$7 Mill for the Ducks

[imported_admin]

Wetlands restoration project announced
Saturday, Oct 30, 2004

By Rob Moritz
Arkansas News Bureau
LITTLE ROCK - A $7 million project to restore 11,189 acres of land along the Arkansas River in Pulaski, Lonoke and Jefferson counties was announced Friday.

The federally funded project will restore the land - now mostly small fragmented woodlands and marginal cropland - into bottomland hardwood forests scattered with seasonally flooded shallow water habitat for migratory birds, including ducks, Lt. Gov. Win Rockefeller said during a news conference.

"This is a fantastic day for Arkansas, for conservation and the environment," Rockefeller said, adding the wetland project is expected to increase the amount of ducks that migrate through the state during duck season.

The redeveloped land, plus an additional 7,186 acres of wetlands already being restored, will make up more than 18,000 acres of restored wetlands by the winter of 2007, he said.

When complete, Arkansas will have one of the largest areas of contiguous wetlands suitable for migratory birds in the southeastern United States, said Mark Rey, U.S. undersecretary of Natural Resources and the Environment.

He said more than 130,000 acres of wetlands have been restored in the United States since 1997.

"Wetlands are critical habitat for waterfowl and other aquatic species," he said.

Rey said the money will be used to purchase the land from 18 landowners. Once restored, the federal government will then convey the land back to the state.

Kalvin L. Trice, state conservationist, said flooding is a problem along the river now because the land has been over farmed and trees have been cut down.

"Now, flooding occurs in two of every five years. Imagine what it will be like when we can get it back in its wetland state," Trice said.

[Catdaddy]

That's right across the river from one of my buddies rice farms(2000 acres). He just left Wednesday morning after a week of deer hunting(shot his barrel hot too).

Bring it own.

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[RLM]

That is not far from Bayou Metto. Could be a heck of an expanded zone in the future.