8-10:30am to beat some heat. Old Post Park adjacent to the lock and dam. Bring family and friends to celebrate this amazing new pollinator field. Snacks/food/refreshments are mentioned in a FB event but no details yet determined. We will mow the trail for the first time. We also have several signs to install. The field looks very good after this year‘s wet spring. We‘ll finalize the path of the trail and get it mowed. The sign designating it as a pollinator meadow with acknowledgement to Foothills, Pope master gardeners and the Corps needs to be installed along with a few other smaller information signs. There is a Facebook event posted for this event as well. It is titled Old Post Park Pollinator Garden. It would be a good time to wear your Master Naturalist shirt, hat and/or name badge.

Meet at Double-Drop Falls Trailhead, Bluffton Nature Preserve at 9:00 Steve Bost (President and Founder of the Ozark Chinquapin Foundation) will be joining us for a site visit and wellness check of the Chinquapin sites at Bluffton Friday, 18 July at 9:00. We will meet at Double-Drop Falls Trailhead. This event will involve checking condition of the trees and possibly replacing some tree tubes with a more ventilated variety. Site visits will include behind Bluffton House, Plot 1 off the Bluffline Trail - West, and possibly the Shelf. Most access to the sites is easy with the Shelf location including some off-trail movement with incline. Please wear boots with decent ankle support and bring (and drink) water. As an FYI, the old, dilapidated house at Bluffton burned down and the site has been graded. I visited with Doug Zollner and he noted that if we wanted to use the site as a planting location for natives or Chinquapins, we could do so. In addition, while heavy equipment was on-site, TNC also brought in rock, regraded the road down to the Archey and brought in very large rocks to delineate our native meadow in the valley. We will also conduct a maintenance check on the weather station. This event is mildly weather dependent - any updates will be posted early Friday morning. A carpool/caravan option from Robert’s house will leave at 0800; please text the night before if interested. A carpool/caravan option is also available from the Russellville/Dardanelle area; please contact Andrea Peterka for coordination at: 501.538.7771. If you have any questions, please let me know either by email or phone at 501.733.4019.