by Angel Kruzen
The Scenic Rivers Stream Team Association (SRSTA), a conglomeration of Stream Teams watching over the Jacks Fork, Current, and Eleven Point Rivers in southern Missouri, recently held its annual picnic in Eminence. This year we were blessed with such luminaries as Joe Bacchant ( one of the fathers of the Stream Team program) and his wife Fran, Scott Dye (Sierra Club Water Sentinel Director) and his wife Jan. Eight watersheds from around the state were represented, and about 75 people participated in picnicking and canoe racing.
Many SRSTA members regularly haul tons of garbage and debris out of the rivers and gather pages of data on the health of these streams. With any picnic, the food was plentiful and scrumptious, as was the camaraderie! Normally, SRSTA members take to the river to burn off those picnic calories but this year they got serious by staging canoe races. Much fun and friendly rivalry raised good spirits and reinforced a sense of belonging to a greater good.
It was encouraging to see a lot of young faces in the race and at the picnic. There was even a backwards canoe race that should have been renamed a “submarine” race. Along with winner’s trophies for the canoe races, Shellie Collins and David Simpson were given a Stream Monitoring Award.
Many of the weekend floaters drifted by with their flotillas of friends and coolers to witness our tomfoolery and water sports. Many asked what group this was and what did we do. We would tell them with pride. So much of volunteer work is serious but we do get to enjoy the streams we volunteer for and have some serious fun enjoying each other as well. This gives us a feeling of family and strengthens the volunteer bond.
I believe one of the reasons the Missouri Stream Team Program has been so successful is because it has incorporated a base principle that John Muir recognized early in his life: It is important to get people out in nature for them to truly understand and respect it. Amazingly, there are now over 2400 Missouri Stream Teams, representing a firm commitment of thousands of Missouri citizens to monitor, clean up, and enjoy Missouri’s many fine streams. The program offers a “hands on” way for people to have a direct effect on water quality in the state and to be direct stewards of the waters of the state.