Motivated by this lack of representation, a small group of southwest Ozark Chapter members met on August 8 to begin the process of reorganizing the White River Group. Two weeks later the group had an executive committee, three officers, a set of by-laws to submit to the Chapter and plans for programs through the end of the year. Read more...

Kansas City is one of nearly 300 cities across the United States (including seven in Missouri) whose mayors have signed the Mayors Climate Protection Agreement—a document initiated by Mayor Greg Nickels of Seattle and sponsored by the U.S. Conference of Mayors. Read more...

Ozark Sierran readers, and especially those who receive the Chapter’s on-line conservation alerts, will remember that last year there was a lot of activity surrounding a new management plan for the Mark Twain National Forest (MTNF). The comment period for the draft plan ended in 2005 and the new plan was released in January 2006.

There were some things about the new plan that were laudable but there were enough disappointments in the plan that the Ozark Chapter decided to file an appeal along with four other groups: Heartwood; Missouri Forest Alliance; Ozark Riverkeepers Network; and Goods From the Woods. At the time of this writing (August 2006) we are in the process of informal talks with the Regional Forester for the U.S. Forest Service in hopes of settling at least some of our appeal issues. Read more...

For years, politicians allowed the offshore oil industry to channelize the natural delta of the Mississippi river, and, before that, the Army Corps of Engineers built levees along the Mississippi to keep water out of small towns, farmland and cities like St. Louis and New Orleans. While we pinched the “hose” we call the Mississippi, Mother Nature fought back, giving us ever increasing and destructive floods. (Remember 1995 and 1993). What did we expect the water to do? The Dutch-born physicist, Daniel Bernoulli, figured out the principles of hydraulics in the 1730’s! Read more...