Missouri Clean Water AmeriCorps Blog

Water Education Day at Alley Spring

2011-05-09T14:49:00.002-05:00

The pavilion at Alley Spring quickly filled with 450 4th and 5th graders traveling from Birch Tree, Bunker, Eminence, Green Forest, Raymondville, Summersville, Willow Springs and Winona on Friday, April 29th, as the weather cooperated for the annual Water Education and Junior Ranger Field Day. This event was sponsored by the Jacks Fork Watershed Committee and the National Park Service.
15 booths were set up at Alley Spring Park for the students to visit on a variety of topics: Caving, Soils, Plants, Importance of Recycling, Effects of Pesticides, Recycling on the Farm, Springs and Karst, Safety in the Outdoors, Forest Fires, Snakes and the Ozark Hellbenders. Classes traveled to many booths, as well as participating in an hour long presentation on Eagles from the Dickerson Park Zoo. A Golden Eagle and a Bald Eagle were brought to show the students, which was the overall favorite for the day.
Many organizations and businesses helped sponsor this event. The National Park Service funded the Eagles and the Jacks Fork Watershed Committee was able to reimburse the schools $100 for each school bus used through their EPA funded 319 grant administered by the Department of Natural Resources through Top of the Ozarks Resource Conservation and Development. The Shannon County Commissioners provided a BBQ grilled meal for the volunteers along with NuWay Foods of Winona. Midwest Dairy donated ice cream sandwiches and string cheese for all of the students. 20 presenters from all different groups volunteered their time to help where fun and education were the name of the day! Visit our website! www.jacksforkwaterdshed.com

River Hills Traveler article

Videos of the day

Photos of the day

It's almost here!

2011-04-26T10:30:00.003-05:00

Water Education/ Junior Ranger Day is this Friday! I'm picking up the snacks for the kiddos and the food for the volunteers Thursday! As of today the weather should cooperate with us, and be a great day to be outside- especially with us being stuck in doors for the past week! A new booth is replacing Trapping and I think it will be a great one! Kiddos will instead learn about how they can recycle on the farm! See everyone Friday at 9am!

Countdown has begun

2011-03-30T14:03:00.003-05:00

Only 30 more days until the Water Education/Junior Ranger Field Day at Alley Spring! Topics of the day include: Bats and Caves, Water Quality, ATV Safety, Plants, Fire, Ozark Hellbenders, Snakes, and much, much more!

A Great Year!

2010-09-14T15:09:00.006-05:00

MR340 volunteering

2010-09-09T13:00:00.001-05:00

Hello. This month went by very quickly and fortunately the heat has abated. As the title hints, I am going to blog about my day of volunteering for the MR340 at the Glasgow checkpoint with Rebecca. With a little over 200 boaters we had our work cut out for us. We arrived at 9am and began almost immediately. Our duties were mainly to keep track of when the racers arrived at the checkpoint and when they left. This was necessary for a couple of reasons. Safety was the most important reason followed by time keeping. It was a warm day but there was a nice breeze on the river. Some racers made quick stops and others made long stops so we had to "arrange" the boats with some kind of logic. This became difficult when many boats arrived within minutes of each other. I think next year I will bring a video camera to record the interesting dances racers perform when exiting their boats and regaining their land legs. Nobody had an accident so the dance must be effective. Talking with the racers was very fun and enlightening. One solo racer said something to the effect that he was a mountain climber and he listed some recent exploits (Mt. Fiji being one), he then said that the MR340 was the most difficult thing he has ever done. Many racers questioned their sanity. By 5pm the last boats had check out and we were free to go. I met many interesting and entertaining people on the river that day and am looking forward to helping out next year if I am able. I have obtained an extention through September to complete my hours so I will meet the new AmeriCorps members at training and see the returning ones. Take care everyone. Lance Mallette.

An August Weekend

2010-09-09T10:17:00.004-05:00

August was truly an eventful month for me, with educational presentations, tabling, rain barrel builds and of course getting my hands dirty in local rivers. On Saturday (August 28), I had the chance to host a rain barrel building demonstration in collaboration with Gateway Greening at their Bell Demonstration Garden. I was rather excited to work with Gateway Greening. As some of you might know rain barrels are useful in reducing combined sewer overflows, but they are also important tool for gardens as well, taking advantage of the rainfall for watering needs rather than using municipal tap water. Also, setting up a rain barrel system at community gardens, provides more of a visual medium for the rain barrels, for people in the community to see. I had the chance to build the rain barrel and respond to questions that the garden volunteers had. I decided to build a double barrel system, with one 55-gallon barrel with a 40-gallon connector barrel for reserve water. The best part of the demonstration is of course the provision of the rain barrel to the garden. The system (rain barrels and gutters) will be set up at a tool shed at the garden. The painting of the barrels and the setup will occur in the near future, will have pictures posted as soon as possible. The rain barrel demonstration was finished around noon, so I made my way out to George Winter Park in Fenton, Mo, for the Operation Clean Stream event. I must say hats off to all of the volunteers who participated. Because the amount of trash collected at George Winter Park was astonishing. Although I was slightly late to the party, there was still plenty to do. As the dumpsters were overflowing with trash, and piles of collected trash build up around the dumpsters. I lent a hand in clearing some of this away. Apparently most of the trash came from a peninsula across the bay on the Meramec River as it flows past George Winter Park. It was amazing the types of trash collected by the canoers and other paddlers; Trash like Styrofoam, old television, bikes, and other things. Though I did not get a chance to paddle the river and collect trash on Saturday, I got my chance on Sunday. I paddled the Huzzah Creek down near Steelville, Mo apart of the Operation Clean stream on the upper regions of the Meramec watershed. A six-mile paddle and litter pickup on the Huzzah, I found a tire about a ¼ way down the river as well as a metal fence post. There wasn’t an overwhelming amount of trash, but your typical floatable cans, bottles, and Styrofoam. Though I did not any large objects, another person whom I was floating with happened to find a very large tractor tire. Who knows maybe on my next paddle trip I will find a lot cooler stuff. I wanted to give all of you guys a friendly reminder, that September 25, 2010, is the date of the River des Peres Trash Bash; An event aimed at removing trash throughout the River des Peres Watershed. So if you are around on 25th of September, I highly encourage you to come and help us clean St. Louis’ urban river. Online registration can be completed at www.riverdesperes.org .

43rd Annual Operation Clean Stream

2010-08-31T21:18:00.002-05:00

Hello all!

August has been the busiest month of the year, mainly due to the biggest project of the year for the Open Space Council for the St. Louis Region. The 43rd annual Operation Clean Stream took place on August 28th all along the Meramec River and its four tributaries. 2,000 volunteers came out to help us. We had more tires, metal, and trash than we had room for. Thanks to many organizations and companies for sponsoring this event, we had another great event!

Katie Park

Secretary of Interior Comes to Town to Learn About Clean Water

2010-08-31T19:55:00.002-05:00

On August 20th, United State Secretary of Interior Ken Salazar joined a variety of citizens and clean water organizations in Godfrey, Illinois for a public listening session under the President's America's Great Outdoors Initiative. Community members were able to give commentary on what work is currently being done to promote outdoor recreation and keeping America green and clean as well as listen to opinions on what is in need of our nation's attention. The initiative aims to keep our land and water protected and for more citizens to get outside and enjoy the outdoors. Joining Salazar was Assistant Secretary of the Army for Civil Works Jo-Ellen Darcy and Director of the National Park Service Jonathan Jarvis.

Many great comments were made to be taken back to President Obama, including the work that The Confluence is doing with its Habitat Restoration Days as well as the many hours of work AmeriCorps members put in to keeping land and water a place to enjoy. There were also a variety of issues brought up in hopes that the President takes a closer look at. Some of these issues included:

The fight against a casino being built within the Confluence region
More involvement and collaborative efforts with schools in getting kids outdoors
More Army Corps of Engineers involvement in testing and monitoring the quality of water
Better rules and regulations to keep the Ozark area waterways free from excessive trash/destruction
More federal funding be placed in keeping waterways clean
An increase in watershed education

Salazar listened intently as all of these topics were brought to hand. The session was recorded so it could further be reviewed at a later date.

Earlier in the day Jo-Ellen Darcy joined 200 students at the Melvin Price Lock and Dam in Alton to hold their own listening session. I was truly amazed with the students that raised their hands and openly admitted that they had lost a tie with their rivers and streams and wanted it back.

Overall the day was extremely moving. It is refreshing to hear such praise go out to AmeriCorps and all Clean Water Organizations. Let's keep our fingers crossed that more good things are in store for the future.

To read more on the event, feel free to visit http://www.usace.army.mil/CECW/Operations/Pages/outdoors.aspx or

http://www.thetelegraph.com/news/outdoors-44001-rivers-great.html.

Thanks everyone for a fantastic August!

See you on the River!

2010-08-27T15:21:00.002-05:00

I've learned a lot this year about water quality as well as the communities I served. I've received so much help and guidance from different people and local agencies, I know what I've accomplished wouldn't have been as successful without their assistance. People have suprised me in a positive way with their generosity and ideas for the betterment of the Big Piney Watershed. Completing this year and looking back on what I've done and who I've met and worked with is my "ah-ha" moment this month. It's great to see so many passionate people in this area. People who love where they work, so much that they give guidance to the rest of us, people that care about the rivers and streams in this area that dedicate their free time to the betterment for sake of the watershed and those people that support the events and the ideas of those wanting to make a difference in the area. It's because of them that people like me can accomplish great things. I look forward to the seeing what the great minds of the Big Piney Watershed come up with in terms of changes and events! I'm so glad I got to be apart of it and will continue to help in my "spare" time!

Some BIG Projects from LOWA

2010-08-23T13:06:00.004-05:00

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!
My year with AmeriCorps partnering with LOWA has been extraordinarily busy with a diverse group of clean water activities and events. July was no exception. From spreading the word about LOWA LILs (LIL stands for Low Impact Landscaping and LILs are measures individuals can undertake to reduce the amount of runoff reaching a body of water), to preparing to host the Attorney General’s Symposium on water quality at the Lake and preparing for a dam-to-dam paddle race for marathon kayakers and everyday folk, LOWA is reaching out to people from a variety of perspectives about the need for healthy watersheds.

Across our nation, stormwater runoff is the number one ‘pollutant’ reaching bodies of water. Here at the Lake of the Ozarks, controlling runoff is probably the most important action citizens and municipalities can take for the lake. With funding, LOWA hopes to implement a cost-share program to give property owners incentive to install measures to catch that runoff and, at the same time, help replenish the area’s aquifer and beautify their homes and business! What a win-win situation, and money back, to boot! LOWA LILs are custom fitted to the challenging lake shore properties we find here at the Lake of the Ozarks. In addition, LOWA is partnering with Master Gardeners and Master Naturalists to help out in the LOWA LIL program!
Those challenging lake shore properties will also be the focus of an upcoming Symposium from the MO Attorney General’s office in mid-August. The lands surrounding the Lake of the Ozarks, similar to other lake shores in the Missouri Ozarks, typically have very steep slopes with only a thin veneer of soil. Lake lots are typically small, with not enough room for the setbacks and easements needed for a properly functioning septic tank, not to mention the lack of soil. In addition, many of these lots simply do not have enough space to ensure their drinking water well remains uncontaminated. Many condominiums, subdivisions, and small property owners associations do have their own permitted facilities, but some of these facilities are not being effectively managed; most of these property owners do not want to spend their vacation time at the lake managing their wastewater facility and most do not have the knowledge and skills to manage such a facility effectively. One of the beauties of the DNR/LOZ E. coli Cove Study (yes, the same study that caused such a stir May of 2009 when a very heavy rain produced a spike in the E. coli samples taken that time) is that this study can spot a permitted facility that is not up to par and the facility can then be fixed. That cove study, by the way, was only intended to be a baseline study, not a health risk study; and until this season, a red flag standard of 126 MPN/100 mL was used. This season (2010), the standard for a single grab sample of 235 MPN/100 mL is being used as the standard and only 3 sites have tested high so far; and on retesting, those sites went back down and have stayed low. One of LOWA’s big projects has been to work towards a regionalized, coordinated approach to the treatment of wastewater at the lake. The Attorney General’s Symposium will be a big boost to that goal.

And finally, the 2 Dam Days marathon kayak race and the accompanying Just For Fun Paddlers event will both showcase a Clean Water Festival highlighting the need for a healthy watershed if we want to keep a healthy lake! These events will take place the weekend of September 25 and 26, 2010, after most of the big power boats have left the Lake’s waters. Friday evening, September 24, will see live entertainment and booths at the community center in Warsaw to sign up the contestants and then these marathon paddlers will take off at 7 am from around the 91.5 mile marker at Drake Harbor in Warsaw (home to Truman Dam) to end up Saturday night (by 7 pm!) at Captain Ron’s near the 34.5 mile marker in Sunrise Beach. Captain Ron’s will also host the 2 Dam Days Clean Water Festival with booths, food, and live entertainment on Saturday. Then the racers will take off at 7am Sunday to sprint 34 miles to Bagnell Dam and the finish line at Iguana Watersports. With more festivities showcasing Clean Water, the Bagnell Dam Association of businesses will host the Awards Ceremony and more booths, food, and live entertainment on Sunday.

