Supporting the Big Muddy National
Fish and Wildlife Refuge
Recent events
Here are some photos and notes from some of our recent events. If you were able to come, thanks! If not, check out our upcoming calendar and join us next time!
Saturday, December 30th: Christmas Bird Count at Boone's Crossing
The results of the Christmas Bird Count are posted on a different web page.
Saturday, September 23rd: Wet Prairie Restoration at Overton Bottoms North
One of the primary goals of the Big Muddy National Fish and Wildlife Refuge is to try to restore wildlife habitat along the Missouri River. Many people don't realize that many wet prairies were located along the river in Missouri--prairies with tall grasses and plants that flooded occasionally, but were dry much of the year. On this work day, Lee, Sue, John, Olivia, Sean, Jackie, Peter, Cheryl, Buffy, Janine, Jasmine, Troy, Marissa, Justin, Barbara, and Michael worked to plant plugs of Prairie Cordgrass (Spartina pectinata) to restore part of the Overton Bottoms North Unit of the Big Muddy National Fish and Wildlife Refuge to a wet prairie habitat. We planted 500 plugs of cordgrass!
Digging holes and planting
the Prairie Cordgrass
plants. Teams planted 40-50 plants in each group.
The cordgrass was in
pots with a good root
system ready to be planted.
500 plants means lots
of pots to be picked
up afterward, so there was work for all ages.
This stand of Prairie
Cordgrass was planted
by the refuge and Friends of Big Muddy back
in 2000, and it is a nice dense stand now.
After the Prairie Cordgrass was planted, we had some seeds of Southern Blue Flag (Iris virginica), an iris species native to Missouri wetlands. Some of these seeds were planted around one of the scour holes still left from the flooding in 1993, before the Big Muddy refuge was formed. This was a pilot project to see how long it would take to plant the seeds. We have four pounds of seeds to plant, and plan on a work day on November 11th to plant it at several of the units of the refuge.
The seeds are pretty
small. Four pounds of seed will
plant a lot of iris!
We used stakes or rebar
to make 1/2 inch holes for
the seed beside the scour hole.
We poked a couple of
seeds in each hole and
covered it up.
Be sure to check this area in spring for the iris when it begins to bloom.
Thanks to each of the volunteers who helped with this work day! Contact us to get e-mail notices about upcoming activities, and watch this page for more details of events as we plan them.