The Nature Conservancy Tuesday aka “TNC Tuesday”

CAMN volunteers work at The Nature Conservancy office at 601 N. University on Tuesday mornings starting at 9:30 – noonish. Arrive when you want and leave when you want. There are several native plant gardens to be maintained. A new emphasis this year will be on the Zen Garden.

Also, our team may participate as land stewards starting in April doing Preserve work.

Three Conservancy locations that we can work as needed under direct supervision are:

Ranch North Woods: Behind the Ranch neighborhood, west of town off of Cantrell. Under Land Steward Caleb’s supervision, volunteers would work to control woody stems in the open fields (primarily Bradford pear), collect seed and spread seed in the grasslands. You may have the opportunity to see a prescribed burn.

Rattlesnake Ridge: Rattlesnake Ridge is part of the Maumelle Pinnacles, a rocky outcrop that is the edge of the Ouachita Mountains. Under supervision of Caleb, we would work on the trails and help close “social trails”, places where people take “short cuts”. We would work on controlling woody stems within the field to the right of the entrance road, and control invasive species (privet, mimosa, sericea lespedeza)

Blue Mountain: Blue Mountain is the next ridge over from Rattlesnake Ridge, also part of the Maumelle Pinnacles rock outcrop. Here we would want help with creating a species list using inaturalist and marking any non-natives observed.

Please contact Nancy Wyatt with questions.

Nancy Wyatt
Nwroute66@gmail.com
501-580-1218

Come to Rose Creek Park to hunt for macros, conduct water quality testing, and clean the stream! Good idea to bring sunscreen, hat, water bottle, and waders (waterproof shoes). Be prepared to get a little messy!

We will start our 2025 season with the horticultural group at the LR zoo on Friday, April 11. We would like to invite everyone who is interested to join us. We work every other Friday, starting April 11. We meet at 9am and work until 11. We meet at the staff Parking lot (behind the apes) which accessed by driveway on the south side of the zoo off Jonesboro drive before the interstate. There is an electronic gate; just hit the button, when they respond say you are a master naturalist to work and they will buzz you in. We meet at the parking lot behind the apes.

Please bring hat, sunscreen, gloves, water, pruners, hand digging tool, such as hori hori, and any other tools you think you need.

If you have any questions, send an email to Ron Rowland at rrowlan60@gmail.com
or text Ron at 504-329-0599.

Thanks for you consideration. Hope you can join us!

Ron Rowland and Sarah Henry

The Nature Conservancy Tuesday aka “TNC Tuesday”

CAMN volunteers work at The Nature Conservancy office at 601 N. University on Tuesday mornings starting at 9:30 – noonish. Arrive when you want and leave when you want. There are several native plant gardens to be maintained. A new emphasis this year will be on the Zen Garden.

Also, our team may participate as land stewards starting in April doing Preserve work.

Three Conservancy locations that we can work as needed under direct supervision are:

Ranch North Woods: Behind the Ranch neighborhood, west of town off of Cantrell. Under Land Steward Caleb’s supervision, volunteers would work to control woody stems in the open fields (primarily Bradford pear), collect seed and spread seed in the grasslands. You may have the opportunity to see a prescribed burn.

Rattlesnake Ridge: Rattlesnake Ridge is part of the Maumelle Pinnacles, a rocky outcrop that is the edge of the Ouachita Mountains. Under supervision of Caleb, we would work on the trails and help close “social trails”, places where people take “short cuts”. We would work on controlling woody stems within the field to the right of the entrance road, and control invasive species (privet, mimosa, sericea lespedeza)

Blue Mountain: Blue Mountain is the next ridge over from Rattlesnake Ridge, also part of the Maumelle Pinnacles rock outcrop. Here we would want help with creating a species list using inaturalist and marking any non-natives observed.

Please contact Nancy Wyatt with questions.

Nancy Wyatt
Nwroute66@gmail.com
501-580-1218

The NCAMN Wildflower Meadow Team maintains the Gaston Wildflower Meadow at Bull Shoals-White River State Park from March through December. Team members will work for 2 hours on scheduled Wednesdays. PLEASE MAKE SURE TO VERIFY START TIME BY CHECKING THE WORKDAY EMAIL AS TIME MAY VARY DEPENDING ON TEMPERATURE. The workday email will also list plans for the day and any additional tools that you might need. Always wear gloves and sturdy garden shoes, dress comfortably and expect to get dirty. Volunteers will become familiar with native plants common in north central Arkansas and learn about their characteristics and requirements for growth. Please log your volunteer hours as follows: Activity - Volunteer - Natural Area Maintenance, Sponsor: State Park: Bull Shoals-White River State Park.

