Welcome to La Russell Access Point

La Russell Stream Team #2945 members worked to re-attach the Welcome to La Russell Access Point sign today, to the two new posts recently erected on the site. The posts and sign had been vandalized last fall.

What does vandalism look like?

An inspection on the LaRussell Access Point today, revealed several recent incidents of vandalism.
Highway U has recently been sprayed with an oil/asphalt mixture. It appears to me that the contractor pulled onto the Missouri Department of Conservation La Russell Accesss site, and cleaned their equipment. The photograph reveals multiple areas of asphalt contamination.

The liquid oil/asphalt mixture ran off the gravel road and down the embankment. The liquid oil/asphalt mixture ran right over one of our newly planted witch hazel seedlings. The hardened oil/asphalt mix was about 1" thick around the base of the seedling.





This is evidence of 4-wheelers spinning their tires, throwing gravel in the parking area. This activity causes erosion and contamination of the river.





The LaRussell Access point is not an ashtray or a dumpster. Littering is certainly a type of vandalism.

2nd high water event (April 13, 2009)

We experienced our 2nd high water event this spring on Monday, April 13th. Reports of 1.75" to 2" of rain in the area over Easter, resulted in the river rising from 2.13' @ 7:15am on Easter Sunday to 3.79' @ 9:15am on Monday, April 13. [click on graph for close-up view]

Wild Plum Blooms

Five of the nine wild plum seedlings were blooming today. [click on photograph for close-up view]





We checked the status of the seedlings (again today):
Blackberries - (small) green leaves
Wild Plums - (small) green leaves, 5 with flower buds
Aromatic Sumac - seed pods
False Indigo - nothing
River Willow - nothing
Roughleaf Dogwod - (small) green leaves.