Blue River - Program Updates
2020
Water Equity Roadmap: Charting a Course for Water Equity in Kansas City
The Water Equity Roadmap follows a model developed by the US Water Alliance to outline issues in communities around equitable access to water. The Roadmap will help Heartland Conservation Alliance and our partners plan projects, programs and actions to address the barriers brought up during the April and June listening sessions. Through this community effort, the Water Equity Roadmap will chart a course to water equity.
2019
Heartland Conservation Alliance’s Green Guard Stewardship Program
Graduated 50 trained stewards from four underserved communities through the Green Guard Stewardship Program. Heartland Conservation Alliance’s Green Guard Stewardship Program connects Kansas City communities to environmental knowledge and resources while improving environmental literacy in watershed health, plant identification, biodiversity, community engagement, green infrastructure, how to safely interact with wildlife in the city and land use. In addition, it increases community engagement within civic organizations who work to alleviate poverty by building capacity in order to protect natural areas for the enjoyment of all.
Blue River Greenways Ecosystem Restoration
The partnership is implementing the Army Corps of Engineers and KC Water's concept plan for restoration of ecosystems at the Blue River and Brush Creek confluences and the western half of Municipal Farm. Plans include significant areas of bottomland hardwood forest, wetlands and upland prairie at the convergence of multiple regional greenway and trail systems.
Brush Creek Restoration Sites
The partnership is mobilizing the building of restoration alternatives that have been planned for two reaches of Brush Creek via an Army Corps of Engineers and a local sponsor feasibility study and community engagement process. The Brush Creek Coordinating Committee - a partner ship of watershed stakeholders- has also created a habitat model unique to this urban watershed and is developing a watershed management plan. There are ongoing studies and training to implement restoration: invasive species studies and removal, native plant community restoration techniques and natural resources mapping.
2017
Upper Blue River COA
The Blue River and Brush Creek Confluence area is the only urban state-designated Conservation Opportunity Area (COA) in Missouri, and the partnership is working on enabling restoration in thee priority sites, which overlap the other three project sites. A large area of the COA is undergoing active restoration through grants and volunteer action through conservation partnerships, and those successes with volunteer engagement and public education are transferable to the confluence site and Municipal Farm.
2016
Reclaiming Vacant Properties 2016 Conference
Around 1,000 participants from various communities attended the conference themed around "In the Service of People and Place," which examined how reclaiming vacant properties can improve the quality of life of those in surrounding areas. At the close of the conference, members of the Patapsco and Middle Blue River Urban Waters Partnerships discussed strategies for vacant land greening.
More information on the conference can be found here.
Green Guard
Middle Blue Partner and new location Ambassador, The Heartland Conservation Alliance (HCA), has piloted their Green Guard environmental stewardship program at East High School in Kansas City, Missouri. Stewards from East High School learn to connect to the natural resources in their own neighborhood and school grounds, where there is a ten acre forest patch, and learn to take care of them. The goals of the program are to protect and restore natural resources in urban neighborhoods, provide our partner organizations with skilled bolunteers from diverse neighborhoods, and enhance their quality of life by increasing access to nature. The program was created by the VISTAs assigned to the partnership by the Department of the Interior.
Parks with Purpose
The Heartland Conservation Alliance has kicked off planning for a Parks with Purpose project with the Marlborough Coalition of Neighborhoods in Kansas City, Missouri. The Conservation Fund program assists park development in places that are in need of both green space and economic development, using private funds from UHaul leveraged with local partnerships and resources. In Kansas City, the park will be developed in collaboration with the Marlborough Coalition on a city-block sized green infrastructure project being installed by Kansas City Water Services, and will be used to model meaningful city, neighborhood, conservation, and arts collaboration.
April 2-May 6
The partnership will launch a "Renew the Blue" brand for the Blue River during a series of events taking place, commemorating the completion of the Blue River Flood Management project which began construction in 1983. The series kicks off with the 26th Project Blue River Rescue on April 2nd, a river clean-up that brings in over one thousand volunteers. Each week until May 6th, there is an event celebrating a sector -- business, education, trails, and more. The culminating event for dignitaries is May 6th and will feature a series of posters and speeches commemorating the 40 plus year project and the severe flooding it is preventing. This event wil also feature "Renew the Blue" as the future of the river, and will highlight the Middle Blue River Urban Waters Federal Partnership with tours of the Municipal Farm and the Brush Creek and Blue River Confluence.