A Great Year!

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!
When I think back on my year with AmeriCorps, the two main topics that come to mind and around which all activities and events rotated, were watersheds and runoff. And all of them were all about clean water. From writing a watershed management plan to helping out with and then planning a Household Hazardous Waste Reclamation Day for Camden County, time and again LOWA was working hard to maintain and improve the water quality of the Lake of the Ozarks.
Summer brought no let up in activities and August culminated my year with AmeriCorps, partnering with LOWA, with the Attorney General’s Symposium: Protecting Water Quality at the Lake of the Ozarks: An Environmental Road Map for the Future, hosted by LOWA. This 2-day meeting introduced the Lake, and then examined the water quality and wastewater issues from the scientific perspective to the economic perspective and everywhere in between. A white paper is due in November and in general, people came away with the feeling that the Lake isn’t as bad as some of the press would have one believe and that if we start now, we can probably prepare for the future.
Leaving politics and partisanship out of the picture was very refreshing; and trying to bring a regionalization approach to the Lake District has long been one of LOWA’s goals. LOWA asked our local discount mega store for funding and I got to collect the check! And, August brought opportunities for LOWA to spread the good word about our clean, healthy lake and its watershed at several festival and fair events.
August also brought to LOWA our new MO Clean Water AmeriCorps member, Janet Dabbs, long time resident of the Lake area and fellow Lake enthusiast. Janet will be a valuable member of LOWA as we all work together to implement our 319 watershed protection grant and forge ahead with even more new ideas and projects. The Education/Outreach component of our grant is huge and the upcoming projects are exciting. In addition, I hope Janet and I will get LOWA’s Stream Team 3215 actively monitoring some of the many streams and creeks flowing directly into LOZ. This new AmeriCorps year will be fantastic! Welcome, Janet!
I’ve enjoyed my year with the MO Clean Water AmeriCorps Program and look forward to continuing my work with LOWA in a slightly different position. Who knows, I may even contribute a blog from time to time!
And please remember, what we do in our own backyards really does make a difference. My little back yard creek flows to Bollinger Creek which flows to the Lake of the Ozarks which flows to the Osage River which flows to the Missouri River which flows to the Mississippi River which flows to the Gulf of Mexico which has a large dead zone because of all the nitrogen and phosphorus flowing into it from all the watersheds along the way. Act locally, think globally. Together we can make a difference.