Thursday, April 23, 2009

April and May in the Illinois River watershed of Arkansas and Oklahoma

UP
Saturday, April 25 Earth Day at Botanical Gardens 10 am – 2 pm
Join the IRWP and Springdale’s Tree City USA committee by volunteering at our booth. It’s a great way to meet new people and greet old friends!
Monday, April 27 Osage Creek Clean up 9 am – noon
Join the IRWP and Kirksey Middle School 7th graders by helping clean up portions of Osage Creek in Rogers. Clean up crews will meet at the Church at Pinnacle Hills and Home Depot in Rogers at 9 am. Trash bags and gloves provided by Keep Arkansas Beautiful.
May StreamTeam Monitoring
Reminder that May is sampling month for the 2008-2009 IRWP Volunteer StreamTeam Monitoring Project. Please drop your samples off at the AWRC Lab as early in the month as possible and we’ll share yearlong results at our June 6 event.
Many thanks to our IRWP StreamTeam volunteers!
Saturday, May 2 Lake Fayetteville Clean up 9 am – noon
Join the Lake Fayetteville Watershed Partnership in helping clean up Lake Fayetteville. Bring canoes and kayaks, or come ready for a great “clean up walk” around the lake. Meet at the Environmental Study Center at 511 E. Lakeview. RSVP for lunch @sdale.org
Friday and Saturday, May 8-9 Northwest Arkansas Green Expo
Volunteer at the IRWP booth at the Northwest Arkansas Green Expo at the Benton County Fairgrounds. Watershed quiz games for kids & adults with prizes!
Friday 11 am – 5 pm; Saturday 9 am – 3 pm .nwagreenexpo.com
Tuesday, May 12 IRWP Board Meeting 6 pm – 9 pm
Members and guests, come to the 2nd quarter board meeting of the IRWP to be hosted at Nabholz Construction at 3301 N. 2nd Street, Rogers.
Saturday, June 6 Illinois River Watershed Appreciation Day
Come to Lake Fayetteville, 2 pm to 7 pm, for family fun with kid’s games, fishing, geocaching treasure hunt, canoe races, free barbecue and concert.
IRWP Committees
Education Committee: Tuesday, April 28, 11:30 am Washington Co. Environmental Affairs
Membership Committee: Friday, May 1, 9:00 am Lake Fayetteville Pavilion
Finance Committee: Monday, May 4, 3:00 pm 122 Turnberry, Dawn Hill, Siloam Springs
To volunteer email @irwp.org or call (479) 238-4671

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Wednesday, April 22, 2009

Earth Day a great day for cleaning up urban streams

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Please click on images to ENLARGE views of the Town Branch of the West Fork of the White River south of Martin Luther King Boulevard on Aril 22, 2009.


Saturday, April 18, 2009

Brown thrashers among the many species to be seen on World Peace Wetland Prairie during Sunday's Earth Day celebration

Please click on image to Enlarge view of one of the many species of birds feeding and picking nesting sites on World Peace Wetland Prairie on April 17, 2009. The elusive brown thrasher is often able to slip into the thickets before a camera can capture its image. But the attraction of scattered brush piles and the excitement of mating season can make them a bit careless.



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Friday, April 10, 2009

Earth Day celebration on April 19, 2009, at World Peace Wetland Prairie

Please click on image to ENLARGE to read details of the poster.

Bird-watchers welcome every day from dawn to dusk!
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Friday, April 3, 2009

Ward One council members, residents of south Fayetteville to meet to discuss proposal to build student apartments on Washington County Sale Barn land

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Town Branch Neighborhood Association meeting at 5:30 p.m. Monday April 6, 2009

Ward One City Council members, members of the Town Branch neighborhood association and the public will hear a presentation from a developer seeking to rezone the Washington County Sale Barn property to allow construction of student apartments. Everyone is welcome to the meeting in the church at 1136 S Ellis Avenue south of the intersection of S. Hill Avenue and Eleventh Street at 5:30 p.m. Monday, April 6.
For details, please call 479-444-6072 or visit http://townbranchneighborhood.blogspot.com

Earth Day at World Peace Wetland Prairie from 1 to 5 p.m. Sunday April 19, 2009

Members of the Town Branch neighborhood association and the OMNI Center for Peace, Justice and Ecology present the fifth-annual Earth Day celebration with activities for kids and adults. Wildflowers will be planted in the butterfly garden and peace-circle garden on the east portion of the city-owned nature park by children and adult volunteers. Ice-storm damaged limbs will be removed by those who wish to help. Volunteers may dig out fescue grass or remove Japanese honeysuckle that is suppressing native plants in parts of the western 2 acres.
Musicians and poets will be invited to play, sing or read in a pleasant outdoor setting.
Still on the Hill and Emily Kaitz are the headliners.
Several activities for youngsters will be provided by volunteers.
Parking is free from 1 to 5 p.m. at the the Hill Avenue Church of Christ south of the intersection of S. Hill Avenue and Eleventh Street, and street parking is legal in much of the neighborhood.
Everyone is welcome. For details, call 444-6072
or visit http://worldpeacewetlandprairie.blogspot.com
World Peace Wetland Prairie is at 1121 South Duncan Avenue in Fayetteville, Arkansas.

Wednesday, April 1, 2009

Reagan family farm north of Arkansas 16 exemplifies the kind of land that must be protected in the cities of Northwest Arkansas to save Beaver Lake

Please click on image to ENLARGE view of Bill Reagan pointing to the line of trees along the fence on the south edge of his family farm along the north edge of East Fifteenth Street.


The Reagan family has owned the land for many years and Bill said that he has bought it from his mother and will keep it in the family. The farm is prairie that has been used for cattle grazing and other agriculture over the decades. It is an example of a heritage farm of the sort identified in the Fayetteville Natural Heritage Association's Green Infrastructure plan. Its rich soil captures water where falls and does not cause flooding downstream with its limited stormwater runoff entering the Town Branch of the West Fork of the White River without causing siltation or pollution. See Google map with view of Fifteenth Street area in a preceding post on this subject.
Democrat-Gazette on widening of Arkansas 16


View Larger Map
Please use controls and cursor to move the image, zoom in or out and trace the whole route discussed at the meeting yesterday. The Reagan property is near the middle left part of the image above.
If you use your cursor to travel north of the open Reagan property between Washington Avenue and Wood Avenue from 11th Street up to near 9th Street you can see the 7 wooded wetland acres that the Partners for Better housing board is trying to buy to dredge and fill for a low-income housing development. Water drains from north of Jefferson School, all the way from north of MLK Boulevard (former 6th St.) down to 15th St. and into the Town Branch of the West Fork of the White River and is slowed and purified by the moist-soil area where the tiny branch overflows.
This portion of the Beaver Lake watershed is under extreme threat. Thanks to the Reagan family and others for keeping a bit of green infrastructure intact and allowing a small part of the rainwater to stay it falls.


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