[GeoStL] LaBarque News Article
- From: JimSGreene@xxxxxxx
- To: geocaching@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
- Date: Wed, 16 Nov 2005 11:11:23 EST
-
This was in today's Post Dispatch.
Area near scenic creek may be set aside
By _Ken Leiser_ (mailto:kleiser@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx)
ST. LOUIS POST-DISPATCH
11/16/2005
The Missouri Conservation Commission will decide today whether to buy more
than 500 acres surrounding an unspoiled segment of LaBarque Creek for a future
conservation area in Jefferson County.
Commissioner Cynthia Metcalfe of Ladue said Tuesday that the two properties
in question - totaling about 505 acres southwest of Eureka - are not large
compared with other conservation areas in the region but are "very
significant"
based on their natural features.
"It will give the public an opportunity to see a beautiful, healthy stream
so close to where they live," Metcalfe said.
Conservation Department officials described LaBarque Creek as one of the few
remaining unaltered streams in the St. Louis area. The creek supports 42
species of fish, in part, because its health has not been harmed by urban
runoff
or erosion.
The commission is scheduled to meet in Mound City, Mo. Metcalfe and agency
officials declined to disclose the proposed purchase price on Tuesday.
Denise Garnier, the agency's assistant director for outreach and policy,
said the nonprofit Missouri Conservation Heritage Foundation also will have a
role in the deal by placing a conservation easement on part of the creek.
The foundation receives money from developers whose projects damage wetlands
elsewhere. In turn, it uses the money to promote conservation, Garnier said.
In this case, the purchase of an easement will offset part of the state's
overall purchase price.
The Nature Conservancy, a nonprofit conservation group, acquired 334 of the
505 acres years ago and is in the process of buying the second parcel, about
171 acres, from a private landowner, said Doug Ladd, director of conservation
science for the group in Missouri.
The Nature Conservancy is seeking to recover its original land purchase
costs on the two parcels, Ladd said.
If left alone, development could threaten the integrity of the creek's
13-square-mile watershed, Ladd said, although the new conservation area will
only
make up a fraction of that. Most of it is hardwood forest. It has the largest
St. Peters sandstone glades in the state.
"It is amazingly scenic," Ladd said. "There is nothing like it."
kleiser@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx 314-340-8215
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