MLK Day of Service Prompts Clean Up

On January 18th there was a multitude of service projects going on in honor of Martin Luther King Jr. Day, a national day of service. I was able to team up with a variety of North St. Louis community members to participate in the Branch Street Clean Up.

For those of you unfamiliar with Branch Street, it is the last remaining direct connection from the northern neighborhoods of St. Louis to the Mississippi River. As an industrialized area, it is commonly neglected and tends to be a dumping ground for trash of all sorts. The clean up, sponsored by the Grace Hill Settlement House Americorps Trail Rangers, Grace Hill Neighborhood Health Centers HealthCorps, and Operation Brightside, invited different groups within the community to help pick up the trash and sort recyclables. With a local bike route nearby, it is our hope that restoring some of the natural beauty to the area will help attract more of the community to come to the riverfront and enjoy what the Mississippi has to offer. I was there as a representative of Confluence Greenway along with 35 other volunteers of various organizations. Our efforts have even attracted Mayor Francis Slay who was more than happy to assist us in our clean up.

The day ended with a lunch provided by United Way and a discussion on how the service project affected the volunteers. Something which impressed me in particular was the amount of young people who attended the project as well as the discussion. Seeing them volunteer and hearing them in the discussion was very inspiring. It was obvious that they felt they had made an impact on the community. Overall the day was very successful with the cleaning of the watershed as well as bringing the members of the community closer together.

(Photograph compliments of United Way of Greater St. Louis)

Becoming TreeKeepers with the City of Columbia

For most of January, the AmeriCorps crew in Columbia spent a fair amount of time trying to stay warm and remembering to write “2010” each time something had to be dated. By the end of the month, we were still cold and had mostly gotten used to the new year, but we were ready for something new! Enter the TreeKeepers! The TreeKeepers program is a unique volunteer opportunity offered by the City of Columbia. Each year, approximately 40 citizens can register to be trained as “tree experts” or TreeKeepers. The group meets 3 times for classes on topics such as tree identification, diseases and pests, pruning and planting.

Once the group has completed their formal training, the real fun begins! Throughout the year, volunteer events are scheduled for Saturday mornings so that the new TreeKeepers can go out and practice what they have learned. These “lab sessions,” as they are called by program organizer Chad Herwald, can include tree plantings, invasive species removals, pruning and mulching and much more!

Because MRCN was already hoping to do some of these activities this spring, it seemed only logical that the AmeriCorps members learn from the pros. Lance, Julia and Rebecca are all now newly instated TreeKeepers! Furthermore, we will be collaborating on an event this spring. MRCN and the TreeKeepers will be planting 600 trees in a new park in Columbia! The event will be held the morning of April 17^th, and non-TreeKeepers are welcome too. Let us know if you want to get in on the fun!

MLK Day of Service 2010

In 1994, Congress designated the Martin Luther King Jr. Federal Holiday as a national day of service.

The Missouri Clean Water AmeriCorps Members asked citizens of all ages and backgrounds to use the day off from work as a day “on” to volunteering.

The King Day of Service strengthens communities by addressing needs and introduces people to ongoing service opportunities. People all over the nation will be participating in events such as collecting food and clothing, removing graffiti, cleaning neighborhoods and reading to children.

On January 18^th, Lance and I met up with the Mid-MO Red Cross Chapter to participate in a disaster preparedness event. The Red Cross had organized the day, gathering about 50 volunteers to distribute information on how to prepare for a disaster.

The information described how to make a plan to follow in case of an emergency, like deciding on a meeting place if you have to evacuate the home. It also described what kind of supplies to keep on hand, like bottled water, canned food, flash lights and batteries. The event was co-sponsored by the Columbia Professional Firefighters, and also made residents aware of a program where the firefighters will help citizens check their smoke alarms and replace batters or even give them a new smoke detector, if needed.

We knocked on about 50 doors, talking to about half of the residents and leaving the information on doorknobs for the rest. It was a brisk morning, but well worth it the cold walk knowing we were helping fellow Columbians (and that there was a lunch waiting for us back at Boone Electric Community Room, cooked up by the Columbia’s Professional Firemen).

Valley Park Meramec Greenway Rehabilitation

Hello,

December was a busy month. One of the biggest projects included working with Great Rivers Greenway, World Bird Sanctuary, Audobon Society, the Native Plant Society, and the Mayor of Valley Park to determine the health and overall conditions of the riparian zone on the Meramec River. The city wanted to get in on a $60,000 fund being granted to greenspaces within a mile of a Dioxin site. Valley Park is the perfect candidate and holds a lot of opportunities for reform and improvement. This is an area that has been neglected for YEARS. It is about time we stop ignoring it and start maintaining it. With such a massive project underway, it is safe to say that 2010 is going to be really busy!

