LIVING classroom

UCA trail used by public, students throughout state

By Sara Greene

LITTLE ROCK — While screaming athletic teams

participated nearby at the University

of Central Arkansas, biology professor

David Dussourd knelt by a goldenrod

plant at the edge of the Jewel Moore

Nature Reserve to carefully wrangle a

bee into plastic specimen bottle.

"It's not a bee; it's a fly that looks

like a bee as a way to trick predators,"

Dussourd said.

Dussourd has been teaching biology

at UCA for 17 years. He said each year

more than 3,000 students enrolled in

biology courses, as well as classes such as

art and ROTC, use the 19-acre reserve.

On Sunday, Nov. 23, and Monday,

Nov. 24, high school students from

across the state will use the reserve for

the annual Evirothon. It is a contest

to challenge students in five natural

resource areas: soils, aquatics, forestry,

wildlife and a current environmen

tal issue, like wetlands management,

groundwater, fire, or pesticides.

UCA encourages the public, as well

as students, to visit the nearly two milesof trails in the nature reserve. The trails are wide and covered in a fine gravel, which provides a cleaner walking surface, even on damp days. Along the trail is a series of benches and permanent signs describing the organisms and ecosystems walkers, joggers and bikers will see along the way.

When traveling north on Farris Road along the western boundary of the campus, the casual observer may see woods and overgrown grass. That "grass" is five acres of Conway prairie, which means that is what the land around Conwaylooked like for 200 years before farmers made it into pastures and homestead.

"Prairies are disappearing over much of the U.S., so five acres of prairie is nice to have. Once a year we burn this to suppress the trees. Burning encourages the growth of herbs and wildflowers, while mowing encourages the growth of grasses," Dussourd said.

He said the prairie is most beautiful in the spring when all the wildflowers are in bloom, but even on a windy October day, narrow leafed sunflowers provide a splash of fall color on the prairie.

Animal trails through the prairie are calling cards of some of the residents of the reserve including gray and red foxes, beavers, squirrels, birds and deer.

The reserve has several entrances. One is by the Health, Physical Education and Recreation Center parking lot, just off Farris Road. This entrance, marked by a wooden sign on rock columns, has a handicapped-accessible concrete trail that leads into the reserve to a circle of benches.

Dussourd said parking at this entrance is often hard to come by so people can either park at the end of the gravel parking lot behind the UCA physical plant or by the Farris Softball Fields, which are located off Donaghey Avenue. Near each entrance are boxes that hold maps of the reserve and the trails.

"Many of the trails were designed by students," Dussourd said.

A local Boy Scout troop is working on putting up a hanging sign on cedar posts at entrance by the paved parking lot. This entrance also has a small wooden bridge, which spans an unnamed creek that flows through the reserve.

Residents may not know that if they receive a parking ticket from the UCA Police Department while using the trail, the ticket can be taken to the UCA Police Department and voided.

Dussourd said he is an advocate for keeping the reserve as is and not using it for infrastructure use such as parking lots.

"There are students who walk and bike to school through the reserve," Dussourd said.

He said the trail system isn't finished yet, and there are still problems facing the reserve, most notably, invasive species such as fire ants, Chinese privet and honeysuckle.

"People plant Chinese privet around their home and it is great for landscaping, but in the woods, it just chokes out everything else," Dussourd said.

The area where the nature reserve is was once a 50-acre farm that provided milk, eggs, pork, vegetables and fruit for students back when UCA was the Normal School, which was founded in 1907.

In 1977, professor Jewel Moore began using the wooded area as an outdoor classroom for environmental and biological classes. In 1980 at the request of the biology department, the UCA Board of Trustees led by then-UCA president Jeff Farris set aside an eightacre tract of land. In 2004, the board expanded the nature reserve to 19 acres.

"It is a beautiful example of collaboration between faculty, students and the administration," Dussourd said.

It is one of many trails in Conway. Last year voters approved two bond issues worth $14.1 million for parks and recreation. While most of the money is marked for ballparks, about $1.5 million is being used to double a 1.7-mile paved trail, which starts on Salem Road and ends at the back parking lot of the Walmart Supercenter on Dave Ward Drive. The trail also has a branch that connects to Reedy Road.

Brian Knopp, director of the Conway Parks and Recreation Department, said more trails are planned for the city,including one along Stone Dam Creek and a four-mile trail along Tucker Creek, which runs through Gatling Park, and 18.5 acres that the city will one day develop into Pompe Park.

For more information about guided tours of the nature reserve, call the UCA Department of Biology at (501) 450-3146.

River Valley Ozark, Pages 66, 67 on 11/06/2008