On Saturday, also, the Just For Fun Clean Water event will take off as canoes and kayaks paddle furiously (or not so furiously; this is, after all, just for fun) from Halfway Inn, around the 48 mile marker, to Captain Ron’s where all will join in the Clean Water Festival in progress! Participants in the Just For Fun event will all be in a drawing for a new kayak (donated by Oz Cycles and Kayaks) and other door prizes. Participants in the 2 Dam Days marathon race will be vying for the largest purse offered marathon kayakers in the country and the only race to make the women’s purse equal to the men’s purse! Cash prizes will be awarded for 1st, 2nd, and 3rd place Saturday and Sunday in all divisions. Top Paddle will receive an extra $1000 and have their name engraved on a plaque to be displayed at Captain Ron’s in perpetuity. 2 Dam Days will showcase the Lake of the Ozarks and its beautiful watershed as a Clean Water Festival! For more information on either of these events, please go to the LOWA website at www.sosLOWA.org and click on 2 Dam Days, go directly to www.2damdays.org, or call LOWA at 573 374 8360.

Step Forward Day with the Mizzou Tigers

2010-08-23T11:32:00.007-05:00

As a Kansas native, I was taught all my life that Missouri was a scary, backwards place, and the University of Missouri (known for some reason as Mizzou) was the epitome of this. As fate should have it, my term of service as an AmeriCorps member plopped me down right in the middle of Columbia, home of the Tigers. Needless to say, it didn't take me long to learn that Missouri was actually NOT a horrible place, and even those crazy Mizzou students sure had a lot in common with students I have encountered in Colorado and Kansas.

My last weekend here in Missouri really cemented all of these new discoveries. I had the opportunity to spend my Saturday morning with over 70 Mizzou students-

most of them freshmen- for a good ol' fashioned litter pick up! This event, dubbed Step Forward Day, was organized by the campus Center for Leadership Development and Community Involvement. Organizations from around town offered to host groups of students for different

volunteer projects. Naturally, I could not resist offering to host a litter pick up on Flat Branch Creek. Most of Mizzou's campus is in the Flat Branch watershed, and I thought it would be good for the students to see where their runoff goes. Not to mention, Flat Branch runs through downtown, and I figured this would really get this students familiar with all the good hangouts.

But of course, Mother Nature had other ideas. After a crazy night of downpours and flash flooding, it was decided that maybe going down to the creek wasn't the best of ideas. Enter Mike Heimos, the stormwater educator for the City of Columbia! He ALSO was scheduled to do a Flat Branch litter pick up, but instead arrived with maps of downtown. We combined our groups and told them they'd be cleaning downtown. We gave them maps and trash bags, and told them to meet us at "the keyhole" (City Hall) at 11!

Now, walking around downtown, you might not notice the trash...but it is there. Our students returned with over 140 bags of trash from just a few blocks of downtown! We gave them t-shirts to say thanks (and hand wipes for the trash juice), and sent them on their way. Then came the fun part for Mike and I...loading all that trash into the back of his pick up and hauling it away for disposal!

A big thanks to Mike Hemios and to all the Mizzou students who spent their Saturday morning cleaning their community! It is because of people like you that I will return to Kansas singin' your praises!

We turned the AC on. Horray.

2010-08-16T13:23:00.002-05:00

July has turned into a month of planning and replanning. As events cancelled or were postponed due to the weather I attempted to keep busy. One notable happening was dropping of the Rain Garden sign for the Bluffs Retirement home. The last time I saw it it was a muddy 10 by 50 foot path that ended in a muddy hole. The Bluffs hired someone to build the rain garden and plant plants. It looked really wonderful and I was relieved and filled with hope at the same time. It will provide a great environment for people to enjoy nature close to thier homes. It also makes for great public relations. Oh, and my housemates voted to turn on the AC, which is ok, I guess.

Final Quarterly Meeting-Farewell!

2010-08-16T10:45:00.002-05:00

Wow, I can hardly believe my first year of AmeriCorps service is coming to an end. The first months went by slowly, learning all there was about the position and the organization. But the last several months went by so much faster, filled with activities, planning and getting the office ready for the next crew of AmeriCorps.
The Missouri Clean Water AmeriCorps are such a great bunch of spirited, intelligent and fun people. I have enjoyed all the times we met up and shared stories, successes and lessons learned.

On August 10th, we met up for our last quarterly meeting to sum up the year and go through AmeriCorps required Citizenship Training. Our director, Steve, asked Margaret, our new administrative assistant, to lead the training. However, in all her wisdom, Margaret believed that we all, after having just spent of year of service to our communities, might already know a thing or two about great citizenship. We instead had a conversation about citizenship and shared stories from our year and talked about the future. I think AmeriCorps positions inherently attract good citizens, people who want to participate in their community, be involved and make a difference for the better.

This year of AmeriCorps service has introduced me to many sides of Columbia, MO that I would not have otherwise known. I have met many great people and learned of the multitudes of services Columbia has to offer. I love going about Columbia and almost always running into someone I know. We have interacted with so many students and citizens through tabling displays, creating volunteer events and giving educational presentations. Hopefully we have made an impact in their lives, at least in a small way so that they will consider their actions and the effects of those actions on their watershed.

Big Piney River Clean-Up!

2010-08-16T08:33:00.005-05:00

After months of planning, the Big Piney River Clean-Up finally took place! With 68 volunteers, 35 sponsors and 1,565.5 pounds of trash picked up, successful doesn't begin to describe this event! We set up at Boiling Springs Resort in Licking as our base. Canoes and volunteers were shuttled to and from there covering 14.5 miles of river floating from 3 different accesses. Volunteers of all ages and from 20 different cities participated and had a great time! After the clean-up, lunch was served thanks to our sponosors, door prizes were given to nearly all the volunteers and the Licking Girl Scouts helped sort the trash and learned the importance of the 3 R's in the process. It turned out to be a great day to be on the river and do some good in the process. Many of our volunteers had never been on a float trip before, and this type of float really made a positive impact on them. For full trash tally and a link to all the photos, visit our site

http://www.totorcd.org/energy-natural-resources/water-quality/

Autumn 2010

2010-08-10T15:19:00.002-05:00

Hello!

This past year has been intense. This Fall will be just as intense. With so many clean water projects and opportunities, it's hard to decided which one to attend. Each and every single event is just as active and good as the next.

What's in store for St. Louis this fall is Operation Clean Stream, an annual project of the Open Space Council for the St. Louis Region. It gathers approximately 2,000 volunteers every fourth Saturday in August to clean up the Meramec River and its four tributaries, the Big River, the Huzzah, Courtois, and Bourbeuse.

Next is the Little Creek Watershed Festival, September 25th. An amazing outdoor classroom holds an interactive and fun day for all who are interested in learning.

This past July, there was a Watershed Festival at Meramec State Park. It was hot, but well worth it! Floating, raffles, presentations on terrestrial and aquatic bugs, games and activities of all kinds. It's an annual event that is worth going to every year.

The Open Space Council, soon after held their annual Meramec River Expedition. The turn out was great. We shared lunch, hiked two miles along the river. We enjoyed a wildly entertaining Mussels of the Meramec presentation by Brian Wilcox, the naturalist at Meramec State Park. Then we all hopped in our canoes at floated 2.5 miles down to Castlewood State Park, where we enjoyed a cooling rain. This summer has been eventful!

Site Selection for Trash Bashin'

2010-08-10T07:47:00.005-05:00

Hello everyone, during the scorching hot weeks of the July I have been in the process of site selection for the 2nd Annual River des Peres Trash Bash on Saturday September 25, 2010. I have had the opportunity to make site visits with Dona Anderson (Metropolitan Sewer District), Eric Karch, chair of the River des Peres Watershed Coalition, and Natalie Johnson our AmeriCorps volunteer at the Confluence. Though it is more than a month away, one can never be too early in preparation for the Trash Bash. The River des Peres Trash Bash is an event that is all about cleaning the creeks in the River des Peres watershed and then having a big celebration in honor of effort; this year it will coincide with the Clean the Lou, a day for neighborhood and environmental improvement in the St. Louis region. The River des Peres is approximately 15 miles long, and drains 115 square miles of the St. Louis region. The River des Peres has 3 major tributaries, Deer, Gravois, and Mackenzie Creek, being in the lower section of the River des Peres. This year we are trying to encompass large sections of the River des Peres, in both the upper and lower regions, so there was a lot of ground to cover. The upper stretches of the river from Overland and Olivette area look pretty nice, for being in an urban area. Relatively trash free and with multiple fish (Quite a pleasant surprise). And in University City we found a couple of sites on main branch of the River des Peres and on a tributary. Most sections of Deer Creek appear to be in good condition trash-wise, so there may be smaller sites where individual stream teams can take action. There are a lot of things to take in account for site selection such as the amount of trash at a site, the type of trash present (plastic bottles/metal cans, trash bags in trees, metal and PVC pipe). Another important consideration is accessibility of site, are the banks of the creek too step, is it safe for children, adequate parking near the site, there parking lots or space available for on street parking? How far down the creek will the volunteers have to travel? Is there enough trash to keep volunteers busy for a 2 hour time period? Other things of importance are the placement of dumpsters, and logistics of truck and trash pick-up from the sites. As well as taking into consideration, how many volunteers can safely work at a site, what tools will be needed, such as grabbers, ropes, and shovels.
As I mentioned previously the watershed covers a lot of area, Deer Creek and the upper River des Peres are the stretches I am most familiar with, but lately I have had a chance to check out an unfamiliar stretch of creeks Gravois and Mackenzie in South St. Louis. Mackenzie Creek like Deer Creek flows through majority suburban area, giving it steeper banks (channelization) and tougher access; but for the most part, Mackenzie Creek is relatively clean, never a bad thing. Grant’s trail a bike and pedestrian use trail that runs along most of Gravois Creek, giving it pretty good visibility. Also, I took notice that Gravois Creek for the most part has been left in a naturalized state, minus a levee near Affton sports complex. We found 2 or 3 sites along Gravois Creek; one site in particular was of interest to me. It is on a trail spur, that accessible by bike, it is a “wash-out” spot full of Japanese Hops, where a lot of floatable trash has been deposited when the creek was higher. Besides the amount of trash, I took notice that some moderate sized fish (at least 8inch size) make their home in Gravois creek, a sure sign of a healthy stream. As y’all can see through the pictures there is definitely trash buildup on the River des Peres, but besides the trashed spots there are quite beautiful stretches of the river and I had quite an enjoyable time, checking out sites in the watershed. If anyone in the St. Louis region has a good choice for a clean-up site, just let me know. If you would like to attend the Trash Bash, you can register at www.riverdesperes.org. I am definitely looking forward to a wonderful Trash Bash event in September, hopefully the river will be lower and the temperature a bit cooler.

Canoeing the Big Muddy

2010-08-08T23:01:00.003-05:00

As part of our outreach efforts we spend quite a bit of time educating kids about how we, as St. Louisans, interface with our local rivers every day. We talk a lot about wastewater management, access to clean drinking water, stormwater runoff issues, and proper trash disposal.

As a capstone experience for our St. Louis Science Center Camp participants we got the kids out on the Missouri and Mississippi rivers in a magnificent hand-crafted 15 person canoe. Big Muddy Mike Clark guided our trip and schooled us on the ins and outs of canoe travel on the big rivers. Conditions for our trip were just right; the river was high enough to get us over the Chain of Rocks, but not high enough to be dangerous, so we jumped at such a spectacular opportunity. Here is a shot of us just before launch...

Our day trip began on the Missouri River at Columbia Bottoms Conservation Area Boat Ramp. That is MO River Mile 4. We paddled downstream past Ted Jones State Park and Confluence Point to the Mississippi River. The Confluence is located at MS River Mile 195.5. We stopped for a swim at the bottom end of Duck Island and then continued on over the Chain of Rocks and to the back channel of Mosenthein Island. Half way down the back channel we stopped on a sand bar island which is technically a part of Mosenthein though it is detached during high water. A bunch of swimming and lunch, then on to the full navigation channel where the Chain of Rocks Canal reenters the main stem. We passed under the Old RR bridge, the McKinley Bridge and finally under the MLK Bridge where we landed. Our landing spot was the Laclede Landing which is located at MO River Mile 180.

Total river miles = 20.
We put in at 10:45 AM and arrived at 3:30 PM. Total river time = 4 hour 45 min.

Getting kids out on the water is so impactful because it allows them to make their own personal connections to the river, creating their own stories, and ultimately informs their personal choices and actions as water stewards.

I love this work! : )

The Kiefer Creek Watershed Association

2010-08-06T10:47:00.006-05:00

Hey everyone! I hope you’ve all had a great summer so far, despite this heat we’ve been suffering through.

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.

