Educating and Empowering Arkansans for Aquatic Conservation

More than 90,000 miles of streams lace The Natural State, from the mighty Arkansas River to small creeks you can jump across. These rivers, streams, bayous, creeks and springs provide millions of hours of recreational activity, millions of gallons of drinking water, water for irrigation and industry, and millions of dollars of income to the state and its citizens.

Unfortunately, we’ve hurt the quality of many waterways. We’ve lost thousands of miles of free-flowing, natural streams to damming, industrial and agricultural pollution and other activities. Support your local waterway by sponsoring a Stream Team.

How to Get Involved

The Stream Team program is a resource to help educators and community leaders take initiative in conservation of our local waterways. Those interested can register to sponsor a Stream Team and adopt a waterway of their choice. Sponsors are required to participate in Stream Team training and conduct at least three monitoring sessions each year. This training is eligible as Professional Development hours for educators. In order to support consistent monitoring, sponsors will receive a Stream Team Kit including macroinvertebrate sampling nets, waders, basic water quality monitoring set, reusable mesh waste bags, and other support materials.

Looking to Dive Deeper?

Stream Team Sponsors looking to enhance or supplement their monitoring tools are also eligible to apply for a Wildlife Education Grant. Grant funds can be used by educators to purchase any additional equipment or supplies to help expand their Stream Team capabilities.

Data Recording & Stream Team Mapper

Need More?

For any additional information regarding Stream Team offerings or data reporting please contact the Stream Team Coordinator.

Looking For Conservation In Your Curriculum?

The Arkansas Game and Fish Commission is committed to inspiring a love of the outdoors and conservation in young Arkansans and is working with schools to foster responsible stewardship of natural resources in the next generation. 

Through our School of Conservation Leadership Program, AGFC is working to increase conservation education, outdoor learning and outdoor recreation opportunities for students in Arkansas and to increase awareness of conservation careers and inspire the next generation of conservation professionals. The Commission has created a designation that recognizes the public, private, charter and early childhood schools that are doing this well. If you’d like your school to be a School of Conservation Leadership, please work with your school’s administration to review the requirements below and complete the Letter of Commitment and return to marybeth.hatch@agfc.ar.gov if your school wants to participate.

Increasing participation in all Arkansas Game and Fish Commission programming at the campus level

Recognize schools that are doing this well, create model/mentor schools/programs within the state; create new opportunities and continue current programming offered by Nature Center staff to support education outreach

Application: Phase 1

Application: Phase 2

Application: Phase 3

Why Choose Native Plants?

Natives plants provide important habitat
Gardening with native plants provides habitat for pollinators, including butterflies, moths, bees, birds, flies and beetles. Pollinator populations are declining and it’s important to provide nectar and host plant sources wherever possible on the landscape to help maintain and boost populations. Just one or two native milkweeds in a garden, for instance, can provide a place for monarch butterflies to lay their eggs. Native wildlife evolved with native plants and rely on them for food, shelter and as host plants for breeding.

Natives plants require less maintenance
After they are established, native plants require less maintenance, which saves time and money! They have extensive root systems that can reach deeper than 15 feet. These deep root systems help stabilize the soil, reduce erosion and increase the soil’s capacity to store water.

Natives also are adapted to the local climate, which results in less watering (though plants may need frequent watering during the first year to become established and during drought). Natives also are locally adapted to drier sites with “poorer” soils so they do not need to be fertilized.

Establishing a Garden

Sunlight: Determine how many hours a day the garden area has full sun. This will help with the decision to use full-sun, part-sun or shade plants. A garden site is considered full sun as long as it gets at least six full hours of direct sunlight on most days. Plant shade plants in areas that receive less than three hours of direct sun per day.

Water: Is the soil usually wet, dry or somewhere in between? Some plants don’t like to get their feet wet, so pick plants whose moisture preferences match the garden.

Soil: Good soil is literally the foundation of a healthy and productive garden. Most plants will thrive in moist but well-drained soil. With clay or sandy soils, compost may be used to help make the garden amenable to planting.

Spacing: Planting at least three of the same flowers together is helpful for butterflies because of how their vision works. Butterflies nectar at different heights, so vary the plants to include those that are low, medium and taller. It is better to plant swaths of color than to have a lot of single plants.

Bare Ground: Consider leaving a small spot of ground bare for nesting bees. A muddy spot in the garden allows butterflies to “puddle,” which means drawing minerals from the soil.

Chemicals: Avoid using broad-spectrum herbicides or insecticides in the garden. Herbicides intended for “weeds” can drift and harm nearby plants. Insecticides are not selective. If they are applied to get rid of one species (aphids, for instance), they will affect all of the insects in the treated area negatively. If they are systemic insecticides, they could be absorbed by plants and harm nontarget insects that eat them. Remember, it’s a good thing if plants are being eaten! It means that the garden is part of the ecosystem and those garden “pests” could be food for birds and other insects.

Choosing Plants

When choosing plants, consider adding a variety of species that bloom from spring through fall. This will ensure that nectar, pollen and seed resources are available throughout the year. Selecting early- and late-blooming plants is especially important for native pollinators. Native bees are some of the first to emerge in early spring, and migrating monarchs rely on fall-blooming nectar plants to fuel their migration. The greater the variety of plants, the more diversity wildlife will benefit. Planting just a few native plants is worthwhile!

Arkansas Flowers

Arkansas Shrubs and Trees

Key

Light Needs:

• Sun: An area that receives at least six hours of more of direct, mid-day sun, includes the south or west side of buildings and trees.
• Part shade: Includes areas with dappled sunlight and bright areas underneath trees; i.e. open sky not directly overhead.
• Sun to light shade: Includes area conditions listed for sun plus the east and north sides of buildings and trees where plants have considerable open sky overhead.
• Shade: Dappled to dense shade; areas that receive morning and evening sun in summer; areas on north sides of buildings and underneath trees.

Benefits:

• Bees (B)
• Butterflies (Bu)
• Moths (M)
• Hummingbirds (H)

Water Needs:

• High (H)
• Medium (M)
• Low (L)

Plant Sources

One challenge when choosing natives is that they are not as readily available as non-natives. Arkansas has a handful of nurseries that offer native plants, and there are numerous plant sales that offer native species held throughout the state each year.

Plant Sales

Master Gardener chapters are in almost every county. Most groups host a plant sale, typically in spring (April/May), and many offer native plants.

• Click here to see a list of events.
• Local chapters of the Arkansas Master Naturalists have plant sales each year. Follow the local chapter on Facebook for more information.
• Audubon Arkansas hosts native plant sales each year at the end of April and in October. Click here to see a list of events.
• Compton Gardens in Northwest Arkansas has a sale each April. Click here to visit their site.

Demonstration Gardens

Need inspiration to get started? There are many demonstration gardens across the state. Try a local state park (Pinnacle Mountain, Hobbs, Mount Magazine), Arkansas Game and Fish Commission Nature Centers (Witt Stephens Jr. Central Arkansas Nature Center in Little Rock, Janet Huckabee Arkansas River Valley Nature Center in Fort Smith) or the local library.