By Brian Wilcox, Interpretive Resource Specialist with the Missouri Department of Natural Resources

Being a classic “curious” naturalist I wanted to experience this part of the river. Maybe due to the state parks that would sandwich this float and knowing the intense restored areas that played the crème filling in between, would lure me here.

As a naturalist one has to have the “eye of the gnat” to closely examine your world around you. Here the river is wide and slow giving oneself plenty of time to perceive the riverine habitat. What first stood out were the large clumps of blooming hibiscus called Rose Mallow. Growing four to five feet tall with showy flowers of pink with dark wine-purple bases, they would catch the eye of any human.

But what makes me rejoice about this adventure is seeing the physical existence of a river corridor. This “greenway” that borders both sides of the coursing aquatic artery protects and enhances all life within the river and within the corridor. Trees such as sycamore, river birch, black willow, box elder, white ash and hackberry were documented. Mother Earth can heal herself if given the chance along with wise management. This section shows great potential for quality mesic bottomland forest communities.

We stopped for lunch at a spring-fed creek confluence named “Hamilton”. It originates up in the hills around an area known as Rockwoods Reservation. As we floated on, red polistes wasps were seen alighting on the water careful not to break the surface tension to drink. Birds like the yellow-billed cuckoo, great blue heron, little blue heron, green heron, osprey, indigo bunting, prothonotary warbler, american crow and the bald eagle were either heard or observed.

We made our way down stream to an area, which historically thousand of St. Louisans flocked for weekends of swimming, and canoeing at Sherman beach by way of the railroad. Across from here in what seems an old river channel, abundantly hosted several species of young freshwater mussels ranging from one to four years old. Older mature individuals were also found and all were shown to the adventuring group. Finding recruitment’s (immature mussels) tell the success story of healthy female mussels discovering healthy males. This river is highly diverse when it comes to this life form even though they are the most endangered animal on this planet.

This day’s journey ended calm and peaceful with a presentation given by my good colleague and friend Don Fink, state park resource manager. His story of the challenges in managing these popular recreation sites seems ever evolving in its own right. However, after this day any adventurer can obviously see how this river’s web is carefully weaved…dependence upon one another.