The 15th Annual Springfield/Greene County Choose Environmental Excellence awards were presented April 17 at a luncheon held at the White River Conference Center in Springfield as a part of Springfield’s Earth Day/Earth Month festivities. Twelve organizations presented a total of 20 awards.
Missouri State University’s Sustainability Advisory Committee recognized the William H. Darr School of Agriculture for its efforts in demonstrating a sustained commitment to environmental excellence and programming that makes an impact. Vice President for Administrative and Information Services Ken McClure and Dr. Tamera Jahnke, dean of the College of Natural and Applied Sciences, made the presentation.
MSU’s Darr Agricultural Center is the location of a significant water reclamation project, one of many projects funded by the Springfield-Greene County Urban Watershed Stewardship Project (nicknamed
Big Urbie), to reduce runoff and improve water quality. The federal grant was awarded to the Watershed Committee of the Ozarks in 2011 by U.S. EPA Region 7 through the Missouri Department of Natural Resources under Section 319 of the Clean Water Act. The rainwater collection system can capture 20,000 gallons of water from the roof of Pinegar Arena to be stored in underground tanks until it is used for dust suppression inside the arena – both reducing the amount of runoff and conserving drinking water.
A second phase of the Big Urbie project is focused upon filtration plantings of grasses, shrubs and trees along each side of South Creek that flows through the Darr Agricultural Center. These sustainability projects were aided by both the USDA Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS) and the Missouri Department of Natural Resources.
In addition to what is underway at the Darr Agricultural Center, projects are also in progress on all of the MSU Darr School of Agricultural managed facilities. These include The Woodlands, Shealy Farm, Bakers Acres, the State Fruit Experiment Station and the Journagan Ranch.
With the help of the Missouri Department of Conservation (MDC), a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) was signed which has set into motion a series of key practices at each of these managed facilities. The MOU is comprehensive and integrative as it focuses on the stewardship of timberland, grasslands and water resources while being compatible with wildlife and agricultural enterprises – representing a plan that meets multiple goals and demands that are being experienced routinely by most landowners. It brings together multiple agencies, agricultural businesses and educational institutions. The planning phase is near completion, the educational events for students are in progress and educational programs using many forms of communications for producers and consumers are planned to start fall of 2016.