Trailnet Classics | Message from the rides manager
Thank you to everyone who has reached out to us about the 2020 Trailnet Classics ride calendar.
We have received a lot of direct and indirect feedback about our changes to the rides. I want to acknowledge and accommodate people’s thoughts on the changes. Based on this feedback we are making adjustments to the start times of these rides.
Your input makes our events better and I appreciate it. I want these rides to be safe, fun, and memorable experiences for our riders, partners, and the communities who graciously welcome us.
We believe that bikes are not just a great way to get around but an even greater tool to bring folks together and build community. These rides support our work to advocate for safer streets for everyone and allow us to better engage these host cities and neighborhoods with our work.
Beginning in 2019, Trailnet started reviewing its distance rides to look at improving safety and rider experience. Coming into this position, my main focus was to build on the existing success of these rides, bring additional experience, and wider industry standards to the process, and give our members and riders a great experience.
Our overarching goal is to improve the safety and the community-building aspects of these rides without changing the core of these events: high-quality supported bike rides that build an appreciation and awareness for cycling.
Group Starts
Switching from a scattered start to a group start has been the change that has drawn the most attention and is the biggest change from previous years.
I understand this is a major change, and I appreciate the concerns people have shared over the shift to more-structured rides.
Changing registration and start times- Based on rider input, we are creating a second, earlier start time of our rides to address concerns of summer temperatures.
We will have two group starts. Riders can choose to depart in either a 7:30 or 8:30 A.M group start.
At both starts we will encourage riders to be mindful of their own ability and comfort level when positioning themselves in the staging area. Group start etiquette and safety will also be covered in the rider briefing.
We may make additional changes based on potential severe weather conditions, with appropriate notification time before the rides.
We are still committed to the benefits a group start offers:
Each start will have a police escort for the beginning section (10-12 mph. for approx. 1 mile) of each ride, to increase visibility and safety. People will be able to set their own pace after the escort has lead riders safely onto the course.
A rider briefing on the route and road conditions will allow more-consistent communications.
The set start time will also improve the responsiveness of SAG and first aid support by having a clearer understanding of riders’ positions along each route.
The group start times shorten the volunteer shifts we ask including registration, rest stops, driving SAG vehicles, and managing traffic.
The set start times will help create a greater sense of community between riders of all experience levels. It allows more people to connect and socialize over coffee before the ride.
The group start addresses the concerns of people who feel safer riding in groups.
These changes also allow us to better work with municipal agencies on the timing of our rides as part of the permitting and insurance process. We need to operate within the agreements and expectations of the host communities and their agencies.
We are confident these benefits as well as day-of safety measures outweigh the potential challenges of a group start.
I want to keep hearing your thoughts and appreciate the chance to talk through these changes. Please shoot me an email or give me a call.
Matt Hartman
Rides Manager
matt@trailnet.org
314-828-2196
Trailnet Classics: Group Starts
We believe that bikes are not just a great way to get around but an even greater tool to bring folks together and build community. These rides support our work to advocate for safer streets for everyone and allow us to better engage these host cities and neighborhoods with our work.
Our overarching goal is to improve the safety and the community-building aspects of these rides without changing the core of these events: high-quality supported bike rides that build an appreciation and awareness for cycling.
Group Starts
We will have two group starts. Riders can choose to depart in either a 7:30 or 8:30 A.M group start.
At both starts we will encourage riders to be mindful of their own ability and comfort level when positioning themselves in the staging area. Group start etiquette and safety will also be covered in the rider briefing.
We may make additional changes based on potential severe weather conditions, with appropriate notification time before the rides.
We are still committed to the benefits a group start offers:
Each start will have a police escort for the beginning section (10-12 mph. for approx. 1 mile) of each ride, to increase visibility and safety. People will be able to set their own pace after the escort has lead riders safely onto the course.
A rider briefing on the route and road conditions will allow more-consistent communications.
The set start time will also improve the responsiveness of SAG and first aid support by having a clearer understanding of riders’ positions along each route.
The group start times shorten the volunteer shifts we ask including registration, rest stops, driving SAG vehicles, and managing traffic.
