Monday, March 29, 2010

Active Ways of Improving the Watershed













Hello everyone, I am happy to mention that winter seems to be over and the River des Peres Watershed Coalition (RdP) is springing into action. When it comes to watershed protection and restoration, various modes of action one can take; from building your own rain barrel to litter pickup, and habitat restoration. During the month of March the RdP was ale to engage in all the modes of action to help improve the water quality and aesthetic appeal of the River des Peres. On March 14 the RdP, held its first litter pickup of the season at Mona Terrace in University City. We had about 12 people join us on a soggy Sunday afternoon, to help with the removal of wild roses, honeysuckle, and residential litter, like rugs, lamps, tires, bottles, light bulbs. We cleared out most of the honeysuckle, winter creeper, and other invasive species, and are now switching to a method of invasive species control, due to the fact that the stream bank is quite eroded and the invasive species is fortunately (or unfortunately) is keeping the stream bank from falling into the river. Unfortunately most of our time at Mona Terrace is dedicated to litter pick up, with the River des Peres being channelized upstream and downstream of our site trash and debris ends up on this stretch of the river. We had a range of ages helping out from children, college students, and beyond. Most of our planting at Mona Terrace will begin in late March, and early April.
On March 21 members of the RdP held a dry run rain barrel-building workshop with seven staff members of EarthWays Center. EarthWays Center is a division of the Missouri Botanical Garden. Their building located in Midtown St. Louis, is powered by a variety of sustainable methods (solar, geothermal, and wind), their building features a green roof, and is furnished with eco friendly products. The River des Peres Watershed Coalition felt privileged to work with the group because they are completely committed to promoting sustainability through education and the improvement of the built environment. We could help them implement a sustainable practice at their own homes, by them learning the steps of the rain barrel process, building their own barrel and taking it home with them when completed. Eric Karch, Lorin Crandall, and I enjoyed working with the staff, good to get an idea of people’s comfort levels with power tools. It was an informal workshop, in which we explained the RdP’s purposes for building the rain barrels, particularly reducing the number of Combined Sewer Overflows (CSO’s), about 56 annually on the River des Peres and its tributaries. Another purpose is to use stored rainwater for gardening purposes, which can be beneficial to plants as the water is untreated, and during summer droughts rain barrel water isn’t subject to any watering restrictions. We broke the group into 3 teams, based on the steps of the building process, so we had an inflow team (the atrium grates), outflow team (drilling of the overflow hoses, male adapters, hose clamps) and spigot team (bulkhead, spigot threading).
The dry run was crucial for the RdP in deciding was steps of the building process would be best left for us and for the participants. We assessed the safety and risks of using power tools, knives, and moving barrels in a larger group setting. With the 3 of us being fairly familiar with the rain barrel building process, the tips and tricks we learned for drilling holes in certain spots and threading the spigot with Teflon tape for examples, takes time and repetition to get a grasp on. So we realized that we should notate/explain the minor specifics of our rain barrel building process like flipping the rubber on the bulkheads, and pre thread the electric conduit circuits on our male adapters (apart of the outflow portion of barrel building) as a guide. We learned from the workshop that we should mark the drilling spots (based on layout chosen) on the rain barrels before the workshop; give each participant their own bag of tools and supplies. Because a main way of getting our rain barrel to the public and into the built environment is by spreading the word, the reasons why the rain barrels are a good thing, teaching others how to build them, and using the word of mouth to get more people interested in getting their own rain barrel.

Wednesday, March 24, 2010

Spring 2010

2010 has started off with some really interesting Operation Wild Land workdays. We've ranged our workdays from Litter Pickups to Tree Plantings to Honeysuckle Removal. The turnouts for the workdays have been really good. One of the changes I have noticed between the beginning of last year to the beginning of this year is the number of students getting involved with our organizations.
For example, Logan College has made it a requirement that their students get at least 3 hours of volunteer community service. And for each workday we have had Logan College Students turn up. I've also noticed the number of St. Louis Community College students showing up. Although not as many as I would like to see, the numbers are rising. I am impressed with my community and am excited to be working with new people from it each time I run a volunteer workday.

