February 12, 2012

20 years of cleaner streams

One of Missouri’s largest volunteer programs celebrates its 20th anniversary this month.

The Department of Conservation estimates 80-thousand people have been or are members of the four-thousand stream teams formed since the Roubidoux Fly Fishers of Waynesville became Stream Team Number One.

The department figures those teams have provided more than one-and-a-half million hours of volunteer work. Stream Team Biologist Sherry Fischer figures the teams saved the department 2.6-million dollars last year, alone.

And she says the streams are a lot cleaner. The department says the teams have removed more than 6,000 tons of trash from Missouri’s streams. .

The department says stream teams are involved in almsot three-dozen activities including jumk removal. They also check water quality, work on stream access, watershed mapping and zebra mussel monitoring, and other things.

 

Upload BP’s talk with Sherry Fischer (5:09 mp3)

St. Louis receives grant, Slay says mayors working together to be green, increase employment

Some of Missouri’s mayors are collaborating with those from throughout the country at the United States Conference of Mayors in Rhode Island. 

Mayors from St. Louis, Kansas City and Columbia are learning about how green issues and economic challenges are affecting other cities.

Mayor Francis Slay of St. Louis says mayors at the conference come from a diversity of backgrounds and political views, but this is a bipartisan gathering where two heads are better than one. Political differences are put aside for the greater good.

St. Louis was awarded a $550,000 to further a program between the city’s workforce development agency, St. Patrick’s center for the homeless and Southern Illinois at Edwardsville. The program seeks to re-employ homeless and jobless in bio-fuel technology jobs.

Wal-Mart awarded similar grants to Chicago, Milwaukee, San Francisco and Providence.   

For more, click the links below:

http://usmayors.org/ pressreleases/uploads/release- 20090612-greenjobs.pdf

http://usmayors.org/ 77thAnnualMeeting/

 

Jessica Machetta reports [Download/listen Mp3]

Revamped website helping Missouri campgrounds to lure visitors

For many Missourians vacation time means time spent camping. And the Missouri Association of RV Parks & Campgrounds , which represents about 75 campgrounds throughout the state, has revamped its website in time for the summer camping season.

Association President Larry Helms, the owner of the Boiling Spring Campground in Dixon, says that while the economy is not in the best shape, members are hoping for a good season as people camp, fish, and do other things associated with getting away.

“Our prediction is that we’ll at least be at the level we were last year,” said helms in an interview with the Missourinet. “Many of our parks are expecting a 10 to 15 to 20 percent increase simply because people are staying closer to home, people are really taking a look at Missouri and things that we have to offer in the state.”

The upgraded website allow the user to more easily find a park the amenities desired in a given region.

“We have full service parks that would have everything from cable TV to Wi-Fi,” said Helms. “Some of them have major restaurants and steakhouses and game rooms and cabins, you know, the whole gamut at that park.”

But there are still campgrounds for city slickers who want to “rough it.”

“We have some parks that are just smaller parks,” said Helms. “Just for tent camping, hiking, and boating and stuff like that as well.”

The website also includes a calendar section with detailed information on upcoming food, music, arts and craft festivals, and other events.

Download/Listen: Steve Walsh report (:60 MP3)