Public invited to view plan for widening portions of Huntsville Road and Fifteenth Street from 4 to 7 p.m. today

People interested in protecting Northwest Arkansas' two major watersheds, in this case, the watershed of the Town Branch of the West Fork of the White River and Beaver Lake, need to turn out and make sure that the planners are taking into account the potential affect of this project on water quality and the need for stormwater retention to avoid increasing the flooding and erosion threat downstream.

View Larger Map
Please use controls and cursor to move the image, zoom in or out and trace the whole route to be discussed this afternoon.

Arkansas Highway and Transportation Department officials will reveal the first phase of design for widening a 2.7-mile stretch of Arkansas 16 between S. College Avenue and Stonebridge Road to four lanes and installing a traffic light at the Stonebridge intersection, east of Crossover Road from 4 to 7 p.m. in the activity center of Fayetteville First Assembly of God at 550 E. 15th St. There won't be a presentation; residents can look at displays, ask questions and give feedback verbally or on survey forms, The Northwest Arkansas Times reported in its March 31, 2009, edition.

Severed limb budding at end. Birds and squirrels and rabbits may eat them

Here is the caption with the photo of limbs burning in Benton County:
Up in smoke:
Benton County employee Harvey Johnson watched a fire at 10791 Stoney Point Road near Lowell on Thursday. The county is burning limbs and trees broken by this winter’s ice storm. Other burn sites are at 9900 Marchant Road in Elm Springs, 21447 Waukesha Road in Siloam Springs and 19941 Bettis Hill Road near War Eagle. Washington County is also burning ice-storm debris on North 40th Street in Springdale. DAVID FRANK DEMPSEY / Benton County Daily Record

If no one in either county had a fireplace or a wood stove, this might seem slightly less ridiculous.
I hope a lot of people who can use firewood or who would collect it and sell it will be at those sites before more is burned and load it up and take it away.
This wood would save people money, reduce air pollution now and save the carbon in these limbs for actual home heating and reduce global climate change (because people with wood stoves and fire places will be buying wood next fall and reducing the tree cover even more in Northwest Arkansas).
Additionally, birds and squirrels are eating buds on those limbs where they are lying. In fact, many large limbs or trunks lying separated from the main trunk for nearly two months are budding right now! So wildlife are having to search a bit more for food, which may be tough for birds facing nesting season.
Burning material with this much value is WRONG.
It is even worse than chipping it all. This is incredibly wasteful and inconsiderate of people and other living things. I am proud to live in Fayetteville where an effort is being made to separate potential firewood for sharing and where the rest is being chipped rather than burned.
This is an example of the need for cross-training and keeping all environmental enforcement under one big umbrella. Apparently, it would be the responsibility of the EPA to see that FEMA's requirements for subsidizing "cleanup" efforts meet environmental guidelines. But I would bet that the EPA has had no input in the cleanup efforts. Otherwise, they would have required sound environmental use of the downed trees and limbs.
And, if there were any budgetary control of FEMA, their pet contractors would be required to compact and compress the loads of loose limbs in their trailers and trucks before claiming a load is full and counting it on the basis of cubic yards.
If you take waste metal to a steel yard or aluminum-recycling facility, you will have your vehicle weighed and then weighed again after the workers pull off what can be recycled. They don't pay more for half-empty truckloads or uncrushed cans that fill a big bag. The scales tell the story.
Should the taxpayers support a system that rewards only selected contractors and ignores the value of the material being destroyed in the pretense of "cleaning up" after a disaster? And requires the hiring of "inspectors" or whatever from different pet companies to make sure the trucks aren't overfilled?
My questions aren't original. I have heard these questions from residents of Fayetteville who are offended by the appearance of poor management and waste.
The city can't ask these questions because the EPA MIGHT look into the problem and FEMA MIGHT delay reimbursement of the city for the work that took a big chunk out of the city's reserve fund.
But somebody has to ask why they don't just weigh the loads and pay and reimburse on the results. My neighbors have asked.

Focus group to discuss plan for Beaver Lake

On Wednesday, March 25th, you are invited to a focus group meeting with Tetratech to discuss the status of the Beaver Lake Watershed Management Plan that they have been helping facilitate. This follow-up focus group meeting with conservation and environmental representatives will take place on Wednesday, March 25th at 3pm in the Chicago Room (room #220) at the Jones Center for Families in Springdale. They want to gather your feedback on some of the management options that they have been developing for the watershed.
I believe each of you participated in the first focus group meeting Tetratech convened a few months back. If you have suggestions for other folks who should be included in this focus group, please let me know or pass this invitation along to them.
Tetratech has put together a series of newsletters to update you and other focus group members on the status of the project. I will distribute some of the newsletters attached to this message and others attached to another message early next week.
Please let me know if you have any questions and whether you will be able to attend the meeting on Wednesday, March 25th at 3pm.
Thank you!
Mike Malone
387-5590 (cell)

Shackleford adds acreage to list of savannas deserving protection and restoration

Please click on image to ENLARGE view of Westside Sewage Treatment Plant and surrounding area.