Tree Planting at the Big Muddy Wildlife Refuge

For weeks and weeks, we planned and recruited volunteers for our first tree planting of the year. It was to be an epic day: we would meet bright and early at the US Fish and Wildlife (USFWS) Office in Columbia, carpool down to the Cranberry Bend Unit of the Big Muddy Refuge and spend the day planting 600 tree seedlings from the Missouri Department of Conservation. It was going to work beautifully…but of course the weather failed to get the memo. Saturday, March 13 was cold, rainy and miserable. Refuge staff quickly called off the event, not only to protect the warmth and happiness of volunteers but also to avoid the flooded, muddy mess that was our planting site.

Thus we began a race against time! Tree seedlings (like most plants) do not like being out of the ground for very long. We had to pick a new date, find some helping hands and get back out to the refuge! We did so on Monday, March 22. Sarah Pennington-our lone volunteer- and 4 USFWS employees joined Julia and I for a busy day of planting!

The USFWS provided two vehicles (three if you count the “gator” we hauled out there) as well as all the equipment we would need. The area they had staked out for us used to be a corn field just near the Missouri River. The land is now owned by the refuge, but it needs a lot of love before it looks like anything but a corn field! We spread out in a corner of the field, and got to work!

The lesson we learned that day was that tree planting is hard work! Although the ground was nice and soft from the recent rain, it couldn’t change the fact we were digging into Missouri clay. We were down to our t-shirts in no time as we labored to get the bur oaks, elderberries, wild plums, swamp white oaks and many others into the ground.

In just around 3 hours, we had gotten all of our little trees into the ground! Although the event didn’t go quite as planned, we had a great time, and in a decade (or two) the field should be starting to look at bit more natural!

Wednesday, March 17, 2010

And the winner is....


After five classroom presentations, seven schools in Texas County competed in the Soil and Water "Quality Water Means Quality Life" poster contest. Approximately 150 fifth graders participated, but only one could be the grand prize winner! It took three judges, three hours to go through all the posters to judge 1st, 2nd and 3rd prize from each school, and when it came down to the grand prize winner, we had to bring in additional help from the office bulding. The posters were just that good. The grand prize winner was chosen from Raymondville and he won $50, a ribbon and his whole family is coming to the Annual Banquet to see him receive his winnings! He was a little awe struck when his name was announced, but I think it finally hit him after he sat back down. Seeing the kid's faces when their names were announce and hearing the other students cheer adn clap for their classmates was a gratifying experience. This year was the first after a long hiatus, so organizing the presentations and picking the winners was a challenge, but all in all, everyone had a great time and their hard work paid off. (Literally for 22 students!)

Friday, March 12, 2010

Rivervision Field Trips


I am happy to report that we are in our 4th month of programming with participating students at Crossroads College Preparatory School in St. Louis!
Wednesday, March 10 we hosted 73 7th and 8th grade science students. Colleagues from the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and the National Great Rivers Resource and Education Center joined Audubon staff to make it all happen. Students spent the morning doing Riverwatch field study (chemical water analyses and macroinvertebrate smapling) in Ellis Bay. We did not find as much as I’d hoped for, some leeches, crayfish, and old exoskeletons. The water was still pretty cold (9°C), so we’ll try again after a warm up. After lunch at the beautiful Riverlands Migratory Bird Sanctuary, students embarked on their field study of the Corps’ successful floating barge habitat for the endangered Interior Least Terns.





Not only did they learn about the process of fabricating the barges, but they also got to do the work. Students refurbished the barges that had been beached all winter in preparation for the upcoming nesting season by pulling all plant material, filling in and raking sand, selecting and placing appropriate driftwood for nest sites and cover, and installing rope barriers designed to allow terns while deterring larger flying predators. Later we’ll place decoys, call boxes, and a web cam. Here is a link to a nice PowerPoint about last year’s nesting season, www.ngrrec.org/ppts/giammaria.ppt that has some nice diagrams and pictures of the barges as well as nesting and fledgling data.
The students worked hard and did a wonderful job. We decided to celebrate a job well done with a little tug-o-war before we hiked back to the busses.




