photos by Bob Virag, Stream Team volunteer
words by Larry Ruff, Greenway Network
Dardenne Creek is 27 miles long. It originates in Warren County, flows northwest through St. Charles County and empties into the Mississippi River directly north of St. Peters. It is a pretty creek in its headwaters–Ozarkian in nature.
In the ’20s and ’30s, farmers channelized the creek in the flatter regions of the county. Those farms have become hundreds of subdivision neighborhoods. It crosses I-70 at St. Peters and runs through he Mississippi River floodplain. Every where a road crosses the creek, Greenway Network tries to monitor that site.
We’ve been doing Dardenne Day for at least 14 years. Monitoring takes place in the Spring and the Fall. This year, Dardenne Day was part of 25 Days of Stream Team.
In the Spring: 19 sites on the creek were monitored by 29 volunteers, 9 different Stream Teams.
In the Fall: 16 sites monitored by 10 volunteers, 5 Stream Teams.
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Curious about how all these site visits turned out? Download results here and see for yourself! Macro ratings ranged from 0 to 25, pH hovered around 8.2, and they even logged e. coli numbers. Very interesting.
If you want to get involved with Dardenne Day or any of the other great events put on all year by Greenway Network, visit their website.
