The Natural Resources team spent time with Early Childhood to teach them the importance of the root systems while getting creative with seed bombs! Each preschool child had the opportunity to get hands on to create their own seed bomb which were planted before the next rain on the Peoria campus property!
Peoria Tribe Aquatic Facility hosted EPA Region 6 Regional Administrator, Dr. Nance, along with staff from Region 6 and 7. They were in the area to visit superfund sites, discuss related issues, and explore tribal environmental efforts! Dr. Nance and their team were impressed with our facility and mussel restoration efforts, calling the visit, ‘the highlight of their trip’!
In April, the Peoria Tribe staff participated in an organized clean up around headquarters! All available staff were invited to compete in groups for the ‘most trash bags full’! The maintenance crew won, bringing home the ‘World’s Smallest Footprint’ award. This clean up was organized by Natural Resources in honor of Earth Day on April 22, 2023.
Natural Resources representatives, Erin Barnes and La Shell Thomas, attended the EPA Region 6 RTOC in Fort Worth, Texas. Barnes and Thomas were able to visit with Project Officers one on one and network with other participating Tribes and EPA officials. Erin Barnes attended as a speaker on a Tribal and EPA Grants panels!
Ashlyn Roten (left) and Mindy Walker, Environmental Specialists,learn how to sample for Macroinvertebrates with a kick net sein. Benthic Maroinvertebrates are much like mussels. They can be monitored to assess the health of a river or stream, providing valuable insight to the ecosystem! Macroinvertebrate and mussels will not survive in heavily polluted water or in the absense of their host fish. After attending a benthic macroinvertebrate bioassessment training, Roten and Walker used their kick net to collect and identify different macroinvertebrate in Spring and Neosho Rivers.
During this assessment, they collected juvenile mussels (above)! Because the presence or absence of mussels is indictive of water health, this discovery indicates restoration efforts are likely to be successful.
