Earth Day at White River National Wildlife Refuge

April 21, 2007

Happy Earth Day! Remember save water. If it is yellow, let it mellow and if it is brown, flush it down.

After rising we made coffee and readied the Roadtrek for departure. Will got our hard boiled egg ready and what did he find? A double yoke! Jen and Troy, we thought of you having double yokes for deviled eggs. Fishermen came and put out to the river, birds chirped we were soon ready to go. US165 goes through rural lands of waves of amber wheat fields, rice paddies and open land. Small homes are scattered about, a few southern plantation homes with tall pillars and towns with churches and trailer homes. Large grain elevators spot the countryside. There are some neat little towns along the way too. We used the wifi in DeWitt (Justin IMed us and we got to chat a bit; hi was at the airport in San Diego), drove around the town square twice past the general hardware store, twirling studio and domino club. The town even has it’s own caboose. We continued north on AR1, the Great River Road.

White River Wildlife Refuge at 160,000 acres is one of the largest remaining bottomland hardwood forests in the Mississippi River valley. It was established in 1935 to protect the migrating mallards; in December they have as many as 350,000 birds wintering here.

Any time we spend time in Arkansas we get a tee shirt. The Earth Day activities were still going on when we arrived. Two tents housed tables of food and litter control items. We were greeted by Ranger Connor who had us register, pick up our tee shirts and trash bag, get lunch and invited us to explore the 4-year old visitor center and watch his water pollution program. Kathy picked a bright pink shirt and Will took a white one. We had great big hotdog sausage sandwiches and chips for lunch and took home a dish of fresh roasted pork for dinner. Thank you White River Wildlife Refuge.

We went out on the auto tour drive, a packed gravel road through the hardwood forest. Will stopped the van and backed up, jumped out of the van with his black garbage bag and went off to the edge of the trees and picked up two cans! When Kathy remarked that he had good eyes, Will replied, “I learned from the best. Floyd at LBJ Texas Parks.” The cypress tree roots are big; the trees standing in the water where they flood the ground in the winters. We found more trash along the way and would stop to pick it up. Will would even get a stick and go fetch for trash. The flies are really big horse flies! We kept our eyes open for an Ivory Billed Woodpecker, the largest one of its kind; to document the sighting is worth $10,000!

After discussing the exhibit of birds in the visitor center we have decided that some of those red birds we saw at the state fishing ramp yesterday were Summer tanagers. They are brighter red than a cardinal and have no crest. We saw a few on our drive. We saw bugs, heard birds and picked up trash. Delivered the trash back to the visitor center and continued north on AR1.

Louisiana Purchase State Park was just a few miles off the route so we pulled off. We walked the boardwalk reading exhibit signs and learned that it was here in this swamp that surveyors began their surveying for the states west of the Mississippi. The surveyors in 1921 discovered “witness trees” to the original survey of 1815 and put up a granite stone to mark this historic event. The swamp is unique as it is at the head waters so the area is always wet, unlike most swamps that dry out and are flooded during certain seasons. The cypress trees stand tall with knees sticking up around the stately trees. Tapula trees also stand here in the swamp; they don’t have knees and have leaves, not needles. We got back to the Roadtrek and were enjoying a dish of ice cream when Kathy noted that the back tire was just about flat. We were without an air compressor, without a proper wrench and so we called TripleA. It took about an hour for them to figure out where were, but they did and sent someone out. A pick-up with two gentlemen arrived. They had a few jacks and an large air compressor. They had us back up and running in no time. We drove about sixty miles to Forest City where we parked at the Waldorf for the night. We watched Where’s Bob…Kathy went to sleep before it was over, but Will finished watching then worked on a little Fate.