The Open Space Council for the St. Louis Region: Fifty Years Old

The Open Space Council for the St. Louis Region:
Fifty Years Old
In the memorable year 1965, President Lyndon B. Johnson addressed the many challenges of the
Great Society; the musical Beatles descended upon America; the first U.S. troops landed in Vietnam;
and Martin Luther King Jr. led a freedom march from Selma to Montgomery, Alabama.
In St. Louis in 1965 the nationally renowned Baby Tooth Survey, shepherded in part by Washington
University environmentalist Barry Commoner and the influential Greater St. Louis Committee for
Nuclear Information, demonstrated the harmful presence of the radioactive isotope strontium 90 in
local children’s teeth as a result of cold war atomic testing. Four local/regional nonprofits focused on
outdoor recreation, the natural world and land preservation—Sierra Club; Nature Conservancy; St.
Louis Audubon Society, and the Webster Groves Nature Study Society.
Sensing a timely opportunity to actively acquire more land for parks and recreation centers in St.
Louis County and to seriously examine the degradation of the lower Meramec River and encourage
its preservation, three enlightened residents agreed to establish an action-based citizens group. On
May 25, 1965 the Open Space Council for the St. Louis Region was formed. Its founders were
Leo Drey, whose Ozark timber holdings were said to be the largest in Missouri; St. Louis attorney
Davis Biggs, and Byron Schubel of the Jefferson County Abstract Co. in Hillsboro. The new entity
was hailed as St. Louis’ first activist environmental/conservation group. Its mission today is nearly the
same as in 1965: protect, conserve and sustain the natural environment, parks and rivers.
With 41 members--prominent women, bankers, attorneys, scientists, educators, planners, and
business executives--the new board of directors marked its first meeting at LeChateau Restaurant in
Frontenac by declaring the Meramec River to be of “utmost priority.” Several weeks later 12 additional
board members were seated. Quick to begin work, board committees were appointed for
membership, finance, publicity, planning, landowner canvass and technical advice.
A document called the “St. Louis County Park Plan” was circulating within the community; it attracted
the board’s attention. Written by two reputable county planners, Alfred Kahn and Walter Eschbach,
the plan recommended acquisition of at least 5000 acres of new parkland and 24 new parks. (The
county park system had 33 parks at the time and now has 71 in 2015). Not surprisingly, the newly
founded Open Space Council was viewed among community leaders as the most logical vehicle to
take the lead in securing the land and growing the park system.
Early Actions
In August 1966, steered by Open Space Council members who wrote the ballot language, circulated
petitions and financed the promotion, a $25 million parks referendum was submitted to voters. The
vote fell short of the required two-thirds majority, so another Open Space-led referendum was resubmitted in November 1966—with the same disappointing result. Finally, in November 1967, after
vigorous campaigning and heavy underwriting by the Council, the parks bond issue passed. One
outstanding early result of the passage was acquisition of the 680-acre Edgar M. Queeny tract and
the first two county recreation centers. In 1969 voters approved another parks bond issue that again
was spearheaded by the Open Space Council.
In 1967 the Open Space Foundation was formed by the board as a tax-exempt group “to acquire and
hold property for parks, recreation and similar purposes.” Its members included the chancellor of
Washington University; the president of Southwestern Bell Telephone Co.; the president of May Co.
department stores, and the mayor of St. Louis. The Foundation’s initial move was to purchase the
192-acre Nims estate overlooking the Mississippi River near its confluence with the Meramec. The
Foundation raised $137,500 and secured the matching funds to acquire what is now Bee Tree
County Park.
In honor of prominent attorney R. Walston Chubb, an original Open Space board member and a
leader of the Foundation, his peers at the Foundation helped finance the creation of what is known
today as the very popular Chubb Trail that connects West Tyson and Lone Elk parks in St. Louis
County.
Following the victorious parks bond issue, the Open Space Council was persuaded by Barry
Commoner among others to organize the region’s first open space forum. Held at Washington
University in November 1968, the regional conference reviewed air, land and water pollution
challenges and adjourned after forming another citizens action committee, the Coalition for the
Environment. Early on, both the new Coalition and the Open Space Council shared an office at
Delmar and I-170 in University City.