The set start times will help create a greater sense of community between riders of all experience levels. It allows more people to connect and socialize over coffee before the ride.
The group start addresses the concerns of people who feel safer riding in groups.
We are confident these benefits as well as day-of safety measures will give our riders a safe, high-quality ride experience.
Game Changers #STLMade | Across STL
MEET THE GAME CHANGERS
-Photo by R.J. Hartbeck
Today, Matt Raithel is the owner and studio director of Maryland Heights-based Graphite Lab, which creates in-house and branded games for all gaming platforms – what he dreamed of doing as a kid.
What started with the creation of the company’s original flagship game, “Hive Jump,” has now expanded to developing branded games for major companies, including Cartoon Network, Mattel and Hasbro. Raithel and his team recently made “Hive Jump” available on Nintendo Switch and Xbox One, a huge accomplishment for the company.
Similarly, Robin Rath successfully co-founded Pixel Press, situated in downtown St. Louis. Rath and his team found success with creating educational games for kids, including the creation of “Bloxels,” which uses a board with plastic pegs to map out game levels and characters before animating them through a mobile app. Thanks to a partnership with Mattel, Pixel Press has secured manufacturing and distribution of “Bloxels” in the retail world. A partnership with Disney recently led to the creation of a “Star Wars” version of the product.
With dozens of gaming studios, courses and industry events, St. Louis is becoming the nation’s next video game development hot spot. “I think St Louis is a really special place for making games because it’s such a diverse crowd of people making them. There’s everything from hobbyists to larger scale companies, but they’re all making something different and they all do it in a different way,” says Mary McKenzie, managing partner of the Metro East studio Volcano Bean.
McKenzie is also a co-organizer of the PixelPop Festival, an annual independent game conference and expo that launched several years ago and, as McKenzie puts it, is “an event that could show off the amazing things that are being made in St. Louis.” The event, held annually at University of Missouri – St. Louis, typically ranks among the top three largest in the nation, and top ten largest in the world.
TJ Hughes, game developer and 3-D artist at Terrifying Jellyfish, especially appreciates the resources offered to gamers here in St. Louis. He cites the Cortex Innovation Community and St. Louis Game Developer Co-Op as examples. “No matter what you need – music, programming, someone who makes really weird, specific art – [the CoOp] is probably the place where you can find that,” he says.
THAT’S #STLMADE
All of these dreams, ideas, companies and progress are possible because of the unique mix of culture, affordability, Midwest openness and grit, and a dedication to taking on longterm issues of accessibility and equity.
We hear similar stories again and again. With the second highest rate of Millennial home ownership and a cost of living 6% lower than the national average, the St. Louis Federal Reserve reports that the standard of living in St. Louis is higher than 94 percent of the MSAs (Metropolitan Statistical Areas) in the nation. It creates a place big enough to provide world-class institutions and attract national, global tours, yet small enough that residents can make their mark and be recognized for their contributions.
A place where you can stand up, stand out and stay.
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STLMade is a movement working to shine a light on the people, innovations, and ideas that are driving growth and change in our region so that residents and non-residents alike can better see the renaissance for themselves. Through stories on theSTL.com, the movement aims to highlight the work being done and the progress being made – from building communities that are more inclusive, to creating new industries and economic opportunities, to finding those ideal careers people never thought possible.
Across STL is a collaboration between the Katy Land Trust and Trailnet, telling the stories of the people and places that make the St. Louis community.
How innovators, thinkers, doers and makers are revitalizing the St. Louis region
-Photo by R.J. Hartbeck
Over the past few years, St. Louis has seen incredible growth in our innovative industries, thriving food scene, expanded cultural amenities and has become one of the fastest-growing locations for entrepreneurs – without compromising the affordable, livable nature of our region – and that renaissance is driven by our innovators, thinkers, doers and makers.
Southwest Magazine called the region a “dream factory” and STLMade agrees. STLMade is a movement working to shine a light on the people, innovations, and ideas that are driving growth and change in our region so that residents and non-residents alike can better see the renaissance for themselves. Through stories on theSTL.com, the movement aims to highlight the work being done and the progress being made – from building communities that are more inclusive, to creating new industries and economic opportunities, to finding those ideal careers people never thought possible.
