Page 1, Missouri Master Naturalist - Lake of the Ozarks Chapter Second Quarter, May 2016

Your Key to Discovering The Natural Missouri

A partnership of the Missouri Department of Conservation and University of Missouri ExtensionTo engage Missourians in the stewardship of our state’s natural resources

through science-based education and volunteer community service.

JEFFERSON CITY – On May 4, Mis-souri Lt. Governor Peter Kinder honored34 winners of the 2016 Lieutenant Gov-ernor’s Senior Service Award, includingour own chapter member KathrynCasteel.

As the official Senior Advocate for Mis-souri, Kinder instituted the awards in2005 to recognize and celebrate the

contributions seniors make intheir communities through volun-teerism. Since then, more than300 seniors have won the award.

Kathryn volunteers for the Lakeof the Ozarks Chapter of theMissouri Naturalist program, log-ging more than 350 hours to help

with service projects to enrich the naturalenvironment. She was nominated byfellow chapter member Nancy Hanna-Somers.

Hanna-Somers said Casteel’s commit-ment to the lake region goes beyond theMaster Naturalist program. She alsovolunteers with the aurie BeautificationCommittee, at West Lake Christian

Church, spent seven years as a GirlScout troop leader, and volunteered asa First Aid and CPR instructor and withBoone County Disaster Services.

“It is obvious that Kathryn draws greatsatisfaction through giving generouslyof her time and talent,” she said.

Lt. Governor Kinder presented all thewinners with an official declaration anda Senior Service Award lapel pin at theawards ceremony.

A huge thanks to Nancy Hanna-Somersfor taking the initiative for submitting thisnomination. Well done Nancy!!!!Photo credit Tim Bommel, story information from the official pressrelease.

Kathryn Casteel Senior Service Award

Second Quarter, May 2016

In This Issue…2 - Thank you!, Milestones &

Certifications, All Stars3 - Last Deer Count3 - Living Wall4 - Kayak Meet-ups4 - BNRT Sign Search4 - Bat Box Building5 - Osage Beach City Park5 - SOTO Trail Work Day6 - Fiery Fork Fourth Graders6 - Bird Banding7 - Laurie City Park garden7 - Laurie nature trail7 - Hurricane Deck trail8 - Class of 2016

Summer social - June 9, 4-9 PM - This year the social is at the Ha HaTonka Post Office Shelter House. The food will be provided for the main meal,but desserts are welcome. Bring your own beverage.

Christmas party - Thursday December 1 (note this is NOT the normalmeeting day). It will be at the Camdenton fire house on the 2nd floor. Moreinformation to come!

Saturday, September 17 - Sedalia - The Hi Lonesome chapter invitesyou to join them to explore the region where the Ozark Highlands meet the OsagePlains. This one-day event will bring together Master Naturalists from across thestate for top-notch advance training, fun-filled networking, and new explorations.Watch for registration materials this summer!

Saturday, November 5 – Jefferson City Join Master Naturalists andStream Team members from across the state for an interactive workshop focusedon working with policy and law makers. Experts in communication will share insightson how to make your voice count in matters important to you, your community, andyour interests. Watch for registration materials this summer!

Upcoming Events

Page 2, Missouri Master Naturalist - Lake of the Ozarks Chapter Second Quarter, May 2016

� Nancy Hanna-Somers for nominat-ing Kathryn Casteel for the SeniorAward.

March - Initial certifications:Ken and Robin Becker

Recent Achievements andCertifications

May - 250 hours Beti Pearson

May

All StarsThe communications committee awards All Star certificates to chapter members that have contributedin extra ways to make our chapter a success. If you have someone you would like to have recognized,please send your nomination to Lauri Peterson (lauripub@swbell.net).

(Left) May - Joann Billington for planning and designing theOsage Beach city park garden.

