NatureBoost Podcast September 2024
SMA
[Opening music.]
>> Hey there, and welcome back to NatureBoost. I'm Jill Pritchard with the Missouri Department of Conservation. Before we get into this month's episode, I want to start off with another listener giveaway. We have some new NatureBoost swag that I'm anxious to share with you. If you send me a message telling me your favorite NatureBoost episode, I will send you a new NatureBoost hoodie. They are super soft, love the color . . . and will be a great way to show your support, and keep you warm this fall and winter. If you'd like to grab one, log on to our landing page at Missouri conservation dot org, forwards slash NatureBoost, scroll down to the bottom of the page to send us a message. I'll be thrilled to send you some new swag!
[Music.]
With more than one hundred thousand miles of rivers and streams, Missouri has a variety of blue spaces for floating, fishing, and exploring. Not only do our water systems provide recreational opportunities, but they're actually really vital resources. Did you know that nearly half of Missourians receive their drinking water from the Missouri river? Our rivers and streams also play critical roles in power generation, river commerce, and of course, fish and wildlife habitat.
Knowing how important our water systems are, how much they contribute to our health and wellbeing and the wellbeing of our precious fish and wildlife, it's imperative to keep them clean, right? The golden rule of the environment is "leave no trace." Sadly, not everyone follows the golden rule. Whether intentional or not, littering leads to soil, water and air pollution, and just disrupts your overall outdoor experience, right?
[2:03.]
There's nothing worse than camping, floating or hiking and coming across discarded soda cans, or plastic bags, or cigarette butts along the way . . . but thankfully, Missouri has thousands of volunteers who make a tremendous impact on the health of our water systems.
Just to reiterate, I said "thousands of volunteers." And, you may be familiar with them. They are the Missouri Stream Team. This organization celebrated its 35th anniversary this summer with a big bash at Merrimack State Park. I was lucky to be invited. MDC Stream Team program supervisor Becca O'Hearn gave the opening remarks.
>> Before I came over here, I spent about 13 years as a pollution biologist for MDC. In that position, I saw lots of doom and gloom every day. Anything ranging from chlorinated water killing off a small stream, to an oil spill, to industries dumping pollutants into the water . . . I saw it all. And, what inspired me the most in the job was that it was usually the citizens who reported the events to us. Without the citizens, we'd still have a lot more pollution. So, that's why I'm here. I have the privilege in that position of seeing really, really old cases of pollution in the State of Missouri, dating back to 1939 when MDC was first created.
What I like the most about looking in those old reports, is that you can really see how bad it truly was in the state. We had reports about people saying "I cannot eat the fish in the 101 [sp?] river, because there's so much oil pollution, the fish taste like oil."
[4:00.]
Things like "I used to go fishing in this fishing spot with my kids, but now when I go there, there aren't any fish there, and there aren't any frogs either." Lots of reports like that. Back in those days, we didn't really have any regulations to control water quality issues. We had one regulation on the books, really hard to enforce, and we weren't very successful at it. Luckily in the 70s, the Clean Water Act came on board, and we had some regulations with some teeth. Things really started to turn around.
[Music ♪.]
>> Missouri Stream Team got its start in 1988 when a small group of anglers became fed up with unsightly trash disrupting their fishing in Rubidoux creek in Pulaski County. The group decided to clean that section of stream, thus forming the first Missouri Stream Team, the Rubidoux Fly Fisher's Association, Stream Team Number 1. It's still going strong 35 years later. Since then, the program has grown to more than 6,000 stream teams across the state, with more than 135,000 volunteers.
[Music ♪.]
>> The general public, including our stream team volunteers, are critical to seeing what's out there on the landscape. They're what we call on One Health, [sp?] our sensors on the landscape. They're out there at their local stream, or maybe the lake they like to fish at, and they're observing things that look funny or smell funny, or perhaps they see dead animals around the water, or floating fish in the water. They report that back to the state. Then we do something about it. Every time, we do something about it. They're really critical to getting these events reported to us, and resolving issues out there.
