On February 26, 2011 SWOST presented a Youth Stream Team Conference at the Audubon Society. All the children in attendance seemed to enjoy themselves and learned a lot from the presentations regarding macroinvertebrate sampling, chemistry testing, and the riparian corridor. Hopefully, some new stream teams will be formed by the adult sponsors that attended and the students who
were inspired to take care of their local streams.
November 7, 2010 members from SWOST met at Grand Falls and picked up litter at the island below Grand Falls after their quarterly meeting. The trash pick up was very successful and Stream Team 48 was very appreciative for all the good help received in cleaning up the area. Pictures are on the page Stream Team Favorite Photos.
On May 22, 2010 Representatives of Teams 48, 3308, and 3714 met at Quaker Mill Park near Purcell at 10:00AM for park clean-up, SWOST meeting, and lunch. Quaker Mill Park is one of four sites(others: Glendale Fork in Barton County,Jolly Mill on Capps Creek, and Big Sugar) where Dee samples. She gave a brief history of the Mill: The race and pond which supplied power to a horizontally place wheel were dug by slaves in the 1850;s. The mill is no longer there, but the diverting wall in Spring River that sends part of the current into the race; the race, including its stone bottom; the pond; and the mound of earth that was dug from the race and pond are still there. Below the diverting wall and above the bridge on Highway D which is currently being replaced, the river becomes "braided" with the channels flowing among as many as seven islands, depending on the amount of water in the river. High water had swept light debris from the park and made it impossible to clean trash from in-stream strainers, but the usual aluminum cans and broken glass were found and bagged. Thanks to Dee for all her hard work in organizing this event.
On May 15, 2010 the newly appointed Executive Director of the Missouri Stream Team Watershed Coalition met with the SWOST officers at Ron's house. The new Executive Director is attempting to meet the representatives of the various state associations and help the Coalition finalize its tax exempt status.
On June 12, 2010 representative from several stream teams met at the new Pineville, MO Access on Elk River for tree planting and planting of native Missouri plants at the new MDC access.
Visit www.swost.org for updates regarding the water festival and other events scheduled for cleanups etc.
Go to our Links page for a link to the Newton County Health Department's web page for reports on Water Safety Tests, whenever you need that information.
