Restoring the Big Woods
A Timeline of The Nature Conservancy's Activities
Since 1982, the Conservancy and its partners have safeguarded more than 120,000 acres in the Big Woods of Arkansas — a 550,000-acre corridor of floodplain forest along the Mississippi River — including the location where the ivory-billed woodpecker was rediscovered in 2004.
Along with providing critical habitat for the ivory-bill, the Big Woods is vitally important for the survival of numerous endangered species, 108 species of native fish and more than 265 species of birds.
- 1982
- The Nature Conservancy launches its Arkansas chapter and quickly forges partnerships with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, the Arkansas Natural Heritage Commission, and Arkansas Game and Fish Commission to protect Arkansas’s rich natural and hunting heritage.
- 1985
- The Nature Conservancy acquires initial acreage on the Cache River and Bayou DeView.
- 1986
- The Cache River National Wildlife Refuge is established with the transfer of 380 acres of land from the Conservancy to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and with legislation supported by Senators Dale Bumpers and David Pryor.
- 1989
- The Nature Conservancy acquires its largest tract of land to date: 3,667 acres at Little Dixie Farm, now the headquarters of the Cache River National Wildlife Refuge. Later that year, the Cache River and lower White River are designated as “Wetlands of International Importance” by the Ramsar Convention of the United Nations.
- 1991
- The Nature Conservancy identifies major restoration and conservation needs for the Big Woods as a priority for restoration and conservation. This plan helps secure Congressional authorization for the expansion of the Cache River National Wildlife Refuge to 55,000 acres.
- 1992
- A massive land exchange of 41,000 acres is orchestrated by The Nature Conservancy, Senator Dale Bumpers, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, the Bureau of Land Management and the Potlatch Corporation (which owned the land) to create a protected corridor connecting the Cache River National Wildlife Refuge with the White River National Wildlife Refuge. The land exchange, valued at more than $20 million, is accomplished at virtually no cost to taxpayers.
- 1993
- The Nature Conservancy and the Arkansas Natural Heritage Commission acquire 302 acres along Benson Creek, helping protect Bayou DeView in the Big Woods.
“Finding the ivory-bill in Arkansas has been a validation of decades of great conservation work… This effort is an incredible story of hope for the future.”
Scott Simon
Director, Nature Conservancy of Arkansas
- 1996
- With support from The Nature Conservancy and state agencies, Arkansas voters approve a 1/8-cent sales tax to be used by the Arkansas Game and Fish Commission and the Arkansas Natural Heritage Commission to purchase and protect lands in the Arkansas Delta and elsewhere. The number of acres protected by The Nature Conservancy in the Big Woods reaches more than 68,000.
- 2000
- The Nature Conservancy launches a project to restore the natural river flows of the Big Woods waterways. The Nature Conservancy begins working with farmers to stabilize stream banks by planting buffer strips of trees and preventing erosion through techniques such as no-till farming.
- 2002
- The Nature Conservancy and U.S. Army Corps of Engineers form a partnership called the Sustainable Rivers Project to protect ecological health of 10 U.S. rivers – including the White River – through improved dam management.
- 2004
- The ivory-billed woodpecker, long believed to be extinct, is reported to have been rediscovered in the Big Woods on land protected by The Nature Conservancy and the Arkansas Natural Heritage Commission.
- 2005
- By 2005, more than 50,000 acres in the flood plain of the Big Woods are replanted in bottomland hardwoods.
- 2006
- Between the rediscovery of the ivory-billed woodpecker in 2004 and the spring of 2006, The Nature Conservancy in Arkansas acquires or options some 12,000 acres in the Big Woods of Arkansas and makes plans to reforest an additional 50,000 acres within the next five years.
For More Information About the Ivory-billed Woodpecker:
