Show Me the Ozarks August 2022

AWatery Invitation for You and Your Family

Field notes by Jeff Cantrell Photos courtesy of the MO Department of Conservation

Shoal Creek Water Festival Saturday, August 13 Creekside of Wildcat Park, Joplin Drop by anytime from 9 am-2 pm See Wildcat Glades Friends Facebook for schedule of events.

Bit.ly/ShoalCreekWaterFest Facebook.com/wildcatglades

O zark lore tells us traditional thong trees (fashioned by First Nation’s People) often gave directions to springs and fresh water. Today’s naturalists still look for trees like sycamores, alders, willows and American hornbeam to know the water table is close by. Rivers and streams have a fascinating history with Native American stories, and later with European explorers and frontiersmen settling by the moving waters. Braided rivers are more common north and west of our region; however, our waterways change courses often, forming oxbow lakes and sloughs alongside them. Channelized streams lead to disaster for aquatic life both up and downstream, and if a waterway could “want,” they would desire their natural course back to perhaps historical times. Natural cycles of flooding and erosion potentially return waterways to their meandering ways.

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