Updates to the St. Louis Earth Day Festival’s April Event – It’s moving online!

Posted on April 8, 2020 | Leave a comment

We are all currently stuck in isolation doing our part to protect our families, friends, co-workers and communities from COVID-19, but don’t worry, you’ll have two chances to enjoy this year’s St. Louis Earth Day Festival! One online in April and a second chance to visit the festival in October at Tower Grove Park. Below is information from the online festival’s Facebook Event.

We’re bringing the well-known St. Louis Earth Day Festival online! Join us at earthday-365.org during the week of April 18-26 for our Virtual Earth Day Festival.

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Posted in Home, Local Events

Book Review: The Great Influenza: Epic Story of the Deadliest Plague in History

Posted on April 6, 2020 | Leave a comment
The Great Influenza: Epic Story of the Deadliest Plague in History – John M. Barry — Penguin Books, 2004/2005

Review By Glenn Koenen – St. Louis

Yes, the parallels startle.

  • The jump from animals (pigs in Kansas) to people escaped notice for longer than it should.
  • The first major infected population spread the disease far and wide at breakneck speed.
  • Governments – especially America’s – bungled the early response.
  • Many of those researching and fighting the disease perished or suffered.
  • Working folks took the biggest financial hit.

True, as the book explains, a pandemic almost by definition is never expected. The response always begins ad hoc as bits of the story pop-up – along with a lot of red herrings and confusion.

Yet, the overall situation mimics past events. Instead of remembering what had been learned, alas, a thousand wrong decisions recreate the same mistakes.

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Posted in Home, Opinion

Fishing Suspended At Forest Park’s Jefferson Lake For Renovation Project

Posted on April 4, 2020 | Leave a comment
Photo courtesy MDC.

The Missouri Department of Conservation (MDC) announces public fishing in Forest Park’s Jefferson Lake, located in St. Louis City, will be suspended starting April 1 for approximately one year. The suspension is to accommodate an extensive $10.5 million renovation of the park’s eastern waterways by Forest Park Forever and the City of St. Louis which will also impact the lake.

The project is tentatively expected to be completed and public fishing at Jefferson Lake anticipated to reopen by June 2021.

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Posted in Home, Local Events, Outdoor/Nature

MDC TRIM Grant Removes Invasive Trees At St. Louis Community College

Posted on April 3, 2020 | Leave a comment
Certified arborist David Slane removes an invasive white poplar tree at St. Louis Community College’s Meramec campus. Photo by MDC Staff, courtesy MDC.

16 down, one to go. That was the count on a gray and rainy Thursday in early March when students from the horticulture class at St. Louis Community College’s (StLCC) Meramec Campus gathered to watch a dentist take down a tree. It was being funded by a grant from the Missouri Department of Conservation (MDC).

For David Slane, DMD, this was merely a routine extraction, just one more dendro than dental. Dr. Slane is also an arborist, certified by the International Society of Arboriculture. In fact, Slane’s self-appointed nickname is “Arbor Dave”. When he’s not working at his Kirkwood practice on teeth that have roots under the gum, he’s at work on trees with roots underground.

“They have things in common,” Slane said. “In both cases you diagnose and treat problems.”

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Posted in Environment, Home

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Nature: A Refuge in a Pandemic Age

Don Levee BikeBy Don Corrigan

On a hike in the age of pandemic this past weekend, an acquaintance noted how the sky has not been this blue since the week after 9/11. There is minimal air traffic, so the skies get a breather from the burning jet fuel, contrails and all the airliners’ heat-trapping gases.

Don’t get me wrong. This column is not about the Green New Deal and its plans for the likes of Southwest or American Airlines. I’m a believer in keeping the skies friendly for air travel, at least until my daughter gets home from Dublin, where she says she is working in a “Shelter-in-Place  Paradise.”

This missive is actually about how we are now taking refuge in nature. We are discovering purple wildflowers, blooming dogwoods and pondering “nothing but blue skies,”  as Willie Nelson sings.

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Posted on April 3, 2020 in Home, Opinion, Outdoor/Nature

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#BringTheStlZooToYou

Saint Louis Zoo ads-2Connecting people to animals is the core of the Saint Louis Zoo’s mission, and that doesn’t stop when its doors are closed. Stay connected with the Zoo’s #BringTheStlZooToYou  online resource providing access to stories, videos and photos of the animals and animal care, educational activities, conservation programs and more to help you stay connected to the Zoo during the temporary ​public closure because of COVID-19. You can find the fun and informative resources on the zoo’s social media and website.

