Events

View Greg Renner's personal collection of antique duck decoys made in Missouri.

Powder Valley Conservation Nature Center is proud to present Trail Tales, an interactive hiking experience! Explore our Tanglevine Trail, a 1/3 mile paved loop perfect for strollers and families. As you walk, look for interactive storybook pages along the trail. August and September will feature "Under One Rock: Bugs, Slugs, and Other Ughs" by Anthony D. Fredericks.

Powder Valley Conservation Nature Center turns 35 years old this year and to celebrate, the nature center is inviting the public to join the Passport to Powder Valley program. The program will encourage visitors to explore multiple aspects of the nature center and offer the opportunity to win a raffle basket of prizes.

The Passport to Powder Valley program launched Tuesday, July 14 and runs through Oct. 31. To participate, visitors can pick up a copy of the Passport to Powder Valley booklet at the nature center’s front desk. The booklet is designed to engage visitors with five fun activities that celebrate what makes Powder Valley Nature Center unique.

The five activities in the Passport to Powder Valley challenge include:

1. Birdwatching

2. Checking out one of the nature center’s nature-themed discovery backpacks

3. Meeting Powder Valley’s live “ambassador animals”

4. Attending a naturalist-led educational program

5. Exploring one of Powder Valley’s hiking trails

The passport booklet even includes a bonus coloring page. Full details on completing each activity are included in the booklet.

Every person who finishes each of the passport booklet’s activities will receive a special limited Powder Valley 35th anniversary sticker. They’ll also be entered in a raffle to win a grand prize basket, including:

- Tour tickets to the Endangered Wolf Sanctuary

- Membership and swag pack from Laumeier Sculpture Park

- Free admission tickets to either the Missouri Botanical Garden, the Butterfly House, or Shaw Nature Reserve

- The book A History of Kirkwood, Missouri, 1851-1965 by June Wilkinson Dahl, donated by the Kirkwood Historical Society

Babes in the Woods is taking a break during the month of September. Please join us again in October.

Little Acorns is taking a break during the month of September. Please join us again in October.

Look for book pages posted along Runge’s Naturescape trail and enjoy a seasonal children’s book as you walk and explore. Book begins at the trailhead across from the parking lot. No registration required. All ages.

Sept.1 - Dec.15: Submissions accepted for

Nature Photography Contest- Native Wildflowers

Submit Your Photos of Missouri’s native wildflowers from the last few years. Photography is a wonderful way to learn more about Missouri’s amazing native flora! We love photos from Burr Oak Woods of course, but request that photos must at least have been taken in the state of Missouri.

Submission Method:

• Register for the program/contest at https://mdc.mo.gov/events

• Maximum of two photos per person, at least 2550 x 3300 pixels, print size- 8.5”x11”

• Deadline December 15, 2026 at 5 PM

• Caption: Please include species of plant as close as can be identified.

• Submit photo in person to the front desk of BOWNC or

• Submit photo electronically to e-mail: (lisa.richter@mdc.mo.gov) in JPEG format only, Compression level (80-100%), File Size Limit (8 MB per photo)

o Electronic submissions will be printed on 8.5”x11”, thick paper.

*January 2-23

Photos will be on display for voting at

Burr Oak Woods Nature Center

*Top three photos with the most votes will receive a prize!

Discover what’s for dinner at Burr Oak Woods as the nature center’s amphibians, fish, and turtles enjoy their feast every Tuesday and Friday. The snakes are fed on the second and fourth Wednesday (September 9 & 23).

Come see the work of Powder Valley's Featured September Artist, Elizabeth White!

"I grew up in St. Louis, Missouri, in a large family where "On the Road Again" could have been the soundtrack of my childhood. My parents took us traveling whenever they could, planting a love of exploration that has stayed with me ever since.

I picked up a camera at a young age, and although photography hasn't always been a constant in my life, I've returned to it again and again. Somewhere along the way, it became more than a way to remember where I had been. It became a way of seeing.

My primary medium is digital photography, with a love for landscapes, nature, wildlife, and abstract imagery. I'm drawn to the things that make me stop and look twice—a face hidden in a tree, light passing through a butterfly's wings, an unexpected reflection, or the beauty found in negative space.

My photography is less about what I'm looking at and more about what I see in it-personality in nature, beauty in the overlooked, a different perspective, and sometimes something that simply makes you smile.

Travel and photography naturally intersect in my work as a professional Tour Director. My career takes me across the United States and around the world, giving me the opportunity to photograph extraordinary landscapes as well as quiet, easily overlooked moments in between.

I rarely know what will catch my eye next- and that's part of what I love about photography. Whether I'm standing in the rain on the deck of a ship in Alaska, slowly making my way down a trail, or discovering something beautiful close to home in St. Louis, my camera gives me a reason to keep looking."

Come see Elizabeth's work during the month of September, up through the 26th.

Advance your knowledge of shooting and hunting with your crossbow, safely and effectively. We will cover nomenclature of the crossbow, hand placement, stance, loading, drawing of string, optics and how to properly store your crossbow. We will also cover the difference between bolts and arrows, practice points and hunting points. We will also go over correct shot placement on 3D targets, shooting at a variety of North American game animal targets.