Discover camping and outdoor skills in St. Louis’ Forest Park. The Missouri Department of Conservation (MDC) and other partners have joined to offer an affordable way for families to discover the outdoors.
Discover camping and outdoor skills in St. Louis’ Forest Park. The Missouri Department of Conservation (MDC) and other partners have joined to offer an affordable way for families to discover the outdoors.
Prairie Day is a family-friendly celebration of the nature and culture of our grassland heritage. Shaw Nature Reserve’s 250-acre restored prairie is the backdrop for a day of fun and educational activities for the whole family where visitors can relive the days of Laura Ingalls Wilder.
The biennial event is Saturday, Sept. 17, from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m., and is located at Shaw Nature Reserve in Gray Summit. (directions are listed below) The event is presented by the Missouri Department of Conservation and Shaw Nature Reserve.
Advanced reservation is not required. The Shaw Nature Reserve admission fee is $6 for adults, $2 for children (ages 15 and under) and $3 for Missouri Botanical Garden members. For more information CLICK HERE or call 636-451-3512.
Missouri Hunters: Be sure to update the MDC’s mobile app before the 2016 deer and turkey hunting season starts to Telecheck your harvest.
The update will also provide the most current regulation and data information.
To learn more or to download the MDC hunting App – CLICK HERE.
Posted in Outdoor/Nature
To find more information, or to register for the Urban Sustainability series, click continue reading below.

Local environmentalists say there are more sewage spills, property damage and flood cleanups in our future because of construction in floodplains, loss of wetlands and new levees. They say the Valley Park levee was built anywhere from five to eight feet higher than authorized and is the culprit in unprecedented flooding along the Meramec River in late 2015 and 2016 in Kirkwood, Sunset Hills, Fenton and farther downstream.

Little brown bat; close-up of nose with fungus, New York, Oct. 2008. U.S. Fish and Wildlife Photo courtesy Ryan von Linden/New York Department of Environmental Conservation
Bats in the U.S. are under threat from a fungus that causes a disease known as White Nose Syndrome. The disease has the potential to wipe out entire bat populations and is spreading.
Jo Schaper is the guest on this week’s Environmental Echo podcast. Recently, Schaper attended a conference about White Nose Syndrome, held in Denver, Colorado. She shares updated information about what wildlife and conservation organizations are doing to help stop the spread of the disease and what efforts are being implemented to help save the U.S. bat populations.
The Sierra Club and Washington University’s Global Health Center at the Institute for Public Health are hosting an event on August 18, 2016, to highlight the public health impacts of climate change, including the expansion of vector-borne illnesses, like Zika. Also, the topic of heat deaths – the Harvard School of Public Health has generated estimates of the increase in heat deaths in metro St Louis due to rising temperatures.
WHERE: Washington University Institute for Public Health, 600 So. Taylor Avenue Building, STL MO 63110 – Room 2131
WHEN: Thursday, August 18, 2016, starting at 12 Noon to 1 p.m.

Dat Le and Joe Van Betuw harvest zucchini squash at Gateway Greening’s urban farm. Photo by Ursula Ruhl, Webster-Kirkwood Times.
A new article from the West End Word newspaper shows how local farming in an urban area can offer more than just veggies to a few families.
Organizations involved with urban gardening in St. Louis, such as Gateway Greening, Global Farms, and the Sweet Potato Project, are providing social enterprise training to the underprivileged, as well as, fresh produce to local schools.
“The program serves the City Garden and Biome charter schools, Lafayette Preparatory School, and also provides after-school snacks for New City School – that’s breakfast, lunch and snacks for around 400 kids a day.”
To read the full story by Brian Ruth, Webster-Kirkwood Times Intern and Webster University Journalism student, CLICK HERE.
The Rev. Mitch Hescox, Presidnet and CEO of the Evangelical Environmental Network, is the guest with Don Corrigan’s podcast series this week.
Hescox explains what the Evangelical Environmental Network is all about and how evangelicals can help find conservative solutions to the pollution and environmental issues that harm God’s creation, the earth, and our children.