Focus on the Meramec River
Al Foster, owner of Creative Public Relations in Clayton, told the board in 1967 that Boy Scouts in
southern Missouri had been cleaning up parts of the Current River. “Perhaps the Open Space Council
could do the same for the lower Meramec River,” he said. Board member Bill Schock, an avid boater
and outdoorsman, seconded Foster’s idea and strongly persuaded the board to undertake the river
project as soon as possible. Guided by Schock and Foster, the first Operation Clean Stream occurred
in August 1968 with 50 volunteers trolling the river for trash and tires from Pacific to Valley Park.
Clean Stream’s main purpose “is not only to clean up litter but to maintain a public awareness of the
Meramec River for its open space and recreational potential,” Schock told the St. Louis PostDispatch. In the long term, however, the project has been equally successful in ridding the river of
litter and calling attention to its natural beauty and recreational potential. In 1973, Foster said “There
have been larger (river cleanups) on a one-time basis, but no continuing program in the nation equals
Operation Clean Stream in terms of numerical involvement or area covered.” Today, Operation Clean
Stream, patrolling the Meramec and its five tributaries, is America’s longest continuing urban river
cleanup effort. It’s estimated that 80,000 to 90,000 volunteers have helped gather nearly 15,000 cubic
yards of litter, including 15,000 to 20,000 tires since Clean Stream’s inception.
Representatives of local Falstaff Brewing Corporation suggested in late 1968 that a beer can cleanup
could be conducted as part of Operation Clean Stream. Somewhat indignantly, the executive
committee responded: “…while commendable, a beer-can cleanup does not fall within the purview of
the Open Space Council.” But it did! Two years later Falstaff was handing out beverages, litter bags,
and other items at the annual Clean Stream event—and using Clean Stream as the model for a shortlived “Clean America” campaign to sell Falstaff beer nationwide.
For at least six years, various Open Space Council committees argued how best to restore and
rejuvenate the Meramec River and the rich green corridor enveloping it. In particular, the Council
eyed the hundreds of substandard and derelict clubhouses that packed the riverbanks. Thanks to the
Open Space Foundation that raised nearly $750,000 to buy some 1100 acres abutting the Meramec
and secured state matching funds, Castlewood State Park was born. Today it is the crown jewel of
the lower Meramec and remains one of the major accomplishments of the Open Space Council
After Castlewood, the board took steps to acquire and open the first three public access points on the
lower Meramec—at Times Beach, Allenton, and Glencoe. Through its leadership, the board set in
motion the first annual field inspection of the lower Meramec by the St. Louis County health
department as well as the first state study of the river’s fish content, a study that revealed high levels
of recreational game fish. Later, the Council partnered with the St. Louis County Parks Department to
provide initial leadership for the fledgling Meramec River Recreation Association and, in 2006,
convened leaders of various river-related nonprofits to form the still existing and very resourceful
Meramec River Tributary Alliance.
In 2007 the Council planned and coordinated an elaborate Meramec Basin Summit, drawing
hundreds of participants. For nearly ten years the Council sponsored the Meramec River Expedition,
annually attracting businesses and other organizations interested in preserving the Meramec.
In 1972 when the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers proposed to dam the Meramec River to form a
77,000-acre 65-mile long national recreational area in the Meramec Valley, the Open Space Council
strongly criticized the proposal because of the incalculable havoc immense flooding would have on
wetlands, farmlands and fields. The Council went so far as to employ a consultant (Jerry Sugerman)
to fight the dam and help pave the way for a regional citizens vote on the project. The vote was
overwhelmingly negative forcing the Corps to reluctantly de-authorize the dam’s construction in 1982.
One recent Open Space Council program involving the Meramec is the unique Passport to Clean
Water. The Passport project, now held annually, educates young people about the Meramec
watershed including its fish and wildlife, its drinking water, recreational uses, and ecology.
The Meramec hasn’t been the Council’s only cleanup project. Years ago, in conjunction with one of
the first Earth Day celebrations, Open Space volunteers provided the first cleanup of streams and
water courses in Forest Park, an annual undertaking that continues to this day.
