. We had about 250 attendees, an incredible turnout and show of support for our organization and our work.

Most exciting for me was that I gave my first stormwater education presentation! I’m really excited about this project, because it’s turning out to be an excellent opportunity to change how people think.

One of my favorite neighborhoods in the St. Louis area is South Grand. It’s diverse and multicultural, right down the street from one of the city’s oldest and most beautiful parks, has great architecture and very good, relatively inexpensive, restaurants.

At the beginning of October, I attended the last of the public meetings on a proposed renovation they are planning for the neighborhood. It’s a part of the Great Streets Initiative, and one of several such projects around the city and county. The idea is to take a street that’s already very popular, and make it “great”; i.e., more pedestrian friendly, safer, beautiful and coherent, and environmentally friendly. Each master plan was presented to the public, which then had the chance to voice their opinions, as well as to influence the plans themselves.

On South Grand, in part due to high interest from residents, the master plan calls for an eventual 50% reduction in pervious surfaces over 8 blocks; eventually, everything from the curb front to the building front will be pervious, including most of the parking lane. They also have proposed rain gardens at 28 corners! It turns out, however, that there just isn’t enough money for that, so instead they were just going to put in grass.
Once I heard that they were going to put in grass (just silly), I decided to try and find a way to get the rain gardens put in sooner, rather than later. What I’ve come up with is to try and kill several birds with one stone: I’m reaching out to neighborhood associations, residents, business, and other potentially interested community groups to organize people around an “adopt-a-corner” project. Rather than pay for someone install and maintain the gardens, I’m going to try to get volunteers to do that work. I’m also exploring ways to get the plants donated.
For those people that aren’t familiar with stormwater issues—namely, the residents and neighborhood associations—I’m wrapping my proposal for community-owned rain gardens in with stormwater education. Last Tuesday, I went to the Tower Grove East Neighborhood Association and talked to the roughly 30 attendees about just that, and it went over really well! The best part is seeing the light bulbs go on over people’s heads and having them get excited about what you’re telling them.
I already have another presentation lined up! It’s so nice to finally have the ball rolling on things, but there’s still a ton of work to be done. Fingers crossed that the rain gardens become a reality!
I look forward to seeing you all next month, and I hope you all have wonderful holidays!

PS: Next time I'll remember to take pictures of me giving the presentation!

Wildcat Glades Conservation & Audubon Center

Part of my time with AmeriCorps is spent developing educational programming for the new St. Louis Audubon Center at the Riverlands Migratory Bird Sanctuary. The Center is slated to be finished next summer and will be a venue for a variety of ecological, place-based educational programming and recreation.

To familiarize myself with Audubon Centers I made a trip down Hwy 44 to visit the Wildcat Glades Conservation & Audubon Center in Joplin, MO (http://www.wildcatglades.audubon.org/). The Center is situated in rolling Ozark hills among unique chert glades. Shoal Creek runs through the chert glade, woodland, and around high bluffs on site.

I had a very fruitful meeting with Chris Pistole, the Education Director. He was generous with both his time and expertise, providing me with several resources that will inform my work here at the Audubon Center at Riverlands. The Center building is full of treasure to be discovered, including a massive multi-level freshwater aquarium, several engaging exhibits, classrooms, print resources, and a nature store.

My walk around the trails took me through the chert glade, over a low water crossing and into bottomland forest, along the bedrock riffles of the creek, and under the bluff trail (I look forward to it next time). All the while I was coaxed along by the sound of the creek and the promise of the gently curving trail ahead.

Places like these are crucial; certainly for their protected habitat and natural beauty, but also for the on-site educational outreach and connection to place they offer. The talented staff and volunteers at Wildcat Glades are sharing knowledge and skills that inform better stewardship with people of all ages.

I highly recommend a visit to the Wildcat Glades Conservation & Audubon Center for anyone in the area. For those who are not near Joplin, the Center's proximity to Interstate 44 makes it a nice stopping point on your way to through.


Enjoy being outside today!

Rain Barrel Art Review Planning

Hi all!
This month has gone by very quickly. First I was out of town, then Thanksgiving. . . time has flown by. Mostly what I have been doing this month is a lot of planning for the Rain Barrel Art Review, culminating March 19th, 2010 with the first ever Barrel Roll (art walk), reception, live auction and kick off of the online auction on eBay (search for the non-profit Missouri River Communities Network and Rain Barrels). We sent out a call to artists to submit a design for a rain barrel in the suggested theme of "water conservation". By asking for a design, giving a theme and sending the request to the universities to distribute, I was hoping for many committed responses. (Last year, unfortunately, two artists took barrels but were unable to complete them.)

So far, it looks like we have the same number of responses as last year, even though I had several galleries promise to send out the call to hundreds of people on their mailing lists. If anyone has done this type of event before and has suggestions, please let me know. Also, if anyone is trying to plan one and wants to discuss, please leave a comment and we can share ideas!

We have been successful though in drumming up media. Today I'm being interviewed for the Columbia Missourian and next week will be taping Radio Friends with Paul Pepper on KBIA to air Dec. 14th at 8:50am and a different segment to air Jan 29th, same time.

I think since this is only the second year, we need time for people to get to know us and what this event is about. As an organization, we will continue to get more coverage and use advertising to help people become more aware of what we do.

Oh, I felt most accomplished the day before Thanksgiving. I spent the day making envelopes out of old conservation pamphlets that we had laying around. They were too old to hand out, and just taking up space, so I cut them to the right size and folded them up into unique, recycled envelopes. I'm using these to send our sponsor request letters to businesses. Hopefully they will see our commitment to the environment!