Missouri Conservation Corps is grateful for all the volunteers who turned out on Sunday, March 8th to help us clean up Columbia’s Flat Branch Creek! This event was our first volunteer event of 2026, and our third creek cleanup on Flat Branch Creek. After a week of rain and cold temperatures, Sunday was a delightfully sunny day with temperatures in the upper 60s. We had 40 volunteers show up in Grassland’s Park as we handed out gloves and talked about the importance of water quality in our creeks. We then hiked down to the creek to remove trash from the creek, the trail, and the riparian area along the creek. The focus of our removal efforts was between MKT Bridge #1 and MKT Bridge #3, and the volunteers made use of the warm weather and sunshine to wade in the creek and remove trash and debris.
During this three-hour event, our hardy band of volunteers removed more than 800 pounds of trash from Flat Branch Creek, while also finding a few cool items to take home and up-cycle! These included a clean, rust-free bicycle frame that we donated to the Bike COOP at the Armory, a very large blue tarp, and the concrete base for a bird bath (VERY HEAVY!). The trash removed from the creek included plastic, glass, aluminum cans, landscaping fabric, plywood, lumber, shoes, clothing, tent poles, and a plastic shopping cart. The volunteers for this event came from Columbia, Jefferson City, Missouri Master Naturalists, CCUA, MU, Columbia College, Missouri Stream Teams, AmeriCorps VISTA, and Tigers for A Cause.
Thank you to Volunteer Columbia, Missouri Stream Team, and Columbia Parks and Recreation for helping us organize and run the event, and special thanks go to Cara Coates from Missouri Stream Team for fearlessly helping us lead the event and then grilling hot dogs for 40 volunteers in the park afterward!
For more information on our upcoming volunteer events in Columbia, take a look at our website events calendar, or follow us on Facebook and Instagram.