Open Space Council—Crucible of Ideas
In 1967, the Council board—decades before discussion elsewhere-- debated a provocative idea to
establish a state or national park at the confluence of the Missouri and Mississippi rivers. In 2004, the
Edward “Ted” and Pat Jones Confluence State Park opened. In the early 1970s the board
called for a conservation area near the confluence. The Columbia Bottoms Conservation Area
was the eventual result. The board, pushing for a linear park along Gravois Creek in South County,
wrote the ballot language for a voter referendum that approved the future Carondelet Greenway, now
known as Grant’s Trail. In 1974, the Council urged the development of a metropolitan parks district,
an entity that finally came to pass in 2000 and is recognized today as the Great Rivers Greenway
District.
Leading, Influencing Many Other Projects and Programs
As the years rolled on, the Council was the primary catalyst in the early 1970s for a gift from the stillexisting Alberici Foundation that established the 95-acre Meramec Bend Park, now known as Unger
County Park. It was also the pre-eminent voice for obtaining 490 acres (plus matching funds) near
Imperial, Missouri that is known today as Mastodon State Park.
Later, the Council took a serious interest in the former Cragwold estate overlooking the Meramec just
north of I-44. Cragwold had been the home of Edwin A. Lemp, a member of the family that owned
Lemp Brewery, a pre-Prohibition brewing giant in south St. Louis. Lemp’s pal, George Vierheller,
director of the St. Louis Zoo, was given permission to house some of the zoo’s excess mammals
such as llamas, yaks and Japanese sitka deer on the estate’s 95 craggy acres which Lemp had
licensed as a federal game preserve. In 1971 local homebuilder Russell Emmenegger purchased the
long-abandoned Cragwold and thereafter revealed plans to convert the acreage into a 150-unit luxury
condo development called Cragwold Park. The Open Space Council vehemently opposed the plans,
persuading Kirkwood city officials to initiate a local referendum on Cragwold’s future. After voters
turned down the condo plans Emmenegger was persuaded to donate his land--now a property
identified as Emmenegger Nature Park.
In the late 1980s, when a local developer proposed building custom homes and commercial buildings
on 938 acres of the gigantic Ranken estate in west St. Louis County, Ellen Alton, a member of the
Open Space Council board, sensed the need to intercede. “To achieve such extensive development,”
she said, “the developer would have had to dynamite and level forest, hills and ridges on the
property.” Alton, a persevering organizer, was named president of the Friends of Forest 44. After
nearly four years of wrangling, plus a statewide alliance of 300 individuals and 17 organizations, also
headed by Alton, the state acquired the land in 1990 for $4.5 million. Alton and the Open Space
Council were acknowledged as the “principal community force” that led to what is now the Forest 44
Conservation Area.
Open Space Council as Advocate
In its watchdog/advocacy mode, the Council stoutly opposed in 2000 a 250-home proposed venture
atop Florissant’s Charbonier Bluff, the highest point in St. Louis County and the only Missouri
landscape on the National Register of Historic Places. It strongly opposed physical encroachments
earmarked for Forest Park—a St. Louis Art Museum parking lot and a building addition by Barnes
Hospital. It successfully opposed a suggested sports stadium and fine arts center for Creve Coeur
Lake County Park plus two threatening proposals for Edgar M. Queeny County Park: an 18-hole golf
course and a plan for 1300 townhouse apartments and 200 homes. In late 2013, the Council was the
main coordinator of successful citizen efforts to prevent St. Louis County from closing 23 county
parks because of alleged financial shortages.
A Leader in Community Partnerships
When Kirkwood officials sought to acquire the 9.5 acre site containing the long forsaken Meramec
Highlands Quarry, the Open Space Council stepped in with technical assistance to help the city
obtain a critical Land and Water Conservation grant, even offering to hold title to the property while
awaiting word of the grant. After many months and multiple meetings with Council executive director,
Ron Coleman, Kirkwood finally received the grant. Today the land is open under the name Meramec
Highlands Quarry at Dee Koestering Park. Koestering and her husband were Open Space Council
members who had alerted the Council when their home—the only home-- on the grounds was up for
sale, triggering the tangled process of converting the acreage into a city park. “This project turned out
to be a model of cooperative conservation,” Coleman said later.
