Recent Photographs

Here are pictures from our recent work day. We picked up 6 bags of debris, including aluminum cans, broken glass, paper trash and empty oil cans. This enthusiastic volunteer, originally with Stream Team No. 2416, joined us for the day. We are picking up trash once a month. If you would like to join us or learn more about stream teams, just let me know or visit the Missouri Stream Team website.

We also measured the area east and west of the bridge for our landscaping plan. The area suitable for landscaping on the east side of the bridge measures 210' x 75', while the area on the west side is 132' x 50'. This view is from the west side of bridge, looking northeast.

Due to recent rains, the water level was higher than any previous visit. This view is looking east, 250' downstream from the access point.

Proposed Plantings

Stream Team No. 2945 is designing a landscaping plan for the Spring River-LaRussell access site. We have submitted an order, through the Missouri Department of Conservation, for seventy-five seedlings to be delivered next April. The package we selected includes 15-Blackberry canes, 15-Aromatic Sumac seedlings, 15-False Indigo seedlings, 15-Roughleaf Dogwood seedlings, and 15-Wild Plums. Our next project will be to complete a rough survey of the site, to use for designing our landscape plan. Leave a comment if you have questions (or suggestions) about our seedling selections and/or would like to help next spring.

Visual Stream Survey Data Sheet

The purpose of the visual survey is to determine if there are any obvious water polution problems on the stream and to charaterize the riparian environment through which the stream flows. The following is a synopsis of our visual survey.
1. Floodplain Land Use: 40%-pasture/hayfields; 45%-row crops; 15%-woods.
2. Riparian Cover: 50%-trees; 30%-grasses or weeds; 10%-bare ground; 10% parking lot/streets.
3. Streambank Conditions: 40%-trees; 35%-grasses or weeds; 25%-pavement/riprap.
4. Bed Composition of Riffle: 35%-sand; 15%-gravel; 50%-cobble (2-10").
5. Percent Embeddedness of Riffle: 41%
6. Signs of Human Use: beer cans & bottles, campfire, 4-wheeler tracks, graffiti (spray paint), and tire ruts in grass.
7. Algae: 5% of stream bottom covered in algae. 100% of algae is 'close-growing' vs. filamentous.
8. Water Color: clear to very slightly yellow
9. Water Odor: none
10. Comments: need trash container; need barrier(s) to prevent further erosion from 4-wheeler activity; need to discuss desirability of other plantings.

The survey was done on November 4, 2006 @ 12:30pm. The data from this visual survey will be used a baseline for future surveys.