St. Louis is a place where a small business can thrive, or a girl can grow up to achieve career milestones she never imagined. Growing up, Angi Taylor didn’t think a career in science was an option for her. “I was always led to believe that someone like me was not a scientist,” Taylor says. “I was fascinated. I would go into the lab and look at what they did and think, ‘Oh, wow this is amazing, but I can’t do this.’”
That all changed when as an administrative assistant at St. Louis Community College’s Center for Plant and Life Sciences at the Bio-Research, Development and Growth Park (BRDG Park) at Donald Danforth Plant Science Center, she noticed students train in the sciences and land gainful, interesting jobs at BRDG Park. She decided to take classes herself, and because of the program, interned with NewLeaf Symbiotics at BRDG Park before taking a permanent position as a lab clerk there.
“I was not a traditional student. At that time, I was in my mid-40’s and taking classes all over again. But it wasn’t as impossible as I thought,” Taylor says. “We need to do what it takes. Learn something different. Yes, it takes effort, but this is where the future is going. This amazing science is happening right here.”
As the agriculture industry continues to grow in St. Louis, more and more trained specialists at all levels will be needed to staff both startups and established companies. It’s a challenge, but it’s one Taylor thinks the region is ready for. It’s also a challenge that is going to require increasing numbers of talented people to fill the growing agricultural industry, as well as the burgeoning geospatial, tech and finance industries – and the skyrocketing startup community. It means more nontraditional students like Angi Taylor, and a more diverse workforce. St. Louis is leading the charge there, too, as one of the most welcoming and inclusive startup cities. Even the Brookings Institute noted that the businesses, organizations and individuals who reside here are committed to diversifying our workforces and positioning job seekers for global opportunities.
Local programs and organizations focused on promoting equity in tech and beyond, such as LaunchCode, have sprung up in large part to increase the diversity of age, background, gender, race and more.
Meanwhile, St. Louis has several inclusion-focused tech initiatives, including the St. Louis Equity in Entrepreneurship Collective, one of the only programs in the nation focused on building equity in techbased entrepreneurship ecosystems at a regional level, and the Missouri Cures Education Foundation has presented the Women in Science and Entrepreneurship (WISE) Statewide Conference for five years running. The conference features panel discussions with women leaders succeeding in science, medicine, business, technology, innovation, and entrepreneurship.
Local opportunities also exist for school-aged girls looking to build skills and education in the tech space. For example, international supermodel, entrepreneur, and St. Louis native, Karlie Kloss, has offered her Kode With Klossy coding summer camps for girls age 13-18 in St. Louis and beyond since 2015, while in North St. Louis, Hawthorn Leadership School for Girls provides middle and high school girls a STEMbased college preparatory education and is the first public all-girls school in Missouri.
Those efforts are paying off. Just this past April, Seek Business Capital found that St. Louis has the most female-owned startups in the country, and PitchBook noted a high percentage of the VC funding for female-owned startups was for companies based here. The efforts of these communities, organizations and programs make St. Louis one of the most welcoming tech hot spots in the country.
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Across STL is a collaboration between the Katy Land Trust and Trailnet, telling the stories of the people and places that make the St. Louis community.
Pedal with ease, comfort, and style on this top-of-the-line e-bike!
Trailnet is raffling an electric bike donated by our friends at Pedego St. Louis. This Pedego Platinum Interceptor, valued at $5,000, could be yours! If you buy a ticket (or ten)!
All raffle proceeds benefit Trailnet’s work to make it safe to bike and walk for transportation in St. Louis.
Only 400 tickets will be sold at $25 each. You can buy as many tickets as you’d like, but once we sell out, that’s it!
The winning ticket will be drawn at Trailnet’s 2019 Movers & Shakers: Connecting St. Louis Gala on Wednesday, November 6. You don’t have to be present to win, but we hope we’ll see you there! Click here for details on the Gala!
Must be a Missouri resident or in Missouri to purchase tickets. Must be 18 or older to participate. 400 tickets will be sold for $25 each. Winner does not need to be present at the Trailnet 2019 Movers & Shakers: Connecting St. Louis Gala to win. Winner responsible for applicable income tax liability based on the value of the package ($5,000). Trailnet’s staff, board, and their household members are not eligible. Sorry, no refunds. All proceeds from the Bike Raffle benefit Trailnet.