In 2004, the Council helped a citizens’ group take possession of 6.5 acres of some of the last urban
woods in Webster Groves. Through a bridge loan of $27,000 and an outright grant of nearly $29,000,
the Council enabled the acquisition of what is now Shady Creek Nature Sanctuary by bringing in the
Missouri Department of Conservation, which provided additional funds. Included in the parcel was the
2-acre Magner Woods addition named in memory of Marshall Magner, a popular Webster Groves
entomologist and conservationist. More recently, the Council donated $50,000 to EarthDance Farms
in Ferguson to significantly help complete the purchase of 14-acre Mueller Farm, the oldest organic
farm in Missouri.
The Open Space Council for years has been keenly aware of the pristine qualities of 13-square-mile
LaBarque Creek Watershed near Eureka, MO. LaBarque’s water quality is exceptionally high; its
fish content lists more than 50 species and there are untold numbers of endangered plants nearby.
The Council worked with other groups to write the LaBarque Creek Watershed Conservation Plan
and assisted in public outreach and education programming. It was the lead player in helping to form
the very active Friends of LaBarque Creek. Currently the Open Space Council is seeking to raise
$60,000 to purchase 15 acres of Meramec bluff property that faces LaBarque Creek near the
Glassberg Conservation Area.
On the eve of its fiftieth birthday, the Open Space Council granted $47,000 to the city of Sunset Hills
to help purchase its seventh park, the 16-acre Nancy Eschbach River Trail Park along the Meramec
River. The park will open in late 2016 or early 2017. The late Nancy Eschbach was the wife of Walter
Eschbach, an emeritus member of the Open Space Council. The Eschbachs, who lived nearby, often
hiked the future park grounds.
Annual meetings have always been highlights of the Open Space Council, starting with the first such
gathering aboard the River Queen showboat in 1966. Perhaps the most colorful meeting in the first 50
years was held May 25, 1968 when U.S. Secretary of the Interior Stewart L. Udall came to town. In
the morning he presided over the formal dedication of the Arch in downtown St. Louis. After lunch
with Open Space Council members on a Meramec River gravel bar he took a Council-sponsored
helicopter ride over the Meramec Valley and that evening at the Union Electric Country Club was the
speaker at the annual meeting. Tickets cost $2.50 each. In the wake of the Udall appearance, the
Open Space board unanimously elected him an honorary member of the Council, the only one so far.
The board was so giddy about Udall that it invited the nation’s most popular radio personality, Arthur
Godfrey, to be the 1969 speaker. He agreed but cancelled due to a schedule conflict. He suggested
that the board contact actor Eddie Albert instead. No dice.
St. Louisans have continuously supported the Open Space Council, including momentous gifts from
two local women. In 1973, Mrs. Elsie G. Monell donated $500,000 toward a possible Walter R. Gerak
Park in memory of her late brother. Instead, with Mrs. Monell’s approval, the large gift was bunched
with funds that helped secure Castlewood State Park. In 2006, Barbara Grace, a retired St. Louis
schoolteacher, gave the Council an unrestricted gift of $1 million dollars. Much of the money was
used to match grants as well as to develop new programs. Grace died in 2009. “Barbara loved the
work of the Open Space Council and attended many of our functions,” former executive director Ron
Coleman wrote. “Her gracious donation…has and will continue to allow our organization to pursue its
work for the future and remain a free and clear voice for important land and water conservation
initiatives.”
In its first half-century, the Open Space Council employed part-timers to work on bond issues,
promote programs, and run the office. Two well-known area environmentalists were given the title
executive vice-president—Al Foster and Roger Pryor—but neither held their post more than six
months because of budget problems. But in 1999, Ron Coleman, who had served a term as president
in 1992 and had run Operation Clean Stream as a volunteer for many years, was named the
Council’s first full-time executive director. Coleman took over the Council at a time when assets
were low and programming was struggling. When he left, the organization’s finances and prospects
were at their highest level.