Thursday, March 11 we hosted 60 10th and 11th grade chemistry, AP environmental science, and biology students. Once again, we couldn’t have done it without the generous assistance of our partner organizations listed above. Students toured the Melvin Price Locks and Dam and also the brand new National Great Rivers Research and Education Center field station. For more information please visit their webiste at http://www.ngrrec.org/ NGRREC’s field station is a green building marvel that will provide world class river research, some of which is not being done anywhere else in the world! To bring the experience closer to home for the students, one of our hosts and guides was a Crossroads alumni who is now working with NGRREC.

We have a busy April ahead of us that includes several speakers, in-class activities, screening the film Big River, touring waste water and drinking water processing plants in St. Louis, and canoeing and fishing workshops at Riverlands. Working with participating students over time has been such a wonderful learning experience for all of us, and certainly a model that we here at The Audubon Center at Riverlands will continue to develop and utilize.


Thursday, March 11, 2010

For the Love Of Water movie at Crossroads

Hello everybody, I have a great story that hits close to home for me. On Thursday February 25, I went to my former high school Crossroads College Preparatory School for their Social Justice Club movie showing of For the Love of Water (FLOW). Being an alumnus of the school and also a member of the Crossroads Environmental Sustainability Committee, I felt this was a great opportunity to represent the River des Peres Watershed Coalition. In addition to the movie showing, there was a water taste test, water jug carrying, which was meant to simulate of the experiences of people who have to travel long distances to access their water, and an electronic petition to add Article 31: The Right to Water to the UN’s Universal Declaration of Human Rights.
I had the chance to bring a rain barrel for display to the school, and to raise awareness of the River des Peres Watershed Coalition’s rain barrel program. As a special bonus too, knowing that many a sizable portion of Crossroads students are from University City, Mo I was able to inform students and parents alike about the University City’s 319 Water Quality Project. The project is to protect and improve the water quality of water entering the River des Peres therefore limiting the non-point sources of pollution entering the river. As apart of this program University City residents with contact with Lynette Hicks the Director of Public Works for University City are eligible to receive a rain barrel free of charge, with monitoring and maintenance of their rain barrels. Crossroads College Preparatory School has been focusing on increasing the environmental based curriculum, and environmental awareness (both locally and globally) of its students. Crossroads is currently a LEED certified school with the addition of their new science wing, which features sky lighting, outdoor classrooms, efficient HVAC system, and rain gardens. The RdPWC could have a role in increasing the school’s environmental sustainability due to interest from William Handmaker the school principal for installing a custom rain barrel system on the north side of the school near the gymnasium.
The movie FLOW is about water related issues from around the world. The experiences of individuals, and community organizations confronting multinational water corporations (Vivendi, Suez, and Thames Water to mention a few) were highlighted, from Michigan, to Bolivia, South Africa, and India. From the depletion of ground water resources in Michigan by water bottling companies, to the removal of thousands of people to make room for water reservoirs in India. Pertaining to water issues in Bolivia, FLOW showed how the World Bank, who provide loans for countries for development; has a lot of leverage in water access in countries like Bolivia, as a stipulation for their loans given to countries which in turn go to water corporations for profit water services; Which can leave those unable to afford the privatized water service to suffer. Here in the United States clean drinking water is often taken for granted as something that is automatic and expected. Around the world the privatization of water resources is astounding, and something that has occurred for nearly more than a century. While these companies provide a service it is often at a high financial cost, organizations can be staffed by corrupt employees and limited transparency in business dealings. Privatization brings in potable water (filtered/treated at wastewater plants) for those who can afford it, those who can’t often have to suffer with crippling debt, or substandard drinking water and the illnesses that can result from it. While, the sale of bottled water is a multibillion-dollar industry, and ironically it is difficult for many people to distinguish it from tap water (which was proven in both the film and during the taste test at Crossroads). A key point to the film is whether access to potable water is a basic human right, or is water a commodity that can be owned, bought and sold to those who can afford it? The stories from the movie were not all doom and gloom there were positive results such as villagers in India, maintain their own water purification plant. Residents of Michigan were able to limit the pumping of their groundwater by Nestle. Residents of Bolivia following the increase in water prices due to privatization (Bechtel United Utilities) protested en masse and where able to pressure their government into ending business dealings with the company.
Following the film members of the River des Peres Watershed Coalition and the Missouri Coalition for the Environment addressed water issues that can directly affect us here in Missouri, like pollution from chemicals (pharmaceuticals, fertilizers, herbicides, road salt, etc) that can be found in water. Most students were knowledgeable on the River des Peres due to the fact that they have a stream team on Engelholm creek a tributary of the River des Peres. While there was difference in goals between the River des Peres Watershed Coalition and the desires of the people highlighted in the film. The people featured in the film might not have enough water necessary for consumption and daily life, while we here in Missouri often have too much water. Our message was one of water conservation and riparian habitat improvement.
I left Crossroads that night appreciative of the fact that Crossroads students are active enough to form a Social Justice club and become more aware of the problems facing the world. Because there wasn’t a group like that when I was a student there way back when. Also, I was very impressed by the film FLOW, it gave me incredible insight to the issues faced worldwide involving the privatization of water by multinational corporations, the battle for local control over water resources, and the experiences that people face in accessing the world most precious resource and honestly makes me much more appreciative of the fact that I have access to clean water and working to improve my local watershed of the River des Peres.

