What: Mizzou Alternative Breaks Weekend Service Experience
When: Nov. 4-6, 2023
Where: Kress Farm Garden Preserve, Jefferson County
Contact: Mistti Ritter, 636-797-5055
This weekend, University of Missouri students will participate in a volunteer service-learning experience at Kress Farm Garden Preserve near Hillsboro.
These volunteers are participants in Mizzou Alternative Breaks(opens in new window) (MAB), a program in which groups of students perform service in communities in the U.S. and abroad. Since 2014, MAB has partnered with MU Extension to send students on weekend trips within Missouri. With a presence in each of the state’s 114 counties, MU Extension is able to help volunteers identify needs and connect with service providers and community resources.
The students will help Kress Farm members remove invasive species encroaching on the restored prairie, including bush honeysuckle and autumn olive, in accordance with the preserve’s Missouri Department of Conservation-approved forest management plan. Students will learn to identify invasive species and experience firsthand how they affect the native landscape.
“Our Jefferson County Extension office first informed us of this opportunity to partner with MAB a couple of years ago,” said Joe Corio of Kress Farm. “We were all set up to host a group during the 2020 March spring break. We were a week out when COVID-19 forced a cancellation. We’re happy to have a second chance at this.”
Kress Farm(opens in new window) is a garden and wildlife habitat just north of Hillsboro. Protected against future development by the Ozark Regional Land Trust, the preserve features gardens, fields, forests, wildlife habitats, streams and scenic bluffs where visitors may tour the gardens, hike the trails, study nature and participate in classes and special events.
Photo Credit: gettyimages-pixdeluxe
Categories: Missouri, Business