My First Stream Team cleanup of 2010: Matisse Creek

Hello Everybody,
A significant portion of my time at the Missouri Natural Resources Conference at Tan-Tar-A Resort in Osage Beach, Mo, was spent learning about various riparian related projects throughout the state; so I was rather eager to get directly involved on a stream clean up, as soon as I got back home. My previous stream cleanups have been on branches of the River des Peres on Engelholm Creek and the River des Peres in University City. My focus had been in the mid county region of St. Louis County; So I welcome any opportunity to learn and explore rivers and streams in the St. Louis area. I joined Mo Stream Team 211 and volunteers from Meramec Community College-South County Campus for a clean up of two sites in South St. Louis County. The first site was on Matisse Creek and the second site was near the soccer fields bordering I-55 (A stone’s throw from the Meramec River). Matisse Creek flows behind the community college separating it from the surrounding residential properties. The south county campus of Meramec Community College, like many schools in the area (elementary, secondary, and collegiate) can be considered a “streamside school” in that it is located near a water source. Before Saturday’s clean up event, Matisse Creek had not been a site of a cleanup, so we did not know what we expected to find. Despite the lower, but fortunately above freezing temperatures, more than 15 volunteers contributed their efforts to dirtying themselves cleaning the stream (At least I know I did, I believe at the end of the cleanup I was wearing more mud than I had anticipated). The creek seemed typical of most urban streams in the area, with signs of moderate stream bank erosion, and both household and automotive litter. The trash found along the bank was mostly items from the community college such as Styrofoam cups, aluminum cans, plastic bottles, and nacho trays. Other items included, oil containers, miscellaneous barrels, an old fire hose, and other everyday items; In addition to the garbage found on the stream, there were A LOT of vehicle tires. At the stream behind the campus, I personally found and hauled out at least 4 tires (not an easy task when filled with water, mud, and concrete). I believe it is safe to say that in all we found over 10 tires and multiple bags of trash that we removed from the two sites. Though we did find a lot of trash, we also found what we believed to be a natural spring located behind the campus. The second site was pretty interesting as well, as it contained an abandoned bathhouse, a Ford Gran Torino (yes a car), and a substantial amount of bottles, cans, and Styrofoam. I felt that this cleanup was a great opportunity for me to get out of my neck of the woods, meet new people and go to a new area and contribute my time and effort along with people concerned about their environment. Though we volunteers got a significant amount of litter removed, there is more litter removal to be done. It is my hope that with the discovery of the spring and Spring time approaching more cleanup efforts will be undertaken along the Matisse Creek.