Background

Federal funds are available to Arkansas through State Wildlife Grants to monitor, research and protect the needs of wildlife not addressed by funding available for game species or endangered species. To be eligible for these funds, Arkansas developed a comprehensive strategy to effectively allocate the money.

The strategy was authored by teams of wildlife professionals representing public agencies and private organizations. The Arkansas Wildlife Action Plan was approved by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service on January 17,2007.

The Arkansas Wildlife Action plan implements the priorities determined by a database of scientific knowledge of wildlife. A total of 369 species of greatest conservation need are addressed in the context of 45 terrestrial habitats and 18 aquatic habitats in 7 ecoregions in Arkansas.

Citation: Anderson, J.E. (Ed) 2006. Arkansas Wildlife Action Plan. Arkansas Game and Fish Commission, Little Rock, Arkansas. 2028 pp.

Arkansas Wildlife Action Plan

Introduction

• Letter from the Director
• Acknowledgments
• The Arkansas Game and Fish Commission
• Major CWCS partners
• Table of Contents
• Road map to the eight elements
  

I. Wildlife Action Plan

• Guiding principles
• Implementing Arkansas’ CWCS
• A Strategic Approach

1. Assemble information
2. Generate implementation priorities
3. Develop ten-year draft implementation schedule
4. Science Teams prioritize implementation needs
5. Steering Committee recommends Annual Action items
6. Preproposals requested to meet Annual Action Items
7. Implementation Team selects projects for funding
8. Monitoring and Performance Measures
9. Monitoring methodologies

II. Species of Greatest Conservation Need

• Identification and prioritization
• How the SGCN list was created
• Criteria for inclusion on the SGCN list
• Taxa Association Team contribution and review
• Revising the SGCN list
• Developing the species priority score protocol
• SGCN ranking by Species Priority Score (in taxa associations)
  
  
• Distribution
  • Element occurrence
  • Ecoregions where the species occurs
  • Habitats where the species occurs
  • Terrestrial
  • Aquatic
    
    
• Expert Assessments
  • Problems faced
  • Research needs
  • Conservation actions called for
  • Monitoring strategy
  • Comments and citations
    
    
• Species Reports
  • Amphibians (§1 | §2)
  • Bird (§1 | §2 | §3 | §4 | §5 | §6)
  • Crayfish (§1)
  • Fish (§1 | §2)
  • Insects (§1 | §2 | §3)
  • Invertebrates - other (§1)
  • Mammals (§1 | §2)
  • Mussels (§1 | §2 | §3)
  • Reptiles (§1)
    
    

III. The Ecoregions of Arkansas

• Conservation priority
  
  
• Ozark Highlands Ecoregion
  • Species of greatest conservation need
  • Habitats that occur in the Ozark Highlands
  • Problems faced by SGCN
  • What sort of conservation actions are called for
    
• Boston Mountain Ecoregion:
  • Species of greatest conservation need
  • Habitats that occur in the Boston Mountains
  • Problems faced by SGCN
  • What sort of conservation actions are called for
    
• Arkansas Valley Ecoregion:
  • Species of greatest conservation need
  • Habitats that occur in the Arkansas Valley
  • Problems faced by SGCN
  • What sort of conservation actions are called for
    
• Ouachita Mountains Ecoregion:
  • Species of greatest conservation need
  • Habitats that occur in the Ouachita Mountains
  • Problems faced by SGCN
  • What sort of conservation actions are called for
    
• South Central Plains Ecoregion:
  • Species of greatest conservation need
  • Habitats that occur in the South Central Plains
  • Problems faced by SGCN
  • What sort of conservation actions are called for
    
• Mississippi Alluvial Plain Ecoregion:
  • Species of greatest conservation need
  • Habitats that occur in the Mississippi Alluvial Plain
  • Problems faced by SGCN
  • What sort of conservation actions are called for
    
• Mississippi Valley Loess Plains:
  • Species of greatest conservation need
  • Habitats that occur in the Mississippi Valley Loess Plains
  • Problems faced by SGCN
  • What sort of conservation actions are called for
    
    

