May 5 and 8, 2007
Sioux Passage Learning Festival: Birds, Bugs & Botany
Sioux Passage County Park & Pelican Island Natural Area, Florissant, MO
Our Missouri River Learning Festival with Hazelwood School District middle schoolers was the first event in a week of scheduled activities on the river that we called River Camp (see below).
Centered at Sioux Passage County Park, the event brought together students with 14 river educators on the banks of the Missouri River.
We make jokes about the best way to bring needed rain is to schedule a learning festival. This day was no exception. Rain poured down all morning long. Students without raingear were suited up in trashbag ponchos whipped up on the spot. As always, the kids’ positive attitudes took over, and the rain became just part of the fun.
Hands-on activities included Missouri American Water’s excellent presentation on turning muddy river water into tap water. Americorps Stream Team Assistants showed a sample of living stream critters, from crawfish to the macroinvertebrates that later emerge as adult insects and serve as the canaries of water quality. A huge Water Patrol jet boat became the focus of a talk on river safety. Students got their blood flowing at Missouri River Relief’s Recycling Relay and Macro Mayhem, while they clustered amidships our trash boat, Saskia, to hear about where all this trash comes from and what they can do about it.
Birds, bugs & botany—a naturalists’ foray
Monday was a literal tromp in the woods. A group of area birders, botanists and one lone bug buff arrived at Sioux Passage Boat Access. We boated them out to different locations on the three-mile long Pelican Island, one of several remaining islands in the area, representing a variety of habitats from mature cottonwood groves to sandbar to reclaimed farmland.
Groups kept species lists and wandered the island. Spontaneous discussions on invasive plants, warbler migration and insect identification were rampant. After returning to the ramp, we pulled one of our macroinvertebrate rock baskets and examined what kind of life swarms on the muddy riverbottom.
Following the afternoon of exploration, groups compared species lists and discussed their findings.