Area contractors, community leaders invited to help Renew the Blue

MARC, in partnership with Heartland Conservation Alliance, Bridging The Gap, Deep Roots and the city of Kansas City, Missouri, hosted a pair of events in late August to promote the new riparian restoration initiative. The effort aims to improve watershed ecology through streamside and neighborhood native plantings, and to educate professionals and communities on the value and need for management of our natural areas. 

The Blue River, the largest regional river feeding into the Missouri River, is so expansive that it's divided into six watersheds, including the main Lower Blue River Watershed, Brush Creek, Tomahawk Creek, Indian Creek, Camp Branch and Wolf Creek-Coffee Creek. The river stretches across Jackson and Cass counties in Missouri, and Johnson County and a small portion of Wyandotte County in Kansas, affecting over 800,000 people. 

Although the project will eventually cover up to 250 acres of restoration, the primary focus of these first events is on urban core sections in the Lower Blue, which earned a D scorecard in 2019 across the combined categories of water quality, development, habitat, community connections, governance and recreation. Through the efforts of Heartland Conservation Alliance, Bridging The Gap and others, that score was raised to a D+ two years later, with notable improvements in the development of tree canopy. Stormwater runoff remains a major concern in the Lower Blue and several of the "Middle Blue" watersheds because it causes erosion for miles downstream and pollutes the river with fertilizers, road treatments and pet waste.

The entirety of the river has since raised its score from a C- in 2019 to a C in 2021, with experts saying that although water quality, governance and community connections have all improved, the habitat has actually worsened.

On Aug. 22, several dozen local contractors hopped on a bus to tour five prospective sites along the Lower Blue, seeing first-hand the state of the areas marked for restoration. The theme of the day in these urbanized areas was spotting the prevalence of invasive plant and tree species, demonstrating the need to restore native vegetation. 

The roots of plants and grasses native to the region grow deeper into the soil and soak up more water during storms. In fact, the Kansas City regional tree canopy absorbs nearly 727 Olympic swimming pools of stormwater, according to i-Tree, an online tree canopy assessment tool. Native trees and shrubs are the most important vegetation in this restoration plan, and are currently being choked out by invasive bush honeysuckle, Johnson grass and Japanese hops. And while the Renewing the Blue initiative focuses on a specific watershed system, invasive species need to be removed in every county throughout the region. 

Site visits included Blue Valley Park, the Blue River Trailhead at MLK, Jr. Boulevard, a stretch of the riverbank along Coal Mine Road off of Manchester Trafficway, and another stretch off of Leeds Trafficway near Harvesters, where the group convened for the morning. A bonus fifth stop near the Coal Mine Road site highlighted work already underway in a forest clearing, where bush honeysuckle had been sharply reduced and biodiversity was reintroduced. Guides celebrated the return of native beavers to the tributaries and wetlands along the site as a testament to their efforts.

On Aug. 25, leaders and staff from municipalities with an interest in the long-term health of their riparian ecosystems, as well as area ecological nonprofits, attended a luncheon in Merriam, Kansas, near the headwaters of Indian Creek (a Blue River tributary) in Johnson County. Featured guest Steve Apfelbaum from Applied Ecological Institute joined MARC Environment Director Tom Jacobs and Heartland Conservation Alliance Executive Director Logan Heley. Heley is also councilmember for neighboring Overland Park, Kansas — the second-largest municipality in the watershed, affected by the Indian, Tomahawk and Brush Creek tributaries. The three speakers presented on the importance of and best practices for riparian forest restoration.

Apfelbaum, drawing from his long tenure of around 20,000 restoration projects, emphasized the multifaceted benefits of healthy wilderness ecosystems, including habitat preservation, public health improvement and flood risk mitigation. His presentation highlighted the connections between ecological and human systems, underscoring the importance of these kinds of projects. 

Along certain stretches of the river, as is the trend elsewhere, riparian forests in poor health cause declining land values (while simultaneously increasing the cost for repair and replacement of related infrastructure). Apfelbaum called for an ongoing effort to train eager conservationists and volunteers, and form organized corps like Bridging The Gap's Heartland Tree Alliance to align efforts. He also shared proven techniques, like brush layering and bio engineering on soils of degraded channels, to reinforce stability against flooding.

Councilmember Heley, as director of Heartland Conservation Alliance, shared the organization's self-scoring mechanism for the Blue River watershed, along with their near-term efforts to improve scores, especially in the Lower Blue. To bring home the importance of this campaign, he pointed out that a whopping two-thirds of the region's stormwater drains into the Blue River watershed system. He addressed the work already underway by the Heartland Tree Alliance, planting 1,700 neighborhood trees in Lower Blue communities like Dunbar, Vineyard, Palestine, Oak Park and Eastwood Hills. This tree canopy restoration has the co-benefit of not only soaking up more stormwater, but also providing greater shade and cooler summers for local residents. Heley also shared video from the Kansas Forest Service of no-till direct tree seeding over high-density areas (20,000 seeds per acre) to yield tree thickets of 6,000-10,000 tree stems per acre at three years old. Nature selects the trees that will grow beyond that, but the saplings vying for growth fill the spaces that unwanted invasive and noxious species take advantage of.

Heartland Conservation Alliance is in the process of securing contractors for shovel-ready riparian forest restoration projects along the Blue River, thanks to a $5 million federal grant. They are seeking qualified contractors for multi-season riparian restoration projects along 140 acres (5 miles) of the Lower Blue River watershed from 23rd to 53rd streets in Kansas City, Missouri.

Work includes removing invasive plants while establishing native trees and herbaceous species best suited for each site.

Proposals must include per-acre pricing for both initial restoration work and follow-up maintenance and establishment costs through the 2028 growing season to ensure long-term success.

If you are interested in submitting a proposal, visit joinrenewtheblue.org and visit the "ARPA Project" tab, where you will find a link for open RFPs.