Missouri Action and Impact Report - Fall 2022

same year at Little Creek Farm, near the Iowa border in Harrison County, where TNC is working on solutions for sustainable grazing that help ranchers and the environment. Work is underway for another CCI at TNC's Mill Creek property near Van Buren in the Ozarks. And with the addition of the new property near Huntsdale, TNC envisions another cornerstone of the CCI program. "Our research and that of our peers is producing real data that can lead to solutions and transform the way people use and value nature," says Adam McLane, The Nature Conservancy's Missouri state director. "But there's more that can

The Missouri River CCI has the potential for numerous research projects tied to floodplain and wetland restoration, such as the effects on carbon sequestration, soil health and the lives of fish and birds. The floodplain is relatively small in the context of the massive river system that is the Missouri, but it could tie into larger research projects in the area. One of the Missouri River CCI's greatest assets is its potential as a place where everyone from school kids to adults can learn more about the river and the state's unique habitats. Our partners at Missouri River Relief are already doing outstanding work teaching people about the importance of the river's health. Along with a long history of river cleanups and stewardship, Missouri River Relief's educational paddle trips, camps and workshops have become essential tools for progress. More than 30,000 students and teachers have taken part in its programs. As the organization has grown, Schnarr says, it began looking for a permanent base along the river. They even held a charette in the spring of2022 to create a vision for that plan. Their timing was uncanny. The Potterfields' donation offered the perfect opportunity to marry the complementary work of Missouri River Relief and TNC on the property. Now, the two organizations and other partners are working on new visions to turn the site into a place where generations of people can come to learn about and enjoy the river and the surrounding habitat.

Ultimately, the Potterfields decided to ensure the property remained an asset for the community and donated it to TNC. With its partners, TNC is figuring out the details of the site's future. The work will include high-quality restoration of natural habitats across the acreage, likely to focus on the wetlands and eroding riverbank to protect the land and the river. Plans also include using the former restaurant building as an outreach center for Missouri River Relief. The boat ramp, previously operated through memberships, has reopened to the public. Community access, education, outreach, research and conservation will be key components of the site.

be done to speed up the pace and impact of those results-and that's the gap we're hoping to fill with our CCIs." McLane notes that science-based conservation is in TNC's DNA. "We've been protecting critical landscapes in Missouri since 1956," he says. "And as a science-based organization, we want to learn everything we can about those places-and encourage others to learn from them, as well."

Missouri River Center for Conservation Innovation

In 2021, The Nature Conservancy in Missouri launched a new program to create demonstration and research facilities on its properties to help boost the type of scientific innovation needed to protect the land and water we all depend on.

SCAN THIS CODE or visit nature.org/missouririvercci to learn more about this new TNC property.

The first Center for Conservation Innovation (CCI) was created the

THIS PAGE The 164-acre property includes a former restaurant expected to become an outreach center. © Doyle Murphy/TNC

NATURE.ORG/MISSOURI 7

vulnerabilities-draws people in and moves them to action.

with her years ago to a presentation by Doug Ladd, the now retired conservation director for TNC in Missouri. C says he was pulled in because the discussions were fascinating and the solutions Ladd described seemed smart.

"You think that if more people knew stuff like that, they'd care more," she says.

When C and M sat down this year to make their annual plan for their philanthropy, they did something different. Both of the main projects they had been funding were doing well enough for others to take over, and they decided to ask their contact at TNC in Missouri where the money would make the biggest difference. It's not something they would have done without that long-running relationship, and they still planned to do their homework on the proposal. But they stress that building trust like that is critical.

"I'm attracted to smart," C says.

As C and M learned more, they became convinced the best way to help was to focus their philanthropy on one or two big strategies, rather than spread it among numerous projects and organizations. They started with turtles because, well, they liked turtles. They had taken their family on vacation to Florida when their kids were young, and they remember vividly their wonder at seeing loggerhead sea turtles lay their eggs. They ultimately decided to support a project in the Solomon Islands where TNC was working with local communities to protect the largest hawksbill sea turtle rookery in the South Pacific. Another interest followed a similar path. On a trip to Kenya, a Masai guide had introduced C and M to people in his village. The couple felt an instant connection and returned home looking for ways to help people in the region. They eventually settled on a TNC project that safeguarded a vital water source in Nairobi, improving the lives of the women who went each day to collect the water.

