Earth Day preview

Fourth graders work to clean Shady Creek

Kids at Rohan Woods School have been in the environmental clean-up business for less than a year. But, they've got big plans for their section of Shady Creek in south St. Louis County.

Fourth graders at the independent school in Kirkwood have formed Stream Team #2790. They have joined nearly 3,000 other Stream Team groups all across Missouri in cleaning up state rivers and streams. (For more about Stream Teams, see sidebar below.)

Lucy Weilbacher

Last month, the Rohan kids were out with stencils and spray paint to mark storm drains that flow into Shady Creek. The message: "Dump No Waste. Drains to Stream."

The signs were to remind residents that any trash, chemicals or other debris thrown in the streets will go untreated into the creek after the next rain.

Alex Jasiek

The sign painting was just one part of their Stream Team program. Other activities include trash pickup, tests of water quality and a wildlife inventory in the stream channel.

Ten-year-old Alex Jasiek said he found a discarded car fender during one trash pickup effort. "We had to use a shovel to get it out," he said.

Nine-year-old Lucy Weilbacher said her clean-up crew found a part of a car and a part of a sewing machine. She said the trash and other pollutants reduce the amount of oxygen in the stream. "Without oxygen, wildlife can't survive," she said.

Brendan Hart

The kids are working on Stream Team projects as a part of their science curriculum in school. There, they are getting a "big picture" of worldwide environmental cleanup.

Nine-year-old Brendan Hart said, "If waters aren't cleaned, no fish will be able to live."

Ten-year-old Hannah Heiges said, "I want to help save all the animals."

Hannah Heiges

Stream Team #2790 is planning a big community clean-up event along the creek on Sunday, May 7. They hope others in the surrounding area will help with the clean up. They are planning to make give the event a community festival, including free food.

In addition to trash pickup, participants are going to dig out wild honeysuckle and other "trash" plants along the stream channel. Then, they'll replant banks with plants that were native to Missouri in early times.

(Young Saint Louis.com is highlighting the Stream Team program as an advance story leading up to the 2006 Earth Day celebration. The all-day environmental event will be held on Sunday, April 23, in Forest Park.

(This article focuses on efforts to clean-up water sources in Missouri. Improving water quality will be one of two main themes for the 2006 Earth Day.

(The other theme will be alternative fuels. An article on that subject will be in the YSL.com edition in April.)

Students picking up garbage at Deer Creek Park

Jen Fruend is the Stream Team leader. She's also the kids' science teacher. She said she'll be working again at the 2006 Earth Day.

She said the Rohan Woods kids are "really taking ownership" in cleanup efforts along Shady Creek. Under the Stream Team program, a group is assigned a segment of a river or stream and urged to improve it.

Students net macroinvertebrates

This is similar to the Missouri Department of Transportation's program of assigning segments of roads and highways to local groups. Those groups then work to clean up trash and make other roadside improvements.

Stream Team #2790's segment of Shady Creek is west of Brentwood Ave. south of Manchester. It's near the big metro bus barn south of Manchester Road.

So far, they haven't been able to do water quality tests in their part of the creek. In drier times of the year, the creek doesn't have a steady flow of water. But, the kids did do some wildlife survey in the waters of nearby Deer Creek.

Ms. Fruend said they'll be able to do water tests and wildlife surveys in Shady Creek later this spring. That's when winter runoff and spring rains deepen waters in the creek.

.2 tons of trash pulled out of Deer Creek

For now, the kids are getting ready for their big May community cleanup effort.

The kids admit that during trash pickup they can get muddy. But, most of them feel that getting dirty is part of the fun of the whole thing.

Alex Jasiek said, "I like to get messy." Besides, he said the dirt came out with washing.

He said that was better than when he went to Mad Mud Mania. That's a summer event where St. Louis County park workers build a obstacle course with lots of mud and water. He said his mother had to throw away the clothes he used there.

Additional Earth Day, Stream Team info If you are interested in learning more about the 2006 Earth Day or about the Stream Team program, here are some internet sites: The 2006 St. Louis Earth Day website is www.stlouisearthday.org. The website gives details of the Forest Park festivities as well as information about Earth Day Around Town events. The Stream Team information can be gotten from the Missouri Department of Conservation's website. The state agency sponsors the Stream Team program. The website is www.mdc.mo.gov/programs/strteam. The MDC goals of the Stream Team program are education, stewardship and advocacy. The stewardship goal involves "hands-on" projects like the work done by the Rohan Woods kids and hundreds of other groups across Missouri. If interested, check out these sites for ways to participate.