Category Archives: Outdoor/Nature

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Meramec River Fun! Favorite Destination For Local Recreation Needs Protection

All photos by Don Corrigan.

by Don Corrigan 

Spring is a great time to bring a few lawn chairs to any one of several riverside parks along the Meramec River. Take time to enjoy the sparkle on the water and longer days of sunshine.

My favorite spot is under a tree at Emmenegger Park, but there are more great river locations to kick back and take in the flowing water at George Winter, Unger, Greentree, Meramec Landing and Castlewood parks.

My idea of river fun on these days is to take a nap somewhere on the shoreline, but the Meramec remains a favorite destination for floating, boating, fishing and swimming.

Beyond its recreation potential, the Meramec supplies drinking water to approximately 70,000 households. It’s a top-ranked watershed in the Midwest,  an irreplaceable freshwater resource, a key tributary to the Mississippi River.

The Meramec supports a variety of creatures, including 31 species of global significance. Several species are found nowhere else on Earth.

Fortunately, many environmental groups support river protection, such as the Sierra Club, Great Rivers Environmental Law Center, Meramec River Recreation Association, Nature Conservancy and more.

The Meramec River Recreation Association is currently slated to have a meeting and presentation about the river at 2:30 p.m., May 16, at the Wildwood City Hall. A zoom connection to the event may be possible.

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Posted on May 12, 2024 in Home, Outdoor/Nature

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May Storms and Flash Flooding Close Bike Trails and Roads

by Don Corrigan

Environmental Echo’s Don Corrigan calls a halt to his bike ride on the GRG Trail near the border of Kirkwood and Valley Park as the Meramec River floods over the trail.

Storms on May 8 closed hiking and biking trails and some roads along the Meramec River. Spring flash floods in the St. Louis area have had rivers rising, but not yet to the historic levels of 2008 or 2017.

More rains predicted for the week of May 12, and for later this month, could raise rivers closer to those record levels. The National Weather Service noted flooding at the time of the May 8 storms from Pacific to Valley Park.

Flooding was visible at Yarnell Road at Soccer Park and farther south to Fenton. In Pacific, water rescues have sometimes been necessary at Big Bend and Meramec Farm Valley roads.

Cars stall out in flash floods and drivers must be rescued by first responders. Drivers are constantly warned not to drive on roads that disappear into flood waters.

Mark Sableman (in red) and Don Corrigan (in purple) celebrate their good judgment in not riding into the flooding Meramec River. Storms on May 8 closed trails and roads.

Trails that occasionally disappear into flood waters are those along the Meramec, Missouri and Mississippi rivers. Bikers venture into the waters at their own risk.

The loop trail at Cliff Cave Park near the Mississippi River can close for weeks in spring and summer after periods of intense rain. However, trails higher up in the park will remain open.

The trails in Valley Park, Kirkwood and Fenton also can close for weeks in spring and summer after flooding rains. However, one half-loop trail that never closes when the Meramec River floods is the one atop the elevated Valley Park Levee.

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Posted on May 11, 2024 in Home, Outdoor/Nature

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Saint Louis Zoo’s Mike Dawson: Local Frogs’ Best Friend

Photo by Ursula Ruhl

By Jess Holmes

It’s thanks to the Saint Louis Zoo’s Michael Dawson that spring peepers, chorus frogs, and cricket frogs are still on the map ­— literally. Dawson’s creation and maintenance of the FrogWatch chapter known as the Spring Peeper Program in St. Louis has put these small, but noisy creatures back on conservation radar.

Statewide, these critters are not near extinction, but Dawson explores the effects urbanization has had on their significant population loss in the St. Louis area, while also encouraging the community to get involved in reversing their decline.

“I started looking at data collected by citizen scientists, species by species. One of the patterns I recognized is that certain species were almost completely absent inside of I-270. Whereas you go three minutes outside of I-270, they show back up on the observation maps,” Dawson said. “Some frog species are unaffected by urbanization, but the spring peepers, chorus frogs, and cricket frogs all seemed to be.

“I wanted to see if the citizen-collected data was true, and the Zoo encouraged me to put a project together. So, I did. After getting it approved and funded, I started setting up acoustic surveying devices around the St. Louis area,” Dawson explained. “Over the last three years, I found that the citizen scientists were right.”

The Saint Louis Zoo FrogWatch program stems from an even larger effort, FrogWatch USA. The Akron Zoo manages the national program. The mission is to build a community to help the frog and toad populations across the United States. Thanks to smartphones, this has become even easier.

“If you’re out in the field and have a phone, you can record a frog’s call,” Dawson said. “Recording calls is even better than using photos because I can download it, put it through my software, and can determine what species it’s from. Plus, it’s timestamped and GPS coded. It’s no different than the recording devices I leave out on trees.”

