For many years, the Mississippi River in St. Louis has been treated as a mere conduit for commerce, a target for flood control, and an industrial corridor with limited public access. Threats to our region’s mightiest river include pollution, urban sprawl, loss of wildlife habitat, and a lack of community recognition regarding the significance and beauty of the Mississippi’s natural resources.
Yet the Mississippi River provides drinking water for millions of people in the St. Louis region, critical habitat for 60% of all North American bird species, and recreational opportunities for regional, national, and international visitors. The Mississippi River is one of the earth’s most significant migratory flyways, and its watershed covers two-thirds of our nation. Our health is directly connected to this great river’s health.
As part of an overall effort to raise awareness of the environmental value of this great river, understand the complicated policy issues that surround it, and develop leadership skills required to address its future, the National Audubon Society has partnered with the National Great Rivers Research and Education Center, the Army Corps of Engineers, and Crossroads College Preparatory School to develop and implement the Rivervision Leadership Project.
The Rivervision Leadership Project will engage students throughout the Crossroads student body in environmental leadership activities focused on the Mississippi River. Students will be exposed to a wide variety of water stewardship and water management issues associated with the River. Students will visit with environmental groups, the Corps of Engineers, the Metropolitan Sewer District, farm associations, the barge industry, the Missouri Botanical Garden, and others. Students will also use a successful conservation project regarding the federally endangered interior least tern as a metaphor for many complex river issues. A culminating project associated with this effort will be the students’ work in recommending habitat preservation and restoration solutions for the interior least tern into the future—a complicated problem that will incorporate many river issues they will have discussed.
The project is designed to be hands-on, for example, participating students will receive training in canoe handling in Ellis Bay within the Riverlands Migratory Bird Sanctuary on the Mississippi River, and will be involved in at least one canoe trip around Maple Island--a great place to see examples of natural river habitat. Students will also be invited to monitor the interior least tern population, assist with chronicling the history of the least tern in the area using historical photographs, writings, and video, and design a nesting habitat on one or more river islands to increase tern population in the future.
The goal of the Rivervision Leadership Project is for Crossroads students to understand the complexity of issues that surround stewardship of America’s great rivers; to understand how effective leadership can result in positive environmental change; and to hone their own leadership skills in thinking through the issues to arrive at potential working solutions.