April - Initial certifications: (presented by Amie Ivey) Nancy Hanna-SomersRecertifications: Kathie Bishop, Carolyn Solomon, Dennis Reed

1000 hours: Glenn Commons

500 hours :Kathie Bishop(presented byKim Thompson)

May recertifications: Ken Becker, (Amie Ivey with) Nanci Morris, Tricia Barrett.

Page 3, Missouri Master Naturalist - Lake of the Ozarks Chapter Second Quarter, May 2016

February 26 - Don Koeninger and I ran the north sidetransects for the final night of the Lake of the OzarksState Park spotlight deer count last night, and I returnedthe equipment and paperwork to Cindy Hall this morn-ing.

We saw one on the airport transect, a first for any of usI think, but got skunked after that, though we sawseveral on the way to the campground and on the wayto Pin Oak.

This was my first "citizen science" and I enjoyed it. Thephoto is Joann Billington and Kathryn Casteel practicingtheir technique the very first night, Jan. 27.

If you everneed a goodcampfire storyteller, inviteDon! Thatwas the mostfun part of theexperience.

Photo and story by Ted Windels

The Living Wall, located at the junction of Bagnell Dam Blvd.and Osage Beach Parkway, is a 2-tiered terraced rain garden,built with retaining walls made from grow socks (a tubularmesh filled with a growing medium). Constructed in the fallof 2012 by Paradise Landscaping for LOWA (Lake of theOzarks Watershed Alliance), the Living Wall is not only ademonstration site, but also a work in progress (still!). ManyMaster Naturalists have helped in the weeding, planting, andmulching of this project and April 20th, Joann Billington andKathryn Casteel showed up to help Caroline Toole for a dayof weeding, planting, and mulching. Our main goal was to laydown enough mulch so that the project looks quite intentionaland not just a part of the weedy slope.

Sigh – one of the very first things added its very first springwas two signs saying “Native Plants – Do Not Mow”because the beds had gotten weed-whacked. Poor ParadiseLandscaping! The living wall is right next to the older “Wel-come to Lake of the Ozarks” sign with conventional landscap-ing. Paradise crews mow and weed-whack the area and theydidn’t realize that this particular part of the area was to be leftalone – hence the two signs. Paradise definitely got the word

though, because Kathryn and Joann were looking at it a fewdays earlier when the Paradise crews were working and oneof the workers came over to them right away to let them knowthey weren’t to mess with this site. He also explained that theterraced rain gardens were holding up the redbud tree. Wewere glad to know that Paradise was now protecting theproject.

LOWA contracted withEd Thompson to havea dump truck load ofmulch delivered to thesite, and let me tell you,it was great finallyhaving enough mulchto really mulch the proj-ect up right, and tohave it waiting for usthere, ready to use!

It is such a steep hillside and quite the daunting task! Weworked from about 10 am until 2 pm. Whew! Many thanks toKathryn and Joann, they were an amazing team! Wemanaged to dent that lovely mulch pile. Many others havehelped in the past, especially Jean Knoll and I’m sure othersthat I just am forgetting.

I recently got a quick lookat the living wall and theplants that are supposed tobe there are growing outwell and the foxglovebeardtongue was bloomingand looking great! This isan interesting, ever-chang-ing, never-ending (oh no!don’t say that!) dynamicproject that we learn fromconstantly. A true demonstration site.

By Caroline Toole

The Living Wall - a maintenance day with LOWA

Caroline Toole, Joann Billington, and Kathryn Casteel

Page 4, Missouri Master Naturalist - Lake of the Ozarks Chapter Second Quarter, May 2016

Kayak Meet-upsMark your calendar for thesecond Saturday eachsummer month for a KayakMeet-up. The dates this yearare 5-14 6-11 7-9 8-13 9-10 - followed by a potluck picnicTime: 8:30 a.m. to noon. Place: The kayak steps and the shelter houselocated to the left of the spring parking lot, on the lake, at Ha Ha TonkaState Park, Camdenton MO.Coffee and sometimes other goodies are available and it is a great time tocome and enjoy the day with others who love the out of doors even if youdon't plan to kayak. If you do, wear clothing that can get wet, especiallyshoes because entering a kayak involves stepping into the water. Bringlife jackets and lawn chairs. For more information call Barbara Fredholm,573-346-2599, bfredholm@charter.net. (Pictured above is of BarbaraFredholm at the 5-14 meet-up taken by Carolyn Solomon)

