News Release No. 416

TREE-PLANTING EVENT PLANNED FOR STUDENTS
AT LEWIS AND CLARK STATE PARK

Volume 33-416

Contact: Sue Holst

(For immediate release)

573-751-6510

JEFFERSON CITY, MO, OCT. 7, 2005 -- Students from the Buchanan Co. R-IV Elementary School at Rushville will participate in an effort to help restore river bottomlands of the Missouri River. The Missouri Department of Natural Resources is teaming up with the students to plant trees at Lewis and Clark State Park near Rushville on Oct. 13.

Lewis and Clark State Park is located on Lewis and Clark Lake, an oxbow lake that is a channel remnant of the Missouri River. The event will begin at 9 a.m. with several educational presentations. These presentations will focus on river history, river bottom issues and ecosystems, and watershed systems.

From noon to 2 p.m., approximately 40 fourth graders will help plant trees in a four-acre area of the park. The students will be part of an overall effort that will include a total of 360 trees being planted 45 acres of former agricultural farmland. Trees will include bur oak, pecan, hackberry, black walnut, green ash, and Kentucky coffeetree, all trees that are suitable for a bottomland forest.

The Missouri River basin is one of America's most important natural and cultural resources. The river provides a wide range of unique aquatic and terrestrial habitats that have been impacted by the region's development over the last 100 years. Efforts to restore and the preserve the unique systems associated with the river system have been initiated in recognition of the large river's importance. Lewis and Clark State Park was chosen as a restoration area because this floodplain is an important migratory flyway. Lewis and Clark State Park is located 20 miles southwest of St. Joseph on Highway 138 in Buchanan County. For more information about the tree-planting effort, call Bryan Hopkins, environmental education specialist with the Department of Natural Resources, at 573-751-2452. For more information about Missouri state parks and historic sites, call the department at 800-334-6946 (voice) or 800-379-2419 (Telecommunications Device for the Deaf) or visit www.mostateparks.com.

For news releases on the Web, visit www.dnr.mo.gov/newsrel. For a complete listing of the department's upcoming meetings, hearings and events, visit the department's online calendar at www.dnr.mo.gov/calendar/parkssearch.do.

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