The Right Time #STLMade | Across STL
HIS TIME IS THE RIGHT TIME
-Photo by Michael Thomas
“All of our products are designed and manufactured locally but they have a global impact. Our timing systems serve as the heartbeat for some of the most exciting and ambitious pursuits in tech, aerospace and computing. We’re proud to employ exceptional talent from right here in the region to make these pursuits possible. It’s a badge of honor, and we’re excited to continue to grow this core team right here in the Midwest.” John Clark, Masterclock CEO
St. Louisans are accomplishing milestones in every corner of our region, including people like St. Charles-based John Clark who is keeping the world in sync, quite literally. Clark is the second-generation CEO of Masterclock, which provides synchronized clocks and timing systems for some of the world’s most recognizable firms, events and organizations including NASA’s Kennedy Space Center rocket launches. “Our niche is time itself,” says Clark.
Masterclock’s team of 20 engineers, assemblers and consultants serve customers in 104 countries, including major players like Microsoft, IBM, and the Fédération Internationale de Football Association (FIFA), but the company stays close to its local roots by supplying products to many local TV and radio stations, the St. Louis Science Center, Busch Stadium, St. Louis Lambert International Airport and more. Today, Masterclock accrues over $3.6 million in annual sales.
Among the many incentives to keep his business local, Clark ticks off another reason he encourages growing businesses to take root here: “Central location. Logistics can be 30 percent cheaper than in New York or California. Regulatory hurdles are relatively low, and the community of makers is incredibly supportive,” he shares.
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STLMade is a movement working to shine a light on the people, innovations, and ideas that are driving growth and change in our region so that residents and non-residents alike can better see the renaissance for themselves. Through stories on theSTL.com, the movement aims to highlight the work being done and the progress being made – from building communities that are more inclusive, to creating new industries and economic opportunities, to finding those ideal careers people never thought possible.
Across STL is a collaboration between the Katy Land Trust and Trailnet, telling the stories of the people and places that make the St. Louis community.
Unlike St. Louis’s potholes and steel plates that accidentally put strain on your car’s shocks, there are several tools that are intentionally bump-inducing; making neighborhood streets calmer and safer for people in cars, on bikes or on foot.
Friendly Neighborhood Speed Humps
Speed Humps are usually 3-4 inches tall and about 3-6 feet long. These gradual humps in the road help keep traffic to 15-20 mph in neighborhoods, parks and around schools. Speed humps are used with other design elements to create calmer streets. They are gentle if you’re traveling at the target speed but can throw you for a loop if you’re speeding.
Speed Tables
Speed Tables are longer speed humps with a flat top. They work in the same way as a speed hump but for streets with higher speeds, usually 25-45 mph. They can also be paired with a raised mid-block crosswalk to make it safer for people on foot or in wheelchairs to cross the street.
Speed Cushions
Speed Cushions are versions of speed humps and tables that have cut outs allowing vehicles with wider-axles: ambulances, buses and fire trucks to drive over them unaffected. They still have a traffic calming effect on personal vehicles and are best suited for busy streets around hospitals or fire houses.
Speed Bumps
Speed Bumps are the bitey-est of the family. They are short, narrow and jarring no matter how slow you drive over them. They are most common in parking lots and on driveways where speeds need to be kept 2-15 mph.
Yes, these are intentionally inconvenient.
We want everyone to think more about protecting lives, and less about a few seconds of delay. A person’s life should always override speed.
In 2016, Trailnet successfully advocated for the City of St. Louis Traffic Calming Policy allowing neighborhoods within the City to build speed humps and other traffic calming tools on neighborhood to reduce speeding and improve safety.
For more information on traffic calming and infrastructure improvements that can make St. Louis a safer, better connected and more equitable place read our Safe Streets Glossary.