April 7, 2016 - Bat Box Building

“I am trying to let you help a little,” the first grader told her dad asshe painted the bat box. Her classmates in the Camdenton CapstoneCenter were also joined by their parents April 4 as they assembled,caulked and painted bat boxes provided by the Lake of the Ozarkschapter of the Missouri Master Naturalist. Their teacher, PennyRassler, had arranged the bat box project as part of a unit on caveswhich included the study of bats. Ted Windels brought the boxesand talked to the students and parents about bats and about whereto place the boxes at their homes to provide a haven during thesummer when bats forage away from their caves.

Story by Ted Windels, photos by Melanie Windels

BNRT SignSearch

The Big Niangua RiverTrail (BNRT) wasjointly established byour chapter andseveral other partners.After the big floods lastDecember, severalchapter members wentout to see if the signs had survived or were lostand will need to be replaced. Our chapter hascommitted to replacing the lost signs. The firstleg of the trip from the whistle bridge to Casade Loco was done on May 4 by Amie Ivey,Carolyn Solomon, and Barbara Fredholm, anda guest. One sign was missing on this section,pictured above this sign was battered but stillstanding. The second leg from Casa down toHa Ha Tonka was done on May 21 by CarolBullard, Kathryn Casteel, Jean Knoll, LauriPeterson, Carolyn Solomon and two guests.We were unable to locate two of the signs onthis section. Some of the highlights of the tripwere locating great blue heron rookeries,exploring caves, and lots of great bird watching.

Beautiful slough area where we found a heron rookery. The waterwas peaceful but the birds were making quite a racket, which ishow we found them. Photos by Carolyn Solomon.

Page 5, Missouri Master Naturalist - Lake of the Ozarks Chapter Second Quarter, May 2016

Osage Beach City ParkApril 21, 2016

The sun shone bright through beautiful blue skies whenmembers of the Lake of the Ozarks Chapter of MissouriMaster NaturalistTM arrived at the Osage Beach City Park.Armed with rakes and shovels, the enthusiastic group joinedforces with the staff of the City’s Parks and RecreationDepartment to install the park’s second pollinator garden.The new plantings are showcased between the ball fields andmain parking lot, highlighted by a walking path to the lightedflag pole.

Matt Vandevoort, Park Manager and his crew prepared thenew garden plot ahead of the planting team’s arrival.Freshly-graded soil, rock and mulch were readied for theNaturalists to install 196 individual plants in the ground. TheCity chose this spot to enhance its commitment to increasinghabitat suitable for monarch and other pollinators. The MasterNaturalists partnered with the City in their continuing supportof “Missourians for Monarchs.”

Visitors to the park will be able to enjoy the variety of nativeperennials blooming throughout the spring, summer and fallfor years to come. In addition, the twenty-four differentspecies of plants will attract a variety of pollinator insectsincluding bees, moths and beetles. The garden plan specif-ically targets plants that provide an increased area here inthe Ozarks where monarchs can safely feed and reproducethus reducing the likelihood of their extinction.

The Osage Beach City Park Garden Activity built upon arelationship that started in 2015 when Glenn Commons got

a Monarch Waystation installed. Kay Ahrens and JoannBillington coordinated with Matt Vandevoort to get the planand design approved. Kay and Joann wish to thank theseLake of the Ozarks Chapter Members for their efforts to getthe project in the ground: Amie Ivey, Robert Lock, KathrynCasteel,

Kathy Fayant, Dave Hemminger, Margie Hockersmith, BarbFredholm, Jean Knoll, JoAnne Gitchell, Nancy Hanna-Som-ers, Carol Bullard, and Mary DeLacy. Special thanks to Aland Connye Griffin for their support of the activity and Al’sphotographs of the day’s efforts.