Watershed Fest Time!



Watershed Festival season runs from February through March. We have educated 1,985 5th graders on several different water quality concerns. Macro Mayhem is an activity that teaches the kids about the water quality indicators in streams and what they tell us about the stream when they are missing. I like to ask the kids if they know what Maroinvertebrate are. Often they think it has something to do with macaroni. We get a good chuckle out of that. They learn what a watershed is during the presentation with the Enviroscape and marbles table. I have them imagine that they are giants and Watersheds are where puddles form. Build your Watershed really gets the kids excited about what they would construct on their land. They pretend to be gifted with 100 acres of land. I love to see the kids build huge castles. They rarely remember that with huge castles come many bathrooms. We ask them what they are going to do with all that waste. In the Ground Water Flow Model, kids learn how water can actually pollute upstream. Lastly, with Drop in the Bucket we teach the children how it could be that we only have about .03% of all water to drink on the planet. We have two more Watershed Fests to go!

Wednesday, March 10, 2010

Fifth Graders learning about Water Quality!


For three days in February, I volunteered for the James River Basin Partnership and helped with their Watershed Festival for Christian County. It was three fun-filled days of teaching about watersheds and how they work I worked with the Enviro-scape model which informs the students about how a watershed drains surface water to a central location. The students learned about both point source and non-point source pollution. The other part of this station was learning how fast water flows from a meandering stream versus a channelized stream. The marble race was a big hit! We talked about erosion problems and also thermal pollution. Some of the students even said that this activity was their favorite! It is great to be able to reach these students about water quality issues. They also had other activities at this festival which included how groundwater flows and macroinvertebrate mayhem! Many of the teachers and chaperones enjoyed the information as well. I am looking forward to continuing these educational opportunities in March.

Tuesday, March 9, 2010

Strategies for 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 River Communities Network (MRCN)), in service to our community!

As in January, February found LOWA hard at work finishing the Lake of the Ozarks Watershed Management Plan. A watershed management plan is a large document which describes a specific watershed area and issues affecting the water quality of its body of water. Then, the WMP (watershed management plan) describes ways to address the water body’s issues. LOWA calls their ways Strategies and has six groups. The first Strategy is called Education Outreach and Information and this Strategy calls for a multi-pronged approach through all kinds of media to reach all kinds of stakeholders. This will include writing articles for the newspapers and other local publications and getting on radio and TV to raise public awareness on watershed issues and how individuals, businesses, and communities all play a role in maintaining and improving the health and water quality of the watershed and the lake.