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map for another savanna‏
From: Bruce Shackleford (bruceshackleford@aristotle.net)
Sent: Sat 3/07/09 6:23 AM
To: Barbara Boland (barbaraboland@hotmail.com)
Cc: Delia Haak (deliahaak@irwp.org); bob morgan (rmorgan@bwdh2o.org); Joe Neal (joeneal@uark.edu); Bob Cross (racross@uark.edu); Aubrey Shepherd (AubreyShepherd@hotmail.com); ozarkendemic@gmail.com; bobcaulk@cox.net
1 attachment
West Side...jpg (1318.6 KB)
Barbara,

Attached is an aerial showing another savanna we need to identify on
our GI map. I will be including the site in the revised wetland/
prairie write-up. If I add artwork to it outlining the location, it
makes it very memory hungry. Therefore, I will describe the
location. It is the square wooded plot at the south end of the
aerial at the NW corner of Broyles Rd. and Woolsey Farm Rd. It is a
post oak savanna that has a brushy understory. It can be restored
with a good burn. I am calling it "Broyles Savanna" since we already
have a "Woolsey Savanna" at the north end of the property next to
Woolsey Wet Prairie. The Broyles Savanna is across the street (and
north of) the Broyles/Yates Prairie. The Broyles Savanna is next to
the old Woolsey home place that was occupied by the Broyles Family
100 years later. I estimate the Broyles Savanna to be 2.5 to 3.0
acres. Woolsey Farm Rd. runs east-west and is the line that divides
Fayetteville City Limits from Farmington City Limits. Broyles
Savanna is owned by the City of Fayetteville.

Later,

Bruce


West Side Wetland 2008.jpg

Redwing blackbirds find wetland wherever they migrate

Click on image to Enlarge view of redwing blackbird on wetland area south of the Audubon nature area, south of
Sam's Club, on a Springwoods wetland area on March 5, 2009, in northwest Fayetteville, Arkansas, 300 yards north of
Clabber Creek.

Frank and Rob Sharp serious about protecting green infrastructure of Northwest Arkansas

Please click on images to ENLARGE photos of Frank and Rob Sharp on February 26, 2009

Five-year-old photo of wetland construction site seen in preceding post. The wooded wetland served as a floodway but was kept wet by three springs

Please click on image to ENLARGE view of the area shown in the three immediately preceding photos as it appeared on March 28, 2004, before being bulldozed and dredged and filled for Aspen Ridge. Camera wasn't particularly good, camera operator was worse and the photo was actually reduced in size and quality to go on line at that time. Additionally, of course, the area was always shaded by tall trees! Even in winter one could see no more than 100 feet because of understory vegetation and thickness of the trees.


This is one of several types of sensitive sites that members of the green-infrastructure committee believe deserve protection. This one offered the opportunity to continue to help reduce flooding and siltation of the Town Branch of the West Fork of the White River and thus Beaver Lake. The opportunity to save this area was lost and cannot be mitigated offsite.

Lowest wetland portion of Hill Place (former Aspen Ridge) property being dredged and filled for parking lot in former overflow area of Town Branch

Please click on images to ENLARGE photos of dredging and filling of Town Branch of the West Fork of the White River west of South Hill Avenue and north of 11th Street in Fayetteville, Arkansas, on February 26, 2009. Rich, absorbent soil being hauled away to make space for truckloads of non-absorbent, non-organic red dirt to provide parking spaces for Hill Place student apartments.

Don't let the contractors take all your brushpiles; the birds won't forgive you

Please click on image to ENLARGE view of mockingbird on brushpile at World Peace Wetland Prairie on February 25, 2009,


The more buds you spot on the ends of small limbs the more likely these limbs are the ones to keep on your property if you want plenty of song birds to be in your neighborhood when spring comes. You might also try to convince your neighbors to preserve some similar brushpiles on their property. And urging neighbors to preserve ice-damaged trees on their property also will help.
Many won't understand. But every property owner who keeps a brush pile or resists pressure to cut down a damaged tree can make a difference in the reproductive success of song birds in the coming spring.

Thursday February 26, 2009, meeting of FNHA's green-infrastructure committee set for Millar Lodge on Mount Sequoyah

We have nailed down the location for the Design Team meeting next Thursday 2/26/2009 7pm; it is going to be in the Millar Lodge at the Mount Sequoyah Conference and Retreat Center. You will find a map of the Conference Center grounds at this url: http://www.mountsequoyah.org/www.mountsequoyah.org/Home_files/Map.jpg
Millar Lodge is building 48 (for orientation: when the Design Team first met in early October we met in the Cafeteria Building 41)

I would like to remind you all that since this is a matching funds grant we need you to complete a time sheet that shows the hours you have so generously given to the project. Time sheet MSWord document attached.

I have been working closely with several of the Working Groups to finalize their maps; I think we are all going to be really 'WOWWED!'
I have received a few RSVPs, but if you haven't sent me an email to say yea or nay on attendance, please do.
See you next week,
Barbara


Barbara Elaine Boland
Green Infrastructure Planning, Project Coordinator
Fayetteville Natural Heritage Association
148 E Spring Street
Fayetteville, AR 72701
(479) 521-2801 home
(479) 387-6724 cell
barbaraboland@hotmail.com