"We're at the point with TNC that we're impressed with everything we've seen," C says.

The suggestion of funding a matching gift for the Healthy Cities strategy in Missouri appealed to them. The strategy's potential to not only achieve conservation goals but to do so in ways that helped St. Louis' historically disenfranchised populations fit the couple's growing interests in social justice. And the matching component seemed like a smart way to leverage their gift to encourage others to develop their own relationships with TNC. Already, it's doing just that. The first gift as part of the matching program came from a couple who find themselves in the same place C and M were years ago: They're figuring out the best ways to focus their giving to create the largest impact. They, too, are looking for those smart ideas in need of funding. When C and M heard about the couple, they seemed encouraged. It is easy to look at a world beset by problems of climate change and widespread injustice and feel overwhelmed, but they have learned through experience how careful, targeted support can make real, measurable change. It is an antidote to feeling helpless. That's why they continue to give and work with TNC toward a future that will carry on beyond their own lives.

Aside from being of personal interest, the projects and TNC fit within other criteria the couple had set for their giving.

"We're looking for, 'Here's a good idea that's underfunded, and we can execute it,"' C says.

Finding those really good ideas can be difficult, the couple adds. In the beginning, they started by trying to answer two simple questions when considering whether to donate to an organization: "Is what they do good? And do they need the money?" The questions gave them a basic framework for their research. The answers helped them get started with TNC, and the yearslong relationship has evolved from there. C and M say the relationship is important. They look for organizations that prize those connections, not just the money. They recommend getting involved-talk to the people doing the work and see what's happening in person, if possible. Starting with that first presentation by Doug Ladd, they began attending TNC events and lectures because they found them interesting. They've learned about tallgrass prairies and biodiversity, the lives of caterpillars and, of course, turtles. M says learning about nature-and its

"It's a place where there's a sense of really moving past the sense of being overwhelmed," C says.

"Hope," M says. "It's hope."

SCAN THIS CODE or visit nature.org/mocities to learn more about the Healthy Cities matching gift program.

NATURE.ORG/MISSOURI 11

seven amazing distilleries, and they do X. The next day, they call it the Bourbon Trail, and it automatically becomes three X, even though they didn't change anything. They just started talking about it in a new way. And then people from all over the country want to go to Kentucky and bike or drive or do whatever, you know? I think there's the opportunity for Missouri to do that. I don't know exactly what that looks like, but it's all there already. In the fall we opened a store. So, now we have the outfitting side ofthe business and a retail presence. The store is called the Guide Shop, because the guides built the store and stocked it, and are working at it and stuff like that, partly because we don't have anybody else but guides. We are already an outdoor recreation city that doesn't know it. You see it all over the place, whether it's people out on mountain bike trails or driving around with boats on their cars. And I think that St. Louis has a really great range ofoutdoor recreation opportunities. You can wake up on a sandbar on the Jacks Fork and have dinner at Busch Stadium, eating a hot dog, watching a Cardinals game. We need to get outside here and do awesome outdoor stuff. And then other people around the country will hear about it and want to come here and do the same.

van with a canoe strapped to the top ofit and walks in with some calf-high neoprene boots that were covered in mud. It was our third day ofever being open. So, the floors were, like, brand new, and he tracked mud into the Gramophone, walked up to the bar, ordered a beer, and we started chatting. And that was the beginning ofmy now decade-and-a-half-long friendship with Big Muddy Mike. I think two years later, he finally got me to go out on the river with him. We went over to Mosenthein Island, which is now like a second home. Mike wanted to gather driftwood for a fence that he was building around his house. So, it was kind oflike a Tom Sawyer mission. We were picking up massive pieces ofdriftwood, putting them back in a canoe, ferrying back to North Riverfront Park and then ferrying back. We did multiple trips back and forth. It wasn't necessarily a river trip, but we were out there on the river, and it was great. I felt like I had left St. Louis and I had gone and had an adventure, even though I hadn't been more than 20 minutes from my house. That was the "aha" moment.

