Living Green In Watkins Creek Watershed

Lower east Watkins Creek north of I-270

There is a new Stream Team forming, and it already has many new members, 3 major stream cleanup events, 2 bush honeysuckle eradication sites, bank stabilization locations, one major phytoremediation effort, and some previous WQM sites that haven't been visited since 2003. There is also a beaver dam & lodge to be investigated.

We particularly need WQM folks who live in North St. Louis County to sign up and adopt a site. On the lower reaches, this stream looks like most Missouri streams. It's got limestone rock faces, some steep alluvial banks (high erosion & siltation) and lots of trash to be cleaned.

It crosses under Hwy I-270 twice and Hwy 367 once, picking up rock salt, leaky oilpan residue, and the usual crud. The 367 construction project loaded a lot of windblown silt, but that's over. In Aug 2004 there was a major (4600 gallons) ethanol spill directly into the creek, sterilizing everything downstream. There was a cleanup effort that ended in '06. There are benthic invertebrates and fish above the spill site, but we need particularly Intro & 101 trained teams to look for bugs asap. It is a very interesting & beautiful creek with a high likelyhood that we can clean it up & restore it to good health.

The WQM team is being headed by veterans Bob Dye (Friends of Fox Creek, Coldwater Creek WQM) and Claire Schosser (River des Peres Watershed, and a LOT of other Teams) and we could really use your help. Bob & Claire are both residents in the watershed.

This team is so new it doesn't have a number yet, so to join please go to:

http://mostreamteam.org/regform.htm

and insert "Living Green in Watkins Creek Watershed" as the Team Name.

For contact you can either add your own name, or insert "Tom Ball", "Bob Dye", "Kelly White" or"Claire Schosser". We will have separate contacts for Cleanup events, native plantings & etc. but we need a strong WQM team for this hurtin' stream.

Major cleanups are planned for 4/2, 4/8, 4/12 (with Trailnet) and 4/26 (with Water Festival at Hazelwood East HS). Email thomas.ball@sbcglobal.net if you are interested in this Stream Team.