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About GOAS > News
Chapter Awarded $7000 TogetherGreen Grant
continued from the home page
The TogetherGreen program provides
opportunities for people to take action at home, in their communities and beyond to improve the health of the environment.
Our chapter is among 40 Audubon organizations to receive grants to host Volunteer Days events.
The six TG Volunteer Days events drew 553 volunteers
from Springfield and surrounding communities. Volunteers built trails, inventoried plants and wildlife, constructed rain gardens, learned about making backyards
wildlife-friendly, constructed bird nest boxes, cleaned up lake shoreline, cut and removed cedars from a glade area, participated in an Earth Day cleanup
along South Creek, and learned about greener lifestyles at our Green Fest.
The great success of these events was made possible with support from the following agency and organization partners:
- City of Springfield
- Watershed Center of the Ozarks
- Ozark Greenways
- Springfield Plateau Master Naturalist
- Springfield-Greene County Parks Department
- Missouri Department of Conservation
- Environmental Advisory Group
- Missouri State University
- Ozark Mountain Paddlers
- Sierra Club White River Group
- Springfield City Utilities
- Dickerson Park Zoo
- James River Basin Partnership
- Ozark Transportation Orgnaization
- Springfield Conservation Nature Center
- The Energy Saving Store
- Ozarks Center for Sustainable Solutions
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GOAS Message Board Forums
An online message board was developed in 2007, and Drew Albert recently added an interactive calender. The web address is http://forums-greaterozarksaudubon.org.
Some members have asked why we need a message board, when our GOAves email list has worked fine since we initiated it about ten years ago.
GOAves worked well when the number of participants was small. That number has grown to 50 or more folks. The primary shortcoming of GOAves is that all
personal email address book lists are not the same, and there is no way to ensure that every person that wants GOAS posts will get them without
a centralized forum. You can go to the forum to see what has been posted, or better, you can register to receive posts on topics of your choice.
You'll find GOAS Chapter announcements, bird sightings and photos, and field trip reports posted by our members. It introduces people to our chapter
activities where they can learn more about us by going to our web site.
Signing up is easy:
- Type or paste the message board internet address to your web browser: http://forums-greaterozarksaudubon.org
- Click on the "register" button
- Fill out the required information for which will include a username, your email address, and password
- Type in the text you see in the "visual verification" box. This is used to protect the message board from spammers
- Read the message board policy statement agreement, and if you agree, check the "I agree" box. Then you're done!
Go to the GOAS message board now, or
contact Drew Albert if you have questions
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GOAS Volunteers Planting Prairie Patches along Ozark Greenways Trails
From the Springfield News-Leader editorial section
When the first European settlers came to southwest and western Missouri, they saw sights that are
rare to modern residents. Among them: prairies that stretched for miles.
These seas of tall grass are not likely to come back anytime soon. But volunteers from greater Ozarks Audubon Society are doing their part to give us an idea of what we have lost.
Led by Kay Johnson, they are planting small patches along Ozarks Greenways trails in prairie grasses and flowers. Johnson says some of the plants will take a few years to bloom, but in
time walkers and bicyclists will be able to enjoy butterfly milkweed, pale purple coneflower, Missouri evening primrose, aster, and other flowers that once turned the state into a summertime
explosion of color.
But it will be just an inkling. With luck, the small man-made plots will encourage people to make a short drive to see real prairies that have never been touched by
the plow. The closest is at La Petite Gemme Prairie south of Bolivar.
This is part of our natural heritage, just as much as the dramatic hills and hollers that define the Ozarks. Prairies
ought to be treasured, preserved, and recreated. The Audubon Society deserves applause for its efforts.
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