AmeriCorps: Teaming Up to Get Things Done

2010-07-31T17:46:00.006-05:00

On July 31st, I had the opportunity to team up with AmeriCorps members from Grace Hill Settlement House and a fellow Clean Water AmeriCorps member to help beautify riverfront bike trails and pick up litter. The day was ultimately a great success in getting the job done but also a wonderful opportunity to trade stories on the many volunteer efforts different AmeriCorps members have been working on.

The Grace Hill AmeriCorps Trail Rangers are responsible for maintaining the North River Front Trail in St. Louis. Their efforts not only include keeping the bike trail free of debris, but also planting native plants and removing invasive species such as bush honeysuckle. These efforts truly improve the natural beauty of the trail and the health of the watershed. Although not Clean Water AmeriCorps members, this group certainly does a good job at promoting river health and encouraging the community to keep our streams clean.

Clean Water AmeriCorps member Theodore Smith was also able to join our work day in the Confluence. Whenever he's not lending a hand to other members, this man works through the Green Center to help promote the sale of rain barrels. He can easily be named the Rain Barrel King of St. Louis. Through promoting green living, Theodore helps continue Clean Water AmeriCorps mission to better educate the public on living in a healthier happier watershed.

To work with these different members is truly a great experience to see what other efforts are being conducted and how they all interconnect. I look forward to working with these members again, whether it's beautifying a trail, planting native plants, or promoting green living. Either which way, AmeriCorps is certainly getting the job done!

Youth in Action!

2010-07-26T11:23:00.005-05:00

Here in Columbia the weather has been rather obnoxious for the last few weeks. When it isn't pouring rain, it is unbearably hot and humid. I guess that's summer in Missouri for you! Although most folks choose to spend these dog days hidden inside, a group of students called "Youth in Action" volunteered to spend a morning literally IN Flat Branch Creek trying to clean up the latest crop of garbage that had washed in off the nearby streets.

Even though we started bright and early, we all had a nice layer of sweat building before we even began. After a brief introduction to stormwater and a quick reminder of the "rules" of picking up trash, we set out from Flat Branch Park along the MKT trail. The students
utilized the buddy system- not so much for safety as for ensuring that garbage and recyclables were properly separated! Even though some of the students didn't have sweet rubber boots like Julia and I, no one hesitated to jump right in- even if it meant wet tennis shoes and jeans!

After scarcely two hours, we had collected enough trash to fill the trunk of my car to the brim! Some of our trophies included an unwrapped granola bar, half a bottle of body wash, a set of car keys (they were covered in algae and beginning to oxidize so we don't think the owner will miss them), a perfectly usable hanger, a barrette (which I wore) and a giant piece of twisted metal that probably weighed upwards of 30 pounds!

The students- as well as myself- seemed pretty disgusted to see how much just a few of us were able to collect over no more than half a mile of stream bank. The number of recyclable plastic bottles we collected was startling; we probably were able to recycle about half the total volume we pulled out. The experience definitely taught us that things are not always as they seem...

And of course that you should ALWAYS put your garbage where it belongs!

Another Rain Barrel Art Event!

2010-07-15T12:46:00.001-05:00

MRCN is organizing another Rain Barrel Art debut and reception! This time we have partnered with the CARE Gallery in Columbia.

“The CARE Gallery is a summer arts program sponsored by the Office of Cultural Affairs and the Parks and Recreation Department and is part of the city’s overall CARE Program, an effort to teach work and life skills to youth ages 14-18. The Gallery offers summer jobs to at-risk high school students referred by their art teacher and guidance counselor. Professional artists work with Gallery participants on a variety of community arts projects.” (From the City of Columbia website.)

The youth in this program listened to a presentation by Rebecca, Lance and I about AmeriCorps in general, storm water and rain barrels, and the art of painting a rain barrel. They then brainstormed ideas and themes which the barrels could fall under, and started sketches before refining and choosing an idea to carry out on the barrels.

These barrels will be featured in Columbia’s Artrageous Friday event on July 23^rd , 6-9pm in the courtyard of Orr St. Studios, 106 Orr St., Columbia, MO. That evening will open up the eBay auction, where individuals can bid online to own of these unique creations of functional art. The auction will run from July 23^rd -29^th, proceeds benefitting the educational presentations of MRCN and the CARE gallery.

To view the rain barrel art, visit our website, facebook page or search eBay for “Rain Barrel Art”.

Hope to see you out there!

the Healthy Watershed Series

2010-07-14T11:57:00.003-05:00

Hello everyone.
We wrapped up the Healthy Watershed Series in June. The last talk was given by Tim Haller from the Fish and Wildlife Service and was followed up by a display model of the Missouri River. Tim discussed the history of river traffic and the huge effort that went into channelizing the Big Muddy. The model was in a trailer and helped the attendees understand the hydrology of the Missouri River. Water was pumped into the model and bits of some type of material (sand, grits or vermiculite) would form mini sand bars. The model really helped us conceptualize how the dike system works to keep the river channelized. This last event had the best attendance. This was because the library had a water theme for that month and co-sponsored the event. The lesson here might be to look at the upcoming themes of events of various larger organizations and try to partner with them. The library co-sponsoring our event lent legitimacy to our organizational event. Many people have heard of the library but few have heard of Missouri River Communities Network. Tim also had his display model at the June 19, somewhat impromptu, Floody Muddy event which replaced our doomed Canoe for Clean Water event. The Healthy Watershed Series was a learning experience and I am not certain that it should continue in its' current form. The speakers and content were great but the public was difficult to attract. Partnering with larger organizations will give the speakers more audience and serve the public much better. Take Care everyone.

Stories and Thunderstorms

2010-07-14T08:42:00.004-05:00

Taneyhills Library in Branson, Missouri, is a small but fantastic library. They asked me to come and talk about water conservation with their weekly events for local kids. They are keeping an awareness of water all summer! It’s a great reading program to keep kids motivated to read books during the summer. There were about 30 kids that showed up to hear two stories about water and to participate in couple of activities. I read two stories: Water Dance by Thomas Locker and Why Should I Save Water? by Jen Green. Luckily, it was raining that morning so we had to talk about thunderstorms too. We did a thunderstorm activity where the kids mimicked the sounds of thunderstorms with hand clapping and stomping feet. Who doesn’t want to make lots of noise in a library when it isn’t usually allowed? The kids loved it! After story time, we had craft time and I got to help the kids with sand art! It’s been a few years since I have done that. :-) I had a great time at Taneyhills Library and I encourage you to check out the library when you’re in downtown Branson.
Taneyhills Library website: http://bransoncommunitylibrary.org/

Paddle Power!

2010-07-09T14:19:00.002-05:00

June has been a wet, wet month here at The Audubon Center at Riverlands! We have hosted, in partnership with our U. S. Army Corps of Engineers colleagues, 5 kayaking workshops for kids in Ellis Bay. Participants ranged in age from 9-15, and all came out for a day of fun on the River from metro St. Louis.

Riverlands Migratory Bird Sanctuary is a marvelous site for these expeditions! We begin with a safety briefing and paddling basics on land, then move to the water when everyone is comfortable. Participants gain confidence and control in the safety of the slow moving, mellow water of the bay. Then we venture out to the floating habitat barges for the Interior Least Tern (a federally endangered species on the Upper Mississippi) and study the artificial habitat there. Paddling beyond the habitat barges we come to a nice place to 'park' in a floatilla near the end of the bay and watch the big tugs and barges work their way up and down the River as they line up in the main channel of the Mississippi River to lock through the Melvin Price Locks and Dam just downstream. Our paddle back up into the the bay brings us to Ellis Island where we have the opportunity to take a break from our boats and stretch our legs on a 1 mile loop trail. It is a great place to geocache, birdwatch, look for animal sign (including beaver, fox, coyote, and bobcat), and enjoy a shady stroll. Then it's back in the kayaks for our paddle back across the bay, to the end of our expedition, tired arms and big smiles all around.

I am always heartened by the change in participant's demeanor from the beginning to the end of our trips. While some are excited from the get-go, many are nervous or even tearfully frightened to step into a kayak for the first time (and certainly would not have signed up for their various summer camps had they realized it was on the agenda). Without exception, though (knock on wood), every blessed one so far has gotten into their boats and had a good time after a few kind words and a little practice. I feel so fortunate to be able to help people connect to the River in new ways, to show them how to 'get their eyes on' to nature all around us, and to remind them that their actions are impactful.

My work with AmeriCorps and Audubon keep me connected to people and to this marvelous place...and what a blessing it is...to help build people's connections, my own and others', to the land and water.

Tickets, Gift Cards and Wine Racks Oh My!

2010-07-09T14:10:00.004-05:00

So, I've been begging, like I've never begged before! You own a business around here, I've probably talked to you, and if I haven't, someone else has! One week until the Big Piney River Clean-Up and my office is getting fuller by the day. With what you might ask? Why that'd be door prizes for all the amazing volunteers that will be helping out next Saturday (July 17th) Boiling Springs Resort, Licking, MO- 8 am registration! I've been overwhelmed by the generosity of our local businesses as well as the sports teams in Missouri (Cardinals, Royals, Rams and Chiefs). Baseball tickets, autographed football stuff, household items, gift cards, camping chair, food, etc. I don't even have all the items yet! It's going to be a great event, you won't want to miss!

See you all on the Big Piney!

The LOZ E. coli Cove Study and LOWA LILs

2010-07-09T12:50:00.005-05:00

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!
Here at the Lake of the Ozarks, LOWA has teamed up with MO DNR in the Lake of the Ozarks (LOZ) E. coli Cove Study. Many studies of water quality at LOZ have been conducted over the past 4-5 decades. Summaries of many of those studies can be found at the LOWA website, www.sosLOWA.org, and most of them discuss the issue of septic tanks and permitted facilities on the shores of LOZ. When LOWA first formed in 2006, MO DNR and AmerenUE were discussing beginning a 5-year study to establish a baseline for E. coli levels in the coves of LOZ. LOWA offered the services of volunteers around the lake to help collect water samples for the study and with the LOWA volunteers on board, 3 times as many samples were able to be collected than in the original study design. Here are a couple of pictures from the last sampling date, including the chain of custody for the sampling bottles and paper work.
Last year, in May of 2009, samples were collected right after a weekend of very heavy rains and over have of the samples collected that day came back with E. coli readings over 126 mpn (the level being used at that time; this year the sample level is 235 mpn, which is the same as the single sample standard for public beaches). And then, the results were held for a few weeks before release and the public got angry. The LOZ E. coli Cove Study was never meant to be an indicator for public health but government agencies missed a golden opportunity to educate the public about what E. coli readings really mean. The rest of 2009 showed minimal amounts of E. coli and so far, 2010 has shown minimal amounts of E. coli, but what do these readings really mean also? E. coli is an indicator species, meaning that the more E. coli is found, the more likely other pathogenic (disease-causing) organisms will also be present (very few strains of E. coli are actually pathogenic). At a single sample level of 235 mpn, statistically 8 out of 1000 swimmers will develop some kind of gastrointestinal illness and this is the level Missouri and many other states have adopted for their single sample level for waters with whole body contact.
Heavy rains often wash fecal matter and other E. coli sources into a body of water with the runoff. Then, combined with the sediment being washed into the water as well, bacteria levels can grow too high very quickly. But, just as quickly, the E. coli levels can return to normal. Folks here at the Lake of the Ozarks know that one shouldn’t swim right after a heavy rain. Give that runoff a chance to dissipate and let the waters clear up. LOWA is glad to be able to assist MO DNR in the LOZ E. coli Cove Study by collecting water samples and LOWA is also glad to assist the entire Lake area in helping to educate the public about E. coli, what those readings really mean, and precautions to take while swimming in any lake. This year the media is reporting on lakes and public beaches all over Missouri and we are finding that Lake of the Ozarks has very high water quality and is one of the cleanest lakes in our state. However, this Lake can be stressed and LOWA is working proactively to try to reduce the amount of runoff reaching the Lake, which will then help to reduce any bacteria levels, in addition to sediment levels and nutrient levels – they are all interrelated. For the home owners, LOWA is introducing their LOWA LILs Program. LILs = Low Impact Landscaping and is based on the Healthy Yards for Clean Waters and the Show Me Yards and Neighborhoods programs active in Springfield and Columbia. There are many ways individuals can help to reduce the amount of stormwater runoff reaching the lake and rain gardens and rain barrels are just a couple of those helpful practices. At LOWA’s July public meeting (at Tan-Tar-A on July 19 at 6:30 in Salon B), Bryan Vance from AmerenUE will discuss how AmerenUE’s Shoreline Management Plan and the LOWA LIL Program work together to reduce the amount of runoff reaching the Lake. All are invited!
September 25 and 26, LOWA is also planning a Clean Water Celebration with a 2 Dam Days marathon paddle race from Truman Dam to Bagnell Dam in 2 days; at the same time, we’ll also have a Just for Fun Paddling Event of about 14 miles on Saturday. We'll also have a Clean Water Festival at the starting point in Drake Harbor, Warsaw, at Captain Ron's in Sunrise Beach (Saturday's endpoint and Sunday's starting point), and at the Bagnell Dam Stage on the Bagnell Dam Strip. There will be fun and activities for all! For more information on our Kayak and Canoe Paddles Races at the Lake of the Ozarks, go to www.2damdays.org or visit the LOWA website at www.sosLOWA.org. Happy Paddling!