I Dream Watershed Festivals

Wow, I’m happy to report to the blog community that the new year at James River Basin Partnership is off and running! A single minute is hardly spared in the organizing of the upcoming Watershed Festivals. Little did I know as a volunteer what really goes into planning these huge events that educate so many of the areas fifth graders. In the years past I have been a volunteer for the organization, but this time I’m coordinating the event.

First, I invited 26 of the Basin’s schools to participate. After they confirm there participation, there will be around 2000 5th graders learning about watersheds. The students, along with teachers and chaperons will be rotating through five educational activities. There will be three cycles running at the same time. Seventeen volunteers will be facilitating the activities, that makes 187 volunteer slots filled for the upcoming festivals.

After everyone commits to participate, there is a volunteer training held at JRBP’s new office building. Whew! There are five festivals in February and six in March. I can hardly wait to see and feel them come to fruition!

2010: Year of the Rain Barrel?

The cold December weather provided opportunity for the River des Peres Watershed Coalition (RdPWC) to focus on our rain barrel program. December has been an important time for completing budgets for rain barrel workshops that will be hosted in the following spring. The RdPWC has workshops planned at The Green Center in University City, Mo and Earthways Center in Midtown St. Louis. The rain barrel workshop at The Green Center will be held on Sunday, January 24, 2010 from 2pm to 4pm. The tentative date for the EarthWays Center rain barrel workshop is April 8, 2010 with a time to be announced at a later date. The RdPWC offers six designs for the rain barrels, differing based on spigot and outflow locations. The details of these can be found under the Rain Barrels For Sale section of the River des Peres Watershed Coalition’s website http://www.thegreencenter.org/rdp/ .
The barrels are donated by the Coca Cola Distribution Facility in Maryland Heights, Mo. The River des Peres Watershed Coalition are greatly appreciative for their donation and commitment to help improve the environment. Completing rain barrel inventories and budgets for future rain barrel workshops. In formatting the Rain Barrel Inventory, there was much trial; From finding enough power drilling tools, drill bits, to deciding everything from the correct size drill bits, crescent wrenches, and making bulk orders for essential components to the rain barrels. The essential components to our rain barrel include the 55-gallon barrel, atrium grate (which is important to the water flow into the rain barrel), clamps and washers to contain the outflow hose for excess rainwater.
As with any innovation we must find methods to adapt and expand uses for the barrels. The RdPWC has been tinkering around with ideas and uses for our rain barrels including barrels as large food/yard waste composters.; and even the “doggie-poo” composter. Another idea being worked on is finding a low cost and environmentally pleasing way to paint the rain barrels to increase their aesthetic appeal. An important part of the RdPWC mission is to promote awareness of River des Peres and improve its watershed. We feel that in order to get the word out as to what we are doing, the purpose of building the rain barrels (capturing excess storm water runoff), we want to provide as means for people to be involved in green infrastructure projects. By holding workshops, we hope to spread the word, and provide people with knowledge how to build them, so that they will see the merit in purchasing a rain barrel from us, or even take initiative in building their own rain barrel how of their own household or business material. Another means of spreading the news of rain barrels and other green infrastructure, is accessing the media, to provide information to a larger audience. I had the opportunity to speak with Jo Seltzer of the St. Louis Beacon, who referenced the RdPWC among other environmentally minded coalitions and groups in MSD face big challenges in reducing sewage overflows into Mississippi article. http://www.stlbeacon.org/content/view/13978/143/
In the upcoming spring the River des Peres Watershed Coalition plans to be involved with farmers markets in the St. Louis area. By establishing booths, demonstrating how the rain barrels operate, and possibly holding raffles for people to win rain barrels. At these booths and workshops the RdPWC hopes to get crucial feedback from the public and perhaps new innovative ideas/designs for rain barrels. For the latest development with the RdPWC, I am currently working with another member of the RdPWC, Nicole Brueggeman with the hope of starting a Workforce Education & Training Summer 2010 Program at St. Charles Community College. The program will be established to place special emphasis on community development, and social and eco-entrepreneurship; Focusing on water, and its three major components, environmental, social, and economic aspects related to how we managing and share our water resources. We are very hopeful in getting the program off the ground and running for the approaching summer. December was a really exciting month for the River Des Peres Watershed Coalition pertaining to our rain barrel program, and we hope to keep y’all informed and up to date in our future endeavors.