Monthly chapter meeting - 2nd Thursday of the month

Join Ben Thesing (Lead Natural Resource Specialist) and others in a walk through the Covey Field to see what‘s blooming and learn about restoration efforts in the Lake Maumelle Watershed owned by Central Arkansas Water. The Covey Field was a sod production field that is in the process of being restored to a native prairie. It is now past the third year of seeding and the Covey field is starting to leap! This project was spearheaded by the Little Rock Garden Club, Audobon Arkansas, Arkansas Natural Heritage Commission, Quail Forever, Arkansas Game and Fish Commission, and Central Arkansas Water. Meeting place is at the corner of Higgenbotham Rd and AR Hwy 10 (34.882377,-92.720741) by 5pm. The walk will be through tall grass and wildflowers and end at the banks of the Maumelle River. Please bring appropriate footwear, bug spray, and water as it‘ll be a hot one! Total distance covered will be around 1 mile total. We‘ll aim for about an hour walk, but may be subject to change with weather or group size. If you have any questions, text or call Ben at 501-697-6036. There is a Facebook Event about this; if you plan to attend, please mark yourself as GOING at https://www.facebook.com/events/1073958311375301/?active_tab=discussion. If you are not on Facebook, you can also register on the CAMN Events page by noon on Thursday, July 10, and we will get the word to Ben. If you participate, you can count the time as ACTIVITY: Continuing Education - CAMN and SPONSOR: Central AR Water - CAMN

Monthly Board meeting via Zoom

Join IRWP to keep the Chamber Springs Public Access on the Illinois River litter-free to help improve the water quality of the Illinois River Watershed. As a volunteer we can provide you with all of the equipment and supplies needed to pick up litter, including trash-grabbers, gloves, and trash bags.

Grab your clippers and snippers for garden day at Tyler Bend and Buffalo Point! Volunteers will meet at Tyler Bend Visitors Center at 9:00 a.m. to spruce up the gardens. To carpool or caravan meet at Flippin Walmart to leave by 8:00 a.m. We will leave Tyler Bend before noon and those who wish can continue to Buffalo Point Ranger Station for a brief clean up there. What to bring: Work gloves, your favorite weeding tools, leaf rakes, tubs for weeds and debris. Native plant swap: If you have native plants that have spread, pot them up and bring to trade along with seeds and root cuttings of native shrubs. Lunch: Bring a sack lunch and we will picnic in the park.

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.

Extracting trash contained behind the two 100‘trash booms on Fourche Creek at Benny Craig Park. Watercraft (canoes and kayaks) will be provided or bring your watercraft. 34,800 pounds extracted since November 2020, as of January 2025.

Join us for a day of interpretation training led by Kelly Farrell, Chief Interpreter for Arkansas State Parks, and CAMN members. Bring your own lunch and a personal drink container. Click the "Register Now" button at the bottom of this page and follow the instrutions to sign-up for this class.

In this class, Dr. Trubitt will give an overview of archeology and the questions that archeologists ask and answer about past lifeways in Arkansas’s Ouachita Mountains region. How do archeologists work? How have archeologists’ goals and methods changed over the past century? What can we learn by recording and excavating archeological sites, and why is it important to preserve these locations? She draws examples from the 12,000-year human history in this region to discuss changes in resource acquisition, food preparation, community locations, and social interaction through time. Dr. Mary Beth Trubitt is the station archeologist at the Arkansas Archeological Survey’s Henderson State University Research Station in Arkadelphia. She teaches anthropology courses, conducts research on Arkansas archeology and history, and works with agencies, tribes, and local residents interested in historic preservation. Trubitt earned a PhD in anthropology from Northwestern University in 1996 and began working for the Arkansas Archeological Survey in 2000. Her latest book, Extracting Stone: The Archaeology of Quarry Landscapes, co-authored with Anne S. Dowd, was published by Oxbow Books.

The Nature Conservancy Tuesday aka “TNC Tuesday”

CAMN volunteers work at The Nature Conservancy office at 601 N. University on Tuesday mornings starting at 9:30 – noonish. Arrive when you want and leave when you want. There are several native plant gardens to be maintained. A new emphasis this year will be on the Zen Garden.

Also, our team may participate as land stewards starting in April doing Preserve work.

Three Conservancy locations that we can work as needed under direct supervision are:

Ranch North Woods: Behind the Ranch neighborhood, west of town off of Cantrell. Under Land Steward Caleb’s supervision, volunteers would work to control woody stems in the open fields (primarily Bradford pear), collect seed and spread seed in the grasslands. You may have the opportunity to see a prescribed burn.