EnviroScaping with SCOSAG

2010-07-08T10:25:00.007-05:00

On June 29th, I had the chance to do an EnviroScape presentation for the South City Open Studio and Art Gallery (SCOSAG) summer camp. The EnviroScape Model is a small representation of a watershed; the River des Peres Watershed Coalition received ours from St. Louis’ Metropolitan Sewer District. It comes with cars, buildings (residential, industrial, and agricultural), bridges, trees, felt to represent grass and vegetation (and creatively a green roof system), and liquids and Kool-Aid packets that represents pollution. I have come to enjoy EnviroScape presentations because it is a great interactive way of spreading water awareness to children, and to really gauge their knowledge on water and environmental issues. I start off with introduction, then prompting questions such as: Why is water important? What is the water cycle and how water is interconnected? What is a watershed? Do you live near a creek or river? How long is the River des Peres? What are macro invertebrates? What creatures have you seen near your local water source? I asked about trash and pollution and other things that can negatively affect water quality and even the strangest thing that they have seen in a local waterway.
After my talk with the kids then the fun happens and things can get a little messy with the EnviroScape model. I have different ingredients to simulate various types of pollution. Red, Yellow, and Green packets of Kool-Aid represented pesticides, fertilizers, and metal pollution. The soy sauce represented Motor Oil, and table salt represented well you guess it… road salt. Like pollution in our everyday world, our simulated pollution had a powerful smell, though rather better than the River des Peres after a heavy rain; this really provided both a visual and olfactory aid for the kids in showing the effects of pollution on water.
We cleaned up our messy polluted environment, and I asked what ways could improve and reduce the effects of pollution; because I’m not all about doom and gloom, and focusing on the negatives. So I asked what practices can we all do to reduce the use of fertilizers and pesticides. They made suggestions such composting, proper yard/other waste disposal, and even green roofs. I chimed in with rain gardens and barrels, and the reduction of water use during heavy storms so as not to strain the Combined Sewer system and explained to kids how heavy storms, and storm water runoff can overflow into the River des Peres and other streams, which can negatively affect water quality and aquatic habitat. At the end of my presentation on water quality and protecting our local watershed, I asked the campers and counselors to sign and a keep their very own rain barrel. Because I can teach about water protection but making the means for them to do so easier can go a long way towards being a constant reminder. With their building being in Tower Grove Park a beautiful public park located in South Saint Louis, at a great location, maybe the barrel can be used as both an artistic conversation piece and generate more interest in rain barrels. While I can only post pictures to our blog without the children’s faces feel free to check out SCOSAG blog for more pictures http://scosagcamp.blogspot.com/.

James River Rescue and Dam Jam

2010-07-06T12:02:00.001-05:00

What a great weekend out by and on the river! On June 11, 1 2 and 13^th, Lance and I visited our friendly AmeriCorps Kellie down in Springfield to help James River Basin Partnership with their annual River Rescue.

Lance and I arrive on Friday night to load up Kellie’s vehicle and prepare everything for the long day ahead of us. We started Saturday morning by setting up Ozark Mill to be ready for the many people who were coming out to clean up the river. After directing all the cars very skillfully, Lance and I were able to put our canoe in the water and start the clean-up. Once on the water we were acting as sweep, staying at the back to make sure no one was left behind. After a while, we were relieved of our sweep position and told we had actually only traveled 1/5^th of the route. So we tried to make up time and paddled pretty quickly to catch up with the rest of the paddlers. After an hour or so of bustin’ booty, we came upon a tight spot in the river and were asked to help the other staff direct the boats through this tight squeeze. So we lost all of our headway, but felt pretty good that no one’s canoe flipped!

After the float we had about an hour off to keep cool in a nearby pool before starting our next shift as parking attendants and cleaning up after the concert. Even more people showed up for this great concert than for the clean-up. Honky Suckle, Uncle Fudd and HonkyTonk Renovators rocked!

Overall, this was a great experience to see up close how much work goes into an all day event, and was definitely giving us ideas for MRCN’s big event, Canoe for Clean Water. MRCN spent months organizing this float and festival, only to have the mighty MO flood us out a few days before the event was scheduled. But don’t worry, it’s only postponed! Keep the Canoe for Clean Water on your calendar, just move it to Saturday, October 9^th, 2010!

Thanks to my gracious host Kellie and James River Basin Partnership for a great event!

Missouri NEMO

2010-07-06T11:47:00.004-05:00

So this past month, I stumbled across the National NEMO Network.

As I’m sure many of you are confused by the name, I’d like to clarify this organization has very little to do with animated clown fish or Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea, and a lot to do with clean water! “NEMO” stands for “nonpoint education for municipal officials,” which translates to stormwater education for local decision-makers.

The National NEMO Network was created in 1991 at the University of Connecticut. Over the past nearly 20 years, the NEMO Network has expanded to include 32 members in 31 states. Each state’s program is tailored to that state, with the goal of teaching local land use decision makers about the impact of land use on water quality.

As those of you that are St. Louisans know, this region has a lot of rivers and streams and experiences a lot of rain, and consequentially, also has a number of stormwater issues. Many of the streams in the area suffer from what’s known as “urban stream syndrome,” which is largely a product of urban sprawl. One of the projects I’ve been working on this year is stormwater education and awareness, teaching community groups about sustainable stormwater management—also known as green infrastructure.

In short, my happenstance discovery of the NEMO Network, as well as that Missouri’s program is still being developed, in combination with MCE looking to do more outreach to and education of local land use decision makers, and the fortuitous fact that the Missouri NEMO program is housed in the Department of Conservation in St. Louis by someone I’ve met on several occasions—all this has amounted to the birth of NEMO.

NEMO, a play on "Missouri NEMO," is a budding partnership between the MCE, Department of Conservation, East-West Gateway Council of Governments, and the St. Louis Metropolitan Sewer District. The next MCE Clean Water AmeriCorps volunteer will have a vital role in the partnership, educating with community groups (who support local land use decision makers) on stormwater issues and green infrastructure—particularly rain gardens.

With any luck, through the efforts NEMO’s partners, the St. Louis metropolitan region will learn how to make natural resource-based land use decisions that make stormwater management greener and more sustainable… all in the name of cleaner water in Missouri!

Stay cool, and I’ll see you in August!

Campers Tackle Invasive Species

2010-07-05T13:12:00.004-05:00

June was a terrific month, but even more so with the helping hands of the Bernard Harris Summer Camp. The camp consists of a select group of students who excel in the sciences as well as have a passion for serving the community. On June 23rd, these students joined the Confluence Partnership to help pull invasive species and plant native ones in their place. All of this work was completed at the North Riverfront Park-- therefore not only helping create a better filtration system for the river with native plants, but restoring the beauty of the park in hopes to draw more people to the water.

Students walked away with a better understanding of habitat restoration, invasive species, storm water connections, and muddy hands. Although it was a hot one, fun was had by all!

New Informational Website now available

2010-07-02T15:14:00.002-05:00

I would like to introduce the new Branson Area Lakes Report website. TRLWQ has taken on the task of designing an informational website regarding area lakes. At the current moment, Table Rock Lake and Lake Taneycomo are included in this project. The purpose of this website is to provide accurate and un-biased information regarding the area lakes. Currently, visitors can look up recreational information, read about water quality, and also see news updates from around the lake. There is also information about E. coli and where the testing sites are around Table Rock Lake. I will be updating this website weekly with news updates and sending out news updates via email for those people who select to signup. If you are interested check out the website, www.bransonarealakesreport.com, an signup for email updates too! Happy 4th of July everyone!

River Rescue to the RESCUE!

2010-06-25T11:47:00.003-05:00

Wow you should have seen the trash from River Rescue this past June 12th! We had 200 people show up and my AmeriCorps co-members Julia and Lance worked their tales off! Seriously, we up at 6am and didn't hit the sheets until 11:30 that night. We cleaned the Finley River in Ozark MO and ended at the waste water treatment plant. There must have been around 75 tires picked up. That stretch of river has never been picked up before, it needed it! After the river clean-up we had our annual concert entitled Dam Jam. It was at the historic Ozark Mill. I wish I had more pics to share, but hear is a good one!

Honeysuckle Hack at the Fire Station

2010-06-24T12:13:00.008-05:00

The River des Peres Watershed Coalition is in charge of two sites in the River des Peres Watershed. One site is located in Maplewood, Mo on Deer Creek a large tributary of the River des Peres and the other site is located on a natural stretch of the River des Peres in University City, Mo called Mona Terrace. Mona Terrace is a quarter mile stretch of the River des Peres situated on a bike route of Great Rivers Greenway, is becoming likely to considered a park by City of University City, being a green corridor just a block away from busy Olive Boulevard. Mona Terrace is surrounded by residential neighborhoods, an apartment complex, and just to the east of it is the University City Fire Station located at the intersection of North & South and Shaftesbury Road.
The fairly new fire station has an interesting place both spatially and historically. Spatially it is a better location (traffic wise) and more of a visible presence in the community and historically due to the fact that in front of the fire station is a marker showing the starting point of the 1904 World’s Fair marathon. Being just east of our Mona Terrace site, the RdP figured what’s a few more hundred feet of honeysuckle removal? The city beautification group U. City in Bloom, has planting sites throughout University City (located at schools, curbs, and road medians) and is working to get the City of University City recognized for community involvement through public gardening. U. City in Bloom has been maintaining the site of the marathon marker, but planting a beautiful variety of annual flowers. Unfortunately beyond the marker and flowers, was thick undergrowth of Japanese honeysuckle, invasive vines, and Eunonymus (Winter Creeper) (second picture in top row). The long-range plan is to beautify the entire grounds around the fire station. The RDP seeks to reconnect the community with the River des Peres as well as removing invasive plant species and beautifying the environment with Missouri native plants. So our two organizations shared a common goal of beautifying this riparian area at a worthwhile civic location. That was where the RDP was ready to come in and do work on removing as much of the invasive species as possible. On Sunday morning of June 13, 2010a group of 14 volunteers from U.City in Bloom and the River des Peres Watershed Coalition, armed with handsaws, loppers, shovels, and of course plenty of water delved into the “jungle” as we called it and for the next 3 and a half hours began hacking away at the mass amount of invasive species (We had a chainsaw, but it went out of commission soon after starting the project, but we made up for it with good old fashioned muscle and grit). Though I have spent countless hours removing honeysuckle and other invasives I am always surprised by how open the area looks when the plants are removed, especially how much the invasive species become a block to the river. I felt that we were successful in removing plenty of honeysuckle, and salvaging trees that were being slowly choked off by vines; Winter Creeper though we removed some, we still have a lot more work to do on that.
At the end of our work we had removed 14 cubic feet of honeysuckle, and many bundles of Winter Creeper; though we did a lot of hacking and cutting of plants, we enjoy planting them as well, and we had the chance put 12 trees and native shrubs in place of the invasive species that we removed (The picture in center-bottom row is a view towards the back of the historical marker sign- that was the area we cleared in addition to other side of the firehouse) . We did a heck of a job out there that Sunday morning, and the RdP and U.City in Bloom are already developing future plans to return to the site within the next month to remove more invasives. Being the River des Peres Watershed Coalition we are privileged to work with other community improvement groups in the St. Louis region, but it is great when we get the chance to work other groups in our very own community. Looking at the site in the present day, being the site of a fire station and a slightly channelized portion of the River des Peres, it’s hard to imagine the area once being the site of a marathon more than a century ago. But hopefully the effort made by members of the River des Peres Watershed Coalition and U.City in Bloom will make the area more accessible to the community and preserve a small piece of history. Finally, I would like to give a special thanks to all the people who dedicated their time and effort to help both the River des Peres Watershed Coalition and U.City in Bloom in beautifying the city of University City, Mo, these people are the absolute embodiment of the term community service, in volunteering their time and hard work.

Columbia Rain Garden Tour

2010-06-23T15:03:00.007-05:00

Before it gets too far into June, I wanted to share with the world the success of MRCN's recent rain garden tour! It was held on Sunday, June 6, which (compared to the blistering heat mid-Missouri is currently suffering through) was an absolutely gorgeous day!

I had been incredibly anxious while planning this event, primarily because I had never planned a garden tour! However, this event was also the first of its kind for MRCN; while we have hosted rain garden tours in the past, the self-guided format I had opted to go with was new for us. My goal was to get more people involved and encourage them to mold the tour into something that best fit their needs and interests. I also really, really wanted to feature some of the great residential rain gardens that Columbians have created! While everyone has seen the gardens at Stephens Lake Park or Rock Bridge High School, not everyone has seen John Glenn's backyard!

By the way, John Glenn is not an astronaut. Just a super nice guy with a rain garden (which is pictured above).

