Obit: Roger Taylor; fought proposed Meramec Dam

[SaintLouisBlues]

Roger Taylor was stumping in 1970 for a statewide petition to preserve Ozark wilderness streams when someone used dynamite to blow up the interior of his '68 Chevy parked outside his St. Charles home.

snip

Mr. Taylor helped lead many of Missouri's environmental battles, including the defeat in 1978 of the proposed Meramec Dam. Environmentalists say that helped preserve the caves, parks and springs around the Meramec River.

Mr. Taylor served on the Citizens Committee for Conservation that established the state sales tax for conservation in Missouri. He was a wildlife artist, a national champion flatwater marathon canoeist in 1977, a songwriter, and a lecturer and author on local history and the environment.

Mr. Taylor was chairman of a group of canoe clubs and conservationists petitioning for a law to zone 100 yards along each side of 20 wilderness streams. They wanted to bar new development, littering and strip timber cutting. Landowners were outraged at the effort to tell them how to use their property. They threatened to close their land to hunting and fishing, and some threatened to shoot canoeists.

http://www.stltoday.com/stltoday/news/stories.nsf/deathsobituaries/story/4200F20632FBA4B4862576D5000E4A5C?OpenDocument

[NNadir]

1. Well, his life beats the shit out of David Brower's life then.

Brower felt it his privledge to trade away Glen Canyon, creating an environment in which introduced species could thrive in the Grand Canyon.

[hunter]

2. Mr. Taylor taught history and social studies for 30 years.

Protecting waterways, and a teacher too. He sounds like someone who accomplished a lot of good in his life.

Rest in Peace Mr. Taylor.