Endangered snail, school save each other

Both needed clean water to survive.

PROTEM, Mo.-Will a tiny school in the Ozarks save an endangered species, or did the endangered species save the school? It’s an intriguing question with an irrelevant answer-irrelevant because each is going to benefit from the other’s predicament.

When the Mark Twain School breaks ground for a new sewage system Feb. 17 it will mark the success of an attempt to save a school and an endangered mollusk. On one end of this story is the Tumbling Creek cavesnail (Antrobia culveri), a small invertebrate whose range consists of a single cave-Tumbling Creek Cave-in eastern Taney County. A dwindling population earned this almost-microscopic snail federal designation as an endangered species in August 2002 and made it one of several poster species for declining water quality in southwest Missouri.

The other party in this story is Mark Twain R-VIII School. This kindergarten-through-eighth-grade school sits at Branson’s eastern doorstep, but shares none of the renowned city’s glitz or glamour. The school and its 76 students occupy a spot among the wooded Ozark hills near the small community of Protem, north of Bull Shoals Lake. The rural character of the school district and its tiny budget speak much more of Ozarks-past than Ozarks-present.

The school’s ever-tenuous hold on solvency received a potentially crippling blow last October when an inspection revealed that the facility’s antiquated sewage lagoon was leaking. The lagoon was condemned, and the school was informed it would have to build a new sewage system-a project far beyond the budgetary hopes of even the most optimistic board members.

“That’s when the guardian angels started coming out of the sky,” R-VIII School Superintendent Richard Needham said.

One of the first circumstances to break Mark Twain School’s way was geography. The school lies inside the area where rainfall that seeps into the ground collects and creates Tumbling Creek, the underground stream for which the cave and its unique snail are named. Sewage leaking from the school’s lagoon was one factor that was making life for the cavesnail more difficult. Ironically, the problem was the key to its own solution.

With the wellbeing of the cavesnail as a justification, Missouri Department of Conservation Private Land Conservationists Larry Martien and Justin Pepper secured a federally funded Wildlife Diversity Fund grant of $20,000 for a new lagoon.

After this initial funding boost, other dollars began to arrive through the help of Rita Mueller with Southwest Missouri Resource Conservation and Development. She contacted state, federal and local agencies that have an interest in improving water quality. The Mark Twain School received $22,000 in Title III funding-money paid by the U.S. Forest Service to schools that have facilities on Forest Service Land. The school’s lagoon was located on Mark Twain National Forest land.

The Taney County Sewer District gave $43,000 in emergency funds. Another $2,000 pledge came from Tom and Cathy Aley. The Aleys own the Ozarks Underground Laboratory, a research and educational facility whose centerpiece is Tumbling Creek Cave. Private and public contributions have continued, and to date the school has accumulated $89,000 for a project that has a bid cost of $89,900.

The new sewage system will have peat filters, drip fields and other environmentally friendly features. The leaky lagoon soon will be replaced with an outdoor classroom developed by the school and the Conservation Department. There, students will learn lessons about the environment-lessons like the one that saved the school and the snail. The Taney County Commission plans to build a pavilion at the school to encourage public use of the facility.

“We could not have existed without the help we’ve received from federal government, state government, county government and private citizens,” Needham said. “This has restored my faith in humanity.”

-Francis Skalicky-

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