Join Andrea at Mount Nebo State Park on New Year‘s Day for the state parks‘ traditional First Day Hike! Start 2025 off on the right foot (and the right trail!) with a hike around the beautiful Rim Trail atop Mount Nebo. The Rim Trail is a 3.5-mile, moderately difficult trail. It circles the summit of the mountain, following the bluff line and offering beautiful views in every direction. Most of the trail is rocky, and some areas are steep or require climbing stone steps. However, this trail never strays too far from the road, so it‘s easy to hop off if you don‘t want to hike it in its entirety. Make sure to wear proper shoes, dress warmly, and bring water and your camera! We will meet at 10 a.m. at Sunset Point. Once you reach the top of the mountain, turn right and go until you reach the overlook. There are 2 large gravel parking lots on the right side. The Visitor Center is closed on New Year‘s Day, so make sure to bring whatever you may need. There is a water fountain available at the campground, but there won‘t be the option to purchase anything on top of the mountain. The only bathrooms are located in the bathhouse at the campground, which you will drive past on your way to Sunset Point, and which we will also pass in the first half of our hike.

For a later start and shorter hike option, consider the 3/4 mile loop around Sunset Point. From our Mt. Nebo insider, Andrea Peterka: "You can park at the Visitor Center and access the Rim Trail behind it. Turn left, follow the trail around Sunset Point, and continue until you reach the Summit Park trail head. There is a gravel parking lot, and small wooden pavilion at the trail head, and you can see the Visitor Center through the trees. There‘s a little bit of an uphill at the end to reach the Summit Park Trail parking lot, but otherwise this is a relatively flat and less rocky part of the trail that still offers nice views." Meet at noon at the Visitor Center. The State Park employees have the day off, so we won‘t be able to enter the Visitor Center. Come prepared! NiTs, friends, and family welcome.

“First Saturday” trail maintenance, lunch provided. Will drive side-by-side vehicles, affix trail markers to trees. Volunteers meet in town at FSIS offices, collect sack lunch, proceed to David’s Trail, perform 3-4 hours trail maintenance. Location is Seward Point trailhead, Driftwood Lane, Gamaliel.

Please join us for the first NiT Class of the year! This class will focus on general orientation with the activities and dynamics of the Foothills Chapter of the AMN. We will discuss navigation of the website, logging hours, various ongoing and upcoming projects, and generally get to know each other. This class will be a discussion format and for those interested and weather permitting, will involve a short jaunt and hike at Cadron Settlement Park that afternoon. WHERE: St. Peter‘s Episcopal Church 925 Mitchell Street Conway St. Peter’s is adjacent/behind Conway Jr. High. WHEN: Saturday, 04 January. Classes start at 10:00 AM; if going on the hike, meet at the parking lot at Cadron Settlement Park (correctly located in Google Maps/Earth) at 1:30 PM. QUESTIONS? Call/email/text Robert at 501.733.4019 or rafuhler@gmail.com

Trail maintenance, Norfork Lake, rendezvous at Tracy Ferry Park. Will blow leaves, cut weeds, chainsaw blowdowns. Norfork Trail section 4 between Tracy & Georges Cove. Moderate challenge, stony tread, some small hills. Trailhead at Tracy Park GPS N36 17‘55", W92 16‘17" (36.298564 -92.271272). From Mountain Home Bypass, drive 4.1 miles south on Highway 5. Turn left on AR 341 (Tracy Ferry Road) and drive 1.8 mile on AR 341 to a fork. Take right fork Tracy Ferry Road 1.1 mile to the trailhead crossing. Report your hours sponsor US Army Corps Engineers.

Monthly Board Meeting

We‘ll try again on Saturday, February 8

Extracting floating trash from the two 100‘ trash booms in Fourche Creek.

Test - for registering guests for NCAMN parties

Geologic Mapping Program --- Richard S. Hutto, PG is a Geologist Supervisor at the Office of the State Geologist, formerly the Arkansas Geological Survey. His primary responsibility is managing the geologic mapping programs there including STATEMAP, the state component of the National Cooperative Geologic Mapping Program, and Earth MRI, the Earth Mapping Resources Initiative. After receiving a B.S. from Arkansas Tech University, he began working in north Arkansas as a field geologist for STATEMAP in 2005. Since that time, he has assisted with data collection and publication of thirty-six, 1:24,000-scale geologic maps based on U.S. Geological Survey 7.5-minute series topographic quadrangles, an area comprising over 2100 square miles. The culmination of this work resulted in publication of a 1:100,000-scale compilation of the thirty-two, 7.5-minute geologic maps within the Mountain View 30’ x 60’ quadrangle in 2022. Since then, he has collected data and facilitated publication of a new geologic map of the historic Batesville Manganese District and more recently, a geologic float guide for the Buffalo River from Tyler Bend to Gilbert. When not in the field, Richard resides with his wife, daughter, and their two dogs in Little Rock.

