Congress has approved $3 million for conservation projects in Arkansas that will allow the U.S. Forest Service and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to buy two forested tracts in the Mississippi River Delta.
The Nature Conservancy, America’s largest private conservation organization, said the legislation will help conserve thousands of acres in the Ozark/St. Francis National Forest and the Cache River National Wildlife Refuge.
The Nature Conservancy bought the lands from willing sellers with the understanding that they would be transferred to the Forest Service and the Fish and Wildlife Service when funds became available.
Nancy DeLamar, state director of the Nature Conservancy, lauded Sen. Blanche Lincoln and Reps. Marion Berry and Vic Snyder, all Democrats of Arkansas, for their help in securing the funding.
The two properties total nearly 6,000 acres. The 1,450-acre Stumpy Point, a native bottomland hardwood forest in Phillips County that includes one mile of Mississippi River frontage and two and a half miles of St. Francis River frontage, will become part of the St. Francis National Forest.
The other 4,500-acre tract, which lies within the Cache River National Wildlife Refuge boundaries in Woodruff County, will be added to the refuge. It has more than four miles of Cache River frontage and 3,500 acres of high-quality forest.
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