WESTERN OZARKS
Water Work A confluence of creeks, conservation and collaboration in southwest Missouri
On the western edge of the Ozarks, a flood-prone cattle pasture is undergoing a transformation. The 35-acre property sits just north of Neosho in Newton County, where spring-fed Hickory Creek meanders into Shoal Creek. Despite its recent use for livestock, the confluence site is river land. Shoal Creek eventually joins Spring River and winds its way through Kansas, Oklahoma, Arkansas and on to the Gulf of Mexico. Historical riparian zones and wetlands here once supported a diversity of plants and wildlife native to southwest Missouri. A resurgence is underway. “This site, with our support, is returning to a natural riparian forest and wetland … sometimes called ‘rewilding,’” Conservation Counsel Eric Dannenmaier says. Dannenmaier, who has decades of experience teaching and advocating for natural resource conservation and water rights, directs RiverLaw.org and is counsel to nonprofit
environmental groups, including Land Learning Foundation (LLF), a Missouri land trust and nonprofit focused on outdoor education. LLF received a grant to acquire the property in 2020 and set out to create a demonstration site for riparian conservation practices. LLF connected with four core conservation partners: The Nature Conservancy, Midwest Waters Initiative, Missouri Stream Teams and RiverLaw.org. Together, they formed the Shoal Creek Watershed Consortium. These partners have, in turn, worked with local community leaders and landowners in an ever-widening network of schools, agencies and conservation organizations as the project and the confluence property have become a hub of research, outdoor education and innovative restoration practices. Depending on the time of year, you might find high school and college students planting trees and shrubs, Missouri
THIS PAGE The Nature Conservancy’s Drew Holt and Land Learning Foundation Deputy Director Katie Wiesehan Marsh introduce GLADE participants to Shoal Creek watershed issues and restoration plans at the Hickory-Shoal confluence. © Eric Dannenmaier
10 MISSOURI : ACTION AND IMPACT
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