A new 1 million-gallon stormwater retention pond has been constructed near the North Sports Complex in De Soto to help mitigate flooding.
The Citizens’ Committee for Flood Relief, which has been working for years to alleviate flooding in De Soto, applied for and received a $70,000 grant from the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation and used the money to enlarge and deepen a pond that already existed.
The excavation work to create the larger retention pond was completed in July. Other improvements at the site are planned, including the planting of seven acres of prairie grasses and native trees; stocking the pond with fish; and installing bat boxes and bluebird boxes.
Susan Liley, co-founder of the citizens group, said all the work is expected to be complete by the fall.
While the pond does not officially have a name, it is known as Freddie’s Pond, named after the late Frederick Mayer whose family previously owned the land where the pond is located, Liley said.
She said Mayer was a Jewish immigrant who came from Nazi Germany and settled with his family in De Soto. He was a farmer, but when he was 56, he began working as a science teacher at the De Soto Junior High.
The city of De Soto owns the land now and allowed the citizens group to use it for the retention pond, Liley said.
She said the citizens group hired DJM Ecological Services. Inc., which has offices in St. Louis, Wentzville and Kansas City, to complete the retention pond project.
Project manager Becky McMahon, vice-president of DJM Ecological Services, said about 70 percent of the prairie grasses to be planted will be flowering plants, like little bluestem, side oats and purple coneflower. Those grasses and flowers will create a pollinator habitat to attract insects, especially the monarch butterfly.
In addition to the prairie grasses, native trees and shrubs, such as oak, redbud, dogwood, spicebush and ninebark will be planted, which not only will be aesthetically pleasing, but also will provide shade and habitat for animals and birds and pollinators, McMahon said.
She said the area will attract animals that live in prairie environments, such as bats and bluebirds, which is why they will be including bluebird and bat boxes.
“They would naturally come, but we’re just encouraging them to come sooner and in a manner that people can actually observe,” McMahon said. “So the bluebirds will be around eating all the insects that are drawn there from the prairie plants and then the bats are the same.”
Once the pond is filled, it will be stocked with bluegill, bass and sunfish, and visitors will be able to fish there.
The Citizens’ Committee for Flood Relief got help from the Anthropocene Alliance to secure the grant, Liley said.
She said the pond and the prairie grass around the pond will retain water, which can help mitigate flooding.
“The difference in prairie grass and regular fescue is prairie grass acts like a sponge. The roots go so much deeper and broader than what regular grass does,” she said.
Liley says it will take approximately three years for the prairie grass roots to be fully grown.
She said the citizens group has been working for the past six years to find different ways to prevent flooding in the De Soto area.
Liley said the group looked at several areas for a stormwater retention pond, such as Walther Park, but following expert recommendations, the site near the sports complex and the Tanyard Branch, a tributary of the Joachim Creek, was chosen.
She said the Tanyard Branch is one of the largest tributaries of the creek and floods the heaviest, so detaining those floodwaters will help alleviate flooding downstream.
Liley said the Citizens’ Committee hopes to construct additional retention ponds in the area, including one near Hwy. V, and to plant even more prairie grasses.
She said the group also would like to have a retention pond built and prairie grasses planted at the site of the old De Soto Shoe Factory.
Liley also said the group is working to obtain more grants, including a 2023 America the Beautiful Grant through the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation.
She said that while the Citizens’ Committee has headed up the retention pond project, De Soto city officials have helped.
“(City manager) Todd Melkus has worked very well with us,” she said. “They have been in all of the meetings, and we have so many groups that were working with the city.”