Coalition awarded grants from MDC, MoSTWC, and GRG

Written by Eric Karch Monday, October 17th, 2011 7:06 PM

Last Updated on Sunday, December 18th, 2011 8:29 PM

It is with great excitement that we announce our successful bids for three grants.

First, the Missouri Department of Conservation (MDC) has renewed funding for our habitat restoration efforts through its Community Stewardship Grant initiative. These funds will allow us to continue critical restoration work at Deer Creek Park in Maplewood and Mona Terrace in University City.

Missouri Stream Steam Team Watershed Coalition (MSTWC) provided a Pat Jones Stream team Association Grant to kickstart our Water Smart Yard program. This program will recognize landowners who use rain gardens, rain barrels, and other best management practices (BMPs) while collecting information on areas of the watershed that use the BMPs. The Metropolitan St. Louis Sewer District (MSD) maintains a database of flood control basins and water quality facilities associated with developments of 1 acre or larger, but no mechanism currently exists to track voluntary, residential BMPs. A 'WaterSmart Yard' database will be developed and integrated with the RdPWC website to document these BMPs for future watershed modeling, planning, and management efforts.

The RDP was also awarded a programming grant from Great Rivers Greenway District (GRG). This support will fund expansion of our Bike With Your Boots On program (which was featured in the Stream Team magazine Channels) as well as two new programs:

Our Greenway Habitat Exploration events will utilize the Deer Creek Park and Mona Terrace sites that we have been working to improve over the past few years. Participants will have opportunities for guided exploration of these lovely riparian sites. The new Green along the Greenway program features a bike tour of green practices along the Centennial Greenway in University City.

Learn more about the grantors here: