Clean Water

Stream Team

Southwest Missouri Fly Fishers

Stream Team #: 57

Date formed: July 20, 1989

Location: Crane Creek, Stone County

For more info about Stream Teams: explore the links listed below.

The number of Missouri Stream Teams soon will reach 4,000. That means the program has spawned an average of 200 teams a year during its 20-year history. Stream Teams with numbers under 100 were pioneers in stream conservation. That certainly describes Stream Team No. 57, the Southwest Missouri Fly Fishers. In two decades of service, this team has conducted stream cleanups and water-quality monitoring to ensure the health of Crane Creek in Stone County. They also have enlisted the cooperation of several partner organizations to plant trees and stabilize eroding banks on a tributary of the nearby James River. Stream Team No. 57 continues to guard Crane Creek, world famous for its population of wild, naturally-reproducing rainbow trout. The group’s activities have waxed and waned over the years, but its annual Super Bowl day stream cleanup has provided a nucleus around which these dedicated conservationists’ efforts have always revolved.

Protect Our Waters

Less is more when using lawn chemicals.

A lush green lawn is beautiful, but so is clean water. You can maintain both through judicious use of lawn chemicals. Remember, at least a little of everything you put on the ground eventually washes into streams, lakes and groundwater. Follow these tips to keep chemicals out of water.

• Test soil before fertilizing and apply only as much as necessary.
• Don’t fertilize before a rain storm.
• Use organic fertilizers, which release nutrients more slowly.
• Use pesticides only when problems develop, not as preventatives.
• Substitute biological controls for chemicals.

Help Stop Zebra Mussels

Lake of the Ozarks is a sobering example.

The spread of zebra mussels from a single site at Lake of the Ozarks underlines boaters’ and anglers’ critical role in preventing ecological damage caused by exotic invaders. The fingernail-sized bivalves were documented at the lake for the first time in June 2006 near the 8-mile marker in South Buck Creek. They quickly spread throughout the lake’s lower 8 miles and Gravois Arm. By 2008 the invasive mussels had moved up Lake of the Ozarks as far as the 18-mile marker and as far as 60 miles downstream in the Osage River from Bagnell Dam. No one is sure how profound the prolific mussel’s effects will be at Lake of the Ozarks. They can damage boat motors and other marine equipment, clog water intakes and smother native mussels. They also eat plankton, the same microscopic plants and animals that are the foundation of the food chain for bass, crappie, catfish and other aquatic animals. Visit online to learn how to avoid spreading these and other dangerous exotics.