On April 22, volunteers from AT&T, Southwest Airlines, Oasis, Crossroads College Preparatory School, the Metropolitan St. Louis Sewer District, AmeriCorps, Open Space Council, and Greenway Guides, celebrated Earth Day by “Giving Back to the Greenways.”    In just three hours, these sixty hardworking volunteers contributed more than 180 hours of service in five greenways across the region.  Here is what they accomplished:

Installed a total of 637 plants on the McKinley Bridge Bikeway in the Mississippi Greenway and Shaw Park Trailhead in the Centennial Greenway.  The plants included milkweed, asters and other beneficial native plants to create a welcoming habitat for butterflies and other pollinators.  Thanks to Forest ReLeaf of Missouri for donating nine native shrubs for the project.

Removed more than a half-acre of invasive honeysuckle along the Busch and Deer Creek Greenways. This will enable native woodland plants and trees in this area to flourish!

Painted two storm drains at Ruth Porter Mall in St. Vincent Greenway with colorful artwork to people that any trash or pollutants dumped into the storm drain flows into neighborhood creeks and ultimately the Mississippi River; harming native wildlife and degrading water quality.

In addition to a sense of accomplishment, volunteers were rewarded with bike bells, slap bracelets and an Eastern redbud seedling to plant in their yard.  We are so grateful for each and every volunteer who helped us!  It was a great way to spend a few hours working together to care for all of our greenways. Plans for our next “Give Back to the Greenways” work day in September 2016 are already underway. If you have a corporate or school group who wish to spend a day on the greenways with us, please contact Angie Weber at 314-436-4536.