Missouri Master Naturalist Great Rivers Chapter

🍂 Millions of dragonflies are on the move! 🐉

Each fall, enormous numbers of dragonflies migrate south across North America—some traveling hundreds or even thousands of miles toward Mexico, Central America, and the Caribbean.

Species like the Common Green Darner, Black Saddlebags, and Wandering Glider are among the long-distance travelers making this remarkable seasonal journey. And unlike monarch butterflies, dragonfly migration often happens almost unnoticed overhead.

Have you spotted large numbers of dragonflies where you live lately? 👀

🔗 Learn more about the Great Dragonfly Migration — link in comments.

Three Black swallowtails for parsley salad.

Stargazing at Tower Grove Park

📢EVENT IS THIS SATURDAY, AUGUST 22!

🌙✨ IT'S STARGAZING TIME! Calling all amateur astronomers! ✨🌙

Join us on the West End of the Park for monthly stargazing with the St. Louis Astronomical Society. After sunset, visit the field between the Stone Shelter and West End Picnic Site to view the moon, planets, and stars. Bring your own telescope or use ours!

📅 Saturday, August 22, 2026.
⏰ 7:00–10:00 PM
🚗 Street parking available
🔦 Flashlights encouraged (it will be dark!)
🌦️ Weather permitting—check our website & social media for updates

🔗 Learn more: https://buff.ly/WMO9IIn

A fun, family-friendly night under the stars!

Shop from a wide selection of Missouri native wildflowers, grasses, shrubs, vines, sedges, and trees suitable for all soil, moisture, and light requirements grown by local nurseries in the metro St. Louis area. Ask our native gardening experts and participating plant vendors for gardening advise. Need native garden inspiration? Visit the 5-acre Whitmire Wildflower Garden nearby!

𝗔𝗗𝗠𝗜𝗦𝗦𝗜𝗢𝗡:
MBG Members - FREE
Non-members - $5 per person OR $10 per car (we encourage carpooling due to limited parking!)
Advanced tickets will not be required.

To Bee...or not to Bee? That is the question.

St. Louis Scientists Make A Buzzing Discovery A recent study conducted by scientists and volunteers in the St. Louis metropolitan area reveals that bees much prefer “messier” gardens over the manicured variety, unlocking a new understanding of

https://tinyurl.com/4d95rf5d

Floating wetlands are helping Missouri lakes stay healthy and keep out algae and pollutants Lakes and ponds need nearby wetlands to stay healthy. In some places, there isn’t the room to do that, so conservationists are bringing the wetlands to the water.

One of the most destructive invasive species on Earth.
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You didn't want the goldfish anymore. The bowl was too small. The tank was too much work. So you drove to the park, walked to the pond, and gently released her into the water. You felt good. She swam away. You thought you gave her a better life.

You introduced an invasive species that can trigger the collapse of an entire freshwater ecosystem.

A University of Missouri and University of Toledo study published in 2026 in the Journal of Animal Ecology provides some of the strongest experimental evidence to date: released goldfish grow rapidly in natural waters, reaching sizes that would shock most pet owners. They stir up lake sediments, cloud the water, consume massive numbers of native invertebrates, compete with native fish, and in documented cases cause what ecologists call a regime shift — a tipping point where the ecosystem reorganizes into a fundamentally degraded state that is extremely difficult to reverse.

In the Great Lakes region alone, feral goldfish populations are estimated in the tens of millions. The world record feral goldfish weighed nine pounds. The fish you held in your palm can become a football-sized ecological disaster in open water.

Goldfish eat dragonfly nymphs, tadpoles, native fish eggs, snails, and aquatic invertebrates. Every organism they consume was either controlling mosquitoes, pollinating, filtering water, or feeding something native. The pond you "freed" her into is now a degraded system — and it may never fully recover.

If you no longer want a goldfish: return it to the pet store. Give it to another fishkeeper. Contact local wildlife authorities. Do not release it. Not into a pond, a lake, a river, a ditch, or a storm drain.

The most common pet in the world is one of the most destructive invasive species on Earth.

Do you have a project on non-profit or public land? Church, school, community garden? You can order free trees from Forest ReLeaf if you do. Pick up in St. Louis, although some areas will also have deliveries nearby (locales TBD).

CommuniTree applications open next week on July 1st!

Project CommuniTree subsidizes the cost of growing trees at our tree nursery and arboretum in St Louis County's Creve Coeur Park. The 3-Gallon saplings are offered free of charge to partners looking to plant and maintain trees on community, nonprofit, or public land. If there's a community space near you that could use a little more shade and beauty- submit an application!

The program distributes over 10,000 trees to more than 250 partners every year and mobilizes over 3,000 volunteers to participate in the tree-planting process. Visit moreleaf.org/project-communitree to take a look at our species inventory and review eligibility requirements!

If you are a member of the Missouri Botanical Garden, you can sign up for this free members talk June 23.

Member Speaker Series: Rainscaping: Gardening for Water Quality and Biodiversity | Missouri Botanical Garden Doors open at 10:30 a.m., presentation at 11 a.m.Rainscaping offers a rare win-win solution for challenging landscapes—reducing erosion on your property and sedimentation in local streams, while adding color to your garden, supporting pollinators, and lowering maintenance and fertilizer costs. Joi...