Arkansas Master Naturalists

NCAMN's garden teams work in the following locations—

Gaston Wildflower Meadow at Bull Shoals-White River State Park near Lakeview,

Heritage Herb Gardens of Ozark Folk Center State Park in Mountain View,

Tyler Bend Visitor Center and Buffalo River Ranger Station on the Buffalo National River,

Mountain View School Pollinator Meadow at the public school district's solar array,  

Calico Rock Pollinator Gardens in a parking lot in old town Calico Rock, and

Flippin Wildlife Meadow in the air approach to the Marion County Airport.

NCAMN maintains the three-acre Gaston Wildflower Meadow and Trail by planting, seeding and nurturing native varieties in the meadow and in the beds around the pergolas while working to eliminate invasive and non-native plants. The team works March through November.

Contact: Paula Caprio or Barb Tietmeyer. 
Email: ncamn.contact@gmail.com: 

To read more about the activities of the GWFM volunteers, check this out! 2023 NCAMN GWFM Team Annual Report

Volunteers assist Park Herbalist Tina Marie Wilcox in maintaining and planting the Park’s Heritage Gardens. The gardens include native woodland plants, as well as vegetables, fruit, herbs, and flowers cultivated for hundreds of years in the Ozarks. While working in gardens and greenhouse, volunteers learn about traditional culinary and medicinal uses of many plants and techniques for cultivating and propagating them. There are usually three work mornings each month throughout the year: first and third Wednesdays and first Fridays.

Contact: Donna Brocka.
Email: .ncamn.contact@gmail.com 

To read more about our volunteer work at OFC, view our annual report: 2023 NCAMN Ozark Folk Center Team Annual Report

Buffalo National River Volunteers maintain the beds at the entrance to the Tyler Bend Visitors Center and the Buffalo Point Ranger Station from April until October. Team members meet at the Tyler Bend Visitors Center on the 2nd Friday of the month. Each workday volunteers are encouraged to bring native plants from their own gardens for our "native plant swap". We work that morning, enjoy a picnic lunch and then caravan to Buffalo Point to tidy the beds there. On additional workdays, scheduled as needed, we assist the park personnel with other projects such as invasive species removal and historic cemetery clean up. 

To learn more about the work we do, please click this link to download our annual report:
2023 NCAMN Buffalo National River Volunteers

Contact: Marilyn Fouts or Dwan Garrison. 
Email: ncamn.contact@gmail.com 

This pilot project will turn the five-acre solar array belonging to the Mountain View School District into a home and resting area for butterflies and other species by planting and nurturing native plants. Photos above show volunteers during their first session spraying herbicide to remove invasive and non-native species.

The solar field will become a win/win situation for the school and for threatened butterflies like the Monarch and Diana Fritillary as well as many other pollinator species. The plantings will not affect the solar panels because NCAMN will use a native plant seed mixture and plantings that are specially formulated not to grow taller than the solar panels. This will also provide an on-site science lab for students in kindergarten through 12th grade and 4-H members to experiment with native plants and a variety of science fair projects.

To learn more about this team, please take a look at this annual report:
2023 NCAMN Mountain View Schools Pollinator Garden Annual Rpt.

Contact: Jill Easton
Email: ncamn.contact@gmail.com

Working with the Calico Rock Community Foundation, City of Calico Rock and the North Central Unit-Arkansas Department of Corrections, NCAMN team member have created several pollinator gardens on the new, green parking lot. Inmates from the prison built a wall around the main Garden on Rodman Avenue where basket flowers have already drawn in hundreds of butterflies, bees and other pollinating insects. Down below Jerusalem artichoke, black-eyed Susans and violets entice other pollinators. The Calico team plans to sow and plant additional milkweeds and other pollinator plants this fall and winter. The Community Foundation also has plans to add a pergola and benches to further increase the enjoyment of visitors to Calico Rock and the local citizens who stop to enjoy the flowers.

For more information about this team, take a look at the most recent annual report: 
2023 NCAMN Calico Rock Pollinator Gardens

Contact: Jill Easton
Email: ncamn.contact@gmail.com

This new NCAMN project arose in early 2023—a joint effort with Flippin Airport Board and, in initial stages, Arkansas Game and Fish Commission (AGFC). The new pollinator meadow will beautify the air approach to the airport, reduce maintenance costs, and, most importantly to NCAMN, provide new habitat for butterflies, bees, and other pollinators.

In 2022, Marion County Regional Airport in Flippin was contacted by the FAA to improve the clear zone to approach the runway. This required bulldozing the field across from the highway of all trees that might obstruct incoming air traffic. In March 2023, a bulldozer moved in and cleared all vegetation. It was a sad, naked hill. NCAMN and AGFC representatives met with the Airport Board and offered to plant and maintain a pollinator meadow. The meadow will be a bonus for the pollinators and a beautiful landscape for the community. The airport board agreed, and the Flippin Pollinator Meadow was born.

Creating a pollinator meadow is not a quick or simple process. First the existing vegetation including many invasives must be sprayed with herbicide and burned, the seed bank allowed to germinate, and the process repeated. (Photos above show the initial burn in summer 2023.) We hope to sow a pollinator mix especially formulated for the Ozark region in early spring 2024. 

Contact: Dwan Garrison and Susan McNutt
Email: ncamn.contact@gmail.com