Dear Residents and Visitors alike.

After watching "A Get Well Play for Mother Earth" with the Children of the Ozarks, you will learn that one person can make a difference. If we just take the time to help Mother Earth, our planet will be a safer and cleaner place to live. Because of people like you, we have a better chance of seeing that come true.

What Can You Do?

Join a Missouri Stream Team and adopt a stream to clean up and protect, while you enjoy the great outdoors. You can join by writing:

• ·Don't litter...Keep the Ozarks waters, glades, and mountains beautiful.
• ·Don't waste paper when you are at home or school, always try to use recycled paper.
• ·If your school doesn't have recycle bins...ask them to try to get them.
• ·Avoid buying products that use more packaging than they need. Make sure the product fits the packaging and doesn't have too much cardboard.
• ·Learn to compost yard and kitchen waste in your own back yard. This reduces waste and creates better gardens.
• ·Plant a tree. Trees improve the air we breathe and provide homes for wildlife.
• ·Recycle your Christmas trees at Bass Pro Shops". Bass Pro Shops" has recycled over 100,000 Christmas trees into fish habitat in area lakes in the past seven years.
• ·Turn off the lights when you leave a room...it saves energy.
• ·Keep an eye out for water pollution. Should you see a problem call:
  the Missouri Department of Natural Resources
  (417)895-6950
  or the Missouri Department of Conservation
  (417)895-6880.

Did You Know?

• ·The Ozark Center for Wildlife Research is dedicated to the Ozarks native habitats and the wildlife they support.
• ·Missouri is home to about 200 species of fish one of the highest numbers in the United States. Phosphates, used in detergents, can lead to algal blooms in lakes and rivers. The phosphates can rob water of the oxygen that fish breath.
• ·Wildlife must have food, cover and water to survive. We call wildlife homes their "habitat.
• ·Wetlands serve as a nursery habitat for plants and animals, and are important to all living things.
• ·Trees help streams by stopping soil erosion, reducing flooding, filtering run-off, and keeping the water cool by providing shade.
• ·Black bears have been sighted in southwest Missouri. A black bear may travel over a 60 mile radius. They really need a lot of habitat.
• ·The forests and their surrounding habitats of Stone and Taney counties are home to 37 varieties of trees, 32 different mammals, 45 kinds of birds, 12 species of snakes, eight kinds o! salamanders, four varieties of skunks, six kinds of frogs, and hundreds of insects and other invertebrates.
• ·The glades and forests are considered "native habitats" because they are of natural origin and have been here for thousands of i/ears. We must use these native habitats wisely.
• ·Renewable resources like mature forests serve as home to birds such as the Pileated Woodpecker which needs at least 150 acres of this habitat to survive and produce offspring.
• ·The Springfield plateau is the only place where the Ozark Cavefish lives.
• ·The Niangua Darter is also a rare fish found only in a few Missouri streams. It is an excellent indicator of the health of our streams. streams that support Niangua Darters also support fish like small mouth bass and rock bass.
• ·"'The Children of the Ozarks' Get Well Play" was performed for the International Wildlife and Fishery Association, Conservation Departments across the state of Missouri and plan to do a video for Public Television.

The Ozark Environmental Awareness Fund is a non profit organization formed with the purpose of bringing awareness to the growing environmental problems due to the rapid growth of the Ozark region. It would also like to see the community become more environmentally conscious and become united to defend our vulnerable region and strive for planned responsible growth. One way to do this is to educate the children of the Ozarks so that they can start using good environmental habits that will stay with them now and throughout their adult years. Ozarks presentation is not only educational but entertaining with dancing. singing and skits all done with visual accompaniment. Four out of the five songs performed are also available on cassette tape so that they can be heard over and over again. We hope that at the end of the performance they will learn something about our habitat, recycling or the overall message that planet Earth is something that we shouldn't take for granted.

• "CHILDREN OF THE OZARKS SING FOR THE ENVIRONMENT" CASSETTE TAPE
• 1995 INTERNATIONAL WILDLIFE ~ FISHERY CONVENTION
• 1996 MISSOURI CONSERVATION DEPARTMENTS IN KANSAS CITY, ST. LOUIS, JEFFERSON CITY AND SPRINGFIELD
• SPRINGFIELD COMMUNITY FOUNDATION OF THE OZARKS GRANT RECIPIENT
• RECOGNIZED BY BASS PRO SHOPS MISSOURI CONSERVATION DEFT.

FOR BOOKINGS CALL: (417) 334-8452 or WRITE P.O. BOX 636, HOLLISTER, MO 65672