Deer Creek Watershed Alliance, a project of Missouri Botanical Garden, is funded by Metropolitan St. Louis Sewer District, Mabel Dorn Reeder Foundation, the Holton family, Great Rivers Greenway, Open Space Council for the St. Louis Region, Missouri Department of Conservation, and US EPA Region 7 through the Missouri Department of Natural Resources (subgrant number G22-NPS-09), under Section 319 of the Clean Water Act.

 

Key Partnerships and Roles

East-West Gateway Council of Governments
East-West Gateway Council of Governments is the regional planning agency for the Greater St. Louis Region. They have an Environment and Community Planning Division and a GIS Division, as well as experience in watershed planning. East West Gateway provides GIS mapping services and background data information.

Metropolitan St. Louis Sewer District
Metropolitan St. Louis Sewer District (MSD) is playing a significant watershed planning role through participation on the Community Leaders Task Force and Deer Creek Technical Committee. In addition, MSD leads regional stormwater NPDES management efforts, and has initiated the development of a regional plan to address flood concerns. Furthermore, MSD has developed and submitted to U.S. EPA a plan for addressing CSO discharges in the St. Louis region, and is developing a plan to address SSO’s in the region as well.

Missouri Botanical Garden
The Missouri Botanical Garden plays a facilitation role between project partners on watershed planning efforts.

Missouri Department of Natural Resources & U.S. EPA Region 7
The watershed planning process for the Deer Creek Watershed is partially funded by US EPA Region 7 through the Missouri Department of Natural Resources (subgrant number G11-NPS-15), under Section 319 of the Clean Water Act. In addition, Missouri Department of Natural Resources staff provides technical expertise to assist in watershed planning efforts.

Municipal Partnerships
The cities of Brentwood, Clayton, Creve Coeur, Crystal Lake Park, Des Peres, Frontenac, Glendale, Huntleigh, Kirkwood, Ladue, Olivette, Maplewood, Richmond Heights, Rock Hill, Shrewsbury, Town and Country, University City, Warson Woods, Webster Groves, and Westwood are active participants in the watershed planning process. Most of these municipalities have a representative participating in the Community Leaders Task Force and all of them have passed a resolution in support of the Watershed Plan Summary. In addition, the cities of Frontenac and Clayton have each conducted their own stormwater master planning efforts, and the City of Richmond Heights is developing three bioretention designs to improve water quality in Deer Creek.

St. Louis Audubon Society – Bring Conservation Home
Bring Conservation Home is a private lands habitat restoration assistance and certification program serving the St. Louis, Missouri metropolitan area. Participants benefit from a visit from a trained Habitat Adviser, who reviews the owner's personal landscape goals and performs an assessment using the program criteria. The Habitat Adviser provides a written report with recommendations on native landscaping, invasive plant removal, stormwater management, and other wildlife stewardship practices.

Monitoring Partners

To assist the Missouri Department of Natural Resources, Water Protection Program and the Missouri Botanical Garden, Deer Creek Watershed Alliance project; Randy Sarver of the Department’s Environmental Services Program, Water Quality Monitoring Section initiated a Cooperative Stream Investigation project to collect samples in 2021, 2022, and 2023 with the assistance of Steve McCarthy a Missouri Stream Team, Level 3, VWQM volunteer of Stream Team 5099.  Litzsinger Road Ecology Center (LREC) collects monitoring data as well. The U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) works with LREC staff to obtain stream flow measurements during various seasons. Washington University in St. Louis has analyzed water quality data compiled from Deer Creek water quality monitoring to help inform the watershed planning process.

Stewardship Partners

The Great Rivers Missouri Master Naturalists, Missouri Stream Team, Stream Teams United, Open Space STL, St. Louis Master Gardeners, and Webster Groves Green Keepers recruit volunteers for watershed stewardship events.