[6:02.]
We have very limited staff in the state to do this work, so we can't be everywhere at once. We really do need the public to be educated about this. You know, if they see something, to actually say something about it, so we can fix the problem.
[Stream sounds, music ♪.]
>> The ongoing work of more than 6,000 stream teams and their volunteers have made significant impacts on the health of Missouri's streams over the last 35 years. That work includes volunteers giving more than 3.5 million hours of time, removing more than 14,000 tons of trash from Missouri waterways, planting more than 400,000 trees along streams, conducting more than 35,000 water quality monitoring trips, and and stenciling close to 22 thousand storm drains.
[Music ♪.]
When planning this episode, I knew I had to talk to one of the program's biggest advocates, Brian Waldrop. Brian is Stream Team's volunteer engagement specialist, and just another wonderful human being I was lucky to talk to on the podcast. Trust me, if you spend 5 minutes with Brian, you'll be ready to become a "stream teamer."
>> What are you listening to in there?
>> My voice.
>> Really? How many second delay?
>> It's instant. Want to try it? Want to hear? Can you hear me? Hello, hello? Now you talk.
>> Hello, hello?
>> Isn't that weird? That you can hear your voice?
>> Wow! That is so crisp! That is amazing!
>> It's great quality . . . isn't it? This is an award winning podcast, we have nothing but the best.
>> Now I know! [unclear.]
>> This is a completely volunteer-based program.
>> 100% volunteer-based.
[8:01.]
This is wonderful. It's not an organization you've gotta pay dues to, or anything else. Take passion and ownership in the stream or the floodplain, the park, your sidewalk. You know, trash does flow downstream, or downhill to the stream. It's all free, it's been a blast for 35 years.
>> In that 35 years, how has this program grown?
>> Well, from the "power of one", from Mark Van Patten to 6,700 teams. 6,700 teams either consisting of one person on the team, or hundreds and hundreds on a team.
>> Brian mentioned the name Mark Van Patten and the "power of one." Mark was instrumental in establishing Stream Team Number 1, the Rubidoux Fly Fisher's Association, and is widely acknowledged to be the founder of the program. Brian awarded Mark with the lifetime achievement award at the Stream Team's 35th anniversary.
[Applause.]
>> It's the power of one person, one team, to come together as 6,000 plus teams, to form the one Stream Team program. This is the power of Mark Van Patten that we're all still living today. Please join me in thanking the founding member of Stream Team Number 1, the one and only Mark Van Patten.
[Applause.]
>> I thank you very much! This is an exceptional honor. I don't know what to say . . .
[Laughing.]
The Stream Team program was my life, as it is your lives. And, you would have done the same. It's all about what we can give to mother nature, and to this planet, to try and make it better for generations to come. I just want to say thank you, again, for this recognition. It really means a lot to me. Thank you!
[10:00.]
[Applause.]
[Music ♪.]
>> Being here at the anniversary, it's such a sense of camaraderie.
>> You can feel it, can't you?
>> Truly, I can! Yeah. Tell me about that?
>> You know, it's a bunch of strangers from all different backgrounds . . . we're just one big family, for the same cause: protecting our rivers and streams. And, you meet somebody that you've worked shoulder to shoulder . . . you know, blisters, muddy and everything else, and you get to know that person. You're friends, you're family. You call them your river name, or . . . you know, it's a wonderful, wonderful program.
>> And, it's not just trash pickup. There are so many other things that stream teams do.
>> Yes. In the beginning, it was really about the trash. Now that a lot of these teams have cleaned up their stretch, they're wanting more. So, you've got water quality monitoring, maybe you don't live near a stream, but whatever goes down your street into that storm drain leads into the stream. So, we started doing storm drain stencilings, and storm drain markings. Then of course, you have the autumn olive [sp?] and the honeysuckle and the wild garlic . . .