Rubbing Salt in the Wound (and Water)

Hey everyone!

So today I got to do something that I don’t usually get to do: go out in the field!

Not too terribly early this morning (thankfully), Darlene Haun of the Missouri Department of Conservation took Theo, Stacy, Lorin and I out to do water quality monitoring on Fishpot Creek in St. Louis County.

Like many urban and semi-urban streams, Fishpot has a host of problems. The key issue is volume: excessive development along the stream banks has increased runoff to more than the stream can handle. Fishpot is notoriously bad during rain, and can become extremely dangerous because water levels rise nearly 20 feet in a very short time. The flash flooding contributes to and exacerbates the acute erosion along the creek; in fact, the erosion was so bad along a street called Pepperdine Court that the St. Louis Metropolitan Sewer District had to do an expensive stream bank restoration just to prevent six houses from falling 20 feet into the stream.

We were testing for chlorides because the snow that fell last week has started to melt—and aaaallll the salt that was put down is washing off into the creeks. We tested five sites along the stream, and found conductivity well above toxic levels for fish at four.

After we finished gathering data and taking water sample from every site, we headed to Valley Park Middle School to work with a 6^th grade class. This class will actually be their own Stream Team in the spring, and they were very excited about getting to go out and work on the creek.

Darlene set up the chloride testing strips in our water samples for all the kids to see, and talked to them about why there would be more salt in the water right now. We also talked to the kids about macro-invertebrates and the role these critters play in water quality monitoring.

When the chloride testing strips were ready, the kids helped us read them. As predicted, chloride levels were reading much higher than normal. For a comparison, and to show the correlation between elevated conductivity levels and salt in the water, we also tested conductivity in tap water, distilled water, and sparkling water.

It was a nice change of pace to be out-of-doors and working in the stream, especially after the frigid weather we’d been having. (By the way, that's me testing conductivity, you can tell by the hair.) I also really enjoyed being in a classroom and interacting with the kids; I’m so glad that MDC is getting younger children involved in and excited about their local watershed. It’s always good to start those future AmeriCorps members young!

I look forward to seeing you all at the conference in a few weeks!

December Blog

Hello everybody. This past month had a few exciting occasions. December 18^th we picked up the rain garden sign frames from the Columbia Career Center. They are currently in storage until the ground thaws enough for installation. Before storing the frames we brought one to the office and gently placed the glorious sign in the frame. It looked very nice. The City of Columbia said we could help out their sign installers to see how they do it so we can repeat the process on our own. I cannot wait to see the signs in front of the completed rain gardens.

The second occasion I will discuss was New Years Eve. Columbia has a New Years Eve celebration called 1^st Night. It has been going on for years, but this was my first time, and I really enjoyed it. I communicated with the organizers my ideas for an educational booth and children’s activity, painting on a rain barrel. I was told to set up at one of the theaters on Stephens College campus. The entertainers at this venue included a magician and several bands. I set up in the lobby and waited for the crowds. 1^st Night started at 7:00pm. At 6:50 crowds of people rushed the doors. It was frigid outside so I thought people might hang out in the lobby, but I was wrong. The festival goers went from one event to the next at full speed. So, hundreds of people saw the display but only a few stopped to talk. I was happy anyway, it was New Years Eve. I learned later that there was an all kid’s centered fun arts and crafts event at one of the church’s downtown. This will be where we try barrel painting next 1^st Night.

I am currently organizing the Healthy Watershed Series, an educational event focusing on; you guessed it, healthy watersheds. There will be four guest speakers, one a month starting in February.

The last item I am really excited about. At our last MRCN meeting we discussed the MR340 and what or how to use the event to promote AmeriCorps. The MR340 is a race on the Missouri River for 340 miles, from KC to the St. Louis area, for slightly crazed individuals. One idea was to be a ground crew for some racers and talk somebody in the Journalism School to tail us and write an article. Another idea was to convince someone to take video of the race and ground crew and create a promotional video. Something about this makes me smile.

I hope everyone is doing well.

Lance

River Stewardship...Educating the Next Generation

The Mississippi River provides drinking water for millions of people in the St. Louis region, critical habitat for 60% of all North American bird species, and recreational opportunities for regional, national, and international visitors.


The Mississippi River Flyway is one of our planet's most significant migratory routes, and its watershed covers two-thirds of the United States. The Mississippi River is truly an artery of our nation.

