River Relief

July 5, 2012

July 11 Big Muddy Speaker Series - St. Charles 2012

"Pearls along the River - The Big Muddy National Fish & Wildlife Refuge"

Presented by Tom Bell, Manager for the Big Muddy National Fish & Wildlife Refuge". Talk will be preceded by a walk along the Missouri River through historic St. Charles.

Wednesday, July 11, 2012

5 p.m. Informative river walk through historic St. Charles
6. p.m. Meet at Big A's Restaurant
6:30 p.m. Presentation
At Big A's Restaurant
308 N Main St. -  St Charles, MO
(636) 949-9900
(directions below)

Presentation is FREE! This is our first of many (we hope) Big Muddy Speaker Series presentations in St. Charles. Show up to help kick off this great educational series!

NOTE - before the presentation, there will be a short informative walk through historic St. Charles to the First Capital Building. Meet at Big A's at 5 p.m. to go on the walk.

The Big Muddy National Fish and Wildlife Refuge is comprised of 11 separate units totalling approximately 16,000 acres located along the Missouri River floodplain between Kansas City and the St. Louis area. Using a passive management model, these "pearls on a string" include chutes, islands, wet prairies, bottomland forests, scour holes and lakes and areas that are allowed to flood in high water.

The St. Louis metro area has two units of the refuge, Boone's Crossing and Cora Island, yet few people in the public realize this amazing resource is at their back door. Refuge Manager Tom Bell will join us for a presentation on the refuge, including the history, and overview of the refuge units across the state, plans for restoration projects in the refuge and what they've learned since the refuge started.

The refuge is supported by Friends of Big Muddy, an organization dedicated to helping the refuge accomplish their goals of restoration and improving visitor contact. Diane Oerly, the president of Friends of Big Muddy, will also give a brief talk about the organization and how you can be involved.

A special thank you to Greg Poleski of Greenway Network for making this happen in St. Charles!

Big Muddy National Fish & Wildlife Refuge Units

The refuge is supported by Friends of Big Muddy, an organization dedicated to helping the refuge accomplish their goals of restoration and improving visitor contact. Diane Oerly, the president of Friends of Big Muddy, will also give a brief talk about the organization and how you can be involved. Friends of Big Muddy is one of the organizations state-wide that support the Big Muddy Speaker Series.

Directions

This presentation will be located in Big A's, a restaurant overlooking the Missouri River in historic downtown St. Charles.

To get there from I-70 -

• Take I-70 to exit 229B - the 5th St. Exit
• Merge onto 5th St. headed north toward St. Charles.
• After about 1 mile, turn right on Monroe St.
• Turn left onto N. Main St.
• Big A's will be on your right (308 N. Main St.) Additional parking is available in the rear.
• Click here to view on Google Maps.