SierraScape August - September 2010
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by Becky Denney
Conservation Committee Chair

We rounded the bend, then we had to make certain that we stayed away from that log snug against the right bank with the branch stuck up and out as we canoed past it down the river. One day I remember seeing a simple square sign on that branch that said "Wild Rivers NO" Some might say after 50 years I don't remember the words right. But the meaning was clear, somebody wanted the Current River dammed besides the Corps of Engineers.

I and my family were introduced to the Current River by our Raytown High School science teachers, who in turn had been students at Central Missouri State (Warrensburg) under Oz Hawskley. The college had an Outing Club at Warrensburg and their activities included canoeing on Missouri streams, caving, and even exploring the upper reaches of the Snake River in Idaho. Many of us have long carried Oz Hawskley's booklet "Missouri Ozark Waterways" to explore streams and springs in Missouri. At the same time the Ozark Wilderness Waterways Club from Kansas City would have big groups out on the rivers for certain holidays. On Labor Day, 1961 my brother and I won the prize they offered for the canoe team that collected the most trash from the Current River. We were hosted on that trip by Ginny Edwards and her family, long time avid canoeists.

I thought we, Missourians, won the environmental battle to save the Current River when the Current River and the Jack's Fork became the Ozark National Scenic Riverways in August, 1964. Now, in 2010, our attention and time is still needed to protect the natural features of springs, caves, bluffs, and gravel bars as well as wildlife habitat and plants from overuse and mismanagement.