Environmental Echo

Photo by Ursula Ruhl

By Don Corrigan

As a youngster, Matthew Norman used to play – and work – in his grandmother’s garden in Kirkwood. She inspired his plant career, which blossomed in the decades since he was in the dirt at grandma’s house.

Norman started his plant career right out of Kirkwood High School when he took a job with the Kirkwood Parks & Recreation Department in 2014. Today, he cares for the Missouri Botanical Garden’s (MoBot) two extensive rose gardens.

“The rose gardens are true crowd pleasers,” noted MoBot spokesperson Catherine Martin. “Matthew Norman is the garden’s rosarian and he looks over more than 1,500 individual plants encompassing 250 varieties.”

Roses hold a historically special place at the Garden in Saint Louis. Founder Henry Shaw wrote a small book on the emblem of his native England, entitled “The Rose.”

Continue reading →

Photo: Missouri Department of Conservation

The Missouri Department of Conservation (MDC) reminds St. Louis region residents that spring and early summer is the time when bears are on the move.

It’s common for MDC to receive reports of bears in counties like Jefferson, Franklin, Washington, and Crawford.  However, it was just over a year ago when a male black bear wandered through St. Louis County and into Richmond Heights, were MDC biologists immobilized and safely relocated the bear to an area of suitable bear habitat outside the urban corridor.

Incidents like this remind us that black bears are becoming a growing part of the St. Louis regional landscape, even at times in highly populated areas.

Continue reading →

By Don Corrigan

St. Louis and Missouri get low marks on a range of issues related to the region’s environmental health. That was a report given for an educational lecture series at the Parkway United Church of Christ in West County by the author of Environmental Missouri in May.

According to environmental writer Don Corrigan, the St. Louis region gets many failing grades once again for its failed efforts to clean up PCB and plastics pollution, as well as the West Lake landfill area in Bridgeton that has been contaminated with radiation for decades.

F – Area officials, including Rep. Ann Wagner, R-2nd Congressional District, settled for a flawed, partial cleanup plan in North County that is now in disarray – as experts have found more radioactive waste than anticipated. The plan is on hold.

D – Local officials have passed laws to limit the use of plastic ring holders and plastic bags. Their actions have been voided by the state legislature, controlled by people giving lip service to local control, but only lip service.

Continue reading →

Charlie Brennan at KMOX Radio. Photo: KSDK.

By Don Corrigan

A longtime friend of nature and the outdoors, broadcaster Charlie Brennan at KMOX Radio, stepped away from the microphone in May after doing his last morning show on the “Mighty MOX.”

Brennan hosted his final radio program on the Audacy station on May 12. He worked for more than 30 years with “News Radio 1120” KMOX-AM, which was once one of the flagship stations for the CBS Radio Network.

He joined KMOX to work evenings and weekends in 1998, after his early years at WNTN in Boston. Within two years, he began hosting the mid-morning shift where he has been heard ever since.

Continue reading →

Check out Don Corrigan’s spotlight on FOX 2 News with Kim Hudson!

The new book Amazing Webster Groves takes us on a walk through the neighborhood, no matter where we live. Author Don Corrigan gave us a look before his book signing.

“Amazing Webster Groves”
Book Signing
Saturday, May 14
The Webster Groves Bookshop
27 N. Gore Ave.
Webster Groves, MO 63119

Click the link below to watch the interview!

https://fox2now.com/am-show/new-book-amazing-webster-groves-gives-us-a-history-lesson/

Representatives from the School District of University City and Missouri Green Schools AmeriCorps VISTA Parker pose in Forest Park after award presentation.

Congratulations to the winners! Read about the Earth Day awardees from the Missouri Green Schools Press release.

U.S. Department of Education Green Ribbon School awardees, local conservation champions honored at annual festival’s return to Forest Park

Thousands of visitors attended earthday365’s 2022 Earth Day Festival at Forest Park in St. Louis, Missouri on Saturday, April 23, 2022. This year, for the first time, earthday365 honored local conservation champions with a Sustainability Awards Ceremony.

Following a keynote speech from Rep. Cori Bush, The School District of University City and Principia School in St. Louis, MO were honored as awardees for the U.S. Department of Education’s 2022 Green Ribbon Honorees.

Across the country, only 27 schools, five districts, and four postsecondary institutions were honored for their innovative efforts to reduce environmental impact and utility costs, improve health and wellness, and ensure effective sustainability education in 2022. These honorees were named from a pool of candidates nominated by 19 states.

Continue reading →