Connecting our Communities: Watershed Planning defined the theme for the 2002 water symposium hosted by the St. Louis Regional Water Resources Advisory Council and the Missouri History Museum at Forest Park.  Over 130 water-minded folks registered for the event.  Guest speakers included Dr. David Hammer, a soil scientist from the University of Missouri-Columbia, and Dr. Diana Sheridan, executive director of the James River Basin Partnership in Springfield, Missouri. Special thanks go out to the many sponsors of the April 2002 water symposium, including Dave and Karla Wilson of St. Louis Earth Day who took the lead in coordinating the Water Symposium, , the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Ameren UE, RegionWise, Missouri’s Department of Conservation and Department of Natural Resources, Solutia, Sierra Club and St. Louis’s own KMOV Channel 4.

Watershed field trips and workshops supplemented the activities of the 2002 water symposium. A U.S. Army Corps of Engineers barge tour in early April featured sites designated in a recently authorized federal study of 70-miles of the Mississippi River corridor in the St. Louis region.  Additionally, two separate watershed tours of Wild Horse Creek and Caulks Creek in St. Louis County’s westernmost city of Wildwood allowed Water Council members, American Planning Association members, and the region’s planning commissioners to compare healthy and unhealthy stream systems.  Participants observed Wild Horse Creek’s dynamic ecology of meandering waters and wildlife diversity before traipsing to the wide swath of gravel known as Caulks Creek, where public and private infrastructure is clearly threatened by rapid erosion. The tours sparked lively conversations about water management and land use.  Special thanks to the Bi-State Development Agency for supplying tourists with comfortable transportation aboard one of the Agency’s 38 environmentally-friendly Compressed Natural Gas fueled buses.

Additional Activities: The St. Louis Metro Section of the American Planning Association held the annual Planning Commissioners Workshop in April 2002. Watershed planning was especially discussed during the Environment and Regionalism Tract of the workshop, hosted by the Powder Valley Conservation Nature Center in Kirkwood, Missouri.

In May 2002 members of the Water Council traveled to Jefferson City to meet with 20 legislators from the St. Louis caucus of the Missouri General Assembly and members of Governor Holden’s staff. Thanks to Rep. Barbara Fraser of Missouri’s 83rd District for the invitation.  Laura Cohen of Confluence Greenway and David Wilson of St. Louis Earth Day and East-West Gateway’s Planning Director Steve Nagle spoke on behalf of the region’s water concerns.