Fair Trade, Fair City #STLMade | Across STL
BRINGING FAIR TRADE TO OUR FAIR CITY
-Photo by David Treadway
“Between Zee Bee Market’s mission to promote fair trade and Trailnet’s efforts to improve biking and walking, our work is linked by the common drive to value people, promote sustainability and support communities. I’m happy to work with STL Made and Trailnet to help connect people to the great work happening in our region.” – Julio Zegarra-Ballon, owner of Zee Bee Market
As we increase our diversity in many growing industries, we’re also welcoming immigrants. St. Louis has been one of the top two fastest growing cities for immigrants in two of the past three years. One such immigrant is Julio Zegarra-Ballon. After meeting and marrying his American wife in his home country of Peru, he moved with her to the United States and took a job in retail — something he thought would be temporary. But it wasn’t long before Zegarra-Ballon found his spark, and thanks to his work with St. Louis-based nonprofit Partners for Just Trade, an organization dedicated to ethically connecting producers in poorer countries with consumers in the United States, he became passionate about fair trade goods as well.
Soon, Zegarra-Ballon planned out how a fair trade supply chain might look in his own future business, and today, he has two locations of Zee Bee Market, a fair trade store that sources products from about 33 different countries.
“I recognized almost immediately that if a customer is given the choice to either buy something that is mass produced in a conventional supply chain, or the same item that has been handcrafted lovingly by a human being in an impoverished country, you can make a difference,” Zegarra-Ballon says. “Your purchase power actually makes a difference in the world.”
Within the walls of his Zee Bee Market stores, you’ll find colorful dresses that were crafted in India, measuring spoons sporting quirky black cats that were made in Vietnam, messenger bags constructed from discarded cement sacks, coat hooks fashioned from bike chains and colorful scarves, among many other handmade items. But when Zegarra-Ballon looks at the items in his shops, he doesn’t simply see things to sell — he sees an opportunity for all. Because the creators behind these items are now able to pay for education and health care, they also achieve some peace of mind and dignity.
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STLMade is a movement working to shine a light on the people, innovations, and ideas that are driving growth and change in our region so that residents and non-residents alike can better see the renaissance for themselves. Through stories on theSTL.com, the movement aims to highlight the work being done and the progress being made – from building communities that are more inclusive, to creating new industries and economic opportunities, to finding those ideal careers people never thought possible.
Across STL is a collaboration between the Katy Land Trust and Trailnet, telling the stories of the people and places that help shape the St. Louis community.
Trailnet CEO, Cindy Mense’s letter to the St. Louis Post-Dispatch editorial board, published July 26, 2019
Missouri’s 1st Congressional District was just listed as the 47th most deadly district for people on foot in traffic crashes by Smart Growth America. Between 2008 and 2017, 188 people were killed while walking by people driving cars in the district.
This ranking follows the death of Timothy Thornton, who was killed while riding his bike by a person driving a truck last month in Wildwood. In two stories published by the Post-Dispatch, reporters called his death an accident. (June 25, June 26)
This contrasts the death of 11-year-old Trent Davis who was killed by a person driving a car while waiting on a bus in March. In his case, the Post-Dispatch reported his death without calling it an accident.
Together this report and these individual deaths highlight the serious problem of people in cars killing people walking and biking in our region.
Language matters. When media outlets call preventable traffic deaths accidents it makes these deaths seem random and unavoidable. Road conditions, road design and on-road behavior come together to cause these deaths.
We need to stop calling these tragedies accidents.
We encourage everyone, especially reporters, to use accurate, people-first language when talking about traffic safety, and particularly traffic deaths: A person driving a truck, hit and killed a person riding a bike.
The Post-Dispatch and other local media should follow the Associated Press’s standards, “avoid accident, which can be read as exonerating the person responsible.”
Already the Missouri Highway Patrol has replaced “accident” with “crash” in their official reporting.
Crashes have causes and they are preventable. Accurately calling crashes what they are is the first step to start preventing them.
The Katy Land Trust | Across STL
Conserving Missouri’s Hudson River Valley
By Andrew Cooperman
Great cities have great landscapes,” said Dan Burkhardt, who founded the Katy Land Trust (KLT) with his wife, Connie. “New York, San Francisco, Austin, Miami are all identified with what surrounds and adjoins them. The Missouri River Valley is St. Louis’ Hudson River and Napa Valley, Texas Hill Country and Everglades — and it all begins less than 45 minutes from the Arch. And like those landscapes, ours needs advocates.”