“We know how important the Zoo is to the St. Louis area community,” says Jeffrey P. Bonner, Dana Brown President and CEO, Saint Louis Zoo. “We are happy to continue to provide everyone with opportunities to view our animals and see firsthand how well our zookeepers and other critical staff are working.  Likewise, we hope all those parents who are teaching their children at home can take advantage of some of this information.”

 

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Posted on April 2, 2020 in Environment, Home, Outdoor/Nature

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Wildlife Not To Blame For Coronavirus

Sharon Deem, DVM, Ph.D., Dipl ACZM, Director of the Saint Louis Zoo Institute for Conservation Medicine

By Don  Corrigan

Bats and snakes are taking the blame for transmitting the coronavirus which is taking such a toll on human health and economic well-being. Experts at the Saint Louis Zoo worry that such explanations for the pandemic will cause a backlash against wildlife.

“Bats are not to blame. Snakes are not to blame. Wildlife is not to blame,” said Dr. Sharon Deem, director of the Saint Louis Zoo Institute for Conservation Medicine. “Humans created the avenue for a snake to be near a bat to be near a human. We humans have created the environments that allow the spillover of these pathogens.

Deem is referring to one theory that coronavirus was contracted from bats by snakes, then the snakes were purchased for consumption by humans  in a market in Wuhan, China. The virus has spread from China to more than 150 nations, with the United States now having the most infections of all countries.

“We humans have created the environments that allow the spillover of these disease pathogens,” said Deem. “In fact, one of the greatest impacts on human public health, beyond emerging infectious diseases and climate change, is the loss of biodiversity.

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Posted on March 31, 2020 in Environment, Home

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Webster Groves Nature Study Society Marks 100 Years

Alfred Satterthwait working on his insect collection at his home 118 Waverly Ave., Webster Groves, ~1930. WGNSS Archives.

by Don Corrigan

The Webster Groves Nature Study Society (WGNSS) was set to mark an entire century of existence this April. A coronavirus pandemic has crushed all the organization’s “best laid plans” to celebrate its past, present and future.

“Our 100th Anniversary Banquet for May 12 is canceled. Our ‘Night to Remember’ on  April 1 is canceled. Our ceremony with the Mayor of Webster Groves on city hall’s front lawn for April 3 is canceled,” lamented Richard Thoma, the past president and first vice president of WGNSS.

“Obviously, the pandemic is hurting a lot more people and canceling more important things than what we are all about – but this hurts,” said Thoma. “It has also canceled three nature outings and set back the publication of our memorial book, “One Hundred Years of the Webster Groves Nature Study Society.”

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Posted on March 27, 2020 in Home, Outdoor/Nature

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MDC Temporarily Waives Fishing Permits Starting March 27

Starting March 27, people may fish in Missouri without a permit through April 15.

The Missouri Department of Conservation (MDC) and the Missouri Conservation Commission announce they are temporarily waiving permit requirements for sport fishing and daily trout tags for Missouri residents and nonresidents whose fishing privileges are not otherwise suspended.

The waiver of needing a permit or trout tag to fish will run from Friday, March 27, through April 15. MDC will reassess the situation at that point. All season dates and limits will continue to apply and be enforced. 

“The current public-health emergency caused by the coronavirus (COVID-19) has many Missourians and others looking for safe ways to get outside in nature,” said MDC Director Sara Parker Pauley. “Missouri’s rivers and streams offer high quality fishing as a way for people to connect with nature while still complying with all health and safety recommendations. Fishing is also a great way to get some much needed physical and mental health benefits during this stressful time.”

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Posted on March 26, 2020 in Home, Local Events, Outdoor/Nature

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Painful Shutdown of Environmental Meetings in St. Louis

By Don Corrigan

It’s painful for Environmental Echo to receive the notices of closings and cancellations of nature outings, green activities and environmental meetings due to the coronavirus pandemic that now affects the St. Louis area and more than 140 countries.

This spreading disease is deadly serious, environmentally destructive and totally global in consequence. Obviously, it was mistake for the administration to fire the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s Pandemic Response Team two years ago.

It might be time to reconsider the firing of that unit, as well as the quashing of the annual reports out of the U.S. Defense Department on “Preparing the United States for Impacts of Climate Change,” which were started in 2013. Those reports include information on pandemics.

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Posted on March 22, 2020 in Environment, Opinion