Kids seek high conservation rating

Travis, Aaron and Heather Gemmell (left to right)

Heather, Aaron and Travis Gemmell are moving closer to earning the highest rating in the Missouri's Conservation Frontiers program. Their mother, Lisa, is working right along with them.

The Frontiers program combines learning and service projects.

Participants get lessons in all sorts of outdoor activities, like archery and how to make a survival shelter.

But, they also do projects to conserve and improve outdoor resources. They include cleaning streams and building outdoor shelters for wildlife.

The Gemmells have been in the Frontiers program for four years. At the time, Heather was 11, Aaron, 9, and Travis, only 7.

Ordinarily, Travis would have been too young to take part. But, since his mother and two older siblings were joining, conservation officials made an exception.

Now, the kids have earned nearly 80 per cent of the 30,000 points needed to qualify for a rating of Missouri Conservationist. They've completed 10 of the 12 steps needed.

Fifteen-year-old Heather said the best thing about the Frontiers' program is "that I learned you don't have to fear critters." She said a lot of her friends "freak out if they even see a spider." But, she added, "Now, it's easier to enjoy wildlife."

That's a good thing for the Gemmell family. They live on 6-acres in rural Jefferson County, near the town of Pevely. A good portion of their land is forest.

Thirteen-year-old Aaron said, "One time we were hunting mushrooms and we found a fawn." The kids have learned to identify all sorts of Missouri wildlife.

They've even earned points for going on a trip to identify vultures.

Sometimes the identification process has gone a little off track.

Some giant sunflower plants they're growing for bird seeds.

Eleven-year-old Travis said the kids brought a snake into the house. They were keeping it in a jar until they had time to make an identification. He said they went out of the house one day and when they came back the snake had disappeared.

"It may still be in the ductwork," he said.

Another time, a salamander got loose in the house. Heather said, "The next day, it came out of the ductwork all dusty. We had to wash it off with the hose before we released it."

The Gemmells have lots of animals around. They have cats, dogs and a rabbit. They also have built both bird feeders and houses as well as bat houses.

Heather said her favorite service activity involved cleaning a stream at the Rockwood Conservation Reservation. That's where their Frontiers chapter is headquartered.

"I liked the Stream Team that got rid of watercress clogging the stream," she said.

Aaron said he enjoyed the building of a survival shelter. That's a wooden lean-to that you might make if you were lost in the woods during a winter storm.

Travis described how the family worked in their own woods to try to cut soil erosion. First, they tried planting cedar trees. But, they didn't catch on in the soil. Then, they planted mimosa trees that are doing better.

The kids also built a wood pile in their backyard where small animals can take shelter from weather or from larger predators. Heather said, "We have bunnies and squirrels in there." Travis said he's seen snake scales in the pile but noone has found any living snakes.

The Gemmells had to make three tries at establishing their butterfly garden, full of wildflowers. That provides shelter and food for butterflies. The first year, after planting the seeds, a big storm washed many of the seeds away.

Then, a year ago, the crabgrass got started before the flower seeds could sprout.

But, this year, they planted a big range of wildflowers and they came up well.

Heather said they were able to identify a variety of butterflies. Included were the black swallowtail, spicebush, sulphur, common blue and tiger butterflies. "But, she didn't see any monarch butterflies," she said.

The Gemmell kids not only like the outdoors, they like to do artwork. The kids all have been winners in the annual Mastodon Art and Science Fair in Jefferson County. Heather likes to do sculpture while both Aaron and Travis do oil paintings.

Heather won a $300 prize from the St. Louis Holocaust Museum for one of her sculptures. It was a dove of peace on a pedestal surrounded by a coil of barbwire.

If you'd like to know more about the Conservation Frontiers program, you can log on to the Missouri Department of Conservation website at www.conservation.state.mo.us.