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New film celebrates 40 restorative years for Meramec
(by Jamie Scott - April 30, 2008)
To honor 40 years of restoration work done for the Meramec River, a film documenting the river’s history, conservation, outdoor recreation and economic value will be premiered during an event celebrating the efforts to revitalize the river.
Meramec River: Miracles and Milestones was produced by award-winning Missouri videographers John Baker and Jim Karpowicz and will be screened during a special event at 7 p.m. May 1 at Sheldon Concert Hall, 3648 Washington Blvd. The event is sponsored by the Open Space Council.
Baker and Karpowicz have worked individually on environmental documentaries for about 25 years, but this is their first project together. Each said they felt a personal tie to the river through their experiences with it, especially while growing up.
“As a filmmaker, you end up working on all different sorts of projects, but I am so pleased to be able to get this message out,” Baker said. “Sometimes you’re working on something that doesn’t interest you as much, but I love this river, and telling its story is important to me.”
The film follows the Open Space Council’s annual Meramec River Media Float trip in August and the first Meramec River Basin Summit in September. Amy Butz, executive director of the Open Space Council, said the usual one-day float trip was expanded into a six-day trip to get people excited about the summit. The summit, held by the Meramec River Tributary Alliance, highlighted what has been done for the river in the past and what can be done in the future. Butz said the event was successful and will most likely be held every three years, instead of annually, due to its large size.
Baker said the float trip and the summit became a vehicle for telling the river’s story. For each event shown in the film, he and Karpowicz focused on a different entity, for example an endangered animal, that relies on the river.
Although the event is a celebration of the past 40 years’ success in restoring the Meramec River, Butz said it is also a reminder to continue efforts to care for the river.
“The Meramec River has a lot to offer to the people in St. Louis and … in Missouri,” Butz said. “It’s a beautiful and wonderful resource for us, and we have to take care of it and make sure it stays that way. We should be proud of what we’ve done in the last 40 years, but we can’t just sit back and take it easy.”
The Meramec River was once regarded as one of the most degraded rivers in the state of Missouri. In 1967, the first Operation Clean Stream, led by the Open Space Council, began efforts to clean up the river and its tributaries. Since then, the river has seen significant regeneration due to projects such as Operation Clean Stream, its many volunteers, and both public and private efforts to restore conservation value, outdoor recreation benefit and natural beauty.
Karpowicz said he thinks many people, himself included, realize the recreational value of the river but don’t always realize the importance of it as a resource for drinking water or endangered species.
“I want viewers to react a little bit the same way I reacted, and that’s to have a newfound appreciation for the river,” he said “It was always a place to swim or to fish, but when working on the film, I realized how important it is.
I want people to take away a sense of how important a resource it is.”
Karpowicz said his and Baker’s film is also meant to bring attention to what can be done for the river in the future. He said both St. Louis and the Meramec River provide great opportunities for greenway trails.
“I think filming the float was a great opportunity to experience a large portion of the river geographically,” Karpowicz said. “It encompassed a lot of the area [where] these greenways could be.”
Butz said recent flooding is a reminder of the river’s significance and has forced people to think about the river in terms of the future.
“I think people right now are very aware that the river is there, and we have to think about our relationship with the river both as individuals and as a community,” Butz said.
To further engage community members in the river’s restoration, local actors, storytellers and musicians will perform before the screening of the film. Butz said bluegrass and folk musicians will perform songs — all of which are about rivers and most of which have been composed specifically about the Meramec River — while actors and storytellers perform monologues that tie into the songs’ themes. A CD of the performances, along with copies of the movie and The Meramec River Almanac, will be sold at the event. All proceeds benefit the Open Space Council.
For more information about Meramec River: Miracles and Milestone, visit openspacecouncilstl.org.
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