This article first appeared in the St. Louis Beacon, Oct. 11, 2012 - During the fall a few years ago, Dan Burkhardt and John McPheeters traveled together along Interstate Highway 44. They drove from Gray’s Summit, Mo., toward St. Louis, past miles and miles of Missouri forests, and something occurred to them.
People in the state were working so hard on conservation issues, they both knew, and yet there was so little celebration of that work.
“And we said, gee, in other parts of the country the other conservation groups are having all the parties,” says Burkhardt. “And that’s how it all started.”
Burkhardt and McPheeters, who are both on the advisory board of the Shaw Nature Reserve, began the nonprofit Magnificent Missouri not just to have some really good parties, but to raise money for groups around the state working on conservation issues, to connect those diverse groups with each other, and to help people in Missouri realize what we have right here.
“The whole idea behind Magnificent Missouri is that we work to find ways to better connect people who live in St. Louis with the countryside,” says Burkhardt.
Both he and McPheeters have those connections already.
McPheeters owns Bowood Farms and Cafe Osage in the Central West End and a family farm in Clarksville, Mo. Burkhardt owns a 220-acre farm, Bethlehem Valley Vineyards, near Marthasville, Mo., and put that acreage into a land trust he and his wife, Connie Burkhardt, began two years ago, establishing the Katy Land Trust.
A lot is happening in the state, both men knew first-hand, but not a lot connecting the groups to each other or the wider public.
So they started something they hoped would be magnificent, beginning with their first big bash Sunday, Sept. 30, with proceeds going to 17 diverse organizations that all champion conservation in their own ways, including Ducks Unlimited, the Garden Club of St. Louis, the Katy Land Trust and Slow Food St. Louis.
Tower Grove Park
John Karel, the director of Tower Grove Park, attended the group’s first big party along with around 300 others. Karel, who also worked as director of the Parks Division of the MIssouri Department of Natural Resources, came away excited about the potential for what the night offered.
“I felt like there was almost a magical quality to it,” he said, and he hoped to see that magic captured, focused and coordinated.
“We would see something important in our efforts across this beautiful state, to appreciate what we have and to work with others to ensure that this state remains a beautiful and nourished and welcoming place.”
Through the Garden Club of St. Louis, Tower Grove Park will benefit from the efforts of Magnificent Missouri, with plans to plant trees and shrubs damaged from the summer’s extreme weather and adjust the park’s planting and irrigation system to be more efficient in the future.
Audubon Center
Audubon Center at Riverlands is another group that benefits from Magnificent Missouri’s efforts.
People often come out from St. Louis, says Patty Hagen, executive director, “and they go, wow, I never even knew the river looked like this.”
With Magnificent Missouri, her group and the others have the opportunity to reach new audiences, she says.
The next of those opportunities happens at the Audubon Center at Riverlands on Sunday, Nov. 4, with the first of five in a dinner series. The dinner, which costs $100 a ticket, features a bird walk at Riverlands, Missouri wines and beer and a Native American dinner cooked by local chef Josh Galliano.
A food connection
Chefs Kevin Nashan, Gerard Craft and Nate Hereford will be cooking at upcoming dinners in the series, which take place at the Jewel Box and Shaw Nature Reserve, among others.
Burkhardt and McPheeters are hoping to bring people out with the food and then get them interested in the cause. “We want to appeal to people who aren’t in the conservation club already,” Burkhardt says.
And with local foods prepared by local chefs, McPheeters sees opportunities for connections.
“I think there are great cross-pollination possibilities here,” he says.
Magnificent Missouri began with a sort of inward focus, McPheeters says, but it has the potential to help people outside the state realize what he, Burkhardt and many others know is here.
McPheeters often has visitors come to Missouri and St. Louis for the first time, and they leave surprised.
“It’s as beautiful and cultured as any place in this country,” he says. “It’s time for the people of the state to get the word out.”