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Posted on May 1, 2024 in Environment, Home, Outdoor/Nature

Webster Takes A Hike STL Suburb Celebrates Its Trees Before April 29 Arbor Day

Posted on April 27, 2024 | Leave a comment

Pictured: David Gunn. All photos by Ursula Ruhl, WKT.

by Don Corrigan

In anticipation of the nationally-designated tree holiday of April 26, the city of Webster Groves set aside Wednesday, April 17, for its formal Arbor Day Ceremony and Awards Celebration.

Prior to its official celebration on the evening of April 17, citizen volunteers and city team members planted 200 trees to honor Arbor Day. At 5 p.m., that day an awards ceremony commenced at Southwest Park Pavilion.

Tree Steward Lynnda Greene was posthumously granted a Tree of Distinction Award. Greene was a Master Gardener, and a member of the International Dark-Sky Association. She was praised for her love of nature, animals and the environment.

Greene was a member of the Webster Groves Garden Club and founding member of Webster Groves Greenkeepers. She assisted the city’s Greenspace Commission and one of her passions before her death in May 2023 was promoting the NO-MOW green movement to benefit pollinators.

The honor for Greene was followed with a tree tour given by David Gunn. An arborist certified by the International Society of Arboriculture, Gunn’s talents were enlisted by the city’s “Eco-Ed” program series.

Arborist’s Tree Walk

On the tree walk, Gunn pointed out some of the city’s most interesting trees in Southwest Park. He also spoke to the hikers on the basics of tree anatomy, soil structure, tree identification and his favorite park trees .

“I like the black locusts that reach down and touch the ground with their trunks,” said Gunn. “I love when we can see trees that are allowed to do their own thing, instead of always being managed to be neat and tiny.

“There’s also a great hackberry that I love,” noted Gunn. “What parks can do – that residences can’t do – is let trees age and fall apart a little bit. Let the woodpeckers and the raccoons add some character as well.”

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Posted in Home, Local Events, Outdoor/Nature

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Battle Against Invasive Asian Carp Continues

Photo by MDC Staff, courtesy Missouri Department of Conservation.

By: Zoe DeYoung

A billion dollar project to prevent invasive Asian carp from entering the Great Lakes is set to begin construction this year, but don’t feel too bad for the nuisance fish.

The species has been wreaking havoc throughout the Mississippi River Basin, out-competing native fish for living space and resources since the 1980s.

Pictured: Jill Moon

Longtime Alton Telegraph reporter Jill Moon first heard of the invasive carp issue at a 2009 city council meeting in Grafton, a river town where the Illinois River acts as a perfect feeder for breeding carp.

Three entrepreneurs presented a plan at the meeting to capitalize on the carp. “They thought they had a good money making venture,” Moon said.

The plan involved an Asian carp processing plant. It got the green light. Moon was on the story from there: if you have lemons, make lemonade; if you have carp, put them on the menu.

“When I went to these city council meetings, they would have the boring stuff like, ‘The Street Department fixed Oak Avenue.’ A factory to make Asian carp byproducts stood out to me. And I already knew that the Asian carp was a problem,” Moon said.

A problem not only for native aquatic life, but for boaters. Asian carp tend to feed at the water’s surface and are very easily disturbed. When agitated by a boat propeller or even a sculler’s oar, they can jump up to 10 feet in the air. Think popcorn, but instead it is hundreds of soaring fish.

“Certain times of year when they are spawning, the Asian carp will jump out of the Illinois River. They’ve jumped in boats before, and they’ve accidentally given bloody noses,” Moon explained. “They’re a nuisance species,” Moon added. “So that just struck a nerve in me to find out more.”

The Grafton-based American Heartland Fish Products plant was the brainchild of those entrepreneurs at the meeting Their plan came to fruition, soon processing as much as 60,000 pounds of carp a day, as well as fish oil, fish meal and a funky smell.

The odor began to bother residents, so much so that the plant was given 30 days to address the stink. Ultimately, the plant went kaput.

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Posted on April 18, 2024 in Environment, Home, Outdoor/Nature

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Meramec College Event: Area Tree Celebrations Blossom In Month of April Showers

STLCCM Arbor Day, Carrie Coyne with Horticulture students. Photos by Robert Weaver.

by Don Corrigan

April showers may bring May flowers, but April 2024 has brought an abundance of events honoring trees in the St. Louis area. Missouri is celebrating both a state and a national Arbor Day on the April calendar.

On the state-designated Arbor Day of April 5, a crowd at the Meramec campus of St. Louis Community College in Kirkwood enjoyed the addition of a new oak species to the campus oak collection.