>> What are those, for people who don't know?
>> Invasive plants. Just, totally exotic plants that do not belong here. No natural . . . no native species consume them, but they help spread the seeds.
>> So, stream teams even remove invasive plants?
>> Hundreds and hundreds of acres. There are teams that . . . that's all they do.
>> Really? There are teams just strictly dedicated to invasive plant removal . . .?
>> Solely to working the riparian corridor, the buffer zone. The essence of a pure, wonderful stream is having a solid riparian corridor.
[12:04.]
It helps slow down the erosion, it creates a nice, meandering stream that flows on down. But, the invasives have staying power. So, with the Department of Conservation and the Stream Team program, you remove the honeysuckle or the autumn olive, [sp?] and your Stream Team will get free plants and trees to replace them.
>> If someone is interested in being part of stream teams, can they join an already established stream team, or should they start their own? What should they do?
>> Either/or. Starting a team is super easy. Go to streamteam.org, sign up. Or, word of mouth spreads like wildfire. When you just say "stream team" to somebody, somebody knows somebody who's on a team, and you can ask them "can I be on your team?"
>> Well, I should hope so if there's over 6,000 established stream teams in this state! Wow, yeah.
>> Yes! And, 6,700 over 35 years. Somebody knows somebody who's on a stream team. Ask them to join their team. That one person does goodness . . . two people can do greatness.
>> What is the weirdest thing that you've picked up in a stream team clean up? The weirdest thing you've found?
>> I have two now. I know you have met her . . . Merrimack Mary.
>> [Laughing.] I forgot she had a name!
>> And, Merrimack Mary is in my backseat.
>> Is she still there?
>> Yes!
>> She's always your passenger princess? [Laughing.]
>> She's my icebreaker, yeah.
>> And, Merrimack Mary is . . .?
>> Merrimack Mary was . . . is, she was found on the very upper stretches of the Merrimack river. There was an overflow channel that was a piece of styrofoam, a chunk of styrofoam. I walked out, and looked down, and she's staring back in about 4 feet of water.
[14:01.]
I yelped, a buddy of mine came across the river, he looked at me, he kind of turned reddish . . . he was like "oh no, we saw the silver discs on her shoulder." We dove down. She's a mannequin, and she's been with me ever since. She looks like she has leprosy.
>> [Laughing.] She does! Poor Mary.
>> She is rough! But, no arms, no legs, just the torso and the head, a very pleasant smile, pretty eyes . . . currently, she's wearing my whitewater helmet as we're going down the highway.
>> [Laughing.] I wonder the looks you get from people, because she's right at the window.
>> Yeah. I have a bunch of trash, people are like "look at that guy, a bunch of trash, I wonder what he's doing." As they pass me, I lower my back window, and she's looking back . . . boy, I've had some good looks over the years! Yeah.
>> [Laughing.] Oh, Merrimack Mary. When did you find her? Can you remember the year?
>> Maybe around 2016 . . . 2015. I've had her a long time.
>> Alright, so what's the second, number 2?
>> March 19th. . .
>> You remember the date? [Laughing.]
>> Yeah, March 19th, somewhere around St. Louis, we were doing a pre-scouting, and I opened up a trash bag. There was what looked like a bunch of stuffed animals, but one happened to be a living puppy that I took . . . took it home and washed it up. It was not yellow, it was a beautiful white lab mix with webbed toes. Took it to the vet, got it all inspected out, and now "Dude" happily lives with me at home.
>> You named him Dude?
>> Dude, yep.
>> I completely forgot about this story, because yes, you forwarded me those picture of poor little Dude.
[16:00.]
At this, yeah . . .
>> At a regional meeting when I was down in the southeast region . . .
>> You sent them . . .?
>> It went crazy.
>> Oh, my gosh it did. We posted it on the MDC social media pages, and that was . . . it was a sad story, but it had a good ending.
>> They're not all like that.
