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This morning, we began our visit to Valley Water Mill, a site on the northern edge of Springfield where school kids go to learn about the environment and how to protect it. The 100-acre site consists of a wetlands area, a lake, cave and stream. The Watershed Committee of the Ozarks is developing the public land. There are educational stations throughout the property. The final addition to the site will be a multi-million dollar Watershed Center, which will provide more educational opportunities for students and the public. The goal is to create a resource for educating people about how to protect the environment. On my recent trip to Valley Water Mill, we visited the stream that feeds into Valley Water Mill Lake. Our guides are Kyle Kosovich and Mike Kromrey...They both work for the Watershed Committee. Part of Mike's job is to bring groups of students to this stream.

Kromrey: "This is a good place to get the kids in the water. We like to catch aquatic insects, etc. You can tell how healthy the stream is by looking at the organisms that live there. A more basic concept is just getting people onto the idea that the stream is full of lots of aquatic invertebrates. The kids really light up when they see that stuff."

Shelton: "Do you encounter lots of children who haven't done something like this before?"

Komrey: "Absolutely. It mystifies me. Half or more of the kids who come out here have never even seen a crawdad."

Shelton: "What's the bigger lesson here?"

Komrey: "That our groundwater can be easily polluted in the Ozarks. We monitor this stream for nutrients and we find it. I see algae and that means we probably have nitrogen and phosphorus here and it's probably from human influence. That's the take-home message: whatever we do in our watershed is reflected in our waterways."

Shelton: "It looks like Kyle has made a discovery."

Kosovich: "This is a grat big crawdad with big, scary pincers. It would make even little kids jump back."

By showing children these creatures and discussing the bigger picture, Mike Kromrey's hope is that they will grow up with an appreciation for nature and an understanding of why it's important to protect the environment.

It's likely water conservation will only become more of an issue as water shortages continue to be a problem in the west and the concerns about water supplies creep eastward. Kromrey says people in the Ozarks are beginning to think a bit more about that and the Watershed Center can help.

Climate change is a major variable that effects water supply. Loring Bullard is executive director of the Watershed Committee of the Ozarks. He says it's time to consider what climate change might mean for Southwest Missouri.

And encouraging people to start thinking about these and other issues is one of the main goals of the Watershed Committee of the Ozarks as it continues to develop educational resources at Valley Water Mill.

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