Description
Calion Lumber Company, based in Calion, Ark., donated a conservation easement to The Nature Conservancy in 2007 to create the Ouachita River Nature Preserve. The preserve is composed of bottomland hardwood forest with embedded cypress-tupelo sloughs. Some trees here are over four feet in diameter. The preserve includes six miles along both sides of the lower Ouachita River.
NOTE: The land, which remains the property of Calion Lumber Company, is not open for public use. Field trips may be arranged from time to time. Contact TNC at (501) 614-5088.
Why TNC Selected This Site
The preserve provides habitat for deer, turkey, black bear and many other animals. Its location along the Ouachita River helps maintain water quality for mussels and fish, like the Ouachita rock pocketbook and snail-eating stargazing darter, and for people, too.
What TNC Has Done/Is Doing
TNC, working with Calion Lumber Company, has developed a conservation forestry management plan that focuses on the sustainable harvest of timber on 1,900 acres of the property. The remaining 1,000 acres will be left to grow to the large sizes recorded historically.
Plants
- Bald cypress
- Tupelo gum
- Overcup oak
- Water oak
Animals
- Black bear
- Otter
- Mink
- Bald eagle
- Prothonotary warbler
- Downy woodpecker