The Missouri native swamp chestnut oak was the gift of Bill Ruppert, who is with the school’s Horticulture Program Advisory Committee. Horticultural student Abigail Andrews expressed appreciation for the tree addition.

“This ceremony today means so much to us, because trees are so important,” said Andrews, an Oakville resident. “To plant a tree is to do something for posterity.

“Trees are all about future generations,” added Andrews. “We don’t plant them just for us, but more for the coming generations who will enjoy them.”

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Posted on April 13, 2024 in Home, Outdoor/Nature

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Explore Missouri With The MDC’s Driving Tours

Bennett Spring Fish Hatchery. Photo, MDC.

The Missouri Department of Conservation (MDC) is a great resource to explore our beautiful state’s outdoor treasures.

As Missourians, we have not only a beautiful state, but an accessible one. Many public areas, many managed by the MDC, are a fun and family-friendly escape from the busy, noisy, and crowded urban landscape. Plus, being outdoors is good for the body, mind, and soul.

Take advantage of the MDC’s driving tours website page. You’ll find lots of places to visit, tour, and enjoy.

From the MDC website: View Missouri’s recently restored elk herd, fall color, spring flowering trees and an Ozark woodland from your car. Get tour routes, maps and info – CLICK HERE.

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Posted on March 16, 2024 in Home, Outdoor/Nature

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Happy Birthday To Us! Environmental Echo Eyes Its Future On 10-Year Anniversary

How many blogs last 10 years? Or even one year?

Statistics show the average life of a blog is less than two years. There are literally hundreds of millions of abandoned blogs on the worldwide web. In 2023, there were 600 million active blogs worldwide.

If each of those blogs had as many hits as EE has had over its 10 years, we would be talking 36,000,000,000,000 hits.
Environmental Echo is happy to report it will celebrate 10 years this October! Hurray for us! The blog started as a class project in an environmental communications class at Webster University in October 2014.

Stories posted in those early months of EE included such topics as fracking, raising urban chickens, climate change and coverage of Gateway Greening and Ethical Society events on climate justice.

Many of the first EE posts were written by Webster students. EE became independent of the university when the School of Communications pulled the plug on the Outdoor/Environmental Journalism Certificate in 2018.

Professor Don Corrigan and environmental writer Holly Shanks resolved to continue EE. They became the ad hoc co-editors of the blog and kept it lively – never going a month without some informational posts.

“I am pleased to report that EE will soon be posting some great student writing again from Jack Farish, Zoe DeYoung, Jess Holmes and more,” said Corrigan. “I’m teaching in the school’s sustainability course area and the students are as motivated as ever to make a better world.

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Posted on March 12, 2024 in Home, Opinion, Outdoor/Nature

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Free Virtual Mushroom Hunting Class March 16, MDC

 

Morels – Photo MDC.

Spring warmth stimulates natural life, including fungi such as morels and other edible mushrooms. The Missouri Department of Conservation (MDC) is offering a free virtual Mushroom Hunting 101 class from 1 to 2 p.m. on Saturday, March 16.

This online course will cover how mushrooms are produced and their role in ecology. Nikki King, MDC naturalist, will explain where and how people can look for mushrooms. King will provide tips on identifying edible mushrooms and avoiding those that are not safely edible.

Mushroom Hunting 101 is open to all ages. Registration is required. To register, CLICK HERE.

For more information about mushrooms in Missouri, CLICK HERE.

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Posted on March 3, 2024 in Home, Outdoor/Nature

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Webster’s Champion Birder: Phoebe Snetsinger’s Fans Gather For Blackburn Park Event

The weather was perfect for a tribute to the world’s most famous birder in Blackburn Park in the St. Louis suburb of Webster Groves. The proviso in the WGNSS flyer regarding inclement weather was unneeded.

by Don Corrigan

Admirers of the late champion birder, Phoebe Snetsinger, gathered at the entrance of the Bird Sanctuary at Blackburn Park on Saturday, Feb. 3. An avid naturalist, she turned a humble hobby into a worldwide adventure.

Snetsinger fans were happy to celebrate the unveiling of an informational structure dedicated to her birding accomplishments. They described it as great way to get an introduction to the “Bird Woman of Webster Groves.”

“It’s my privilege to unveil this new sign for the most famous birder of Webster Groves,” said Bill Duncan, who is president of the Webster Groves Nature Study Society. “This new display is dedicated to birding and to Phoebe Snetsinger.

“What was here before was worn out and damaged, as might be expected for something 20 years-old,” said Duncan. “So, Rich Thoma of WGNSS saw that something new was needed and took the initiative to get it replaced.”

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Posted on February 18, 2024 in Home, Outdoor/Nature