Tuesday, September 2, 2014

Haven't residents of the Town Branch Neighborhood warned the city about development that increases flooding potential for a couple of decades or more?

Trail only 18 inches higher than flow of Town Branch of the West Fork of the White River under S. School Avenue. Whose idea was this? Rain had slacked off but more could come. Video at 8:23 a.m. Tuesday, September 2, 2014. Ever drive South College when was was flowing over the bridge and bridge was temporarily closed? Now there is less room for water under the bridge.
http://youtu.be/I-8w_HpVdKU?list=UUwcZunxqSV3zcgvRJqBn-Qw

Wednesday, June 11, 2014

St. Louis, Missouri, takes responsibility for doing its part to provide habitat for endangered Monarch butterflies

Milkweeds for Monarchs Initiative Update

The St. Louis Butterfly Project
Monarch-Butterflies
Published: 04-22-2014

Update 6.4.2014

The Milkweeds for Monarchs Initiative is underway.  Mayor Slay has committed to the City planting 50 monarch gardens, and is challenging the community to plant an additional 200 monarch gardens in 2014 to commemorate the City's 250th birthday year.

The City has created an online registration. Once your Milkweeds for Monarchs garden is planted, register your garden with us so we can track our progress toward the goal. Your personal information will not be displayed.  Registered gardens will appear on the Milkweed for Monarchs Map.

There are a variety of plants that will make your garden a success for attracting Monarchs. In partnership with community plant and butterfly experts, the City has created a STL Monarch Mix Brochure to serve as a reference in establishing your monarch garden. These plants have been carefully selected to provide the best combination of features for the butterflies and your personal enjoyment. These varieties were chosen to flower at different times of the growing season, offering seasonal color and important butterfly food and nectar sources.

The STL Monarch Mix consist of: (Photos courtesy of Missouri Botanical Garden and Monarch Watch)

Whorled-Milkweed Common-Milkweed  

Swamp-Marsh-Milkweed Purple-Coneflower

New-England-Aster Bee-Balm-Bergamot

Goldenrod Butterfly-Weed


Original Post:

Famous for their remarkable annual migrations between Mexico and Canada, monarch butterflies are important participants in pollinating plants in our ecosystem. Yet, their population has declined 90 percent over the last two decades. Female monarchs depend on milkweed to lay their eggs and feed their caterpillar larvae. While other flower species can serve as nectar sources for butterflies, only milkweeds play host to monarch caterpillars enabling the monarch population to grow.
In honor of this year's Earth Day, Mayor Slay announced a new City sustainability initiative called 'Milkweeds for Monarchs.'
Mayor-planting-milkweeds"The goal of this project is to both increase the dwindling monarch butterfly population and to better connect people and urban nature," said Slay.
Mayor Slay has committed to the City planting 50 monarch gardens, and is challenging the community to plant an additional 200 monarch gardens in 2014 to commemorate the City's 250th birthday year.
"I will be planting one at City Hall and in my own yard at home. But, I'd like to see these butterfly gardens everywhere. They can go in your neighborhood's community garden, in front of your business or in your own yard," said Slay.
Access to nature can reduce stress and anxieties, nourishes the imagination, and provide important learning opportunities. STL Milkweeds for Monarchs also aligns with the City's Sustainable Neighborhood Initiative. Creating monarch gardens is also an opportunity to enhance a community's sense of place and to build relationships between neighbors.
In partnership with community plant and butterfly experts, the City has created a STL Monarch Mix Brochure to serve as a reference in establishing your monarch garden. These plants have been carefully selected to provide the best combination of features for the butterflies and your personal enjoyment. These varieties were chosen to flower at different times of the growing season, offering seasonal color and important butterfly food and nectar sources.
For updated information on the STL Milkweeds for Monarchs initiative and to receive recognition for creating a monarch garden, please visit stlouis-mo.gov/sustainability.

Wednesday, April 9, 2014

Homes on Town Branch between S. Hill Avenue/S. Ellis Ave. and S. Duncan Ave. increasingly threatened by upstream watershed infill

Veterans Group Adds To Fayetteville National Cemetery

Posted: April 8, 2014 at 5 a.m.
STAFF PHOTO Michael Woods • @NWAMICHAELW The north boundary of the Fayetteville National Cemetery will be expanded after a two-acre land purchase on Monday by the Regional National Cemetery Improvement Corp. The purchase will allow more space for military veterans and their families to be buried.
 — Military veterans and their spouses will be buried in the Fayetteville National Cemetery for years to come thanks to the purchase of roughly 2 acres north of the cemetery's boundary.
The nonprofit Regional National Cemetery Improvement Corporation closed Monday on undeveloped land between Government and Hill avenues.
At A Glance
Regional National Cemetery
The Regional National Cemetery Improvement Corp. will continue to raise money for Monday’s purchase of about 2 acres north of the Fayetteville National Cemetery’s boundary. To donate to the nonprofit organization, go to regncic.tripod.com or call Corporation President Ron Butler at 479-750-2598.
Source: Staff Report
The group, composed mostly of military veterans, raises money to buy land for the national cemetery, 700 Government Ave. The burial site, owned and maintained by the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs, is one of three national cemeteries in Arkansas. It is the final resting place for more than 7,000 veterans of the Civil War, World War I, World War II and the wars in Korea, Vietnam, Iraq and Afghanistan.
The group borrowed about $125,000 to pay for the $205,000 purchase from Capho Investments of Fayetteville. The rest of the money came from state money allotted by Northwest Arkansas legislators, private donations and proceeds from the group's annual 5K race.
"Without that money, none of this would have been possible," Wesley Stites, a member of the Cemetery Improvement board, said.
The land isn't directly adjacent to the 15-acre cemetery's northern boundary.
"We have captured that northern part that could otherwise have possibly been purchased for commercial or other use," Merle Williams, vice president of the group, said.
Ron Butler, corporation president, said the group didn't want to see more land swallowed up by apartment construction. The 632-bedroom Grove apartments opened east of the National Cemetery in 2012 after developers with a North Carolina company called Campus Crest purchased land where the Washington County Livestock Auction used to be.
"That ruined the natural expansion of the cemetery that most people had expected," Aubrey Shepherd, a member of the group's board, said.
The wooded land the corporation bought Monday will have to be cleared and leveled. Butler said it could be another five years before burials take place.
Shepherd said drainage improvements will have to be made, because the low-lying land captures stormwater runoff from surrounding properties.
About 300 burials take place each year at the National Cemetery. The federal government bought the original 5 acres for the cemetery in 1867 to inter the remains of Union soldiers who died in the battles of Pea Ridge, Prairie Grove and Fayetteville. The Cemetery Improvement group formed in 1984.
NW News on 04/08/2014

Thursday, January 30, 2014

Town Branch neighborhood would have benefited from a stream-protection ordinance a decade ago

After years of begging for help by residents of many flood-prone neighborhoods, the stream-side protection ordinance was passed but variances have chipped away at it since it was approved by the city council and now a revision of the protected-stream map has been proposed that would set a precedent for every proposal to build on a floodplain or natural-raingarden site to get passed too easily and for flooding and destruction of urban tree-canopy to increase.

stream side ordinance UNDER SIEGE.