Little Creek after restoration © Daniel Jensen/Shive-Hattery
Little Creek Farm Fish Passage The Topeka shiner is harder to see than the bison roaming Dunn Ranch Prairie, but the 3-inch minnow is just as important to the biodiversity of Missouri prairies. A major streambank restoration downstream from an aging culvert on the Harrison County site protects against erosion and improves water quality. The project includes a bioengineered underwater ramp that remedies a 6-foot drop off the edge of the culvert, reconnecting the shiner with crucial pieces of its native habitat. TNC has been working with the Missouri Department of Conservation and U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS) to repatriate the silvery, striped minnow at Dunn Ranch Prairie. The new stream project helps efforts launched throughout the Midwest to save the shiner since it was added to the endangered species list in 1998. Now, the little fish is on the rebound, according to a USFWS report released in 2021. That’s a victory for biodiversity, great and small. Lower Meramec Multi-Jurisdictional Floodplain Management Plan The lower Meramec River wriggles across central and eastern Missouri, passing through forests and farmlands, wildly biodiverse tributaries and busy suburbs before it flows into the Mississippi River south of St. Louis. It’s a complex system that affects dozens of communities and hundreds of species. Through the Army Corps of Engineers’ Silver Jackets program, The Nature Conservancy has collaborated with cities and counties in the floodplain as well as state and federal agencies to inform strategies to support the river basin and all who depend on it. The Lower Meramec Multi-Jurisdictional Floodplain Management Plan produced as part of the effort offers a comprehensive look at the floodplain as well as a variety of approaches to lessen the damage of flooding. TNC helped develop the plan, including the creation of TNC’s online Lower Meramec Floodplain Management Tool to help decision-makers figure out priorities for restoration and management.
Lower Meramec Floodplain Tool © TNC
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