ranchers and other partners, contributing to cleaner, healthier waterways. The restoration at the Hickory-Shoal confluence site is designed to ripple far beyond the present time and physical space. One of the challenges of the site was active erosion. When cattle grazed along the creek, they trampled and destabilized the streambanks and introduced nutrients into the watershed. The currents flowing past then carved away the streambank and carried sediment, field runoff and cattle waste downstream. Unfortunately, this is all too common and can damage habitat necessary for aquatic life native to the Ozarks, as well as ecosystems far downstream. As water from Shoal and Hickory creeks enters the Mississippi River system it leaves a hypoxic legacy. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration cites excess nutrients flowing into the Mississippi as one of the major contributors to the hypoxic zone, sometimes called the “dead zone”, in the Gulf of Mexico. The WATER Institute at Saint Louis University is one of the partner organizations working at the confluence site. Their experts have designed the bioengineered streambank stabilization that will use native trees and shrubs to restore the bank. This will promote a long-term, low-maintenance solution to erosion and help filter water that runs off the land into the river system. “Working to restore watersheds in partnership with local communities gives every participant a hands-on experience with conservation methods and trains a new generation to be land and water stewards,” says Katie Wiesehan Marsh, LLF’s deputy director. “For Shoal Creek Consortium partners, engaging the community in the whole process—planning, research, monitoring, planting, managing for the future—gets the work done and reinforces the importance of conservation values,” Dannenmaier adds. “It makes the project sustainable. The landowners and students we’re working with today are from this place, and they know it better than anyone. They are the leaders of the next 10, 20, 30, and 40 years.”
Department of Conservation and Missouri Department of Natural Resources experts certifying volunteers to take water samples, university researchers gathering data or biologists monitoring water quality and riverine habitat. “We started this project with the Land Learning Foundation, and look what it’s become,” says Drew Holt, Western Ozarks watershed coordinator for TNC. Work at and near the confluence site has taken off in recent years, according to Holt, who has spent 30 years working on watershed issues in southwest Missouri. Across the road from the confluence site, the City of Neosho, in partnership with state and federal partners, recently constructed an aquatic organism passage at Lime Kiln Park that converted a dangerous low-head dam into an updated recreation hotspot with a path for fish to migrate and a passage for kayakers to safely paddle through. The consortium’s confluence site project has been the catalyst for another half-dozen projects in the watershed, all of which collaborate with private landowners, farmers,
SCAN THIS CODE or visit shoalcreekwatershed.org to learn more.
THIS PAGE TOP TO BOTTOM GLADE students use a kick net to collect macroinvertebrates in Hickory Creek. © Katie Wiesehan Marsh Neosho High School volunteers ride out to help with tree planting. © Jeremiah Brewer
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