Newsletter of the Missouri Parks Association Post Office Box 30036, Columbia, MO 65205 Volume 29, No. 2 June 2011 Susan Flader, Editor Big Oak Tree State Park Swamped By Flood The big trees at Big Oak Tree new levee was breached during the Big Oak covered virtually the entire State Park were all that protruded flood of 1937, but it had never been bootheel. The trees there were from an inland sea after the Army breached since then. So the farm- adapted to seasonal inundation and Corps of Engineers blasted a two- ers—many of whom had bought or slow drying. The first big change mile-wide opening in the Bird's inherited their land from someone came when the gigantic trees of Point Levee near Charleston, Mis- else who had once been paid for swampeast were leveled in an orgy souri May 2, allowing the Missis- flowage rights— were largely of logging and land drainage after sippi River to reclaim 130,000 acres oblivious of the plan. The record the advent of railroads. There were of its floodplain. It was an effort to floods of 1993 and 1995 were se- almost none left when local school- lower flood waters on the river vere above the mouth of the Ohio, children and others began contribut- enough to protect Cairo, Illinois and but not below. When the corps be- ing money to save the last 80-acre other points downstream from even gan alerting floodway residents to tract of virgin hardwoods slated for more disastrous flooding. the possibility of breaching the imminent harvest. The uncut tract levee, the governor declared his buffered by 920 acres of second The Corps followed the first solidarity with the local farmers by growth was established as a state breach with two more, the third filing suit to stop the action. But it park in 1938. within a half mile of the park, then was all according to plan and per- moved on to open three other flood- By then the levees and drainage fectly legal, the judge ruled. ways farther downstream. It was all ditches that would protect the bot- part of a plan developed in the wake Big Oak Tree has flooded many tomlands for agriculture were al- of the catastrophic Mississippi times before. This, after all, was ready beginning to disrupt the natu- River flood of 1927, when locks "swampeast" Missouri when bot- ral hydrological cycles that were the and dams, levees, floodwalls and tomland hardwoods like those at (See "Big Oak" on Page 4) floodways were constructed to man- age the river in the interests of naviga- tion, agriculture, urban development, and flood control. The idea was that even though levees and floodwalls were known to constrict the river, thus rais- ing the height of floods, the corps could reclaim the floodways for the river in times of extreme necessity, all carefully cali- brated in the plan. At Birds Point, the An aerial view of the devastating spring flood at Big Oak Tree State Park. Page 2 The Missouri Parks Association MPA Honors Employees of the Year MPA Vice President Steve Nagle and Treasurer Eleanor Hoefle honored five state park employees of the year before their peers at a staff conference at Cuivre River State Park April 27, presenting each with a plaque and check. With 120 staff positions eliminated in fall 2009 owing to revenue shortfalls, most were honored for their performance of added duties. Shanea Frederick was hired at the age of 18 as a park maintenance worker, immediately demonstrating trustworthiness and dedication. When the senior PMW suddenly left sev- eral years later, she personally saw to all maintenance duties at both Weston Bend and Lewis and Clark parks, connecting water lines and drains and preparing both parks for the on-season, then took on additional duties at shelters and campgrounds when another staff person left, and now is also directing Youth Corps workers in her parks. Shanea Frederick Jim Newberry, facility head of the new Current River State Park (not yet open to the public), was asked to simultaneously fill the vacant leadership post at Montauk for about three months, requiring an extraordinary number of extra hours. He was honored for out- standing creativity, leadership and team-building skills. Charles Helton, park ranger at Johnson Shut-Ins, was called to rescue a 10-year-old trapped by swift waters on April 5, 2010, when water was flowing through the shut-ins at nearly five times Jim Newberry the normal rate. In fact he found two boys in trouble, and was able to get one to safety with the help of a rope. The other lost his footing and was swept under, but Helton managed to reach him and push him to a rock while him- self being swept downstream, putting the boys' safety above his own. Larry Webb was honored in the interpreter category for ably fulfilling his park natural- ist duties at Ha Ha Tonka while assuming numerous other responsi- Charles Helton bilities when the park lost several staff, including leading and working with the maintenance staff and taking on extra paperwork and reporting tasks. He also helped with controlled burns at Lake of the Ozarks, planned and coordinated four different field trips for the National Natural Areas Conference, and prepared MPA Wants You! the nomination for a 2000- acre expansion of the Ha Ha Our Nominating Committee is looking for energetic, Larry Webb Tonka Oak Woodlands knowledgeable, young members who would be inter- Natural Area. ested in serving on our board of directors. We are cer- tain that there are those of you within our membership Heather Rudy, in the Cul- who know about and have enjoyed our wonderful Mis- tural Resource Management souri parks and would like to have a voice in the direc- section in the central office, tion, support and protection of this unique park system. was honored for her excellent performance of unanticipated We are looking especially for individuals with knowl- and increased job duties in edge and experience in communications (including so- 2010, including removal, cial media), membership, finance and fundraising, law, inventory, and cleaning of or general park issues. If you are interested or know of over 300 artifacts during someone who might be interested and have the time and Heather Rudy emergency asbestos remediation skills, please send a resume by email to MPA nominat- in the cabin gallery at Mark Twain Birthplace State ing committee chair Mary Abbott ([email protected] or Historic Site and a major inventory and mandated [email protected]). move of over 10,000 artifacts from the Missouri If you would prefer to volunteer without being consid- State Museum to the new off-site Riverside Collec- ered for the board, please contact MPA President Susan tion Facility. Flader ([email protected]). Page 3 The Missouri Parks Association Legislative Status Quo for Parks The 2011 legislative session was the house and headed to the senate. the end, the corpus of the fund was more active than usual for state protected from sweeps but the inter- But then a more grave threat to the parks, but with relatively little est on the corpus was not, in effect earnings fund appeared, an interpre- change from the status quo. perpetuating the status quo. tation that by law the entire remain- MPA, working with the Missouri ing corpus of the fund should be Several other minor measures Conservation and Environmental swept to general revenue at the end were heard, and one providing for Alliance and other groups suppor- of each biennium, sweeps that had petty cash funds in parks was tive of state parks, ramped up edu- not previously occurred from this passed, but overall there was very cational efforts about the park sys- fund. Because earnings are col- little substantive change for the park tem to build support for solutions to lected disproportionately during the system. The only significant the $200 million backlog of infra- summer season and expended change, it was hoped by park sup- structure rehabilitation needs. With throughout the year or in subsequent porters, was enhanced understand- more than seventy members of the years and because the funds from ing of the park system and its fund- General Assembly term-limited out the settlement with Ameren over the ing needs by legislators who may be of office in 2010, there were more destruction of Johnson's Shut-ins by more willing to grapple with solu- new members this session than any the collapse of the Taum Sauk Res- tions in coming years. By one count time in decades, except for 2002 ervoir had been deposited in the there were more than 500 votes cast when term limits first bit with a fund, the park division stood to lose for parks and only one against, vengeance. millions unless the fund was ex- which ought to be worth something empted from such sweeps. So a in the future. Until March it was not clear provision to that whether the best option, inclusion of effect was parks in a general obligation bond amended to another Parks Briefs issue for higher education, parks, bill, which also and other state facilities, would even True to form, the Missouri State Park System has passed the house. be assigned to a committee or given once again been named a finalist in the national a hearing, in view of the decided In the senate the Gold Medal Awards for Excellence in Park and reluctance of most in the majority house bills were Recreation Management Program, as it has been party to consider any measure that combined with nu- each time the competition has been held in recent looked in any way like a debt, a merous measures years.