6 homeowners volunteered to show their gardens for the tour. Most of them had worked with us on our grant project last year, so it was fun seeing how the gardens had changed! I was so excited to have so many homeowners featured, as I was hoping they would inspire other potential rain gardeners. In order to emphasize even more person-to-person rain garden interaction, we also selected 4 public sites that are really great and had volunteers sit at those to answer questions during the tour. The remaining 6 sites were unattended, but I talked to quite a few people who visited them anyway.

The number of visitors at each site varied, from a total of 2 to over 30! My favorite "success story" came from homeowner Nadia Navarrete-Tindall and her husband Randy. She not only labeled some of the 120 native plants that inhabit her yard (shown below), but she also printed out a spreadsheet with the scientific and common names of all of them! I guess the word got out, because she reported that she had a steady flow of visitors for the full 3 hours!

When I first took on the rain garden project, I wasn't very enthusiastic about it, but after the tour, I am bummed I don't get to help plan another!

Lessons I have learned

2010-06-14T11:09:00.002-05:00

Hello all.
This month I learned a lesson in communication. MRCN has had a Healthy Watershed Series once a month for the last few months. I failed to contact the person I had set up to speak to remind him. This was unfortunate as MRCN looked bad and I felt horrible about not having a speaker. It was my fault and I hope that my mistakes will result in my better performance. On the positive side, we sold four 330 gallon rain totes to a school district in Kansas City. The person who picked them up was really excited and told me that the students would paint them before instillation. In marketing the first people to adopt a product or idea are called early adopters, or something like that. These early adopters pave the way for the rest of us to adopt the new product or idea. So, not to long ago very few people had cell phones for various reasons, many of them good. Yet, a few people adopted the new technology, influenced government and private business to support the continuation of and expansion of the technology. So, perhaps rain barrels are in the stage were only a few people, the early adopters, are aware but through them perhaps more people will adopt the rain barrel technology. take care everyone.

Lake Monitoring and the Two Dam Days Paddle Race

2010-06-11T13:05:00.014-05:00

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!
Well, I thought things might slow down a bit once we submitted the watershed management plan (which has been approved by EPA and MO DNR), but May turned out to be full of Clean Water events and activities!
Earth Day is Every Day! May found LOWA still active with lots of school children. A return trip to Climax Springs R-IV to visit the 3rd, 4th, and 6th grades for a more focused look at water quality measurements was almost rained out but we managed to set up our equipment at the ball field and bring creek water up from the Outdoor Classroom. Rain again altered plans at Mills Elementary with the School of the Osage 2nd grade (about 150 of them!). Rather than activities at their Outdoor Classroom, we played a watershed game up under a covered walkway – at least we could stay outside, sort of! Our watershed game from Project Wet was a big hit this year with students ranging from Kindergarten to 5th grade. This activity illustrates the benefits of a riparian buffer in reducing the amount of runoff reaching a body of water. Much fun was had by all!

This AmeriCorps member also trained to be a part of the E. coli Cove Study at the Lake of the Ozarks. This season sampling will occur at three locations around the Lake. One set of coves is from about mile marker 34 at the Hurricane Deck Bridge to about the 60 mile marker, in Camden County. Another location is the set of coves in Gravois arm. And the last location is a couple of coves near Bagnell Dam that have tested high several times over the course of this 5-year study. With the help of LOWA volunteers to collect the water samples, three times as many sites have been able to be sampled in this study which is in its 4th year. Here's a picture of those pesky waterfowl.
Lakes of Missouri Volunteer Program (LMVP) is also a part of this AmeriCorps member’s monitoring activities. This program has volunteers sampling lake waters all around the lake. I monitor at mile marker 51 on the Lake of the Ozarks, and my husband helps out by piloting the boat and recording data. Coffman Marina sponsors us by letting us use their boat ramp free of charge. We only have a little 12’ putt-putt boat so we go out towards late afternoon on a weekday to avoid the larger power boats. Sampling for LMVP entails a temperature reading, a Secchi disc reading, and the collection of a water sample. At home, we then take the water sample and filter it twice each for two measurements and prepare a water sample for storage. Then all samples and filters are stored in the freezer for later pick up. For an old science type like me, this is just way too much fun!

Another May activity for LOWA was to observe and video the preparation of a pervious concrete driveway at a Green Home being built near the Lake. Pervious concrete (one type of pervious pavement) is a green construction practice that helps to reduce runoff and increase the amount of infiltration from precipitation events.
But probably the most exciting May activity has been gearing up for LOWA’s Two Dam Days Paddle Race, taking place in late September. This will actually be two races in one as well as Clean Water Festivals and the promotion of Clean Water Activities at the Lake of the Ozarks. The Two Dam Days Paddle Race will be a marathon kayak and canoe race from Truman Dam in Warsaw (near the 92 mile marker) to Bagnell Dam in Lake Ozark (near the zero mile marker!). The marathon racers will begin Saturday morning at Drake Harbor and try to make it to Captain Ron’s at the 34 mile marker by dark (7 am to 7 pm); we don’t want racers out on the Lake after dark. Then the marathoners will continue Sunday morning and race from Captain Ron’s to Iguana Sports on the Bagnell Dam Strip at the end of the lake. The marathon race should be very exciting but Saturday will also find the Just For Fun recreational race that will leave Halfway Inn at the 48 mile marker and race to Captain Ron’s, about 14 miles. Oz Cycles and Kayaks is sponsoring prizes, etc for the Just For Fun Race and various other businesses will be sponsoring the divisions and categories of the marathon portion of the Two Dam Days Paddle Race. LOWA has planned this race for late September to avoid a lot of the large power boats on the Lake during the summer and to bring in some late season activity for the Lake area businesses.
June looks to be just about as busy as May. Talk to you all next month!

Septic Tank Educational Presenation

2010-06-10T13:34:00.002-05:00

We helped host a public seminar about septic tanks at Fantastic Caverns this month. The event was open the public and we had a nice turnout for the event. Most folks were homeowners and were interested in hearing about how a septic tank works and how an advanced system could help them. We learned about soil types and how much soil is needed for a conventional septic system. Most homes in the Ozarks area do not have adequate soil types or quantity to have a conventional system. Advanced systems are the way to go if you have no soil or if you have a small area to work with. After the presentation, the participants got to go on a free tour of Fantastic Caverns.
As a new update, Table Rock Lake Water Quality has re-designed our website so check this out in your free time. http://www.trlwq.org/
I have also been busy re-designing the Missouri Smallflows website which is more user-friendly for our onsite wastewater professionals. I never thought I would learn web design. http://www.mosmallflows.org/

Recycle, Reduce, Re-use!

2010-06-10T12:50:00.004-05:00

During AmeriCorps Week, I gave 3 presentations to the 6th grade classes in the Plato School District as well as to 181 4th and 5th graders at the Jack's Fork Watershed Education Day. It focused on the importance of recycling as well as how long it takes everyday household items to fully decompose into the Earth (if there is an actual time). I did lot's of research because let's face it, who better than to stump me on a random question than 9-11 year olds! We discussed the 3 R's- Reduce, Re-use and Recycle. Rather than just giving the kids facts and information, I asked them what they can do in their very own homes to help the planet. And I heard some really great ideas. For the Re-use discussion, I had items like a glass jar, an egg carton, old greeting card, and a paper towell roll in my bag. Basically I grabbed stuff that anyone could find in the average home and asked "Rather than throwing this away, what could you do with it?" These kids let me know! Everything from games, bug catchers, scrapbooking parts and a place to store trinkets were brought up!
At the end of the presentation, I had a matching game with items on one card, and rates of time on the others. They were to match each item with how long it took for it to decompose. And of course in the 6th grade classroom, it became a boys vs. girls grudge match. But everyone had a great time, and some of the kids wanted to start a recycling program as a class project!
Fun Facts-
We all know recycling cans can benefit your pockets as well as the earth, but did you ever think to recycle your Hershey Kiss wrappers? I knew it was aluminum foil, but it never crossed my mind to recycle those little buggers!

If you were to throw away a soda can, it would take 80-100 years to break down, but you can recylce a can indefinitely!

---- On a completely different note------
Don't forget the Big Piney River Clean-Up Saturday, July 17th. Boiling Springs Resort! Bring your canoes and be ready for fun!!! Registration begins at 8am.

Our Big Day!

2010-06-03T14:36:00.003-05:00

On the evening of May 19th we celebrated the culmination of our Rivervision Leadership Project at the Missouri Botanical Garden!

We have had a great time with our participating 7th, 8th, 10th, and 11th grade students over the past 6 months! This was our chance to showcase the students' work and creativity in a public forum. We recognized our final project winners with prizes and screened a multi-media celebration of Rivervision participants, volunteers, educators, and site work over the past six months. The real focus of the evening, however, was a discussion panel comprised of local and regional environmental professionals (most of whom had been involoved with the program previously).

We were fortunate to have a terrific panel who, while not always agreeing with one another, covered a myriad of water quality and water use issues in a respectful, educational, and thought provoking way. Don Marsh, well known St. Louis radio personality, was our moderator for the evening. He asked the panel a series of questions to prompt discussion; some were his own, but most were from participating students.

All told, the evening brought together 145 participating students, their families, 16 volunteers, 6 panel members, and interested parties frome several civic, environmental, and governmental agencies in the St. Louis metro area.

Unfortunately, I am having difficulty getting Blogger to upload our high resolution images from the event. Instead I'll sign off with a shot of our 7th and 8th grade Rivervision students we took a few months ago...we had a ton of fun!

No Dumping, Drains to Stream!

2010-06-03T10:06:00.007-05:00

On one of the few fair-weather days we had this May, I joined 6^th graders from Valley Park Middle School (VPMS) for their Fishpot Field Day. Organized by Darlene Haun and VPMS science teacher Ms. Leslie Venn, this water quality-centric field day grew out of Ms. Venn's class' involvement with Stream Teams; Stream Team #3271 at VPMS has adopted Fishpot Creek, and they've been learning about it throughout the year.

In January, and those of you that read these blogs closely may remember this post, several other AmeriCorps members and I helped Darlene test for chlorides along Fishpot. We then visited Ms. Venn’s classroom to show her students how road salt had found its way into the water, and to teach them a little about the negative consequences of increased chlorides on the stream.

The Fishpot Field Day took place at several sites along the stream. I was with the group furthest upstream at Mockingbird Park, located at the back of a subdivision. There were three volunteers at the site that helped to conduct several activities: Tom Ball took care of visual survey, chemistry and flowrate in Fishpot, John Ruprecht led the kids on a plant identification walk, and I was in charge of storm drain stenciling (which was the most fun, if you ask me!).

All of the kids got a chance to rotate through and do all three of the activities. With each group of kids, I first asked them to imagine what would happen to the rain if there had been nothing built. Most kids eventually got it right—that most of the water would soak into the ground, and some would evaporate, and a little goes into the stream. Then I asked them to take a look at the subdivision and tell me what would happen to the stormwater now that we’d built all these houses and roads and sidewalks. They put together that most of the water goes down the storm drain and straight to the stream, and that all the stuff that’s on roads goes into the stream with it.

Once the kids understood why dumping things down the storm drain is a bad idea, we then set off with our trusty cans of spray paint to stencil some storm drains. We broke into three smaller groups: two groups of two kids that stenciled storm drains, and one group of three that went door to door dropping off fliers that explained why we were stenciling the storm drains. We also kept track of the things we saw around the storm drains that would go into the stream the next time it rained: sticks, leaves, pine needles, rocks, and fertilizer from an immaculately groomed lawn. One storm drain was almost completely blocked from organic waste.

It was so great to see all the energy the kids had—one particularly enthusiastic kid ran to every house to drop off a flier. I hope that through the kids' efforts, people in the neighborhood will notice the fliers and stencils on the storm drains and not dump their dog poop or yard waste in storm drains. It's a small step in helping to protect Fishpot, but we sure had a lot of fun with it!

Katie's Post

2010-06-02T11:36:00.003-05:00

Now more than ever people are realizing how their actions affect our environment. To anybody reading this, you are probably aware of the need for cleaner energy, cleaner air, cleaner water and more open space. But what people aren't aware of is how much their actions, no matter how small they seem, are influencing the lives of others. It is absolutely 100% pointless to pin the blame on someone else. This shows a lack of responsibility, laziness, removal from nature, and a cop-out of having to put forth more energy and effort to reach a higher goal.

It is absolutely the entire nation's responsibility to take care of and live in harmony with all other biotic and abiotic factors in our ecosystems. What we do here in Missouri affects not just Missouri but the Gulf of Mexico, and South America, the Pacific Ocean as well as the Atlantic Ocean.
My small efforts of showing people how to get it done, and not just preaching to them, has energized others to help out, to halt the invasive species, to REDUCE, REUSE, and then recycle, to keep their cigarette butts for the trash can. It is not the tobacco company's fault or the corrupt oil mongrel's fault. The fault is on any individual not willing to change. The change and positive outcome is on every single person in this nation.
You think you can't have a hydrogen vehicle. YOU'RE WRONG. You think you can't have your home run on solar panels. WRONG AGAIN. Convenience is in the eye of the beholder, and there won't be any more conveniences if we don't change our attitudes about what we need, use, and want.