One parcel of land atop the Meramec River near Eureka challenged Coleman’s experience as a
parks and recreation executive, negotiator, and fund raiser, plus his patience, for most of the 14 years
he served as the Council’s top executive. That 430-acre parcel, owned by a member of the socially
prominent Buder family for more than a century, was on the market. Early on, Coleman and the
Meramec River Recreation Association searched for a possible buyer. Gus Buder, the current owner,
had wanted to donate the land but was constricted by a sizeable debt on his property. Coleman went
on to identify half a dozen possible buyers but no deal was forthcoming. In 2003 the Wild Canid
Center bought the Buder property for use as a wolf rehab and research center, but several years later
sold most of the land to the Missouri Department of Conservation because it couldn’t handle the
mortgage. Dr. Peter Raven, director of the Missouri Botanical Garden, was brought in to help find a
buyer for the remainder of the property with the hope of keeping the land under supervision of the
conservation department.
Coleman then worked with Sunny Glassberg, prominent St. Louis philanthropist and widow of 22-year
Open Space Council board member Myron Glassberg. She and her family trust, the Mysun
Foundation, had shown a passing interest in the land years before. Once the Glassberg family’s
interest was renewed, negotiations with the conservation department heated up and, as a result, the
department bought the land for $4.9 million, thanks mainly to a major donation from the Glassbergs.
In May 2013 the Myron and Sonya Glassberg Family Conservation Area opened to the public.
Throughout the negotiations, Coleman was the principal lever that kept the project alive. The
Buder property acquisition became the longest and most detailed project in the Council’s first
fifty years.
Coleman left the Open Space Council late in 2013 after a remarkable tenure in which he brought in
numerous partners; new funders such as the Monsanto Fund, Trust for Public Land, the Nature
Conservancy and the US Forest Service to mention a few and in 2003 inaugurated the Open Space
Council Land and Water Awards. He re-organized and enlarged the scope of Operation Clean Stream
and in 2007 initiated Operation Wild Lands (OWLS); both programs are thriving in 2015. In 2006 he
was named Missouri’s water conservationist of the year. He soon will become president of the
100,000-member Missouri Conservation Federation.
As it enters its 51st year, the Council, under the capable direction of Katherine Dockery, a former
manager at the St. Louis Science Center, is working to expand the coverage of Operation Clean
Stream and to broaden OWLS. OWLS has become a regional leader in connecting volunteers to
projects involving removal of invasive plant species and reseeding with native plants. Continually
expanding its geographical reach, OWLS is planning projects along the North Riverfront Trail, the
Deer Creek watershed, and LaBarque Creek. Up to 300 volunteers now join in each year to remove
invasive bush honeysuckle, the primary non-native culprit.
As OWLS grows, hundreds of more volunteers and dozens of new work sites are anticipated.
At 50, the Open Space Council retains its position as a leading activist organization focusing on the
St. Louis environment, constantly intent on saving threatened land. It has an active board of directors,
a healthy balance sheet, steady management, respect among its peers, and an organizational track
record that is nonpareil within the region. Its prospects for solid growth in the next few years are very
promising, especially with new Meramec River programs and additional projects that partner with St.
Louis area municipalities that need help in adding or expanding parks or conserving land and other
natural resources.
Presidents of the Open Space Council
Leo Drey
Tulius C. Tupper
Davis Biggs
Robert Goetz
Eldridge Lovelace
Martin Gardner, Jr.
Peter Schmitz
Claudia Spener
Davis Biggs, Jr.
Glenn Moller
Peter Schmitz
Ron Coleman
Terry Whaley
Ralph Tharp
Peter Schmitz
Robert Rubright
Steve Nagle
Davis Biggs, Jr.
1965-1968
1968-1972
1972-1973
1973-1976
1976-1977
1978-1980
1980-1984
1984-1986
1986-1990
1990
1991
1992
1993-1994
1994-1997
1997-1999
1999-2011
2011
2012by Robert Rubright
May 2015