NWF Supports Sounds Science On White River - National Wildlife Federation - Brief Article

National Wildlife, Oct-Nov, 2002

Leaders from several state, federal and nongovernmental agencies recently gathered on the banks of the White River in Clarendon, Arkansas, to formally kick off an unprecedented $8.6 million study of the entire White River Basin.

"This study will give us a better understanding of how to protect and, where appropriate, restore the White River [Basin] and its bottomland hardwood forests," says Jeff Barger, an NWF aquatic habitats specialist. "The basin, covering approximately 28,000 square miles, includes some of the region's most important natural resources. The rivers are amazingly diverse and productive while the bottomland forests are some of the finest and last examples of the immense floodplain forest ecosystem that once grew throughout the Mississippi River Valley."

Several proposed water development projects threaten to change the hydrology of the White River Basin. The White River Comprehensive Study-a multiagency, multistate effort-aims to gather and compile biological, hydrological, social and economic data throughout the basin in order to give resource managers a tool to make well-informed regulatory decisions.

For more information, or to find out how to participate in the study, contact Jeff Barger at NWF's Gulf States Natural Resource Center, 44 East Ave., Austin, TX 78701; 512-476-9805; barger@nwf.org.