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Oh, Deer!

Tony Tasset’s “Deer,” 2015. photo by Tim Johnson; courtesy of Kavi Gupta and the artist.

They stand accused of devouring farm crops and vegetable gardens, consuming precious landscaping, killing motorists, ravaging ecosystems, spreading Lyme disease and other maladies across America.

Sounds like Godzilla and the gnarly monster’s horrible progeny, but we are actually talking about white-tailed deer. Given all these scary attributes of deer, I was taken aback on a recent visit to Laumeier Sculpture Park in Sunset Hills when I happened upon an eight-foot deer.

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A New Champion Tree Recognized In The City of Clayton

Photo by MDC Staff, courtesy Missouri Department of Conservation.

The State Champion Tree Program, administered by the Missouri Department of Conservation (MDC), recently certified an Ohio buckeye (Aesculus glabra) tree located in the City of Clayton. The program recognizes Missouri’s largest native trees by species.

The new champion in the contest for the Show-Me-State’s finest trees is an excellent specimen. The tree resides on private land and measures 153 inches in circumference at 4.5 feet off the ground, 81 feet tall and has a whopping spread of 56 feet.

See more from the MDC notification below.

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Society of Environmental Journalism’s Peter Dykstra Talks About Love Canal, West Lake Landfill & More

Photo courtesy Peter Dykstra.

Peter Dykstra is an award-winning environmental journalist with diverse and collective knowledge of the issues confronting the environment, the industry that reports on the environment, and the policies that affect the environment.

The former board member of the Society of Environmental Journalist talks with Don Corrigan about the origins of the journalism organization, activism, the current political climate.

Dykstra also offers insight into efforts by local community members working to protect themselves and their children from environmental hazards, like the West Lake and Bridgeton landfills here in St. Louis. One example described is the story of Lois Gibbs, a house wife and mother in Love Canal, located near Niagara Falls in upstate New York. In the late 1970s, she started a movement to protect her family and local community from health issues caused from a nearby toxic waste dump.

Dykstra spent nearly two decades at CNN as an executive producer for science, environment, weather, and technology. His career history also includes being the national media director for Greenpeace where he set up their U.S. media operations and a past deputy director at The Pew Charitable Trusts. He is also currently active with environmental organizations and news outlets, such as Environmental Health News.

Continue reading below to hear the informative interview with Peter Dykstra.

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A Frustrated Community Looks To City Officials For Answers About Recent Historic Flooding

South County Times

An over capacity crowd filled Fenton City Hall to find out what, if anything, is being planned to help reduce the continued severe flooding events. Two 500 year floods have devastated residents and business owners in the local area recently. Both flooding events happened within 18 months of each other.

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Celebrating 80 Years of Conservation!

Graphic: MDC

(The events start in August and end in October of 2017.)

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Don’s Dossier: Daggers & Daisies – Can A Little Common Sense Save Creve Coeur Lake Memorial Park?

Don Corrigan serves up his weekly opinion about who deserves a dagger for being a foe to the environment and who deserves a daisy for being a friend of the environment.

This week: Daisies To Arlene Sandler: This Woman Has A Better Idea for Creve Coeur Lake Memorial Park – Daggers to Legacy Ice Foundation’s Indoor Hockey Facility’s Bad Idea for Creve Coeur Lake Nature Area

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June Hutson: St. Louis Horticulture Legend

Photo by Diana Linsley/South County Times

After spending more than 40 years working at the Missouri Botanical Garden (MOBOT), one might think, June Hutson, a master gardener and horticulturist, retired this past January for some much-deserved leisure time. Nope. She says she retired to do the exact opposite. She wants to spend as much time as possible feeding her passion – getting her hands dirty in the garden.

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The Gem of St. Louis – Forest Park

Images of America: Forest Park, a new book by Don Corrigan and Holly Shanks, is dedicated to the more than 13 million people who make Forest Park come alive with their visits each year.

The book is full of historic photographs and insightful stories that tell the significance of Forest Park, its history, and its world class institutions.

Meet Don Corrigan and Holly Shanks Tuesday, July 18, at 7 p.m., 2017, at Left Bank Book’s local history showcase and book signing. A short presentation will also be given at the event. Left Bank Books is located at 399 N. Euclid Ave.

Images of America: Forest Park can be purchased at Left Bank Books or on Amazon.

West End Word book review of Images of America: Forest Park CLICK HERE.

Hear Kevin Killeen, from KMOX Radio St. Louis, interview Don Corrigan about the new book on Wednesday, July 12, 2017.

 

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Trash Hauling With Don Corrigan

In July of 1980, Don Corrigan decided to profile the local sanitation engineers and give readers a look at their daily dirty jobs. The best way to do this? With a little immersion journalism. Want to know what it was like dumping waste in a landfill in the 1980s?

The adventure you are about to read is a tale of rotten watermelons, sweltering heat, exhausting work and trashy jokes. Don’t worry, even the faint of heart should read this story!

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Controvesy Stirring At Creve Coeur Lake Memorial Park

Concerned organizations have partnered together to oppose the Legacy Ice Foundation indoor hockey facility in Creve Coeur Lake Memorial Park. The group includes organizations, such as The American Institute of Architects St. Louis Chapter, the Open Space Council, the Missouri Coalition for the Environment, the Sierra Club, the Greenway Network, the St. Louis Audubon Society and the St. Louis Chapter of the Green Building Council.

Here are a few points the groups have identified as an issue of concern to the proposed Legacy Ice Foundation indoor hockey facility in Creve Coeur Lake Memorial County Park in St. Louis County.

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