>> And that's the thing, they're not all like that. So, it really does kind of break your heart. [Sigh.] It's giving me chills, it's giving me goosebumps talking about it.
>> He's so wonderful. He's a blessing.
>> Tell me about Dude now. How is he?
>> Dude is an energetic, happy young boy that likes to run around in nature, loves his frisbee . . . loves his frisbee.
>> The frisbee is his favorite toy?
>> Yes. Just has such a kind, warm, gentle demeanor. As soon as I get home, it'll run up to me and sit at my feet, and look up at me . . . you know, you just melt.
>> Oh, gosh! I do. Tell me, will Dude be accompanying you on any float trips?
>> I haven't taken him on rivers yet.
>> Is that in the cards for Dude?
>> Maybe, after a clean up.
>> Yeah, it'd probably be too much during a clean up, yeah. You said you were pre-scouting an area to clean up when you found Dude. Tell me, is that something you have to do before every clean up? What does that entail?
>> Safety is the priority. What happens if a volunteer comes across a tank barrel cylinder that has some volatile chemicals in it, or a solution, or . . . it's under pressure or it's caustic . . . or, we come across needles, guns, everything out there. We'd rather find it and work with the Department of Natural Resources to get it, clean it up, before a volunteer stumbles across it. During our safety speeches, we also say "if you find anything, leave it be."
[18:00.]
Contact one of the trip leaders, and we'll handle it.
>> Okay. So, that's why you're going out there first, to get a feel for what's out there?
>> And, how many dumpsters do we need? How many volunteers do we need, how many hours for say, 30 volunteers . . . how many hours are we going to need to work that day? It's kind of a mixture of a whole bunch of questions, unknown questions that we try to answer.
>> How do you even know where to go for a clean up?
>> Trash is everywhere.
>> But, some of these big clean ups that we see the pictures . . . you've got all these tires, tons and tons of trash. I'm assuming those areas haven't been touched in years.
>> If ever, yeah. You know, we get a call from the volunteers saying "I got something larger than my team can do. Let's put it on the stream team calendar, let's get every team there." Then we just go out and do it.
>> What would you say is the most common thing that you pick up in your cleanups? Is there one?
>> Whoa, okay. Well . . . what is wonderful about trash, if you can call . . . it is "trash of the times." Tires are not going to rot, they're always going to be there. The old metal, it's not going anywhere. It's always going to be there, until you remove it. But, what happened in 2020?
>> Oh, do you find a lot of masks?
>> That was one of the latest, new trash items. All the PPEs. Then, when a beer company started doing the aluminium beer bottles, all of a sudden that was the trash. Everybody had to have that type of product. Then, cigarette butts . . . and, single shot, shot bottles.
>> Oh, yeah, the liquor, alcohol, little shots.
>> Yeah. You're always rewarded by the funness that you find. You know, the set of dentures.
[20:00.]
The prosthetic leg with the shoe still on it.
>> No! [Laughing.] That would be so expensive to lose, the dentures too . . .
>> Yeah. Or, you find the person in the paper envelope that someone was throwing away the remains of somebody.
>> Oh, gosh.
>> I know! It's so strange, but you know? That doesn't go in the trash. It was a loved one.
>> Mhmm.
>> So, we just do it like they should have done it, put it underneath some leaf batter, or dig a hole, get it in there, let it recycle . . . to come back in somebody else, or you know, however the after life works.
>> Who'd have thought you'd be having a pseudo memorial? You know, on a clean up?
>> Yeah. And, the messages in a bottle. One of the best ones was, we were on the lower Merrimack. It was Melanie from River Relief. [sp?] It was one of the super old lemon juice bottles, not the new ones or the plastic ones. It was from the 60s. The family was from Michigan or Minnesota, or Wisconsin, one of the northern states. They threw it in the Merrimack up by "Injun Joe's cave" [sp?] which is now Merrimack caverns or Onondaga. [sp?]