Lake Awareness

2010-06-01T13:18:00.002-05:00

It was a fabulous Memorial Day weekend and it seemed as though everyone had the same idea as myself: Go to the Lake of the Ozarks! However, it's amazing to visit such a site after having some of the new found knowledge I do now. Truly "good times" can bring on lake abuse.

So what is lake abuse? As I watched several of my friends work on jet skis with very novice expertise, I couldn't help but wonder how much oil and gas they managed to spill into the lake. Even though this was not their intention, it still qualifies as lake abuse. If you look around the lake you can see a lot of people doing the same. I have to wonder who actually has a good working pwc these days that is properly maintained. Not many.

At night I watched as someone shot nearly 100 bottle rockets into the lake while the neighbors across the way decided it would be hilarious to dump gas into the water and light it on fire. Again more lake abuse.

So what am I getting at? I guess I'm trying to say that even though I started out as a water conscientious person before, the AmeriCorps Clean Water Program has taken my awareness of clean water to the next level. I'm asking everyone else to do the same. Let's start thinking about what we're doing on the next level, even if it's just a one weekend trip where we come into contact with water or if we have lived there our whole lives. It's summer time and that's no excuse for us to start being water abusers.

AmeriCorps Week May 10th-14th 2010

2010-05-25T10:27:00.003-05:00

AmeriCorps Week May 10^th-14^th 2010 by Julia Karll

We planned three days of activities for AmeriCorps week, to really turn it into a week of service, and I thought it would be a good idea to have other events planned in case of rain. And did it rain!

We scheduled a storm drain stenciling on the Tuesday of that week, a litter pick up on Wednesday, and a Water Quality Monitoring for Thursday. Each event was to start at 10am and run until noon. Jumpstart AmeriCorps in Columbia asked if they could join our activities as they hadn’t planned anything, and had joined us in past years. As it turned out, only 2 jumpstart were able to come the first day and no one turned out for the other days.

It rained on Tuesday, so the ground was wet and a little cold, so we didn’t stencil storm drains, but we did pick up trash, a safe distance from the rushing water along Bear Creek, access off of Big Bear Blvd and Rangeline. We parked at the food bank and walked down the road to the trail, picked up trash, walked back and picked up in a parking lot. We asked the food bank to use their dumpster, which they agreed. Get permission!

The next day it rained again, and no volunteers showed up, so we canceled. And on Thursday, it rained again, and again, no volunteers. So one out of three events happened! Success!

In May, we also said "Good bye and good luck!" to Sarah, the AmeriCorps and MRCN administrator. She's off to adventure in northern MO/southern Iowa to begin her graduate career with MU with bat research. If anybody can beat that White Nose Syndrme, it is our b@d@$$ Sarah!

Earth Day on May Day?

2010-05-21T13:16:00.004-05:00

If you have ever spent much time in Columbia, Missouri in the spring, you know that Earth Day is a big deal in this town. I was new to the city this year, and even I couldn't believe the magnitude of this event until I experienced it!

Apparently another Columbia tradition is the reason we are still talking about Earth Day in May...and that is spring rain. When Earth Day Round One was canceled due to downpours and flooding, we had one more shot: Sunday, May 2.

Though the morning dawned a bit cloudy and chilly, the chance of rain soon diminished and the sun even began to peak through the clouds. This was perfect for the MRCN AmeriCorps members, as we had a long day ahead.

We started at Gans Creek to rustle up some critters. Unfortunately, because of the rains during the week, it took us FIVE net sets to catch anything work talking about. But our last one was loaded with crayfish, mayflies, stoneflies, scuds and sowbugs! We transferred the little guys to a water cooler and brought them with us to Peace Park on the University of Missouri campus.

Even though we arrived over an hour before the festival was scheduled to begin, we were the latecomers as most of the over 200 booths were already set up. We staked a claim in "Kid's Park" where all of the fun stuff was. From the time the festival began at noon to the closing of Kid's Park at five, we introduced hundreds of kids (and a few parents) to the fascinating world that lives in our creeks and streams.

We explained that this diverse, healthy array of critters did NOT come from Flat Branch, the urban stream that flowed behind us, but rather from a healthy stream on the outskirts of town. Hopefully our message got through to them, but if not they certainly appreciated the free pencils, coloring books and bug magnifiers!

Lance's post

2010-05-13T10:03:00.002-05:00

April was a busy month. We planted trees, cleaned up a portion of Hinkson creek, baited about a thousand hooks and sold rain barrels. I completed painting and building the signs for the rain gardens, now they need to be installed. Oh, and they look great! It is an ongoing project and I will be relieved when they are installed, and my roommate will get her garage back. Take care everyone.

Excitement to Come

2010-05-12T15:47:00.003-05:00

April brought the close to many of our big projects such as wrapping up the Confluence's Trash Bash reports and making room for many new opportunities. It was a month of planning and deciding what new projects the Confluence wants to jump on board with. With a grant from Missouri American Water, the goal is to help improve the Watkins Creek Watershed in North County St. Louis. What exactly we will be doing there? I will unveil at a later date! But be prepared for some real exciting news to come!

Personally I have been dabbling with some new education projects so that more students can learn the importance of storm water management and water quality. I was fortunate last month to assist a group of 25 students in the testing of water quality on Watkins Creek. To see the vast amount of knowledge these students have was amazing!

On another note, I was able to participate in Earth Day--- a great event although it was a little wet. Still, it was wonderful to see such high spirits.

Stay tuned for some wonderful news to come!

Wings of Spring!

2010-05-11T06:41:00.003-05:00

April and May bring several marvelous events for us at the Audubon Center at Riverlands, but Wings of Spring is the most remarkable so far. In partnership with St. Louis Audubon and Forest Park Forever, we hosted a birding trolley tour of Forest Park and were joined by several environmental organizations with informational booths.

Then we took our migration message to area 4th and 5th graders from both sides of the mighty Mississippi. All told we had almost 450 students from 6 schools attend our field days at parks throughout the region! Several parners helped us pull it off, including St. Louis Audubon, the National Great Rivers Research and Education Center, SIUE, and Sierra Club. Students joined us for a full day of activities that included things like the Great Migration Challenge game, the Mississippi flyway, bird adaptations related to habitat and food, bird morphology, and empowered students with environmentally and bird friendly choices we can all make in our daily lives. Clean water, native plants, and no pesticides = healthy birds (and people too!)

Saturday, May 8 is International Migratory Bird Day ( http://www.birdday.org/ ). We celebrated the culmination of our Wings of Spring efforts with our second public festival day, this time at the National Great Rivers Museum in Alton, IL and at Riverlands Migratory Bird Sanctuary in West Alton, MO. We celebrated the talented winners of our art contest with a ceremony and awards that included certificates, binoculars, and stained glass art. The students seemed to have a good time and I enjoyed the opportunity to acknowledge their efforts in front of their family, friends, and peers! Scoop the American White Pelican put on several shows for our visitors. He is a resident at the World Bird Sanctuary and never fails to delight and educate when he visits with his talented trainers. Several bird walks were attended at Riverlands, and we are pleased to have welcomed so many first time visitors this year!

Please do what you can to protect and support migrating birds on their epic journeys!

April 2010: Katie Park

2010-05-10T20:49:00.003-05:00

The Open Space Council is moving forward with spring projects and getting ready for Operation Clean Stream. One of those projects was Forest Park Earth Day on April 22nd. Although it was raining, windy, and cold; we still saw through it and enjoyed ourselves.

There are two new additions to my booth presentations. We have a trivia board for land and water lovers, which allows us to educate the public in a fun way as well as getting people to think about conservation and preservation of our natural resources.

Another fun addition is our enviroscape. I was trained by MSD on how to present the information on watersheds as well as get them involved with the demonstration of how a watershed functions and how we affect it. It will be a great asset to my presentations during Americorps Service Week.

Big Piney River Clean Up!

2010-05-10T15:24:00.003-05:00

Coming soon, I am very excited to say is the Big Piney River Clean Up! The owner of the Boiling Springs resort, whom I met through the organization of the Watershed Committee, has happily offered the use of his resort, canoes (for a small fee) and facilities in order for the comittee to organize the first large clean up in Texas County! We will have food, door prizes and all the free goodies we can scrounge to get our amazing volunteers! So mark your calendars and bring your friends to the Big Piney Clean up!

Saturday, July 17, 2010

Registration begins at 8am

15750 Hwy BB ~Licking, MO

Also, after lunch, we will have presentations from local stream teams so residents can see what they do and maybe even join or create their own group! More details to come.

Healthy Watersheds for Healthy Waters

2010-05-10T13:42:00.006-05:00

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!
April found LOWA in school, working with students of all ages. Centered around Earth Day, we visited Climax Springs R-IV Schools on Friday, April 23, and had 10 different classes come out to their outdoor classroom to learn about the connection between healthy watersheds and healthy bodies of water. Climax Springs R-IV is a very small rural school with one class per grade. So LOWA and AmeriCorps, represented by Donna Swall, LOWA’s Executive Director and myself, were able to work with all the students from Kindergarten through Freshmen in the high school. In addition, a Climax Springs student designed the Earth Day t-shirt this year.

Our day at Climax Springs was busy, but went by way too fast, as we played an interactive watershed game from Project Wet showing the importance of a riparian buffer zone and as we performed some Stream Team Water Quality Monitoring at the creek running through the outdoor classroom.

I returned to Climax Springs again the next week to pick up two more science classes from the high school.
Returning to the idea that Everyday is Earth Day! LOWA and AmeriCorps took the entire 150 5th graders from School of the Osage to Lebanon, MO to tour their recycling center,

do some water quality monitoring

and play the interactive watershed game,

again to bring home the concept that we need to take care of our watersheds if we want to have healthy waters.
This day was supported by volunteer help from parents and LOWA volunteers. This was the first running for this field trip and most of it went very well. The main change will be how we schedule in lunch.

Anyone with comments or ideas for this field trip or other field trips with students or wanting more information about this field trip is very welcome to suggest them or contact me at www.soslowa.org or at ckingtoole@yahoo.com.
National AmeriCorps week will find LOWA and AmeriCorps working with the 2nd graders from School of the Osage at their outdoor classroom and also back at Climax Springs for more water quality monitoring with the upper elementary. This time the older students will have a critical thinking writing assignment about their water’s quality where they will be working with a water quality chart, comparing their measurements to the chart, ranking their water’s quality and then justifying their ranking using the chart and their measurements. Any stream teamers working with students who would like a copy of this critical thinking exercise can email me at ckingtoole@yahoo.com or contact Stream Team, Susy Higgins.

April=Earth

2010-05-06T16:23:00.005-05:00

The month of April was a busy time the River des Peres Watershed Coalition, and there were a host of events and projects to work on. It was rather difficult to decide what event to specifically mention in my blog so I decided to provide a little bit of information on a variety of events. April provided great opportunities to work on accomplishing our organizations’ goal of improving the natural habitat and water quality of the River des Peres. From our monthly planting events at Deer Creek Park (special thanks to the Cor Jesu Academy volunteers) and Mona Terrace, to The Green Center’s (our parent organization) Free the Forest, an annual planting event in Ruth Park Woods in University City, Mo (special thanks to Top Teens of America community service group).
The River des Peres Watershed Coalition's first official rain barrel workshop with Earthways St. Louis (Project of Missouri Botanical Gardens), took place on April 8th.For the workshop being the first of many, I felt it went fairly well, granted there's always room for improvement. A total of 20 people attended, (including some last minute attendees), at the workshop participants, learned about water quality issues affecting the River des Peres, the importance of rain barrels in reducing CSO's and other stormwater related issues (around house drainage issues and erosion), and built their very own rain barrel to install at their homes. I found out that coordinating a workshop doesn’t always go as planned, but like water, just to go with the flow. We covered our bases by pre drilling the larger 3-5/8 atrium grate holes, marking the correct drill spots based on the selected barrel configuration and individually packaging each participants parts. While we had parts for rain barrel creation, I found there are lessons to be learned for having enough minor parts such as enough string for participants to connect bulkhead fitting component of the barrel; Or having enough Phillips head screwdrivers, but the participants summoned their skills of sharing and the workshop went along fine. These minor snags will definitely be addressed by our next workshop. Our 2nd workshop with Earthways will be at the Earthways facility in midtown St. Louis. Currently it is booked solid and there is even a waiting list, so I figure we must be onto something good. An added bonus of the workshop was we had an extra barrel available, that the RdP decided to paint and use it for the RdP’s tabling events.
The barrel made its debut at our Earth Day tabling at Whole Foods Store in Brentwood, Mo. Our painting theme was obviously water, the prompt “The World Needs Water”, what things need water for life, we encouraged kids, and some kids at heart to join us for rain barrel painting and informational brochures on rain barrels and the watershed. I must admit I had a wonderful time at the Earth Day event; I was impressed by the artistry, and creativity of the painters. From Danelle Haake ‘s from memory recreation of the River des Peres Watershed, to the butterflies, birds, and trees that graced our barrel, through the help of volunteers and interested passers by. (Even the kid who made the fireball flower!).
On a cold, wet, and windy Sunday April 25th, I attended St. Louis’ Earth Day Festival in Forest Park. At this event we had two rain barrels featured at our table. One of the main goals of the RdP is to improve the water quality of the river; we do that primarily by means of rain barrels. Along those lines, life is better with options and we thought it should be so with rain barrels. So we presented out painted 60 gallon rain barrel, and our special ordered Riversafe rain barrel (132 gallon) holding capacity, with built in shut off valve, and mesh netting for easy cleaning and mosquito proofing. The RiverSafe rain barrel caught plenty of people’s attention and thusly took the spotlight at our table. Though the 60-gallon barrel works well my needs, I do think RiverSafe barrel is pretty nifty, requires less overall maintenance/storage, and provides another alternative for rainwater harvesting. Based on the interest garnered by the rain barrel, I hope that the RdP’s long term plan of local production of the RiverSafe rain barrel can come to fruition, and increase the desire for more citizens to get a rain barrel and better improve the water quality within their watershed. I felt that April (perhaps with the emergence of Spring weather and Earth Day) brought a great energy to the RdP, that we are using to propel us into more action for the month of May. I would like to end this entry by sending a thank you to all the volunteers involved with the River des Peres Watershed Coalition, including Cor Jesu, the volunteers from Reitz & Jens Engineering Company, and Top Teens of America, and a host of others for being a vital means of assistance in habitat restoration, rain barrel establishment, and environmental education outreach to citizens of the St. Louis area.

