The Nature Conservancy in Arkansas

Support conservation in The Natural State

There are several ways to support the Conservancy's work in Arkansas. Learn about memberships, honorary gifts, planned giving and estate planning, and the Conservancy's Corporate Council for Conservation.

Volunteering -- All Work and No Play? No Way!

The Conservancy in Arkansas occasionally provides its members special volunteer opportunities, like trash pick-ups or tree plantings. These trips are as much fun as work. Check out this video of a clean-up on Electric Island at Lake Hamilton and see for yourself!

Riggs Cat helps Arkansas streams stay clean, clear

John A. Riggs IV of Riggs Cat received an award during the 2009 Corporate Council luncheon for his company's support in helping the Conservancy restore three streams in Arkansas. Watch the video, which shows the restoration projects, now.

GIS Inventory Ozark Highlands Rivers. The Conservancy has used global positioning systems and mapping tools to inventory more than a thousand miles of unpaved roads in the Strawberry, Mulberry and Kings river watersheds as the first step in identifying and fixing problematic road segments such as low-water crossings, culverts and ditches.

Wildflowers at bloom at a blackland prairie Blacklands. The blacklands of southwestern Arkansas, a landscape dominated by tall native grasses and vibrant wildflowers, had a watery beginning. Millions of years ago the Gulf of Mexico covered the region. Originally about 12 million acres of blackland prairies and woodlands covered parts of Arkansas, Texas, Louisiana, Mississippi and Alabama. Today only some 10,000 acres remain in scattered patches.

The Big Woods of Arkansas, produced by The Nature Conservancy. Lining the Cache, Arkansas and White rivers and Bayou DeView in eastern Arkansas, the Big Woods, at 550,000 acres, is the largest corridor of bottomland hardwood forest remaining in the Delta outside of Louisiana’s Atchafalaya River.

Conservation Forestry Program Video. The Conservancy works with forest landowners to demonstrate conservation forestry the merging of good economic returns and a healthy ecosystem that provides habitat for native plants and animals as well as clean air and water and other services for humans

Video: What are the differences between shortleaf and loblolly pines, and what makes the latter the preferred trees at most pine plantations?

Cave videos from Discovery Channel's Discovery News. The Ozark karst ecosystem is an underground wilderness of caves, springs and aquifers that over the millennia have formed in the carbonate bedrock of the Ozark Highlands. Be patient; Note: The initial commercials may "jump some," but the video stories usually play uninterrupted.

Smith Creek Nature Preserve, produced by AETN's Exploring Arkansas program. Smith Creek flows over Sherfield Cave, which harbors the state’s largest hibernating colony of endangered Indiana bats. Smith Creek also connects the Ozark National Forest and the Buffalo National River Wilderness Area, protecting a forested corridor for gray bats, black bears and elk.

Cave conservation, produced by Jones TV of Northwest Arkansas. This piece provides of a good overview of the Conservancy's work with partners to protect places like Cave Springs Cave, where the largest population of the rare Ozark cavefish thrives.

Largest floodplain reconnection in the United States -- This video, produced by the Conservancy, highlights the Conservancy's work with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to reconnect the Ouachita River in north Louisiana to a 25-sqaure-mile section of its floodplain that had been cleared and had levees constructed around it in the early 1970s. The Nature Conservancy in Louisiana purchased the land in the 1990s before transferring it to the USFWS.

Photo credits (top to bottom, left to right): Caver © Ethan Inlander/TNC; Videographer © Jay Harrod/TNC; © The Nature Conservancy; Cave crayfish © Mike Slay/TNC; Smith Creek Preserve © Ethan Inlander/TNC; Caver © Jay Harrod/TNC
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