A lot of people ask us, "Where is everyone else?" Once they realize that they're having a good time and that paddling on the Missouri or the Mississippi is an awesome thing to do, they immediately wonder where everyone else is. And it's like, "Well, earlier today you didn't even think you could do this." The rivers are an asset to this city that can never be taken from us. We talk a lot on these trips about how Fortune 500 companies can come and go, and the city takes a big emotional hit when we find out that some company got bought out by some other company and things like that. There are things to St. Louis that are permanent, and the rivers are those. We already have the opportunity to have these rivers be something we all feel good about, about why we choose to live in St. Louis. You can see other cities doing that with their natural resources. But we don't do it here. It's like we're leaving it on the table.

The Bourbon Trail is an interesting thing. It's like, one day, Kentucky has

SCAN THIS CODE or visit nature.org/ mopodcast to hear the full conservation with Roo Yawitz on It's in Our Nature.

THIS PAGE Heading out on the Mississippi River to Mosenthein Island with Big Muddy Adventures. © Doyle Murphy/TNC

NATURE.ORG/MISSOURI 13

MOTIVATION FOR MITIGATION

Understanding Mitigation The strategy is new for TNC in Missouri, and it has a lot of promise for conservation

Ideally, building a factory would never fill in a wetland. A new housing development would not affect a nearby stream. But construction doesn't always play out that way. That's where mitigation comes in. Mitigation is a way to offset damage to water resources when better options are not possible. That might involve building new wetlands or restoring a streambank at another location to help compensate for the ecological harm. "Mitigation is third in the hierarchy of what we're looking at," explains Wes Hauser, mitigation strategy manager for The Nature Conservancy in Missouri. "First, you want to avoid your impacts to the extent possible and then minimize your impacts where they are unavoidable." If government regulators conclude a project can't be changed to avoid or minimize its impact, the federal Clean Water Act allows for those responsible to buy mitigation credits, which represent restored or enhanced water resources-usually wetlands, stream or open water-near where the impacts occurred. An emerging mitigation industry is growing to meet the demand for those credits. TNC in Missouri has been working toward establishing its first mitigation bank-a site where the Conservancy would do high-quality restoration work, or even create new wetlands, and then sell credits to fund more work. Hauser, who joined TNC in 2021 to head up the mitigation strategy, has been visiting conservation partners in the Kansas City area and touring the Blue River. The Blue, with its mix of impacts from nearby development and outdoors

opportunities, is an example of a place where mitigation can make a big difference.

"Building wetlands and building streams and preserving parts of the Blue River that folks can access through a highly developed trail system provides an excellent opportunity for connecting folks with nature, which is what we like to do at The Nature Conservancy," Hauser says. Much of the mitigation banking industry runs through private companies, but Hauser says it is important for TNC to be involved. Not only does it give TNC another avenue for doing conservation work and blunting ecological harm, it can help influence an emerging industry for the better. A team comprising the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Environmental Protection Agency, U.S. Fish and Wildlife, and state regulatory agencies review mitigation plans, but the process still allows for private companies to push forward projects that maximize profits while doing only the minimum for conservation. There are private companies doing good work, Hauser says, but TNC can model best practices and raise the bar for everyone. "Hopefully, with TNC being engaged in this work, we're reigning in any bad actors that may exist in the mitigation banking space," he says.

SCAN THIS CODE or visit nature.org/mopodcast to hear from Wes and learn more about mitigation on a special episode of It's in Our Nature.

14 MISSOURI: ACTION AND IMPACT

The Nature Conservancy Missouri Chapter P.O. Box 440400 St. Louis, MO 63144 nature.org/missouri

NONPROFIT ORG US POSTAGE PAID EUREKA, MO PERMIT NO. 40

MISSOURI ACTION AND IMPACT

The Water Issue Water seeps into nearly every project and policy The Nature Conservancy takes on in Missouri. Whether its flooding or pollution, fish-killing erosion or new challenges caused by a changing climate, TNC is working with partners across the state on smart, scalable solutions. Read the report to learn more about the tools and techniques we are using to conserve one of Missouri’s greatest resources. What’s Inside

Connect with Us natureconservancymissouri

nature.org/missouri

missouri@tnc.org

nature_mo

314-968-1105

nature_missouri

nature.org/mopodcast

Page 1 Page 2 Page 3 Page 4 Page 5 Page 6 Page 7 Page 8 Page 9 Page 10 Page 11 Page 12 Page 13 Page 14 Page 15 Page 16

Made with FlippingBook interactive PDF creator