Earth Day 2005

Americorps plans birdhouses, bike ride

The Americorps Trail Rangers are getting ready for Earth Day 2005. The young adults are making birdhouse kits and preparing a special Mississippi River bike route for Earth Day participants.

The 14-member Trail Rangers group is made up of young adults who help with community development projects in the City of St. Louis. With their work, they earn credits to help them further their education.

Many of their community projects deal with improving the environment. Thus, they're a natural to help with the annual Earth Day celebration.

Earth Day 2005 will be celebrated Sunday, May 1, in Forest Park. But, there are a number of Earth Day events earlier in April. For a complete schedule, go to: www.stlouisearthday.org.

Twenty-four-year-old Darrell Hill is one of the Americorps Trail Rangers. He'll be helping direct bike traffic along the 12-mile North Riverfront Trail. It's a paved trail that runs from downtown near The Arch north to the Chain of Rocks Bridge.

Maintaining the trail route is one of the Trail Rangers' year-around jobs.

One of the features of the bike route is the plantings of native Missouri plants. The plants give beauty to the riverfront trail.

Twenty-five-year-old Loyce Doss helps with the native plant nursery. The nursery specializes in encouraging growth of plant species that are native to Missouri.

Many of these plants were wiped out when farm corps or urban lawns were established. Many are thought to be "weeds," although they have beautiful blooms.

Another feature of the biking trail is an "underground railroad" site. African-Americans fleeing slavery had informal stopping-off places as they headed north to "free states."

Twenty-one-year-old Sherise Selvey does explanatory presentations for visitors at the "underground railroad" site.

Sherise Selvey, Darrell Hill and Loyce Doss display their birdhouses

One of the pre-Earth Day tasks for the Rangers is making of birdhouse kits. One kit is a completed--but unpainted-- birdhouse that kids can paint on Earth Day.

The other kit consists of pre-cut wooden pieces that kids can assemble on Earth Day.

Ranger supervisor Dennis Forrest said the Rangers plan to have 40 pre-assembled birdhouses and 25 loose-pieces kits. They will be available on a first-come-first-serve basis at the Rangers booth on Earth Day Sunday.

The Rangers also have another building project at their clubhouse in North City.

They were making "rabbit caps." Those are wooden and wire-mesh boxes that are put over the native plants when they are first transplanted. The small plants need protection because rabbits and other browsing animals like the tender shoots.

When baby plants are transplanted from the nursery to the riverfront bike trail, they are covered with "rabbit caps." The caps let sunlight and rain get to the plants but not rabbits.

Later, the "caps" can be removed because mature plants aren't nearly as tasty.

If you are interested in getting some native plants for around your homes, you can contact either Grace Hill Community Services or Dr. Rick Clinebell. The Grace Hill number is (314) 340-3207. Dr. Clinebell's number is (314) 772-9151.

swamp milkweed

Some of the types of native plants include Swamp Milkweed, Butterflyweed, Sky-blue Aster, Prairie Tickseed, Rough Blazing Star, Missouri Primrose, Prairie Phlox and Shell Penstemon.

Many of these plants have colorful blooms and are make good food plants in home butterfly gardens.

Butterflyweed

In his catalogue of native plants, Dr. Clinebell also provides instructions on how to establish a native plant garden in an urban setting.

Most Trail Rangers are working to earn education credits. The Rangers often work 40-hour weeks. When they accumulate 1,700 hours of service, they qualify for $4,725 in education credits.

Darrell is working on his high-school diploma through a GED. Loyce is enrolled at University of Missouri-St. Louis, where she is an English and education major. Sherise is a human resource management major at St. Louis University.

Sherise said she likes the opportunity to go into schools and arranging Ranger participation in events like Earth Day.

Loyce said she likes to help people. "The best reward is looking into the face of someone I've helped," she said.

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