Hope Blackland Prairie

Use your mouse to swipe the image to compare the before and after image. Photos: USFWS

This 65-acre project is on private land outside of Hope, Arkansas and in the Partners for Fish & Wildlife Program's Blackland Prairie focus area.The landowner bought the land to enjoy the outdoors, and was referred to the Partners for Fish & Wildlife Program. A partnership then developed between PFW, which paid for the native seed mix, the Arkansas Game and Fish Commission, which donated herbicide, and the landowner, who hired a contractor to apply herbicide in the spring and fall.

A site visit in May 2015, the first spring after removing the fescue, documented hundreds to thousands of milkweed plants of at least two species that were present in the seedbank. The PFW Biologist also transplanted butterfly milkweed to supplement the native seeds planted. This project will provide habitat for the monarch butterfly, northern bobwhite, indigo bunting, loggerhead shrike and several other songbird and small game species. The project also shares a border with a state wildlife area, providing one large contiguous block of habitat.

Fowl Play Upland Habitat

Use your mouse to swipe the image to compare the before and after image. Photos: USFWS

The Fowl Play Upland Habitat Project is on private land in Chicot County, Arkansas and consisted of eradicating a non-native cover of bahiagrass and converting it to a native warm season grass, forb and legume mix. The site is approximately 27 acres and is surrounded by a few thousand acres of land enrolled in the Wetland Reserve Program (WRP).

The landowner purchased the land to enjoy the outdoors and have a place to watch wildlife, hunt and relax. In 2012, the landowner invited the Partners for Fish and Wildlife biologist and biologists with the Arkansas Game & Fish Commission to talk about wetland habitat management on the WRP tract. While touring the property, the Partners biologist inquired about a hay field and asked the landowner if he needed the hay or just liked the “clean” look. Since the landowner was an avid outdoors-man, the group discussed bringing more quail and turkey to the property by converting the field to native plants.

The landowner didn’t even blink and said “how do we get started”. After summer and spring applications of herbicide and seeding in October, the site exploded with color and life. The most critical part of this project was the landowner and land managers’ hard work, timeliness, and diligence. In addition to the native seed mix, the PFW Biologist and AGFC Biologist transplanted butterfly milkweed to the site in the winter and spring of 2015 to provide more monarch butterfly breeding habitat.