The second Strategy is the Runoff Strategy set, all aimed at reducing the amount of runoff reaching the lake, and includes cost-share incentive programs for developers and for home owners to install and maintain devices, such as rain gardens and vegetated buffer zones of beautiful native plants, to reduce the amount of runoff reaching the lake. The third Strategy encourages the use of riprap for shoreline stabilization instead of seawalls, and the fourth Strategy sets up programs for more monitoring around the coves and shoreline of LOZ (Lake of the Ozarks). A set of proposed ordinances for making low and no phosphorus fertilizers available in the lake area, bringing an end to the sunset law allowing some older septic systems to remain below modern standards, and to help establish a regional wastewater district across the four counties bordering LOZ make up the fifth set of Strategies.

The sixth set of Strategies is called Waste in the Lake and these Strategies are all about keeping bacteria and excess nutrients out of the lake. This set of Strategies establishes a Pump Out program to educate citizens about the link between maintaining your septic tank and keeping bacteria and excess nutrients out of the lake, a Pump Don’t Dump program to encourage boaters to pump out their boat’s holding tank at a pump station instead releasing the contents into the lake, and a program to raise awareness about wastewater disposal and long term proactive solutions to getting the many septic tanks off of the shores of the lake.

We all can hardly wait to begin implementing some of our grand scope ideas one step at a time. Watch for a pervious pavement demo soon!

Meetings to get the wastewater treatment ball rolling here at the lake also filled this AmeriCorps member’s schedule. At the top of the blog, the second picture shows EPA’s Joyce Hudson, Senior Environmental Engineer, Office of Wastewater Management on the left and AmeriCorps member Caroline Toole on the right, discussing wastewater issues at a conference organized by Missouri Smallflows Organization (MSO). The picture at the top shows (l to r) AmeriCorps member Caroline Toole, LOWA Wastewater Chair Jim Rogers, and Sen. Chuck Purguson at a LOWA meeting with the senator and Rep. Shad to discuss wastewater issues at the Lake of the Ozarks.

An online copy of LOWA's Watershed Management Plan for the Lake of the Ozarks, focusing on the Buck Creek and Lick Branch watersheds, can be viewed and downloaded at www.sosLOWA.org . The next LOWA public meeting will be April 19th at 6:30pm at Lodge of Four Seasons,in the Escolla room.

Wednesday, March 3, 2010

Barrels on Parade


Hi Clean Water Lovers!

I wanted to update you on the Rain Barrel Art Review. February was almost completely taken over by barrels.
The first week in Feb. was exciting as this was the time period for the artists to return the completed barrels to the office. It was great to see the ideas and sketches in real life as they slowly trickled into the office.

The next step was to deliver the barrels to University Chrysler’s Body Shop to get them the donated clear coat to protect the artwork from the elements. The clear coat also gave the barrels a great glossy, shine. We picked up the 14 barrels and stored them in our tiny office. It was like living in a cave of painted barrels! Lance was putting in the fixtures, so the barrels would be ready to use and to show people how they worked while I was calling the venues around town, reminding them the barrels were coming, the barrels were coming!

I photographed the barrels and created a postcard with all the images, the artists’ names and our generous sponsors. The printing of these postcards was donated by FedEx Kinkos in Columbia, thanks!!

Now the barrels were ready and all our informational handouts were ready and we were ready to have some room to move around! We delivered the barrels around town in groups of 4, which kept things manageable. We were able to load them into Sarah’s van, instead of renting a truck, and were easily able to maneuver around downtown. All barrels but one were in place for the True/False Film Fest, which draws thousands of people to downtown Columbia. When we checked up on the barrels the Tuesday after, most barrels had few to no handouts left. Good news! This means all that info is in the hands of potential Barrel Rollers and barrel purchasers. We are getting the word out about storm water conservation!

The next time I post, I should have a good idea of how the auction and Rain Barrel Roll and Art Review went. Stay tuned or better yet, come out to the event, Friday, March 19th at Orr St. Studios in Columbia, MO! For more info, you can always go to www.moriver.org, find Missouri River Communities Network on facebook, or give us a call 573-256-2602.

Take care!

Tuesday, March 2, 2010

February has been a good month. I was able to go visit my 97 year old Grandfather Mallette in Texas this month. It turns out that community service runs in the family. At the senior center there is a framed certificate from the AARP commending Ross Mallette for his years of community service. It is true that grandpa is poor in physical wealth, yet he has had and continues to have a full rewarding life helping people as he is able. One key to a rewarding life might just be helping others.