Story by Nancy Hanna-Somers, photos by Al Griffin

SOTO Nature Trail Work Day

A small group of chapter members (Nancy Hanna-Somers and Ted Windels)and a volunteer (Melanie Windels) spent a beautiful spring morning on the SOTONature Trail March 23. We painted the trail head sign frame, installed a new signpost on the trail, walked the trail to remove branches and loose rocks, and cutdown some of the largest multi-flora rose bushes. As always, the trail gave usa treat. We discovered a box turtle pair doing what comes natural in spring time.

The languid lovers were in no hurry, and yes, the male is yawningin the photo.

Photo credits: Ted and Melanie Windels.

Editor’s note : I think He’s actually screaming Ted. It’s just hardto scream when you don’t have vocal cords.

Page 6, Missouri Master Naturalist - Lake of the Ozarks Chapter Second Quarter, May 2016

Fiery Fork for Fourth GradersMay 4th found four chapter membersgetting into Stream Team and the forthgrade class from Climax Springs R-IV.Caroline Toole, Carol Bullard, ShanelHoward, and Karen Schneider had ablast helping the kids experience realwater quality monitoring and the won-ders of watersheds at Fiery Fork Con-servation Area. The students dividedinto three groups which spent the dayrotating through three different stationsat Toby Creek in the conservation area– and they got to eat a picnic lunch.

Carol ran the Macroinvertebrate station,

which looks at the different life found inthe gravel, under rocks, and in thestream bed. Shanel and Karen ran theWater Chemistry station, which mea-sured several different factors for waterquality, such as water temperature, pH,dissolved oxygen, conductivity, turbidity,alkalinity, hardness, and chlorides. Car-oline took the kids on a nature walk,where they came upon a pond (it was

really as t r e a m )w h i c hthey fol-lowed up-stream todiscovera spring.M a n ywildflow-ers wereidentifiedand dis-cussionsof karstand wa-tershedsensued.

At the end of the day the students,parents, volunteers, and teachers allplayed an interactive role-playing gamewhere they were raindrops, plants, orrocks. We found out that plants are veryuseful in keeping debris and trash outof the stream or lake. Then we got ourmacroinvertebrate data sheets and thewater chemistry data sheets out andwent over their measurements, whatthey got and whether the data indicatedgood water quality or not. They wentback to school with a critical thinkingwriting assignment from me to: use achart that shows what all their numbersmean, use the fact that certain macroin-vertebrates can only live in water without

pollution, write a paragraph that ratesthe water quality of Toby Creek (asgood, fair, or poor) and then give threereasons WHY they say what they say –using their data. It’s not as hard as itsounds. They just need to come up witha rating and then say why they said whatthey said.

We sent them all home with a goody bagfull of neat stream team stuff like post-itnotes and pencils, as well as info, etc forthe whole family. Climax Springs is a funschool to work with.

Caroline pointing out the 2 types of snailsthat the stu-dents found inthe springbranch (“I wasso delightedwhen theyfound both thegilled snailand the pouchsnail!” )

Story andphotos byCaroline

Toole

Shanel Howard at theWater Chemistry station

Bird BandingJoann Billington hosted 16 chapter members and current class studentsfor the annual bird banding session at her residence on March 12, 2016.

Dana Ripper and Ethan Duke of the MissouriRiver Bird Observatory, mrbo.org, set up mistnets around Joann’s bird feeders and caughtseveral white-breasted nuthatches, tufted tit-mice, Carolina chickadees, a downy wood-pecker and one very irate red-belliedwoodpecker. We got a close-up view as theymeasured, weighed and recorded data for birdresearch, and some of us got to release individ-ual birds. Thanks for this great advancedtraining opportunity, Joann, and for the brownies, too! - Ted Windels. Photos by Al Griffin.

