NSF Award
1034724
Arkansas State University awarded a planning grant for the development of a strategic plan for enhancing and managing the newly acquired George Harp Environmental Field Station on the Buffalo National River, America's first national river. The field station, administered by ASU under a cooperative agreement with the National Park Service, provides a unique opportunity to support upland, wetland, speleological and riverine research in the Arkansas Ozarks. Three workshops are planned to include state and regional university researchers, local K-12 teachers and administrators, conservation NGOs, and faculty and administrators of Arkansas 2-year colleges. These workshops, designed to raise awareness and solicit ideas from stakeholders, will provide direction, emphases and support for the development of the Station. Additionally, visits to three regional university field stations will allow solicitation of ideas, insights and direction for Station development, enhancement, and identification of research, teaching, funding and outreach opportunities.<br/><br/>The George Harp Environmental Field Station is a house and several outbuildings on 40 acres of land strategically located on a 150-foot bluff overlooking the lower Buffalo National River near the mining ghost town of Rush, Arkansas. The Buffalo National River, encompassing an 800,000 acre watershed, originates in the Boston Mountain peaks and flows 150 miles through the heartland of the Ozark Highlands, where it is considered one of the nation?s most prodigious free flowing rivers. Moving through a complex convergence of physiographic regions, the Springfield and Salem Plateaus, the Buffalo flows through the only unglaciated highland region in mid-continental North America, where it confluences with the White River. The union of eastern and western savanna, glade and woodland ecotones provides a unique integration of habitats, coalesced with renowned geologic antiquity; creating a landscape supporting a high level of biodiversity and endemism, with more than 200 endemic species documented from the region.