IV. Terrestrial Habitats

• Definition
• Ranking
• Components of Reports
  • Key factors
  • Indicators of condition
  • Conservation actions
  • Monitoring
• Terrestrial habitat reports (§1 | §2 | §3 | §4 | §5)
  • Arkansas Valley Prairie and Woodland
  • Caves, Mines and Karst Habitat
  • Central Interior Acidic Cliff and Talus
  • Central Interior Calcareous Cliff and Talus
  • Central Interior Highlands and Appalachian Sinkhole
    and Depression Pond
  • Central Interior Highlands Calcareous Glade and Barrens
  • Central Interior Highlands Dry Acidic Glade and Barrens
  • Crop Land
  • Cultivated Forest
  • Lower Mississippi Alluvial Plain Grand Prairie
  • Lower Mississippi Flatwoods Woodland and Forest
  • Lower Mississippi River Bottomland Depression
  • Lower Mississippi River Dune Woodland and Forest
  • Lower Mississippi River High Bottomland Forest
  • Lower Mississippi River Low Bottomland Forest
  • Lower Mississippi River Riparian Forest
  • Mississippi River Alluvial Plain Loess Slope Forest
  • Mud Flats
  • Ouachita Montane Oak Forest
  • Ouachita Mountain Forested Seep
  • Ouachita Novaculite Glade and Woodland
  • Ozark-Ouachita Dry Oak Woodland
  • Ozark-Ouachita Dry-Mesic Oak Forest
  • Ozark-Ouachita Mesic Hardwood Forest
  • Ozark-Ouachita Pine/Bluestem Woodland
  • Ozark-Ouachita Pine-Oak Forest
  • Ozark-Ouachita Pine-Oak Woodland
  • Ozark-Ouachita Riparian
  • Pasture Land
  • Ponds, Lakes, and Water Holes
  • South-Central Interior Large Floodplain
  • Southeastern Great Plains Tallgrass Prairie
  • Urban/Suburban
  • West Gulf Coastal Plain Calcareous Prairie
  • West Gulf Coastal Plain Dry Pine-Hardwood Flatwoods
  • West Gulf Coastal Plain Large River Floodplain Forest
  • West Gulf Coastal Plain Mesic Hardwood Forest
  • West Gulf Coastal Plain Nepheline Syenite Glade
  • West Gulf Coastal Plain Pine-Hardwood Forest
  • West Gulf Coastal Plain Red River Floodplain Forest
  • West Gulf Coastal Plain Saline Glade
  • West Gulf Coastal Plain Sandhill Oak and Shortleaf
  • Pine Forest and Woodland
  • West Gulf Coastal Plain Seepage Swamp and Baygall
  • West Gulf Coastal Plain Small Stream/River Forest
  • West Gulf Coastal Plain Wet Hardwood Flatwoods
    

V. Aquatic Habitats

• Definition
• Ranking
• Ecobasins
  • Arkansas Valley - Arkansas River
  • Arkansas Valley - White River
  • Boston Mountains - Arkansas River
  • Boston Mountains - White River
  • Mississippi Alluvial Plain - Arkansas River
  • Mississippi Alluvial Plain - St. Francis River
  • Mississippi Alluvial Plain - White River
  • Mississippi Alluvial Plain (Bayou Bartholomew) - Ouachita River
  • Mississippi Alluvial Plain (Lake Chicot) - Mississippi River
  • Mississippi River Loess Plains - St. Francis River
  • Mississippi River Loess Plains - White River
  • Ouachita Mountains - Arkansas River
  • Ouachita Mountains - Ouachita River
  • Ouachita Mountains - Red River
  • Ozark Highlands - Arkansas River
  • Ozark Highlands - White River
  • South Central Plains - Ouachita River
  • South Central Plains - Red River
    
    
• Aquatic habitat health
  
  
• Indicators of aquatic condition
  • Dams in ecobasins
  • Roads in ecobasins
  • Roads within riparian zones
  • Road crossings in ecobasins
  • Forested areas in ecobasins
  • Forested areas within riparian zones
    
    
• Monitoring
  
  

VI. Informing and engaging the public

• Public involvement
  
• News releases -xx
  • Lincoln speaks in favor of conservation funding
  • Lincoln champions state wildlife grant funding
  • Congress gives boost to state's wildlife programs
  • Arkansas' congressional leaders take a stand for state's wildlife
  • SWG brochure (early version)
  • SWG website (early version)
    
• Reaching out to the scientific community-xx
  
• Reaching out to the public -xx
  
• Public opinion survey summary-xx
  
• Informing and engaging -xx
  • Methods
  • CWCS informational brochure
  • Letter to leaders of organizations
  • Informational mailing to landowners
  • Invitation to stakeholder meeting
  • Native American correspondence
    
    

VII. Support Documents

Appendices

• Appendix 1.1 Acronyms
• Appendix 1.2 Existing monitoring efforts
• Appendix 1.3 CWCS-generated list of monitoring needs
• Appendix 1.4 CWCS-generated list of Conservation Actions
• Appendix 1.5 CWCS-generated list of Monitoring Actions
• Appendix 1.6 CWCS-generated list of Data Gaps
• Appendix 1.8 Top 10 Lists of Monitoring Actions
• Appendix 1.9 Top Ten Lists of Data Gaps
• Appendix 1.10 Hot List of Mammal projects
• Appendix 1.11 Steering Committee prioritization
• Appendix 2.1. SGCN list
• Appendix 2.2 Potential Habitat: GIS Methodology
• Appendix 3.1. Ozarks Ecoregional Assessment
• Appendix 3.2. Ouachita Mountains Ecoregional Assessment
• Appendix 3.3. Gulf Coastal Plain Ecoregional Assessment
• Appendix 5.1 Aquatic health and ecobasin condition: GIS Methodology
• Appendix 6.1. Presentation (early version)
• Appendix 6.2. Public opinion survey
• Appendix 6.3. Stakeholder meeting presentation
• References and literature cited

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