Our health is directly connected to the health of this great river.


As part of an overall effort to raise awareness of the environmental value of this great river, understand the complicated policy issues that surround it, and develop leadership skills required to address its future, the National Audubon Society has partnered with the National Great Rivers Research and Education Center, the Army Corps of Engineers, and Crossroads College Preparatory School to develop and implement the Rivervision Leadership Project.

The Rivervision Leadership Project exposes students to a wide variety of water stewardship and water management issues associated with the River. Programming is an engaging mix of hands-on experiential learning opportunities including components such as water monitoring, river clean-up, Lock and Dam tour and study, monitoring flora and fauna in both aquatic and wetland sites, a diverse speaker series, and canoe training and subsequent trip. Students will interact with environmental groups, the Corps of Engineers, the Metropolitan Sewer District, farm associations, the barge industry, and others local industry professionals and policy makers.

December 15 and 16 we hosted the first of many Rivervision field trips with 42 8th grade students and 31 7th grade students respectively.

In the morning students toured the Melvin Price Lock & Dam in Alton Illinois. We saw Bald Eagles, American Pelicans, and several Gull species feeding directly below us at the dam site, and got up close to the massive 15 barge tows that come through the Lock and Dam every day. The picture above shows a group ready to go up the massive elevators to the top of the dam…it was a blustery 11 degrees that day and we are bundled accordingly! After touring the Lock and Dam, we headed to the Riverlands Migratory Bird Sanctuary, soon to be home to the Audubon Center at Riverlands, for lunch and an afternoon hike.

As the cold, hungry group of 8th graders shuffled into the little Environmental Learning Facility (ELF) at Riverlands to enjoy a break and some lunch, we were blessed with an incredible sight…not 20 yards in front of us at the waters edge two adult eagles were fighting over their lunch, an injured duck. An adult male eagle snagged the duck and began aloft with his bounty. All was not well though as another adult male eagle struck the first causing him to lose his grip, the duck splashing below. The second male secured the duck in his own talons just as the first male returned for his duck, striking the other eagle mid-air. This exchange went back and forth several times before the first male eventually flew away with his hard won supper.

What a marvelous introduction to Ellis Bay in December!


After lunch we hit the trails, binoculars in tow, with US Army Corps of Engineers Wildlife Biologist Charlie Deutsch around Riverlands. While we were out we spotted more Bald Eagles, Trumpeter Swans, Canada Geese, a kestrel, several hawks, Mourning Doves, Dark-eyed Juncos, and managed to spook a few rabbits from their comfy spots.


The goal of the Rivervision Leadership Project is for students to understand the complexity of issues that surround stewardship of America’s great rivers; to understand how effective leadership can result in positive environmental change; and to hone their own leadership skills in thinking through the issues to arrive at potential working solutions.

With our first field trips behind us I think we are well on our way to a very good program! I am looking forward to supporting the students in their efforts, particularly as the seasons change in the coming months.

The river runs through it.....

One of my main responsibilities during this year is to develop a functioning and sustainable watershed committee for the Big Piney River. While it's been going a little slower than ideal, I feel the group is starting to come along, and more importantly, getting more interest from the community. There are so many things that affect the watershed, one of the biggest challenges was to decide where to start. With the addition of river rental and resort owners, we have been able to get a clear idea about what is needed for our great river, the Big Piney.
In May 2009 our little neck of the woods got hit hard by tons of rain followed by hurricane winds resulting in trees being ripped from the earth by their roots. This obviously caused a lot of problems in the forest, along the roads and where I am now concerned with, the river. There are many log jams in the Big Piney that make it impassible in some places, and dangerous in others, not to mention the erosion that is happening when the water is trying to find a way through. Because let's face it, the water will find somewhere to go! With all that being said, and not to further bore you, we will be applying for a grant that will allow us to navigate through the river, map out where work needs to be done, and then hopefully get funding to remove the problem debris! This will help with safety issues for canoers as well as reduce the erosion and degridation of the river! It's a win-win! That's my excitement for now, hope everyone is staying warm!

Who would have thought?

