- MMN and Stream Team table at Wings Over Water event
Powell Gardens hosted a showing of the documentary, Wings Over Water on Tuesday the 24th. They invited other conservation organizations to set up displays in the lobby of the theater in Union Station. The Master Naturalist table was hosted by Kristin List (2023) and Kathy Smith (2024)
The Missouri Stream Team table had the help of Nicole Martin (2025), John Church (2025), Janee Church (2025) and Sheryl Vasquez, MDC/Stream Team. This was the first activity of the Stream Team Outreach Group formed this year as John Church’s capstone project.
- MMN Members participate at MDC’s Partner Luncheon
By Jim Hinds (2017)
On March 3, MDC brought together over 100 representatives of area conservation organizations and individuals. After an opening keynote, there were six morning and afternoon breakout sessions.
In between morning sessions and lunch, six local organizations were given a chance to present information on their activities.
Meredith Donaldson (2004) talked to participants about the Master Natualist program, Jim HInds (2017) spoke about Stream Team activities, and Mary Smead (2012) helped explain Lakeside programs.
- Troop 220 learns about Missouri Master Naturalists
By Dawn Bené & Skip Mathews (2024)
We began our presentation to Boy Scout Troop 220 in Lee’s Summit, MO, with a “Journey into Nature” which included a slide show that was enthusiastically accompanied by the Scouts playing a various array of percussion instruments to enhance the Journey.
The presentation continued with an overview of Missouri Conservation and the MMN program, how we got involved, and our participation and requirements to becoming a Master Naturalist.
We talked about our classes and our amazing field trips, which included touring a remnant prairie, a Missouri River Boat Cruise and conducting a water quality test at the Little Blue. Our presentation also highlighted Douglas Talamy’s book “Nature’s Best Hope”. We encouraged the Scouts to create their own “Homegrown National Park” by sharing Talamy’s ideas of planting native plants, changing out white bulbs to yellow bulbs, providing food and water for animals and birds, and shrinking the lawn. We also talked about the importance of insect population.
We concluded our presentation with a lively Q&A, a drawing for prizes and refreshments!
The presentation and the engagement and enthusiasm from the Scouts exceeded our expectations. We also received great feedback from the Scout leaders! Thanks for having us Troop 220!!!
- Winter Monitoring at Indian Creek
Story by Jim Hinds
Photos by Melanie Myers, Scott Hatcher, and Shannen Cisneros
On a beautiful Saturday afternoon, February 7, seven Master Naturalists went to Indian Creek at 99th & Holmes in South Kansas City to do our winter monitoring and clean up.
Our usual path through a scrubby forest was now a walk through a bulldozed area. Some of the dirt bulldozed was pushed almost into the streambed, but our water testing showed no adverse effects yet from this construction/destruction.
Our testing showed the usual winter higher levels of conductivity. This test detects levels of chemical ions in the water. Higher levels in the winter (I believe) is due to the use of road salt.
Several members of the group will be taking the Stream Team Level One certification in April. Three of the people helping are from the 2025 class, and are doing their capstones for Stream Team.
The capstone for John Church is to plan and create an outreach team for stream team to represent Stream Team at community events. See the February 24 and April 22 listings for an opportunity to help.
Nate Blanton‘s capstone is locating and coordinating a third monitoring site for our team north of the river.
For the third project, Shannen Cisneros will be creating and installing signs at our monitoring sites, letting the public know that the site is monitored by the Osage Trails Stream Team. The signs will include a QR code that will direct people to a website that Shennen and I are creating. The site will include basic information about Missouri Stream Team, what species can be found in the two areas, and have charts showing our results on the creeks in the past two years.
We also always include a stream cleanup as part of our trips each time. Beyond the usual plastic trash, this time we collected a tire rim, two shopping carts, and a massage table.
- Deep Roots Plan it Native Conference In Photos
The two-day 2026 Deep Roots: Plan it Native conference was well attended by Osage Trails Master Naturalists.
