email : Webview : Panels at Clark Wetlands, Volunteer Events, and A New Native Gardening Guide

APRIL 2014

Interpretive Panels Tell the Story of the William E. Clark Presidential Park Wetlands
Volunteer Events Kick Start New Program
Downloable Guide Aids Gardening
ANHC Participates in Birds, Bats, and Blades Program
Citizen Scientists Needed to Monitor Frog Calls

Interpretive Panels Tell the Story of the William E. Clark Presidential Park Wetlands

Staff from the Arkansas Natural Heritage Commission (ANHC) recently designed 12 interpretive panels that are now displayed along the trails and boardwalk of the William E. Clark Presidential Park Wetlands.The panels tell the story of this unique public wetland area on the Arkansas River.

The 13–acre park, named for the man who built the Clinton Presidential Library, is adjacent to Clinton Presidential Park and Riverfront Park in downtown Little Rock. As one of several partners working on the project, the ANHC recently delivered the completed panels to the city of Little Rock, who owns and maintains the park. Read more about the wetlands here.

Downloadable Guide Aids Gardening

Arkansas’s native plants are uniquely adapted to live with our soils, climate, and wildlife. Native plants save water, require less maintenance, reduce chemicals, invite wildlife, support local ecology, reduce invasive species, and provide us with a sense of place.

The Arkansas Natural Heritage Commission (ANHC) is ready to help you “go native” as you plant your garden this spring. A new “Basic Guide to Gardening with Native Arkansas Plants” is now available as a free download on our Native Gardening web page.Learn more about the benefits of gardening with Arkansas’s native plants and download the guide here.

Citizen Scientists Needed to Monitor Frog Calls

by Tom Krohn, Arkansas Regional coordinator for FrogWatch USA

Have you heard any frogs or toads calling yet? The timing of natural events is called phenology and this year’s frog call season has been set back by the periodic winter blasts that we are enduring. Frogs and toads are ectothermic animals that depend on their environment to maintain their body temperature. During this cold weather they are still hibernating in their burrows, under leaf litter, or at the bottom of their ponds.

Frog Watch USA is a national corps of citizen scientist volunteers who monitor the diversity, range, and phenology of frogs and toads. The Arkansas Frog Watch chapter is looking for volunteers for the 2014 season. Monitoring consists of listening for three minutes after dark at a pond of your choice once a week or so from February through August. The information is then entered into the Frog Watch Field Scope database and is available online to anyone.

There are 23 species of frogs and toads in Arkansas – each with a unique mating call. Learn the calls and the monitoring protocol at free Frog Watch workshops held around the state. For more information go to www.arkansasfrogsandtoads.org.

Volunteer Events Kick- Start New Program

Staff and volunteers recently participated in two volunteer workdays at Terre Noire Natural Area in Clark County. At both events, participants cleaned up trash and removed tires from the natural area. Both events were conducted in cooperation with the Keep Arkansas Beautiful Spring Cleanup campaign. Read more about ANHC’s volunteer events here.

ANHC Participates in Birds, Bats, and Blades Program

ANHC Aquatic Species Biologist, Jason Throneberry, recently participated in “Birds, Bats, and Blades”, an outreach program hosted by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. The focus of the program was Karst topography, alternative energy, aquatic ecology, and natural systems. The two-day program was held in at Grotto Springs Ranch in Timbo, AR.

Students from Ozarka College, as well as local residents, attended the program. They sampled for fish and macroinvertebrates, participated in interpretive hikes, and visited a cave.

Throneberry and Casey Cox, a graduate student at the University of Central Arkansas, conducted the aquatic ecology portion of the program, overseeing fish and macroinvertebrate sampling and interpretation of data the group collected.

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	ARKANSAS NATURAL HERITAGE COMMISSION 1500 Tower Building, 323 Center Street Little Rock, Arkansas 72201 Phone: (501) 324-9619 / Fax: (501) 324-9618 / TDD: (501) 324-9150 arkansas@naturalheritage.org