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 River Communities Network (MRCN)), in service to our community! Brrr! We’ve been needing a nice, cold winter!
My first few months with LOWA have been quite the learning curve! Not unlike my first impression of teaching when I truly wondered what I had gotten myself into, last fall I had no idea what “writing a watershed management plan” entailed. What, you might ask, is a watershed management plan? Simply put, it is a plan to manage a watershed. LOL! If it were only that easy! A watershed management plan begins by talking to the stakeholders of the watershed and determining what are the issues with which people are concerned? LOWA began in 2006 by surveying the stakeholders around the Lake of the Ozarks, which in itself is no easy task considering LOZ touches 4 counties and has 1,150 miles of shoreline. But meetings were held at several locations and time after time the citizens said safety and water quality were their main concerns. One of the first projects in which LOWA became involved was the E. coli cove study that AmerenUE and MDNR were designing. With LOWA’s volunteers out on the Lake collecting samples, the scope of the study was tripled and the results started coming in! People seemed surprised! The Lake wasn’t so bad after all! Except for a couple of hot spots which MDNR traced to faulty and poorly managed waste treatment sites, the coves sampled that first year had almost no E. coli. The second year of the study, which moved up the Lake to sample a new set of coves, showed much the same results as the first year, not much E. coli at all. And then the third year began and the day of the first set of samples followed some heavy rains that had washed a lot of material into the Lake, and almost half the samples came back too high for E. coli. These were the infamous results that MDNR decided to wait on before releasing. What wasn’t reported was that a few days later, with subsequent sampling and testing, the Lake was back down to normal. Well, what followed is history and still history in the making, but to me the important message was that the watershed of the Lake was allowing too much material to wash into the Lake. Where was the riparian buffer around the Lake’s shores holding the material on the land, holding back the flow of stormwater so the precious rains can soak into the ground and replenish the aquifer? When LOWA began in earnest to write its watershed management plan (WMP) and began to identify the factors that could and do stress the lake, 3 main issues arose: too much sediment washing into the Lake, too many nutrients entering the Lake, and the issue of E. coli bacteria. What to do? In my next blog, I’ll discuss some “solutions” LOWA wrote into its WMP, which include some pretty exciting ideas for controlling stormwater runoff, like establishing rain gardens and rain barrels, along with LOWA LILs (Low-Impact Landscapes) and watershed-friendly green spaces all around the Lake! Winter is a great time for planning so that when spring finally arrives … well, watch out! Stay safe, stay warm, think globally, act locally.

A Night with the Missouri River

On December 15th, all of us at Missouri River Communities Network had a great opportunity to collaborate with other local river organizations and to increase our presence here in Columbia. We had already scheduled a fundraiser at Shakespeare's Pizza when Missouri River Relief approached us to see if we wanted to help host a movie premiere at Rag Tag Cinema. How could we refuse! We began promoting Tuesday the 15th as a "dinner and a movie night" for river lovers in Columbia and throughout Missouri.

The movie we helped promote at Rag Tag was a documentary titled "The Next 340 Miles." This feature-length film chronicles the Missouri River 340, the longest river race in the world. Racers begin in Kansas City, MO and must reach St. Charles, MO in 88 hours or less!

Tickets for the showing sold out quickly, and for good cause! Not only did attendees get to view the film, a panel discussion followed that included filmmaker Jodi Pfefferkorn, race organizer Scott Mansker and a number of veteran racers.

Following the film, we encouraged everyone to continue the fun and head on over to Shakespeare's Pizza, which is just a few blocks from the cinema. All day, when anyone presented a flier with their order, Shakespeare's donated 15% of the proceeds to MRCN! We made over $120 just by getting people to eat their favorite pizza!

What a great way to wrap up the year! Thanks to Shakespeare's Pizza and Rag Tag for hosting the events and to Missouri River Relief and Rivermiles for being great partners.

Presentations and a new Stream Team in the making!

In between my large to-do list for Table Rock Lake Water Quality, I was able to escape to one more school before holiday breaks to teach local students about water quality. During the first part of December, I had the privilege of speaking at Spokane High School with Jessica Schober’s chemistry classes. I spoke about water quality in general and the students had the opportunity to examine aquatic macroinvertebrates through a simulated case study. High school students have a slightly different “hands-on” lab than middle school students. To identify the macroinvertebrates, the students use a dichotomous key. A dichotomous key uses a series of steps to identify the macroinvertebrates based on their characteristics. The students learned about the potential risks for stormwater pollution and determined that their “stream” was impaired as well. We discussed solutions for the problem and the students were very excited to identify the insects! Jessica Schober is also interested in starting a Stream Team at her school. We will be looking for a stream once the snow leaves the area! If you have any questions about educational presentations in the Ozarks area, please contact Tammy at (417) 739-4100 or tammyyelden@lvbw.net.