MISSOURI Spring 2023 • nature.org/missouri
The Ozarks Conservation Buyer Fund helps protect the Current River watershed. © Byron Jorjorian Protecting At-Risk Properties in the Ozarks After 15 years, the Conservation Buyer Fund is still paying off
quality of the water, trees and other critical natural features. TNC then resells the properties and returns the proceeds to the fund to buy more properties. In 2022 alone, TNC sold four parcels to private owners. Sarah Powell, land protection specialist for TNC in Missouri, says the fund expands the number of acres under protection, as well as the number of stewards caring for the watershed. “We can’t manage everything, so we need partners,” Powell says. “The Conservation Buyer Fund is a way to partner with those private landowners to increase conservation efforts.” Buyers in the latest round of sales included a retired couple who plan to build a small house on their 95 acres
along the Jacks Fork, a family that bought 260 acres as a place to enjoy time with their kids, and a grandfather and granddaughter who went in on 100 acres, where they’ll ride horses. The easements make the properties more affordable for most buyers, and they allow for a variety of uses—even limited timber harvesting—provided they’re done sustainably. One of the primary goals is to guard against the erosion that clear-cutting and other destructive practices can cause. The fund protects not just those properties, but the whole watershed. “Now that we’ve sold these properties, we can look for the next round,” Powell says.
The Current River is easy to love. Its sparkling waters ramble through grand Ozarks forests, luring millions of visitors to float, fish and otherwise enjoy its beauty. But it will take foresight and many hands to ensure it remains one of Missouri’s natural wonders for generations to come. The Howard and Joyce Wood Ozarks Conservation Buyer Fund is one way The Nature Conservancy is working toward that goal. It started 15 years ago with $4 million, and TNC has used the money to protect more than 12,000 acres along the Current and its main tributary, the Jacks Fork River, a treasured waterway in its own right. The fund allows TNC to buy properties and add conservation easements— permanent requirements to sustain the
MISSOURI
Eye on the Prairie Looking out over the tallgrass at Dunn Ranch Prairie is a magical experience. Sweeps of wildflowers, morning birdsong medleys and the sight of bison ambling across the horizon recall a landscape that has largely disappeared from the country’s plains. For those who cannot be there in person, The Nature Conservancy is installing a new prairie camera to replace an earlier version that did not survive its close-up with a curious bison (worth a watch on TNC in Missouri’s YouTube channel). The popular portal will stream the sights and sounds of the prairie through the seasons.
Shoal Creek is an important part of life in the Ozarks. © Dan Zarlenga
Shoal Creek Support The crucial watershed is a Missouri priority There is a lot to keep track of along Shoal Creek. The 66-mile-long waterway flows west through the southwestern Missouri Ozarks, traversing the state’s highest-producing landscapes for livestock. It’s the primary source of drinking water for Joplin and Neosho, and its watershed is one of the only places in the world where a freshwater mussel called the Neosho Mucket and other endangered species live. So, when The Nature Conservancy launched its Western Ozarks Waters initiative in 2015, Shoal Creek was a priority. Drew Holt, who became TNC’s coordinator for the initiative, has worked in the watershed for more than 15 years. He pulled together nearly two dozen conservation partners, neighboring ranchers and other key stakeholders six years ago to discuss what had been done in the past and how they could work together strategically to protect the watershed. Partnerships have grown over time, resulting in an array of projects that are striking in their variety: In 2022, students helped sample water, and volunteers planted thousands of trees. TNC finished a three-year project over the summer to stabilize streambanks in three spots and restore riparian buffers in four locations along Shoal Creek’s headwaters. In November, Neosho officials and partners celebrated the replacement of a dangerous dam in Lime Kiln Park with rocky rapids—a nature-based solution that opened the stream for kayakers and fish. More projects are coming in 2023, but Holt says the most exciting part is seeing the collaboration of conservation-minded landowners, public agencies and other key stakeholders who are prioritizing the watershed. “We’ve got many great partners, but more are needed to optimize Shoal Creek’s conservation future,” he says.
Watch the greater prairie- chickens dance and sing during their mating rituals in the spring, flowers bloom through the summer and coyotes hunt along the snowy ridges in winter. Or just enjoy the meditative view of wind pushing through acres of native grasses. You never know who or what will show up. A deer joins the star cast of our Dunn Ranch Prairie camera stream. © The Nature Conservancy
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