Quarterly Spotlight Archives

Greater Bonne Femme Watershed Surveys

10/29/2019

Fields, forests, streams, and other green spaces supply numerous benefits to the community including clean air, water purification, wildlife habitat, timber, food, nutrient cycling, and recreation for the Greater Bonne Femme Watershed. These benefits are supplied freely by nature, so they are not traditionally accounted for in economic analysis. Once completed, the Return on Environment study for the Greater Bonne Femme Watershed will supply benefit information that will be used along with the economic values of property, tax revenues, and the avoided replacement of environmental services costs. Survey responses from landowners and visitors of the Greater Bonne Femme Watershed will help supply the immeasurable importance and thoughts the community has about these green spaces.

A Return on Environment study analyzes the benefits of natural resources, ecosystem services, and community values through an economic lens, translating these functions into dollar amounts. The ROE does not replace the intrinsic values held by many people. By providing monetary values to these environmental system services, it gives a universal language more people can understand and communicate. The ROE is used when making decisions concerning land use, economic development, safety, utility costs, and the preventative costs of replacing them, or artificially reproducing their functions. The environmental decisions we make today will set us on our course for the future. The ROE provides government officials, businesses, and residents with perspective about the unseen values and the services these green spaces offer.

Greater Bonne Femme Watershed Landowner Survey

Not sure if you live in the watershed? Check the maps page here.

Greater Bonne Femme Watershed Visitor Survey

Cave Life in the Bonne Femme Watershed

04/06/2018

Missouri is sometimes called "The Cave State" because caves are so abundant throughout Southern Missouri and the Missouri and Mississippi River border areas. The Missouri Speleological Survey has recorded the locations of about 6300 caves. Many people find caves to be fun places to explore, places to see beautiful stalactites of calcite and to challenge one's fear of the dark and unknown. Adding to the mysterious surroundings are mysterious animals. Bats, with their unique insect-catching abilities of flight and echolocation, sleep through the winter while hanging from cave ceilings in the mild year-round temperatures. Other creatures are unlike anything seen above ground. They lack color and eyes and manage to live quite well in an environment with no light or plants.

Read more about the unique cave life in the Devil's Icebox Cave System in our brief Cave Life in the Bonne Femme Watershed article!