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: Sara and Gary Gouge
Email: ncamn.contact@gmail.com