Stream Team Clean-up - May 5, 2007

Sioux Passage Park, Florissant, MO

by Vicki Richmond and Steve Schnarr
photos by Vicki Richmond, Jen Courtney and Melanie Cheney
Saturday morning dawned drippy. Grass still wet from Friday's deluge made footwear decisions easy- a mud boot day for sure! After a crew meeting held over steaming fresh country eggs, the River Relief crew launched boats, set up the sign-in table and got supplies ready for action.

This clean up was a diversion from the usual River Relief uber-event. Designed for the Stream Team participants in the area, this clean up was as much about connecting people doing the tireless job of river keeping as it was about the trash. Smaller numbers of participants gave us opportunities to exchange savvy, stories and contact information, all while picking up trash.

Volunteers from Stream Teams #516, 1573, 211, and #1 (yes, Mark Van Patten, who started the first Stream Team, came too!) as well as the Parkway North Stream Team and the St. Louis Americorps ERT loaded in to boats and headed just a couple miles down stream to a large dump located on the MegaScout project last fall. A cast iron tub proved no match for these stalwarts. Motorcycles and bedsprings were loaded like cordwood into our plate boat, Saskia, and returned to the Sioux Passage ramp.

MDC fisheries biologist Danny Brown took out a crew of Stream Teamers from Parkway North High School for a “fishing” expedition, picking trash right out of the river from drift racks pushed aside by the rising water.

After lunch, crews boated to a spot upstream of the previous dump and soon found an abandoned boat up in the weeds. This is where the expertise of our crew of diehard Stream Teamers got really impressive. They popped the top half of the boat off, pulling the massive piece of fiberglass down the slope with a rope tied to the Saskia. Soon after, the hull came sliding down the bank as well. With a few careful maneuvers and tie-downs, they whole mass went boating back down to the ramp to be unloaded by the Sioux Passage front-end loader and deposited in the dumpster.

As tired crews returned to camp, MRR Quartermaster John Brady and a revolving crew of cooks served up a feast of delicious chicken roasted for hours on an open fire as stories of the day were recounted. An evening program hosted by author and MRR coordinator Jeff Barrow accompanied the riverside dinner. Stream Team members had the opportunity to present their activities to the group.

This networking opportunity is invaluable for planning, learning and cooperation across the watershed. Of course experiencing a river sunset, a sandbar campfire and a well-prepared dinner helps to build the next generation of river stewards as well.

Here's a partial tally of trash for the day:

23 large Stream Team bags of trash
8 tires
1 Several steel posts
1 TV stand
27 steel rods
1 air conditioner
1 motorcycle (Illinois license 554 421, Dec. 1984)
1 piece chrome trim
1 leaky washtub
one large water softener unit and tank

1/2 toilet tank
1 16 foot bass boat
1 metal roof truss
1 box spring
1 Nimrod popup camper (w/little red light)
partial furnace
5 fan blades
1 lawnmower
2 propane tanks
4 BIG metal rods
1 stainless steel restaurant deep fryer
15 feet of hardware cloth
1 mower deck
12 sheets of metal
3 t-posts
about 3/4 of a stove
1 torque converter for an automatic transmission
1 cast iron tub
2 bundles of wire
10 circus tent pegs
1 volleyball net and pole
1 fragmented toilet
2 wheels
several pieces of carpet
1 sewer pipe
1 portapotty wall
1 office chair pedestal
1 flame spreader
1 piece of chrome trim
1 TV antenna
1 tire rim
1 CB radio
1 55 gallon metal drum
1 muck bucket
1 water tank
1 spool
cluster of spaghetti wire
1 toilet lid
many, many balls of every kind!!!

this sunset was captured during the after rain river mist on Friday, May 4, by Vicki Richmond

Sioux Passage Learning Festival - May 4, 2007

Water Education in the Rain
by Vicki Richmond and Steve Schnarr

With a resounding splash, 274 middle school students from the Hazelwood School District headed down to the Big Muddy for a day of serious water education at Sioux Passage Park.

Protected from the drenching rain with trash bag ponchos, the students toured 16 learning stations with an emphasis on water. These education booths were staffed by stalwart agency, corporate, and nonprofit presenters who endured a 1 ½ inch rain.

A strange sea of umbrellas stood inside a 24 foot trash hauling boat and beside the double 225 HP engines of the Missouri Water Patrol boat. Educators from Missouri American Water demonstrated how turbid water from the "Big Muddy" gets tranformed into drinking water. Americorps volunteers showed off a collection of macroinvertebrates while Mark Van Patten showed how he ties masterful fishing flies. AEP River Operations brought a display on the economical uses of barges on our big rivers. Not deterred by a rainy day, Troy Gordon of the Friends of the big Muddy (with his two daughters patiently huddled under his pop-up tent) amazed kids and chaperones with an enormous snapping turtle, found in the same habitat that rings the park.

A planned picnic lunch became lunch on the bus and/or huddled under tents as the rain slowly tapered off. We couldn't help but be impressed by the toughness of the kids, teachers and presenters that stayed during the whole soggy event.

Special Thanks to event Coordinator Lynne Hooper, for pulling this together on a day with a myriad of conflicts, and to Hazelwood Science Coordinator Susan Raney for rolling up her sleeves and joining right in the soggy fun.