via Zoom. Instructors: Chris Moyer & Erin Scott

******************* NOTE: THIS EVENT HAS BEEN CANCELED ******************* What: Carpool/Caravan to Bluffton Preserve for Native Plot Maintenance When: 1:30 - 4:00, Sunday, January 19, 2025 Where: Bluffton Nature Preserve Meet at Double-Drop Falls Trailhead 35.653363,-92.525813 (copy and paste these coordinates into Google Maps/Earth) General Details: Robert Fuhler will lead a visit to the lower Bluffton Nature Preserve Native Plots to repair and wet-sand re-seed two areas where feral hogs have destroyed portions of the native wildflower plot (the plot was seeded last winter). The project will involve raking the area, mixing native seeds with a sand mixture (sand collected from the banks of the Archey Fork), sowing and packing the areas. If there is time, we can do a wellness check on the Chinquapins. A portion of this outing can be used for NiT Education Hours. A carpool/caravan is available; contact Robert if interested. We will leave from my house at 29 Ridgeview Drive, Conway at 12:30 sharp. Questions? Contact Robert at 501.733.4019

If going East on Hwy 62/412, once past Flippin the Cotter turnoff is on the right. Go over the bridge and turn right at the stop sign. Take the first right into the Park (you’ll go over railroad tracks). The road splits but keep toward the left to get to the Spring location. If going West from Mountain Home on Hwy 62/412, the Cotter turnoff is on the left before the bridge (Bayman’s Liquor on corner). Follow the road until you get to a stop sign. Go straight at the stop sign and take the first right into the Park. The road splits but keep toward the left to get to the Spring location. Contact: Stream Team Leader, Karen Woods (916) 607-5965 Activity: Stream Team-AGFC-NCAMN Sponsor: AGFC-NCAMN

via Zoom. Instructors: Chris Moyer & Erin Scott

Our usual monthly recon of the LOVIT Trail. Dan Smith will lead. We‘ll hike our adopted section the LOVIT Trail in order to assess the trail condition, and look for any issues that need maintenance. Depending on who attends, and how many people, we may divide the hike into sections. We‘ll start the hike at the parking lot near the Avery Recreation area at 9am. Please arrive by 8:45am, so we can organize and figure out our approach depending on attendees and weather. Bring water, bug spray, and a snack.

Trail maintenance, Norfork Lake, rendezvous at Tracy Ferry Park. Will blow leaves, cut weeds, chainsaw blowdowns. Challenging, some small hills. Norfork Trail section 5 between Tracy & CR1028 (Fsih & Fiddle Road). Trailhead at Tracy Park GPS N36 17‘55", W92 16‘17" (36.298564 -92.271272). From Mountain Home Bypass, drive 4.1 miles south on Highway 5. Turn left on AR 341 (Tracy Ferry Road) and drive 1.8 mile on AR 341 to a fork. Take right fork Tracy Ferry Road 1.1 mile to the trailhead crossing. (The left fork is AR 341 to CR 1028 trailhead located on Fish & Fiddle Road). Report hours sponsor US Army Corps Engineers.

Maintenance of wildflower demonstration gardens. Assist staff with special projects and educational programs. General light maintenance and other duties as needed in a multi-use natural area managed by AGFC.

Fourche Bottoms trash extraction event. https://bit.ly/3xPNWYp Walking into the bottoms, meet at the utility ROW, north end, inside the yellow gates. Accessing the trash via watercraft: Meet at the boat launch at the park‘s south end. Dress accordingly

We have combined our End of Year Graduation (originally planned 1/11/25) with our Naturalist In Training (NIT) Orientation due to the snowstorm. We will hold the event in the meeting space at the First Presbyterian Church on Whittington Avenue starting at 9am (use the side entrance). The general meeting for graduation and EOY 2024 summary will be held first (roughly 90 mins), followed by NIT training (roughly 90 mins). We will have food and drink provided by the club.

Welcoming the NiT Class of 2025! Presentations by the Curriculum Committee and Chapter Board members and Crockpot Extravaganza lunch provided by our Enhancinators! Options should be available for those with dietary restrictions, but please feel free to bring your own lunch if you want. Coffee and teas will be available, remember to bring the drinking vessel of your choice.

Please join us to learn about the Environmental Division at ArDOT! Kristina Boykin (Assistant Environmental Division Head) and Nikki Senn (Historic Bridge Coordinator) will be presenting. Kristina on the structure, objectives and some of the projects that Environmental Division is responsible for; Nikki will discuss various projects to preserve and protect historic bridges and their associated environment; she will also lead the visit to the Old Cadron Bridge that spans the headwaters area of Beaverfork Lake. Bridges, like railroads, create a unique micro-biome in their immediate vicinity - that will be discussed as well. This class will be a discussion format - visiting the bridge will be weather dependent. WHERE: St. Peter‘s Episcopal Church 925 Mitchell Street Conway St. Peter’s is adjacent/behind Conway Jr. High. WHEN: Saturday, 25 January. Classes start at 10:00 AM. QUESTIONS? Call/email/text Robert at 501.733.4019 or rafuhler@gmail.com

Join us for a discussion of Under A White Sky by Elizabeth Kolbert and Silent Spring by Rachel Carson at the Baxter Library starting at 10:00 a.m. and running until 12:00 p.m. Kolbert is the author of The Sixth Extinction and Silent Spring is a classic.

Discussions of some of the volunteer opportunities available by the project leads and volunteers. Learn about the types of things CAMN members are doing and how you can help! Corbin Cannon will give an introduction to the different regions of Arkansas and how those differences impact the ecosystems of our state.

Austin Jones, UA Entomology and Plant Science

Join us for a casual meeting to discuss goals and priorities for 2025! We’ll finalize stream locations and times for water quality testing, and identify key areas and activities to prioritize for the year ahead. We have reserved the small private room at Guillermo‘s Coffee, so we will have plenty of space. Bring your ideas and enthusiasm—coffee’s on you!