SierraScape June - July 2004
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by Val Jonsson & Cheryl Hammond

Daniel Talonn Recognized

Daniel Talonn was recognized in January as EMG Sierran of the Year. Daniel has participated in almost all service areas of EMG work. He has been a regular on the adopted highway program for 14 years. In 1991, he found several gold rings during the pickup. When the owners could not be found, the rings were sold and Daniel donated the money to the club.

The glade restoration program also counts on Daniel. He has put in more than 400 hours in restoring glades at Meramec State Park, the Johnson Shut-ins, and Washington State Park. In addition, all of us can thank Daniel for his years of building and maintaining trails. He has employed his expertise to engineer stairs, stepping stones, and bridges along the trail.

Lemonade sales always requires a cadre of workers. Daniel is a regular in setting up and taking down the lemonade booths, in addition to all the other lemonade sales tasks. He organizes events and represents us at Earth Day planning activities.

Besides all this, Daniel travels the world and participates at digs for dinosaurs and other prehistoric creatures. He also participates in national Sierra Club service outings and highly recommends these.

Mike Bollinger Recognized

Mike Bollinger received the EMG Leader of the year award in January. In the last two years, Mike has moved the EMG ahead in local and statewide issues as chair of the conservation committee. Mike has worked with Paul Stupperich, Bob Gestel, and other long time Ozark Trail builders and advocates to develop a ten point set of guidelines to protect and enhance the Ozark Trail. He has led this efforts and is working to see these guidelines adopted by the Ozark Trail Council.

Mike has also served as a spokesperson for the Sierra Club at local townhall meetings and county council meetings, speaking out to preserve floodplains in Cliff Cave Park and to preserve the integrity of the Meramec Greenway against trash facilities.

Statewide, Mike is a member of the Ozark Chapter Conservation Committee and lends his knowledge to these discusssions, especially his expertise in water issues. In earlier years, Mike created the first EMG website. Mike has brought several interesting speakers to the conscom meetings and has engendered more and more interest in conservation issues.

Finally, his elequent statements at public meetings are quotable and have raised the profile of the Sierra Club in this area.