Page 7, Missouri Master Naturalist - Lake of the Ozarks Chapter Second Quarter, May 2016

� President - Bill Moulder� Vice President - Lauri Peterson� Secretary - Georganne Bowman� Treasurer - Dennis Reed� Past President- Don Koeninger� Projects & Volunteer Services -

Kathryn Casteel� Hospitality - Mark and Kim Thomp-

son� Fund Raising - Kathie Bishop� Advanced Training - Kay Ahrens

and Georganne Bowman� Communications and Outreach -

Tricia Barrett� Web Site - Lauri Peterson� Calendar - Georganne Bowman� Photographer - Glenn Commons &

David Dilks� Certifications - Amie Ivey� MDC Advisor - Jodi Moulder� MU Advisor - Tricia Barrett

Our

Leadership

Trail work day atHurricane DeckSchool

Terri Thompson found sal-amander eggs in the pond.Kindergarten kids used thetrail the next day and got toexplore the pond. FromCarolyn Solomon.

It's ALIVE!! and well and growing in the Laurie City Park - near theHillbilly Fairgrounds. The Monarch Butterfly Way Station was started lastfall in a swampy wet area of the park. Tricia Barrett, Joann Billington, JoanneBlaney, Carolyn Solomon and Kathryn Casteel have all helped plantmilkweed, coneflowers, coreopsis, buttonbush, Southern blue flag, slendermountain mint, cup plant, goldenrod and grasses that provide nectar andhabitat for the Monarchs and all pollinators that come to Missouri every year.Using perennial native plants provided by Glenn Commons, LOWA, KathyFayant and local sources, we are finally seeing the "comma" take shapeand start to grow. - Tricia Barrett

Sign at Laurie City Park garden

Laurie Park Nature Trail. Pictured above are work day volunteers TerreBrown, Kathryn Casteel, Marvin Silliman, Ed Thompson, Terri Thomp-son, Joann Billington, Tricia Barrett. The sign at the trail head is pic-tured at right. Pictures by Carolyn Solomon.

One of the winterjust-for-fun hikesorganized by Jodi.

Page 8, Missouri Master Naturalist - Lake of the Ozarks Chapter Second Quarter, May 2016

Organized in the spring of 2009, the Lake of the Ozarks Chapter of the Missouri Master Naturalist programserves the residents of Camden, Miller & Morgan counties. The Missouri Master Naturalist programis an adult, community-based, natural resource education and volunteer service program.Visit us at: http://www.lakeozarkmasternaturalist.com for calendars and volunteer opportunities.Like us on Facebook for up-to-the-minute postings on the chapter and what its members are doing:https://www.facebook.com/pages/Lake-of-the-Ozarks-Master-Naturalist/153968454647217?ref=ts&fref=ts

Newsletter Staffand Contributors:

� Editor: Lauri Peterson� Contributors: Tricia Barrett,

Ted Windels, Glenn Com-mons, David Dilks (Lake ShotsPhotography), Carolyn Solo-mon, Nancy Hanna-Somers,Ed Whitmore, Caroline Toole,Barbara Fredholm, KimThompson

� Proofreaders: didn’t happenthis time. Hope it doesn’tshow.

Copyright 2016 Lake of the OzarksChapter of Missouri MasterNaturalist. All rights reserved.

The communications committee always welcomes information from chaptermembers on what they have been doing under the Missouri Master Naturalistflag. It is very important that we keep submitting articles to the paper, andpromote our organization’s good works! The Lake area needs to know thatwe are out there doing good stuff! Please submit your who, what, where, when,and why to Lauri Peterson- lauripub@swbell.net in order to get out the goodword! A photo always helps!

Please send updates for the web calendar to Georganne Bowman atjorjan39@gmail.com.

Send contributions for the newsletter or website about past or up-coming chapter activities to Lauri Peterson at lauripub@swbell.net

Class of 2016

Congratulations to the class of2016 that graduated on May25. The official class picture istop right. The other photos arefrom the Ha Ha Tonka classfield trip from earlier this yeartaken by Carolyn Solomon.