The University of Arkansas at Monticello has received a $3.7 million grant from the U.S. Department of Agriculture for a project to restore bottomland hardwood forests in the state and support sustainable commodities.
The university said the project will support small and underserved landowners in the river-influenced forest regions of Arkansas, where there’s high potential for producing climate-smart commodities such as carbon sequestration and storage, wood products, and wildlife and ecosystem services.
A team led by Nana Tian, an assistant professor of natural resources economics and policy at UAM, aims to plant 500 to 600 acres of oak forests in the floodplain of the Red River Valley in southwest Arkansas, the Ouachita River Valley in south-central Arkansas, and the Bayou Meto Watershed in east Arkansas.
UAM said the project will quantify and demonstrate the ecological and economic benefits of bottomland hardwood forest restoration on working lands. It will also help landowners manage plantations and market climate-smart commodities.
UAM’s Arkansas Forest Resources Center is partnering with the University of Arkansas at Pine Bluff, Texas A&M University and recruited landowners on the project.
Funding comes from the USDA’s Partnerships for Climate-Smart Commodities initiative. The Biden administration last week announced an extra $325 million for the initiative, bringing total funding to $3.1 billion for 141 projects across the U.S.
Other Arkansas entities to receive funding from the initiative include nonprofit Winrock International, which was awarded $45 million to help modernize farming in developing countries, and Riceland Foods Inc., which received $20 million for a project to help farmers adopt climate-smart practices.
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