Land trusts work to bring attention to the value of the countryside, to remind all of us that the expanses of natural beauty, the farms and forests, that surround our cities can be permanently protected or they can become victims of development. Almost 30 years ago — the anniversary is in 2020 — a huge gift from Pat and Ted Jones forged the Katy Trail, a 225-mile reinvention of the old Missouri-Kansas-Texas Railroad line that allows exploration of this area. Stretching across Missouri, the trail is now a 280-mile linear park, the longest in the nation.
Nine years ago, the Katy Land Trust (KLT) was formed to advocate for and protect that park and the land that surrounds it — the farms and vineyards that soften the blufftop views of the Missouri River Valley. Sometimes that means stripping out invasive bush honeysuckle along the trail or planting native trees. Sometimes it means educating landowners about conserving their property. But the mission expanded fast to include historic and cultural preservation, as well as a little horn-blowing to make sure everyone in the region — and any tourist who shows up — knows the beauty and significance of this valley.
Connecting small river towns, the river valley is home to the first American Viticultural Area. Decorated with grapes and sheltered by forested hills, its wide cornfields were enriched by the river bottom. “And all historians know that the 100 river miles from Hermann to the Confluence are unrivaled in history-per-mile,” Burkhardt added.
In 2014, he and Connie bought the Peers Store near Marthasville to save it from demolition. Not long after, they bought the Treloar Mercantile nearby. Restoring those two stores meant more than historic preservation; it resurrected all the stories they held — a century of provisioning along the river, along the railroad, surrounded by small farms. Less than 4 miles apart, Peers and Treloar bookend an important stretch of the German Heritage Corridor. This stretch along the old railroad line “teaches us so much about our history,” Burkhardt said. “The two stores at either end are now tangible examples of what preservation can accomplish. They’re also a perfect way to demonstrate that to people who don’t have conservation as a top-of-mind issue. And visitors are coming from all over the world.”
Culturally, the Treloar Mercantile and Peers Store also “offer wonderful opportunities to showcase our state’s rich German heritage,” said Steve Belko of the Missouri Humanities Council. His work helped secure Peers a spot on the National Register of Historic Places, and he was gratified to see that “the Treloar Mercantile still retains much of its original architecture and interior.”
The KLT is making the most of the building’s setting, too. Back in 1896, when the Treloar Mercantile Building was erected to welcome the new railroad, an elm sapling grew up next to it. For more than a century, that tree lent its shade. Then it died a natural death, so when the Burkhardt’s bought the building, they also bought a magnificent dead tree. Rather than cut it down, they had it reduced to a 12-foot stump and brought in a talented carver to “remove everything that didn’t look like an ear of Missouri corn.” What’s left is a wooden homage to the crop that grew in the river bottom, filled the grain elevators, and kept the area thriving.
On one of those old corrugated-tin grain elevators, the KLT hung banners of artist Bryan Haynes’ work. Regularly compared to Thomas Hart Benton, he shrugs off the comparison, saying the landscape itself — its crooks and hollows, curves and bends — dictates a certain visual language. The paintings that decorate the elevators depict old-time farmers harvesting a wheat field and Missouri’s state bird, the bluebird, taking flight over a vineyard of Missouri’s state grape, the Norton.
Another installation is on a vine-covered silo at McKittrick, across the river from Hermann. There, two of Billyo O’Donnell’s small, vivid, thickly textured oil paintings have been blown up to show, from miles away, glimpses of what he considers “the most beautiful place in the world.” One shows two boats tied ashore at Berger Bend; the other is a scene just upstream of the grand limestone bluffs. At the Peers Store, the art form that’s capturing the region is music. Peers was originally the Glosemeyer General Store. It opened in 1896, because commerce was lively in the growing communities along the new KATY railroad. Linus and Loretta Glosemeyer ran the store for almost 60 years. Now, it’s a welcome post for residents and trail users, run as a nonprofit. And its wide, gingerbread-trimmed front porch is the perfect place to make a little music.
