Due to the frequent heat waves, the Coalition moved the Kiefer Creek Hike last month out of Castlewood. The July Kiefer Creek Hike was held instead at Powder Valley Nature Center – which, as it turns out, is just around the corner from my house. As an elementary school student, I spent a good deal of time at Powder Valley, which has a really cool learning center geared towards teaching 
kids about Missouri flora and fauna.
The July Hike was the fourth such outreach event that we’ve had—one every month since April. The Coalition Water Program has been putting a lot of effort to raise awareness about, and work to solve the problems in, this popular and well-loved creek.
Kiefer is one example of a much more widespread problem. The several recent news articles on the front page of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch!) that have been published about E. coli contamination in streams across the state have pointed to Kiefer as a case of a known issue that no one seems to be able to do much about.
So, we’ve been doing something about Kiefer! We hope that through outreach and education we will be able to raise awareness—not only about the dangerously high levels of bacteria frequently observed in Kiefer, but also that this issue isn’t unique. Missouri’s wealth of streams and rivers are a truly rich resource, and many people do not realize the damage that we’re doing to them. 
Every month, we’ve organized a hike around a theme and invited a guest speaker with expert knowledge on that subject. So far we’ve covered water quality and problems common to streams in urban areas, the history of the Meramec greenway, and current efforts to protect the river and its tributaries. In addition to raising awareness, the goal of these hikes is to continually engage people who care about Kiefer and give them ways they can help. Furthermore, we’re hoping to build an independent group that will work to protect the creek; in other words, we’re trying to create a Kiefer Creek Watershed Association!
Last month, we made the best of the hot weather and planned an indoor portion of the hike. My coworker and I addressed our hikers about watersheds, sources of non-point source pollution, how we plan to clean up Kiefer, and ways for interested individuals to help. Next month, for the August Hike, we’re going to be doing a Stream Team demonstration, which will hopefully inspire some of our hikers to get volunteer water quality monitoring training.
I really enjoy engaging people who previously had no knowledge of water quality or stream health, particularly because a year ago, I was one of them! At the last hike, I spent some time talking to one of our regular attendees, Alan, who started coming to the hikes simply because he was intrigued. Now he’s planning on installing a rain garden in his house!
Keep your eyes peeled for more about Kiefer! If all goes well, there will be some exciting happenings with this creek.
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