Environmental Echo

Saint Louis County is excited to announce the birth of two bison calves at Lone Elk Park. The two calves were born overnight on May 6, 2025.

The arrival of the calves marks the beginning of a new chapter for the park’s bison herd and a special opportunity for visitors to witness native wildlife in action.

The reddish-orange calves can be seen trailing closely behind their mothers in the bison pasture. While the new arrivals are a heartwarming sight, park officials urge visitors to remain in their vehicles and observe all wildlife from a safe distance.

“These calves are a sign of a healthy herd and a successful habitat,” said Pat Curry, Park Supervisor at Lone Elk Park. “They’ll spend the next few months bonding with their mothers and gradually gaining independence. It’s a special time for the herd, and we’re thrilled to share it with the public.”

Lone Elk Park is a unique, free drive-through wildlife experience operated by St. Louis County Parks and Recreation. It is home to bison, elk, deer, and other native species. The park is open daily from 8 a.m. to sunset.

Visitors are welcome to enjoy the park’s scenic views but are reminded to follow all posted guidelines and avoid approaching or feeding wildlife.

All photos provided by Charlie Hoessle.

by Don Corrigan

Travelers over the Mississippi River from Missouri to Illinois are greeted with a billboard urging them to drive 140 miles to see the white squirrels. Charlie Hoessle can visit with the albino critters right in his south St. Louis County backyard.

Hoessle is best known to St. Louisans for his past work as director of the St. Louis Zoo. In that position, he became familiar with deadly snakes of Asia, lumbering giraffes from Africa, and poisonous frogs of South America – as well as other exotic animals.

Now retired, Hoessle is content these days with simply tracking the feisty squirrels in his Sunset Hills neighborhood. However, these are not just your average, ordinary, run-of-the-mill squirrels. These are the relatively rare white squirrels of North America.

Hoessle has no need to travel miles to see his favorite white squirrels. He can just amble out the back door of his home.

“We have had white squirrels in our back yard for about five or 6 years now,  but not always the same ones,” said Hoessle. “The first one I named ‘Spirit.’ He was a daily visitor to my patio bird feeder.”

Hoessle has a fond place in his heart for ‘Spirit.’ However, he welcomes the new white squirrels to his location, and he often has his camera or cell phone ready to snap pictures of the bushy tails.

“I loved Spirit because he was not afraid of me,” said Hoessle. “He loved to bask on our crab apple tree and just relax. Sometimes I spread cracked corn on my patio for him.”

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by Don Corrigan

Rowan Herr, a junior at Kirkwood High School, reeled in a third place finish in a C-SPAN documentary competition for students. Herr also netted a $750 cash award for his environmental video efforts.

“I got interested in the topic of invasive carp because I am big on fishing,” said Herr. “I don’t want them messing with my fishing in the Lake of the Ozarks. I don’t want them in the lakes.”

The C-SPAN competition asked students to explore and analyze matters of personal, local or national importance by addressing this year’s theme — “Your Message to the President: What issue is most important to you or your community?”

Herr said he realizes invasive carp may not be an important concern for many people, but the issue might raise more concern if people knew how fast the fish are multiplying and damaging the ecology.

“I talked to experts at the Missouri Department of Conservation and I talked to the Missouri Coastal Fisheries,” explained Herr. “They are alarmed and they gave me good information.”

Herr used that information to make the case that invasive carp, with their voluminous appetites, are taking over lakes and streams and destroying the ecosystem for other underwater creatures.

Greg Trial, who heads Missouri Coastal Fisheries, reviewed Herr’s six-minute documentary after it won recognition. He calls it “spot-on” and praises it for raising the alarm about invasives.

“Mr. Herr makes a valuable point at the end of the film: In the six-minutes that the documentary ran, 2,613,895 young and hungry carp have entered the waterways,” said Trial. “I think that shows how overwhelming the problem is that we face.”

Photo by MDC Staff, courtesy Missouri Department of Conservation.

Trial said that what makes those numbers all the more staggering is the fact that carp eat two-thirds of their body weight every day, putting tremendous stress on other fish species.

Carp are 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.

Certain times of year when they are spawning, the Asian carp will jump out of the rivers. They’ve jumped in boats before, and they’ve given boaters bloody noses and more serious injuries.

“They’re a nuisance species,” said Trial. “But they are much more than that. 2025 is going to be a horrible year in the Midwest for carp causing issues and difficulties in river environments.

“We had so much spring flooding this year, and that has spread carp all over the place,” explained Trial. “The conditions for their spawning this spring are prime.”

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