Rick Funcik coordinates that front-porch music, which feels spontaneous but happens nearly every Saturday and Sunday, noon to 4 p.m., April through October. “It’s about as non-commercial as it gets,” he said. “What we try to re-create is a scene that would have happened 100, maybe 150 years ago, when a general store was the social focal point — along with the church! — of a small town on the Missouri River.”
Local musicians show up and play, and people drop in — no admission price — and stay for a while, sip a cold soda, maybe stroll through the pollinator garden between the store and the Katy Trail. Often longer than they planned.
“We’ve heard blues, freedom songs, barndance tunes, and a lot of river songs,” said Funcik. He’s been touched by the musicians’ “deep respect for the music our ancestors made. The depth of historical knowledge is amazing.” He’s also touched by the musicians’ patience when a small child is fascinated by their instrument and wants to try it out: “That’s ‘folk’ music at its best!”
The only puzzle piece still missing is the folk music of the German families who settled and farmed the Missouri valley. Funcik’s hunting for those melodies.
Meanwhile, the KLT continues to support and promote local artists and glass-blowers, quaint old railroad towns, breathtaking views from the bluffs, and food and wine for the trail-goers.
Land trusts are one of the most effective conservation measures around. They’re nonprofit, community-based, and voluntary. And while they may sound gentle, even a little passive, they fight some urgent battles. KLT’s biggest recent preservation project was its campaign to block the Missouri Bluffs subdivision from sucking up public land, destroying views, and disrupting the forest’s ecological balance. “Conservationists and philanthropists have worked for decades to protect this area and create a place for public enjoyment. It’s our turn to make sure that effort isn’t wasted,” said Burkhardt.
Over the years, the KLT has produced CDs featuring river music, funded hundreds of bluegrass performances, helped develop a river camping experience, made TV documentaries, sponsored campaigns to eradicate invasive bush honeysuckle, bought and rehabbed abandoned buildings, and fought legal battles for preservation.
But many Missourians know that the Burkhardts are working in Missouri River Country because of two books that they wrote and published. In 2013, Dan published a lushly-photographed coffee-table book, Missouri River Country: 100 Miles of Stories from Hermann to the Confluence. This anthology tapped more than 60 Missourians who wrote original essays about their experiences with the Missouri River valley.
In 2016, the Burkhardts wrote a second book for younger conservationists and their families. Growing Up with the River: Nine Generations on the Missouri travels 100 miles, visiting different river towns from Lewis and Clark’s journey to the present. With beautiful original illustrations by Bryan Haynes, it is a history of the river valley through the experiences of children as they wonder about world changing around them — the trees, the river, the birds. and wildlife. Growing Up with the River received the Mom’s Choice Gold Award for Family Friendly Literature.
But Burkhardt, who conceived these books, sees them as more than literature. They are invitations — invitations asking all of us to jump on our bikes or to pile our families into the car.
“We’ve carved a 10-foot ear of corn from an old elm tree and hung art on grain elevators,” said Burkhardt, “all to connect people to the value and beauty of the Missouri landscape. Because people have all kinds of interests, we want to show them they can relate to our history and landscape in all kinds of ways. Everyone, lifelong Missourians included, need to get off Highway 70 and into the real Missouri countryside.”
Even the magazine in your hands is part of KLT’s efforts, in partnership with Trailnet, to raise awareness and appreciation of this extraordinary place and make sure it stays protected for years to come!
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Across STL is a collaboration between the Katy Land Trust and Trailnet, telling the stories of the people and places that make up the St. Louis community.
Conserving Missouri’s Hudson River Valley
On one of those old corrugated-tin grain elevators, the KLT hung banners of artist Bryan Haynes’ work. Regularly compared to Thomas Hart Benton, he shrugs off the comparison, saying the landscape itself — its crooks and hollows, curves and bends — dictates a certain visual language. The paintings that decorate the elevators depict old-time farmers harvesting a wheat field and Missouri’s state bird, the bluebird, taking flight over a vineyard of Missouri’s state grape, the Norton.
Local musicians show up and play, and people drop in — no admission price — and stay for a while, sip a cold soda, maybe stroll through the pollinator garden between the store and the Katy Trail. Often longer than they planned.