Living Earth Day, Everyday!

2010-05-06T13:22:00.009-05:00

Earth Day in St. Louis meant the 21^st annual St. Louis Earth Day Festival! This was a huge event, undaunted by tornadoes from the previous day and consistent wind and cold rain, and featured live entertainment, speakers, and hundreds of vendors, artists, businesses, government agencies, and non-profit organizations.

The St. Louis Earth Day Festival is held in Forest Park (which also hosted the 1904 World’s Fair). This year the theme was “Living Earth Day, Everyday.” Embodying this theme, the St. Louis Earth Day organization not only puts on the Festival, but also hosts the Earth Day Symposium each fall.

This year, the Coalition held a coloring contest for kids aged 1-12. The coloring page, entitled “Clean Energy, Clean Water,” featured a wind turbine, a clean stream, as well as a house with solar panels, a rain barrel and a rain garden. The back of the page asked kids to match those terms with descriptions. The idea was that the coloring page would both expose the kids to rain barrels and rain gardens, as well as teach them a little about how they function.

For the winners of the contest, we had fabulous prizes donated by the St. Louis Zoo, Science Center, and this cool interactive children’s museum called the Magic House. The people who designed the coloring page for us also donated coloring books for the winners. Although the rain and the cold wind made coloring difficult, we still had around 25 official entries, and even more who took sheets home with them. While the kids got to color, MCE staff had the opportunity to engage their parents on the work that we do, and hopefully stir up some more interest in our upcoming events.

A couple of days before Earth Day, I went to Crossroads College Prep to talk to their Social Justice group, who would also be volunteering at our Earth Day booth. The small group of 7^th and 9^th graders were extremely well-informed for their age (which I found out later was thanks to Jane’s efforts over at Audobon!). They had learned a great deal about drinking water and wastewater, so I chatted with them about stormwater and green infrastructure. Along with Crossroads Ambassadors, these kids were a great addition to our Earth Day booth, and valiantly stuck it out through the wet weather.

Rain Barrel Review

2010-05-05T15:13:00.003-05:00

The ArtsFest this year was a blast! Check out this demonstration down spout to show the Rain Diverter kit in action! We had 8 beautiful rain barrels for the Fest. All barrels are being silent auctioned on our website: jamesriverbasin.com. If you would like to make a bid or just check out the art you can do so there! The barrels started at $150.00 and some are as high as $175. The funny thing that I learned at the ArtsFest was when you have an expensive art barrel for sale it is a lot easier to encourage people to buy the regular ones! Funny isn't it! Anyway you look at it, people who have the barrels are doing a great thing for the water quality of their community!

Shoreline Cleanup and Education!

2010-05-04T09:13:00.010-05:00

What a busy month for Table Rock Lake Water Quality! We started this month with a bang and held our annual Table Rock Lake Shoreline Clean-up. I worked with the Stone County Fire Department and picked up trash with these folks. We cleaned up at Aunt’s Creek Park and picked up over 15 bags of trash. Luckily there were no big pieces of trash like appliances or tires. It seems after 10 years of this event we are making headway on the trash around Table Rock Lake. Volunteers commented that they didn’t pick up as much trash as they had in previous years! Here are some numbers (they will be increase as we receive the reports): 800+ volunteers, 1200+ bags of trash, 14 tons of trash, 300 tires, and over 200 miles of shoreline cleaned up! A successful event! Thanks to all of the volunteers for making this happen!

Table Rock Lake Water Quality also participated in the Earth Day Celebration at the Shepherd of the Hills Fish Hatchery in Branson on April 17. Participants were able to learn about new green ideas from various booths and were also able to tour the fish hatchery all for free! TRLWQ educated about our projects and I entertained the kids with live aquatic macroinvertebrates. It was great to hand out information to the kids about identifying insects that they could take home and apply their knowledge. We talked about the different pollution sensitivities of the insects and they noticed a different between the two boxes. One box had a lower water quality rating than the other. It was a great day!

We will be posting more pictures from Shoreline Cleanup on our Facebook page shortly! Stay tuned!
Table Rock Lake Water Quality, Inc.
http://www.trlwq.org/

Big Kids and Little Kids

2010-04-28T12:27:00.005-05:00

Whew! I can't believe I even have a minute to sit here and update the blog!

The calendar here in the MRCN office was a pretty scary looking thing for the month of April. We had educational presentations and volunteer events all over the place! My two favorites involved two very different groups of people: college students and 10 year olds.

On April 10, MRCN hosted a group of students from the University of Missouri as a part of their event "Caring for Columbia." That morning, over 400 students were assigned to nonprofit organizations throughout the community for a day of service. Our 20 students had a pretty good deal considering that it was an absolutely gorgeous morning. We had them marking storm drains with plastic decals in a Columbia subdivision.

Storm drains in Columbia- like almost EVERY CITY IN THE COUNTRY- do not lead to a water treatment facility! They flow right into our creeks and streams. In order to educate citizens and prevent illegal dumping, the decals read "No Dumping. Drains to Stream." The students helped us affix over 50 decals to storm drains, in addition to delivering pamphlets about the decals to nearby households. They also collected two bags full of trash!

On April 27, we met with a completely different group of students for a completely different mission. The Callaway County Soil and Water Conservation District was holding a field day for 4th grade classes throughout the county. We had a booth that was all about macroinvertebrates! After first telling the students that these bugs are actually GOOD to have in the water, we did a little hands-on game to learn about water quality monitoring. The students had to search under rocks in our "streams" to find "macros." Once they found one, they had to identify it, determine if it is pollution sensitive or tolerant, and then report their finding to the group reporter. Once their streams had been tallied, they were able to determine whether or not their stream was healthy or polluted.

While they seemed to enjoy this, the real fun began when we pulled out vials with the real things! There were many shouts of, "Eww!" "Cool!" and "What is that?" Hopefully none of them were permanently traumatized by the giant cranefly larva...

Enough blogging for now! No rest for AmeriCorps!

2000 Trees, oh my!

2010-04-26T14:09:00.002-05:00

2000 trees, oh MY! So far this year we have helped to plant nearly 2000 trees! We have been working with the City of Columbia’s Public Works Department and the Parks and Recreation Department to identify areas in need of trees and to plan work days to get them into the ground. We also did a tree planting with the Big Muddy Refuge Fish and Wildlife Services, and have borrowed dibble bars from them to dig the holes for the trees.

On Friday, April 16^th, we worked with Job Point’s construction crew to plant 300 trees in a strip of land between HWY 70 and HWY 63 in Columbia. When looking for volunteers to help plant the trees, a representative from Job Point said they were looking for “dirty jobs”. Job Point is a job training program, and this crew was great! 10 crew members and 2 staff showed up in work gear, complete with boots, gloves and goggles, they were ready to work! After showing everyone how to use the dibbles and plant the trees, we got started. The planting was a little difficult, as the ground was pretty solid, dry and full of gravel! But we prevailed, and got all 300 trees in the ground in about 3 hours.

On Thursday, April, 22^nd, we planned another tree planting for Earth Day. This time we were located at the City Landfill, focusing on an area of field between the compost piles and nearby Hinkson Creek. Part of the stream bank had eroded pretty extremely from last fall’s heavy rains. Our trees would help stabilize this area, as well as act as filters for any nutrients that would leach from the landfill, through the ground and into the Hinkson. We recruited volunteers, and had a trickle of people throughout the day, helping us plant 450 trees in about 2 acres of stream side land!

March

2010-04-21T15:58:00.003-05:00

So March is a month of preparing for the spring and summer ahead of me. It is a time for renewal and energy. So naturally I found myself using Stream Team activities as an excuse to be outside in the woods, and by a river or stream. Of course I don't need an excuse to do so, but it feels like multi-tasking to me.

My last excursion doing Stream Team activities, I was in a beautiful pristine area that is known for the cleanliness and preservation of the land. I was in Labarque Creek testing the bugs and chemicals to see if it was up to par. Our net sets of bugs were shockingly empty. The diversity as well as population was lacking. And very close to where we picked the bugs happened to be two dead Sculpin fish, one mature and another a baby. We found two living minnows, but the Sculpins still disturbed us, especially since it seemed clear that it was a chemical change that killed them. However when we took chemical samples, everything was in the normal ranges. What we did notice was new filamentous algae thickly growing in places it had not been before.

Now we have the Labarque teams working hard to continue the testing and see if it gets better or worse, and possibly to determine the cause of change. But I am optimistic that it will get better so long as we all are conscientious about our actions and how they affect our ecosystem.

March Blog

2010-04-15T10:47:00.002-05:00

March was full of activities, both educational and fun. On the tenth Rebecca, Julia and I went to Fulton to help a class of eighth graders do some water quality monitoring on a creek that flows through Fulton. The kids had a lot of fun and we did as well. The kids were divided into small groups and I helped to explain water ph and the use of the turbidity tube. I think we imparted some valuable information and made sure the students didn't fall into the creek. On the 26th we went to Hickman High School in Columbia for their Health Fair. We talked to students about storm water issues and AmeriCorps. Oh, yeah, and on the 16th I was interviewed by Paul Pepper for his show, Radio Friends With Paul Pepper. Mr. Pepper is a long time Columbia media personality whose focus is on the local stories and issues. We are hustling to organize the Canoe For Clean Water Race, Float and Festival taking place on June 19 at Katfish Katy's. Happy spring everyone.

Watershed Festivals come to an end...for now!

2010-04-12T12:22:00.003-05:00

James River Basin Partnership finished our last festival in Taney County last month. We educated 2,000 5th graders about their watershed! Even after all of this work, we have a long road! I am still amazed at how little the teachers and chaperons know about their watershed. Maybe in the future we could host a watershed fest for adults!

In order to tackle this problem, I have arranged several presentations that occurred throughout the month on March. I spoke at the Ozark Mountain Paddlers monthly meeting and at the Sierra club on MSU campus! I am working very hard to get the clean water message out!

From the Missouri to the Mississippi

2010-04-11T10:28:00.002-05:00

Students in our Rivervision Leadership Project made the connection from the faucet to the drain with all day Water Tours. First we toured the St. Louis Metropolitan Sewer District's Bissell Plant on the Mississippi River to learn how MSD handles the wastewater that moves through our city. Being on site gave students the opportunity to appreciate the sheer volume the plant handles each day. Another big 'wow' moment was learning of the over 300 pumps that MSD operates to keep portions of the city from flooding. Most of our trip to the Bissell Plant was dedicated to the treatment process on site with the end result being pumped back into the Mississippi River.

After a 20 minute bus ride and short lunch we arrived at Missouri American Water's Central Plant in Maryland Heights. Students got to step out on the massive intake structure over the Missouri river, the source for St. Louisans drinking water. Once in the tank basin, it didn't take students long to comment on the similar technologies used for both drinking water and wastewater treatment. Containing and moving large amounts of water necessitate many of the same kinds of infrastructure and mixing apparatuses. We are fortunate here in St. Louis to have a plentiful, relatively clean source for our drinking water, the mighty Missouri river.

Next week we are following up our Water Tours by delving deeper into infrastructure that lowers wastewater impacts/loads, particularly through combined sewers in our city. We will study permeable pavement, bioretention models large and small, and host Jay Hoskins from MSD as our featured speaker.

Happy Spring to all!