Now on to report some exciting news, you might have heard that the painted barrels for the Rain Barrel Art Review and Auction have been scattered around various businesses downtown. Check out Julia Karll’s blog for the inside scoop. You also might have heard about the Canoe for Clean Water with MRCN. Check out Rebecca’s blog and the MRCN website (for more information about stuff we do). www.moriver.org. This website is great. Rebecca has done very well learning how to make it work.

This month marked the beginning of my volunteering with TreeKeepers in Columbia, MO. It started with a brief series of classes, followed by a graduation of sorts.

Lance Graduates from TreeKeepers Lance throws a stick

Fortunately tree identification is not a part of the test. One of the best pieces of advice that I was able to grasp was the concept that sometimes the kindest cut is the one to cut the tree down. If the tree could be diseased, damaged or is just in the wrong spot, sometimes it is best to start over with a smarter plan. Invasive plants are those that are really, really in the wrong spot, or continent. They outcompete the native plants and generally take over fields, forests, parks and neighborhoods. TreeKeepers to the rescue! As it is still a little before planting we focused the last two events on invasive species removal. February 13, we met at the Forum Nature Area and rid the marshy fields of the bad invasive pear tree. February 27 we met at Cosmo Park and cleaned the parking lot area around Dexheimer Shelter of the invasive bush honeysuckle. The honeysuckle was very thick and we dramatically changed the way the forest undergrowth now looks around the shelter.

Honeysuckle is one of the first to green out in the spring and one of the last to lose its leaves. So, when driving around late fall when most trees have lost their leaves, look out into the woods and a lot of what you see is invasive honeysuckle. This early leafing out and holding on to leaves in the fall gives the honeysuckle a longer growing season than Missouri native plants. The birds love to eat their seeds, thus spreading them and the roots can send up new shoots when not pulled out completely or chemically treated. If not addressed, frequently by somewhat violent means, the honeysuckle may take over an area. One fear is that when the current bigger, older trees start to die, the only viable replacement will be the vile honeysuckle. As the honeysuckle takes over the forest undergrowth it is often the only thing growing beneath larger trees, thus the only thing to replace them when they die.

Good luck to everyone. Take care. Until Next Month.

Lance cuts honeysuckle

Parking lot full of honeysuckle


sorry folks I cannot figure out how to get pictures on this silly blog.

Lance Mallette


Monday, March 1, 2010

Canoe for Clean Water!

The last month of winter was rough on the MRCN crew here in Columbia! Our plans for water quality monitoring fell through so we had to find ways to keep busy inside. We held meeting after meeting, and I personally spent many hours in front of the computer learning the ins and outs of web design. But, we are now proud to finally announce what we have been working so hard on...

On Saturday, June 19, MRCN will be holding the first ever CANOE FOR CLEAN WATER! This is a three-in-one event for anyone who loves our mighty Missouri River. The day will begin bright and early with the Clean Water 50, a 50-mile canoe and kayak race for anyone looking for a real challenge! If you do love paddling but are looking for something a bit less intense, the Clean Water 15 may be what you are looking for. While still a timed race, it only runs 15 miles so you could just as easily take your time and enjoy the beautiful scenery that the river has to offer.

But in my opinion, here's the best part: both races end at Katfish Katy's in Huntsdale, MO where MRCN will be holding River Fest! We will have great local bands, delicious local cuisine and even some great local beverages. All sorts of different environmental organizations will have educational booths and activities, and we are even hoping to have a silent auction! So if paddling isn't your thing, you can sleep in and join us at River Fest!

Just thinking about this day makes me super giddy, but I know there is still a lot to do before then. If you would like to learn more about our race, check out the website: http://www.moriver.org/race/race.html. Or, go to our home page and click on our "river rat" as he canoes across the page. No seriously...he canoes across the page. It took me forever to get that to work right.

So pull out your calendar right now, and mark June 19. We hope to see you in a boat, enjoying the festival or even working as one of our volunteers! Please and thank you!