NRCS celebrates American Wetlands Month at Woodson Wetlands Reserve Program
Site
Little
Rock, Ark., May 14, 2004 – A wetlands project in Pulaski County gives the
state a historic opportunity to regain thousands of acres of wetlands during
American Wetlands Month.
At a
ribbon-cutting event today, USDA, Natural Resources Conservation Service
Chief Bruce I. Knight said, “This year, American Wetlands Month is a
particularly good time for celebration because President Bush has just
announced a new nation goal for wetlands.”
President Bush’s goal, announced on Earth Day: “Instead of just limiting our
losses, we will expand the wetlands of America.” During the next five years,
the President plans to restore at least one million acres of new wetlands
through measures such as the NRCS’ Wetlands Reserve Program.
“The
project we are celebrating here today is a landmark event for Arkansas,”
said Kalven L. Trice, state conservationist for the NRCS in Arkansas. “This
7,186-acre project includes 12 landowners. No where else in the nation has a
project like this been developed. Once completed, the Woodson Joint Venture
WRP project will benefit the entire area by creating a more than four-mile
long riparian area along the Arkansas River.”
“This
will be the largest ecosystem restoration in the Arkansas River Valley,”
Trice said.
Work
will begin in June on the project with the hydrology restoration.
“We are
extremely enthusiastic to see the work begin. The project will totally
reconfigure marginal farmland and change it into recreational land that will
greatly enhance wildlife habitat,” said Gar Lile, who was the initial
applicant with 1,140 acres. “We are taking non-irrigated farmland in the
Arkansas River corridor and returning it to its natural state.”
Projects
like the Woodson Joint Venture mean “we in the federal government are working
closely with states, tribes, local communities, and individuals – as it says in
the NRCS mission – to conserve, maintain, and improve our natural resources and
environment,” Knight said.
Arkansas
ranks second in the nation in numbers of acres enrolled in the WRP.
“I am proud
of the work NRCS employees do with partners such as the Audubon Society and
Ducks Unlimited to make projects like this happen. But at the end of the day,
without the willingness and cooperation of the landowners wanting something
better for their lands and the environment, these projects can’t get off the
ground,” Trice said.
WRP is a
voluntary program offering landowners the opportunity to protect, restore and
enhance wetlands on their property.
By placing
agricultural lands into WRP, the NRCS provides resting, loafing and foraging
habitat for migratory waterfowl, songbirds, shorebirds, wading birds and other
wetland species. Additionally, wetlands benefits include reducing flooding,
recharging ground water, protecting biological diversity and providing
educational, scientific and recreational activities.
The
improvement of water quality as a value of wetlands and wetland restoration is
an often overlooked benefit of WRP. Enrolling large contiguous tracts of
erosion-prone farmland has greatly decreased sediment in major rivers such as
the White and Black rivers in central Arkansas.
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