After 26, 27, 28 years, it wound up in the floodplain near the lower Merrimack. Melanie took it back, read it, and there was a letterhead. She contacted the family, said "hey, we found your message in a bottle after this gentleman who threw it in there had passed away." Their town has a little historical society. That message in the bottle, and the bottle, is in a little history museum up in one of the upper Midwest states.
>> I love that! What an incredible story.
>> And, then there's little stream team swag with it.
>> Have the stream teams not existed . . . it still would have been out there.
>> It'd be in the Gulf!
>> Yeah! Oh, wow. The impact! The connections made. The stories!
[22:01.]
>> And, this is just my stories. We got 6,700 teams, and from one on a team to 600, 700 on a team, they all have their own stories. You know, the best thing to do . . . join a team, start your team, check out the calendar of events, come to one of the events, and start your own stories. It's a way of life. And, you know, hey . . . "what'd you do last week?" "Let me tell you what I did last week", you know?
>> "Met this chick, Merrimack Mary, man!" [Laughing.]
>> You know, why not? This is great. This is the best thing that had ever happened to me. There are so many people who were here at this . . . this is their way of life. This is all they do.
>> And, they're doing it because they want to. This is not something they're getting reimbursed. That's what I just think is so powerful, is that this is all volunteers.
>> We get a free shirt.
>> [Laughing.] There's the incentive! Sign me up, man.
>> You know, and it's a sense of pride. We're standing here, and we have, you know, wonderful looking 35th anniversary shirts. But if I break out one of my old yellow ones, or say, the original white ones or something, and they're like . . . "hey, you've been around for a while", you know? Now, it's a bragging right. Some teams only wear the color that was originally issued to them when they signed up, and they never change that color. Like, the Jacks Fork, it's yellow. Yellow T-shirts. Each team has their own flavor, but yeah . . . there's other swag, but it's the T-shirt. As simple as a $2.50 or $3 T-shirt. It's the pride. Yeah.
>> Wow. I love that. I think that's a great note to end on, Brian.
>> You guys are awesome.
[24:00.]
>> You're awesome!
>> Yeah . . .
>> Brian . . . you're going to take me on a clean up, okay? You are. We're gonna go, and I want to get some video footage. You're going to show me how a clean up happens, and you know . . . you pre-scout it, and it's all good . . . I want to experience it for myself.
>> You won't soon forget. You'll be talking about it. I don't sleep the nights before the clean ups, and I usually don't sleep the night after the cleanup. Because, the unexpected. Some people complain like "you aren't even dirty after the clean up", but I've been working months to get everything ready. Afterwards, I'm flying high, because look at what we did? We filled 3 dumpsters in 5 hours.
>> There is that gratification component to it.
>> Instant.
>> To look at a place and to see all the disarray and all of the litter, and then hours later to look back and see how nice it is.
>> Yeah.
>> And, know that you were a part of that.
>> Yeah. It only takes one. And, you heard that speech earlier.
>> Truly. And, it did!
>> Look at what happened.
>> And how it's grown!
>> And still growing.
>> Yeah! I look forward to seeing the success in the years to come, and truly how big the reach and the impact.
>> Think about it. We're at almost 7,000 teams. Who will be that 7,000? "Hey, I'm stream team 7,000."
>> They could be listening right now!
>> They'd better be listening right now!
>> [Laughing.]
[Music ♪.]
>> Thank you to MDC volunteer program supervisor Becca O'Hearn, volunteer engagement specialist Brian Waldrop, and to NatureBoost producer Peg Craft. And thank you, for listening to another episode of NatureBoost. Stay tuned for a future episode where we'll tag along on a clean up, and in the meantime join a stream team or start your own!
[26:07.]
Learn more at mostreamteam.org. I'm Jill Pritchard with the Missouri Department of Conservation, encouraging you to get your daily dose of the outdoors!
[Music ♪.]
[End of podcast.]