Rattlesnake Ridge: Rattlesnake Ridge is part of the Maumelle Pinnacles, a rocky outcrop that is the edge of the Ouachita Mountains. Under supervision of Caleb, we would work on the trails and help close “social trails”, places where people take “short cuts”. We would work on controlling woody stems within the field to the right of the entrance road, and control invasive species (privet, mimosa, sericea lespedeza)

Blue Mountain: Blue Mountain is the next ridge over from Rattlesnake Ridge, also part of the Maumelle Pinnacles rock outcrop. Here we would want help with creating a species list using inaturalist and marking any non-natives observed.

Please contact Nancy Wyatt with questions.

Nancy Wyatt
Nwroute66@gmail.com
501-580-1218

We have added a workday for July 16, 8:00 am to 10:00 am. Please log your volunteer hours as follows: Activity - Volunteer - Natural Area Maintenance, Sponsor: State Park: Bull Shoals-White River State Park.

Grab your clippers and snippers for garden day at Tyler Bend and Buffalo Point! Volunteers will meet at Tyler Bend Visitors Center at 9:00 a.m. to spruce up the gardens. To carpool or caravan meet at Flippin Walmart to leave by 8:00 a.m. We will leave Tyler Bend before noon and those who wish can continue to Buffalo Point Ranger Station for a brief clean up there. What to bring: Work gloves, your favorite weeding tools, leaf rakes, tubs for weeds and debris. Native plant swap: If you have native plants that have spread, pot them up and bring to trade along with seeds and root cuttings of native shrubs. Lunch: Bring a sack lunch and we will picnic in the park. Dwan will bring the cookies!

Stephen Bost from the Ozark Chinquapin Foundation In person: Pizza with the gang at 6:00 - $1 a slice. Program/Zoom at 6:30, link below. In person attendance counts as 2 hours of CE. Zoom onl: counts as 1.5 hour of CE.

We are partnering with the LOSP to care for seedling Chinquapin trees. Training is necessary in order to participate in this event. Contact Emily Stubblefield 501 293 3375 (office) if you would like to be trained and be a part of this important work.

We will start our 2025 season with the horticultural group at the LR zoo on Friday, April 11. We would like to invite everyone who is interested to join us. We work every other Friday, starting April 11. We meet at 9am and work until 11. We meet at the staff Parking lot (behind the apes) which accessed by driveway on the south side of the zoo off Jonesboro drive before the interstate. There is an electronic gate; just hit the button, when they respond say you are a master naturalist to work and they will buzz you in. We meet at the parking lot behind the apes.

Please bring hat, sunscreen, gloves, water, pruners, hand digging tool, such as hori hori, and any other tools you think you need.

If you have any questions, send an email to Ron Rowland at rrowlan60@gmail.com
or text Ron at 504-329-0599.

Thanks for you consideration. Hope you can join us!

Ron Rowland and Sarah Henry

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.

Birds have their own unique forms and features, and learning to draw them is a challenge and joy. We will look at some tips and guidelines for drawing birds, including types of observations that help with identification and drawing (such as GISS, or General Impression of Size and Shape). Then there‘s a guided drawing/painting activity where, if possible, we will work from a live bird. This class is suitable for complete beginners as well as those who have done some drawing. No supplies are required, but if you are encouraged to bring drawing supplies of your own if you wish. There will be paper, pencils, and pens as well as watercolors for those who are interested. This class will be taught by Anne Greenwood, a member of DLAMN and an accomplished nature journalist.

We are partnering with the LOSP to care for seedling Chinquapin trees. Training is necessary in order to participate in this event. Contact Emily Stubblefield 501 293 3375 (office) if you would like to be trained and be a part of this important work.

Meet at Marilyn Doran Pavilion, Fred Berry Crooked Creek Nature Center Contact: Stream Team Leader, Karen Woods (916) 607-5965 Activity: Stream Team-AGFC-NCAMN Sponsor: AFGC-NCAMN

The Nature Conservancy Tuesday aka “TNC Tuesday”

CAMN volunteers work at The Nature Conservancy office at 601 N. University on Tuesday mornings starting at 9:30 – noonish. Arrive when you want and leave when you want. There are several native plant gardens to be maintained. A new emphasis this year will be on the Zen Garden.

Also, our team may participate as land stewards starting in April doing Preserve work.

Three Conservancy locations that we can work as needed under direct supervision are:

Ranch North Woods: Behind the Ranch neighborhood, west of town off of Cantrell. Under Land Steward Caleb’s supervision, volunteers would work to control woody stems in the open fields (primarily Bradford pear), collect seed and spread seed in the grasslands. You may have the opportunity to see a prescribed burn.

