Ozark land trust was awarded 75,000 to implement the huzzah shoal creeks woodlands for widlife project described below

OLT and partners will provide a total cash match of 249,500.the goal of the huzzah shoal creeks woodlands for wildlife project is to collaborate with individual landowners to meet their land-use goals by promoting and implementing best management practices ( bmps ) that balance the biological, habitat, and socio-economic needs of the community. The bmps offered to landowners will heavily target stream resources to reduce nutrient and sediment loading to channels thereby, improving protecting water quality and aquatic habitat. In addition, bmps will target woodlands and grasslands to improve native vegetation diversity and quality. Land-based bmps, designed to intercept precipitation and allow for percolation into soils, benefit streams by reducing peak discharges to channels and provides for base-flows during dry periods.specific bmps (with projected deliverable measure in parenthesis), selected with guidance by a local landowner committee, include engineered and nature-based solution streambank stabilization (500 ), establishing planting wider forested riparian corridors (2.3 miles 21 acres), building fences to exclude cattle from the rivers and riparian areas (6 miles 120 acres), establishing alternative water systems (5), building reinforced stream crossings for cattle and equipment (5), converting non-native grass pastures to native (20 acres), hosting a farm tour for landowners to show off conservation practices to their neighbor (1) and protecting property with a perpetual conservation easement (1). The expected outcome is an index of biotic integrity ( IBI ) of 37 or higher, measured through fish sampling and resource assessment monitoring. The project area is the huzzah and courtois creeks watersheds, major tributaries of the meramec river, less than two hours southwest of ST. Louis, MO. The meramec river is a globally significant river that supports 31 species of global significance, including several species found nowhere else on earth. The meramec and huzzah watersheds are priority geographies for numerous government and non-governmental entities.ozark land trust will continue to work in close partnership with key staff at the nature conservancy, the missouri department of conservation, and other agencies and organizations to implement another successful community-based natural resource project. We thank the FFP for its continued support of this important work.