Clean water is important to each of us as individuals, but water quality is also a regional concern. And 10,000 Rain Gardens is a regional effort of the Kansas City, Missouri metropolitan area, which is dedicated to educating citizens about what each of us does to improve water quality and manage stormwater on personal and community property.

RPM Trees offers promise for restoring the mighty oak along the Missouri River and other inland waterways.

Riverbottom Forest Restoration Project

The Maryland Stormwater Design Manual is a  comprehensive guide to improved techniques and resources for stormwater management and improved water quality. Forrest Keeling Nursery carries the Midwestern plants approved by and listed in the Manual for use in stormwater projects.

Mast-producing trees produce nuts (hard mast) or fruit (soft mast). From a wildlife point of view, it is important that a tree offers ripe mast on which deer are actively feeding.

In most parts of the country where whitetail deer live, the primary mast producing trees are oaks. Secondary mast producing tree species include persimmons, locusts, osage oranges, pawpaws, and various other wild and domestic fruit trees. For mast to be effective in creating quality wildlife habitat, wildlife must be actively feeding on the mast.

Forrest Keeling grows a wide variety of RPM®-produced trees, all with uniquely aggressive growth and vigorous, well-developed root mass. RPM® technology creates faster growth and quicker mast production to help your conservation projects succeed. Our top-selling hard mast-producing species include:

Wetland Sites

• Swamp White Oak, Quercus bicolor


• Bur Oak, Quercus macrocarpa


• Pin Oak, Quercus palustris


• Native Pecan, Carya illinoensis


• Nuttall Oak, Quercus texana


• Overcup Oak, Quercus lyrata


• Swamp Chestnut Oak, Quercus michauxii


• Kimberley Oak, Quercus X schuettei "Kimberley"


• Willow Oak, Quercus phellos


Upland Sites

• Red Oak, Quercus rubra


• White Oak, Quercus alba


• Shumard Oak, Quercus shumardii


• Black Oak, Quercus velutina


• Cherrybark Oak, Quercus pagodifolia


• Shingle Oak, Quercus imbricaria

The RainScaping Campaign is an environmental partnership of nearly 40 corporations, organizations and agencies to effect improved water quality in Anne Arundel County, Maryland. 

The Sustainable Sites Initiative is an interdisciplinary effort by the American Society of Landscape Architects, the Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center and the United States Botanic Garden to create voluntary national guidelines and performance benchmarks for sustainable land design, construction and maintenance practices.

Download "The Sustainable Sites Initiative Guidelines and Performance Benchmarks - Draft 2008" directly from the site. 

The University of Missouri Center for Agroforestry (UMCA), established in 1998, is one of the world's leading centers contributing to the science underlying agroforestry. Interdisciplinary collaboration is one of the outstanding hallmarks of the Center. Research on the benefits of agroforestry is supported from a broad spectrum of disciplines: forestry, fisheries and wildlife, entomology, plant pathology, agronomy, animal science, horticulture, soils, atmospheric science, agricultural economics and rural sociology. Linked with the Center's solid science and research programs are several key collaborations and partnerships with landowners, natural resource professionals, federal and state agencies and non-profit organizations. Through these critical relationships, UMCA and its partners are producing an expanding list of positive outcomes for landowners, the natural environment and society as a whole.

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