Rattlesnake Ridge: Rattlesnake Ridge is part of the Maumelle Pinnacles, a rocky outcrop that is the edge of the Ouachita Mountains. Under supervision of Caleb, we would work on the trails and help close “social trails”, places where people take “short cuts”. We would work on controlling woody stems within the field to the right of the entrance road, and control invasive species (privet, mimosa, sericea lespedeza)

Blue Mountain: Blue Mountain is the next ridge over from Rattlesnake Ridge, also part of the Maumelle Pinnacles rock outcrop. Here we would want help with creating a species list using inaturalist and marking any non-natives observed.

Please contact Nancy Wyatt with questions.

Nancy Wyatt
Nwroute66@gmail.com
501-580-1218

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 with a 1.2 mile section, a three mile section and a four mile section. 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.

Emily Stubblefield, DLAMN member and State Park Ranger, will be conducting a boat trip to Bird Island on Lake Ouachita. There is limited space on the boat (20 people), so registration is required and will be restricted to DLAMN members only. Should fewer than 20 members register, we will open registration to guests. The chapter will pay the $10 fee for members. The tour will be from 7pm till 9pm. Please arrive 15 minutes early. These hours will count toward NIT training or continuing ed.for NATS. Lake Ouachita State Park will be offering more trips to Bird Island that will be open to the public. Those dates have not been announced yet.

We are partnering with the LOSP to care for seedling Chinquapin trees. Training is necessary in order to participate in this event. Contact Emily Stubblefield 501 293 3375 (office) if you would like to be trained and be a part of this important work.

We will be weeding beds and watering.

Corbin Cannon, Senior Geologist with the AR Natural Resources Division, will guide us through this training on the diverse eco-regions of our natural state. He will also present on the geology of Arkansas and how it impacts the flora and fauna of the region. Bring your own lunch and drink container. Click the "Register Now" button at the bottom of this page and follow the instructions to sign-up for this class.

Hydrogeologist, Dr. Katherine Knierim will lead this training on all things water in the natural environment. Light refreshments will be served; bring your own drink container. Click on "Register Now" to sign up for this course.

CHANGE FROM USUAL LOCATION! The Interp Interest Group is open to all Chapter members! In July, we will meet at Hobbs State Park for an overview of the 2025 Living Forest Event

We are partnering with the LOSP to care for seedling Chinquapin trees. Training is necessary in order to participate in this event. Contact Emily Stubblefield 501 293 3375 (office) if you would like to be trained and be a part of this important work.

The Nature Conservancy Tuesday aka “TNC Tuesday”

CAMN volunteers work at The Nature Conservancy office at 601 N. University on Tuesday mornings starting at 9:30 – noonish. Arrive when you want and leave when you want. There are several native plant gardens to be maintained. A new emphasis this year will be on the Zen Garden.

Also, our team may participate as land stewards starting in April doing Preserve work.

Three Conservancy locations that we can work as needed under direct supervision are:

Ranch North Woods: Behind the Ranch neighborhood, west of town off of Cantrell. Under Land Steward Caleb’s supervision, volunteers would work to control woody stems in the open fields (primarily Bradford pear), collect seed and spread seed in the grasslands. You may have the opportunity to see a prescribed burn.

Rattlesnake Ridge: Rattlesnake Ridge is part of the Maumelle Pinnacles, a rocky outcrop that is the edge of the Ouachita Mountains. Under supervision of Caleb, we would work on the trails and help close “social trails”, places where people take “short cuts”. We would work on controlling woody stems within the field to the right of the entrance road, and control invasive species (privet, mimosa, sericea lespedeza)

Blue Mountain: Blue Mountain is the next ridge over from Rattlesnake Ridge, also part of the Maumelle Pinnacles rock outcrop. Here we would want help with creating a species list using inaturalist and marking any non-natives observed.

Please contact Nancy Wyatt with questions.

Nancy Wyatt
Nwroute66@gmail.com
501-580-1218

The NCAMN Wildflower Meadow Team maintains the Gaston Wildflower Meadow at Bull Shoals-White River State Park from March through December. Team members will work for 2 hours on scheduled Wednesdays. PLEASE MAKE SURE TO VERIFY START TIME BY CHECKING THE WORKDAY EMAIL AS TIME MAY VARY DEPENDING ON TEMPERATURE. The workday email will also list plans for the day and any additional tools that you might need. Always wear gloves and sturdy garden shoes, dress comfortably and expect to get dirty. Volunteers will become familiar with native plants common in north central Arkansas and learn about their characteristics and requirements for growth. Please log your volunteer hours as follows: Activity - Volunteer - Natural Area Maintenance, Sponsor: State Park: Bull Shoals-White River State Park.

Compton Garden/Greenhouse work.