Grand Prairie Alluvial Aquifer White River Wetlands Conditions Benefits

	Environment & Weather

	Aquifers

	The White River & River Wetlands

	Hunting, Fishing & Outdoor Activities

	Nature

	Agriculture & Local Economies

	People & Communities

Nature

Bottomland hardwoods which produce mast crops, along with seasonally flooded bald cypress (Taxodium distichum ), Tupelo gum or water Tupelo (Nyssa sylvatica) make up much of the forest adjacent to the Grand Prairie's rivers, creeks and bayous. These woodlands follow the White River along the eastern boundary of the Grand Prairie weaving wetlands with marginal moist soil areas, into a rich natural complex. This ecological structure also comprises a significant portion of the Bayou Meto drainage south of Humphrey.

White-tailed deer flourish in the Grand Prairie area of eastern Arkansas.

Water benefits all fish and wildlife

For birdwatchers, residents often include the Mississippi kite, bald eagle, American kestrel and several species of egrets. Other birds including the northern bobwhite, wild turkey and pileated woodpecker are seen year round along the White River.

Deer, bobcat and river otter are common bottomland occupants, but alligators, snapping turtles, timber rattlesnakes and even armadillos, can also to be found.

Natural foods in addition to seasonally flooded rice and soybean fields along the drainage fringes, annually provide food for these species plus hundreds of thousands of migrating waterfowl. Commercial rice production replaced grassland and scattered seasonal wetlands, and since the early-1900s significantly expanded available habitat for larger species of waterfowl.

Researchers at Montana State University and Ducks Unlimited have rediscovered the importance of grassland habitat on the breeding grounds. And waterfowl scientists have long recognized the critical link between grasslands and insects, especially invertebrates, because of their critical role in the food chain of waterbirds.

Before the turn of the century, the Greater Prairie Chicken (Tympanuchus cupido) was a resident of Arkansas' Grand Prairie - originally about 300,000 acres with the smallest patch 500 acres (circa 1850). Loss of habitat drove the prairie chicken from the region, because as settlement increased more livestock were grazed and the original prairie was gradually eliminated.

Source: Heitmeyer/Fredrickson - University of Missouri-Columbia
King - Southern Wetland Research Center (Oct. 2000)