Bringing Fish

2010-04-10T08:20:00.001-05:00

The Texas County Soil and Water District held their annual banquet last month to recognize farmers that have worked their land properly as well as thanked the rest of the members of their council for all their hard work. I was able to attend since that is where we recognized the winners of our poster and photo contest. At the banquet, they had a guest speaker from the Missouri Department of Conservation in the Fisheries Department. He had the opportunity to travel to Afghanistan, (since he has prior military experience) to help citizens with creating a Fish Hatchery. He showed the human side that we all seem to forget about when we talk about that part of the world. He spoke about the people he met, their living situations and how grateful they were for his assistance. Two things in particular stuck in my mind.

One day, while he was surveying the area, the translator told a group of young men that he was “bringing fish.” One of the teenage boys was so excited he ran to the fisheries man and gave him his fishing pole. Of course the man didn’t accept the gift as he didn’t want to take it away from the boy, but instead asked if he’d help him catch some fish so he could do some research. The community that this gentleman worked in asked a favor of him. They were having big problems with Farrell Hogs (a problem that we have in my own watershed) and wanted to know how they could get rid of them. He promised to come back in a few days to help them out. On his way back to the village, a group of farmers stopped him. The group of people that are against his help placed mines in the road. The military escorts called it in and were going to sweep the area. But before they arrived, the group of farmers found and reoved all the mines so that the man from MDC would be ok and still help them with their Farrell Hog problem. His stories helped me to realize how fortunate we are to live where we do, and to enjoy and protect the natural resources we have.

40.9 TONS of Trash: Oh My!

2010-04-08T16:18:00.005-05:00

On March 27th, over 700 volunteers showed up to the Old Chain of Rocks Bridge and Creve Couer Park to dedicate their time to the 2010 St. Louis Confluence Trash Bash. This year's event allowed volunteers to break off to 12 different locations to collect garbage from roadsides, creeks, and parks. Although it was difficult to get alongside of the river due to flooding, this didn't stop volunteers from making a huge impact. Altogether, 40.9 tons of trash were collected out of the watershed, stopping the filth from ever making its way into our great rivers and streams. Among the trash were 250 tires, a great deal of scrap metal, and some very unique finds including a prosthetic leg, a blow-up doll, and a wallet with cash inside.

Overall, the event was a huge success! Personally, it felt great to be so involved as one of the chief organizers of the event, but it would not have been nearly as successful without the many partners, sponsors, and volunteers who made it so. These different groups can be viewed here.

Although I love to be kept busy with litter pick up events, I certainly hope volunteers like these put me out of a job. However, until that day comes, save the date: March 26th, 2011 for the next Confluence Trash Bash.

To see more photos of the big day, please visit our flickr site.

Educational Opportunities Galore!

2010-04-08T09:23:00.005-05:00

During March I was swamped with helping the James River Basin Partnership finish up their watershed festivals for 5th graders. It was a blast helping teach the Drop in the Bucket activity. Many of the students had never really thought about water conservation. It’s great to be able to reach students from several counties. Luckily through this activity I was also able to make new contacts for school presentations. I presented a Stream Ecology presentation to Billings Elementary 5th graders. I took in live macroinvertebrates and the students were given the task of determining their water quality rating. They all did a great job and loved examining the macroinvertebrates. These students always ask lots of questions about the life they find in their own streams. This is one of my favorite parts because I love telling the students about some of the life cycles of these fascinating insects. The crane fly larvae were one of their favorites and they always are blown away when I tell them what the adult looks like! In case you don’t know they are those “huge-looking mosquito-like” insects that get in your home! The interesting part is that the adults don’t have any working mouth parts! So don’t kill the poor critter and let him back outside!

Cranefly Larvae Adult Cranefly

http://www.backyardnature.net/pix/cranefly.jpg http://www.highroad.org/ranch%20images/Insects/cranefly-hand.jpg

Where'd the foam go?

2010-04-07T14:19:00.004-05:00

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!

Spring is here and so is AmerenUE’s Shoreline Cleanup. LOWA has adopted about 7 ½ miles of shoreline, weaving in and out of the coves around mile marker 7, down at the end of Lake Road 5-35. Volunteers from Sunrise Condominiums and LOWA spent a Saturday afternoon hauling large, heavy pieces of waterlogged foam, as well as all kinds of other trash and debris, off of LOZ’s shoreline. AmerenUE sponsors this event twice a year and provides coordination of volunteers, helpers, boats, dumpsters, and trash removal. Bryan Vance, AmerenUE’s Shoreline Manager for Lake of the Ozarks, commented that the encapsulated foam law has really made a large difference in the amount of foam the Shoreline Cleanup is bringing in, with only about half the amount of trash being collected this year compared to last year. LOWA’s group of 4 boats and 22 volunteers collected about 2 tons, or 25 cubic yards, of trash this year. As of the writing of this blog, the Spring 2010 Shoreline Cleanup is still in progress, so a total for the entire spring campaign is not yet in.

Great news is that the Watershed Management Plan for the Lake of the Ozarks, written by LOWA, has been approved by the Missouri Department of Natural Resources and the Environmental Protection Agency. The plan consists of background information about the region and Lake of the Ozarks, and then focuses down to more specific information and discussion about two subwatersheds within the LOZ watershed, Buck Creek HUC #102901090406 and Lick Branch HUC #102901090407. These two smaller watersheds comprise almost the first 19 miles of the Lake of the Ozarks, excluding the Gravois Arm, and are some of the most densely populated and used part of the lake. In the Watershed Management Plan (WMP), LOWA examines nutrient, bacteria, and sediment loading, their sources, and some Strategies to deal with the loading. LOWA has always taken a proactive approach to maintaining and improving the health and beauty of the Lake. LOWA’s Mission Statement is: Citizens will preserve, protect and improve the Lake of the Ozarks, its watershed and natural resources while maintaining our economic, social and environmental health.
The Strategies of the WMP include a large education and outreach component. The Education Outreach and Information element of the plan is very important for the success of the rest of the Strategies because habits, behaviors, and attitudes will be examined as citizens learn about the care of their watershed. One set of Strategies in the WMP addresses reducing the velocity and volume of stormwater runoff both with developers as well as property and home owners. A cost share incentive program for shoreline businesses and residences called LOWA LILs (Low Impact Landscaping) reimburses property owners for part of the cost of installing watershed friendly practices to reduce runoff. Such practices include rain barrels, rain gardens, terracing, and riparian buffers planted with beautiful, deep-rooted, low maintenance native plants. In fact, one of the key speakers at LOWA’s upcoming Public Meeting on April 19 at 6:30 in the Escollo Room of The Lodge of 4 Seasons at the Lake of the Ozarks is DeDe Vest from the NRCS in Springfield and associated with the Show Me Yards and Neighborhoods program to speak about Low Impact Landscaping and LOWA LILs. Come one, Come all!

Water Matters!

2010-04-07T09:36:00.005-05:00

So this past month, I spent a good chunk of my time preparing a presentation for the St. Louis University speaker series “Water Matters.” This series is the companion to a fall series entitled “Energy Matters,” and is comprised of [very early] morning sessions on five consecutive Wednesdays. The series was structured such that the first session addressed global issues, and then each successive session focused in more narrowly—giving a comprehensive picture of water issues that ranged from worldwide problems to those in your backyard. I had the opportunity to speak at the third of these series, entitled “The Challenges We Face, What We Can Do and Why We Should Do It,” which addressed metropolitan issues.

One glance at my AmeriLog this past month and you’ll see that I spent a good chunk of my time working on this presentation. There were two reasons for this: one, I was doing a slightly different presentation that required a good deal of research and number crunching; and two, I was terrified of sounding like an idiot in front of a crowd of professionals.

Needless to say, both reasons were enough motivation to put in a lot of effort! The presentation I gave was very cool (if I do say so myself), because my coworker and I attempted to quantify the financial benefits of installing a green roof or pervious concrete.

The reason we chose these two types of green infrastructure was because they are the only types for which the St. Louis Metropolitan Sewer District (MSD) lessens the impervious surface fee. This recent—and controversial—fee imposes a monthly charge on your impervious surfaces. Right now, the fee stands as $0.12/100 square feet, however it will more than double over the next four years to $0.29/100 square feet. The purpose of this fee is not only to encourage people to reduce their impervious surfaces, it’s to give MSD the money they need to put in place their Long-Term Control Plan, which will work to address the combined sewer overflows in St. Louis. Either way, this fee is good news for water quality.

In light of this fee, and the various other benefits of installing a green roof or pervious concrete, I presented a case study of a “big box” in Chesterfield. For a variety of reasons, I had much more success calculating the cost/benefit of a green roof rather than pervious concrete, however I believe my research also turned up some important benefits of the latter.

As it turns out, if this store were to install what’s referred to as an “extensive” green roof (which has only a few inches of soil, as opposed to an “intensive” green roof, which has greater benefits but is far more expensive), this store would see a significant net benefit. I used very rough numbers, but I was able to calculate that over 40 years, the life of the green roof, the store would save over $170,000 on impervious surface fees. Furthermore, the store would over $100,000 on energy—and that’s not taking into account that energy prices will likely increase. The store would also save on the cost of replacing the conventional roof, since green roofs extend the life of roofs because they protect from damaging UV rays and wind. In sum, the store would see nearly $300,000 in savings, beginning around year 27 after installing their green roof.

Pervious concrete was a little trickier, because the cost of installing the concrete depends heavily on the site. However, after speaking to several contractors, I was able to ascertain additional monetary benefits that the store would see if they were to put in pervious. First off, pervious concrete does not require a connection to the storm sewer system, which can be quite costly. In addition, the current BMP is to build a stormwater detention basin on the site, which either requires the developer to purchase additional property or reserve some property they would otherwise build on or pave. With pervious, however, developers get the most cost-effective use of their land, because they are not required to build a detention basin. Pervious concrete has a longer lifespan than asphalt, and also saves tenants money on deicing their parking lots (because pervious lots use roughly 75% less salt). Finally, our case study would see over $120,000 in savings on their impervious surface fee over the life of their pervious parking lot! In fact, every contractor I spoke to said that even though pervious concrete is more expensive up front, the costs end up being a wash.

Overall, we discovered that pervious concrete and green roofs are good for the wallet AND good for the environment! One more reason why both types of green infrastructure should be utilized more. And if they contractors I spoke to are right (which I’m inclined to believe they are), that’s exactly what’s going to happen.

Happy spring, everyone!

Rain Barrel Art Review and Barrel Roll

2010-04-01T12:17:00.002-05:00

Friday, March 19^th was our first ever Barrel Roll in conjunction with our Rain Barrel Art Review. We had 13 artists design and paint rain barrels, and one more barrel completed by children participants at the Sustainability Fair in the fall of 2009. Three of the barrels were at Orr St. Studios during the reception and the rest were at their host locations around downtown Columbia.

The evening began at Orr St. Studios at 5pm. Visitors passed through, picking up maps of where the barrels were located around town and did the Barrel Roll, seeing them all and enjoying the amazing weather. We had two computers up and running for people to begin bidding on the barrels on eBay. Thirteen out of the 14 barrels sold at auction, and we think we have a home for the last one!

Paul Grace provided some bluegrass music from 6-7pm. Then attendees voted on People’s Choice, which we announced as Katrina Thomas and Stirling Williams. We also announced our Jurors’ Choice Awards as the Kellenberger Family, Josie Cozean and Thomas Matthew Pierson. After announcements we enjoyed the musical stylings of Logan and Hunter Park.

We believe there were about 75-85 people in attendance at Orr St. Studios, not counting any people who did the Barrel Roll, but didn’t stop by Orr St Studios. There were also reporters from MU’s The Maneater, the Missourian and KOMU TV. Below are links to the stories from that night.

http://www.columbiamissourian.com/stories/2010/03/19/rain-barrel-art-draws-crowd-raises-awareness/

www.themaneater.com/stories/2010/3/23/orr-street-studios-hosts-rain-barrel-art-review/

MRCN wanted to thank Boone Electric Coop Community Trust for funding the event and all our sponsors who provided prizes for the artists. We thank the artists for providing their time, expertise and talent. And we thank the host locations, who shared their spaces and welcomed the many Barrel Rollers. We think the night was a success, and many, many people were made aware of the possible beauty and uses of rain barrels.

Active Ways of Improving the Watershed

2010-03-29T09:53:00.005-05:00

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.

Spring 2010

2010-03-24T15:17:00.002-05:00

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

2010-03-24T14:43:00.007-05:00

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!

And the winner is....

2010-03-17T08:16:00.002-05:00

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!)

Rivervision Field Trips

2010-03-12T23:43:00.010-06:00

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.

For the Love Of Water movie at Crossroads

2010-03-11T17:41:00.006-06:00

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!

2010-03-11T13:27:00.001-06:00

Watershed Festival season runs from February through March. We have educated 1,985 5^th 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!

Fifth Graders learning about Water Quality!

2010-03-10T11:33:00.001-06:00

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.

Strategies for the Lake of the Ozarks

2010-03-09T19:43:00.010-06:00

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.

Barrels on Parade

2010-03-03T14:51:00.004-06:00

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!