Conservation in Arkansas

Arkansas is part of the Mississippi Flyway and provides important winter habitat for waterfowl that are produced in the prairies and Great Lakes states.  In most years, Arkansas winters more mallards than any other place in North America.  Eastern Arkansas comprises an important portion of the Mississippi Alluvial Valley, known regionally as the Delta.  Historically, flooded forests of the Delta provided reliable high quality habitat for millions of mallards, wood ducks, and other waterfowl.  DU has worked to conserve over 300,000 acres of waterfowl habitat throughout Arkansas.  Our goal is to perpetually secure habitat and the future of Arkansas as a key wintering area in North America.  Your support of DU will help us achieve that goal.

Arkansas Habitat Projects

Mississippi Alluvial Valley  White River NWR  Raft Creek WMA St. Francis Sunken Lands WMA  Hurricane Lake WMA  Seven Devils Swamp WMA  Overflow NWR  Bayou Meto WMA

West Gulf Coastal Plain Ed Gordon/Point Remove WMA  Lake Dardanelle WMA  Petit Jean WMA  Bois D'Arc WMA  Galla Creek WMA  Frog Bayou WMA

Little Rock, Ark. November 4, 2008 – Ducks Unlimited received a $20,000 grant from The Mid-South District UPS Foundation, the charitable arm of UPS (NYSE:UPS). The grant will be used for work on Bayou Meto Wildlife Management Area to further restoration efforts at Halowell Reservoir. Work should be completed by early December.

Bayou Meto is one of the most revered public waterfowl areas in the U.S., offering some of the best flooded timber hunting for mallards anywhere. In 2006, DU and partners developed restoration plans for Halowell Reservoir, a 586-acre rest area on the north end of Bayou Meto. Plans are to sub-divide the reservoir into five impoundments managed as seasonally-flooded wetlands. This work will enable independent water control among wetland units with great habitat benefits to waterfowl and other marsh birds. A tail-water recovery impoundment is planned that will promote more efficient use of critical water supplies in this important agricultural region as well.

Ducks Unlimited continued its waterfowl and wetland programs on public and private lands in Arkansas in FY08. Conservation priorities of Ducks Unlimited are to restore and enhance waterfowl habitats on both public and private lands and protect existing quality wetland habitats on private lands. The work of DU and its partners resulted in approximately 14,200 acres restored, enhanced, and protected in FY08 and is summarized below. Collectively, DU and its partners have helped restore, enhance, and protect 309,837 acres private lands and over 50,000 acres of public lands in Arkansas from 1991-2008.

The following is a summary of activities and accomplishments of the Arkansas DU Conservation Program for the period July 2007 through June 2008. I hope this information is of interest and use to you. Please feel free to share this with others that share our passion for waterfowl and DU! Without our dedicated DU VOLUNTEERS, none of this work would have been possible! Thank you for all YOU do each day for the ducks!

Craig Hilburn
Manager of Conservation Programs

 
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