How To

Arkansas Youths Build Fields of Dreams
by Tom Edwards, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service

The importance of winter-flooded rice fields to migrating and wintering waterfowl is common knowledge to many Arkansans. During fall 2000, the State's farmers harvested about 1.5 million acres of rice—half the rice grown in the United States. Proper management of these harvested fields is the centerpiece of waterfowl management on private lands. Natural wetlands and managed rice fields in eastern Arkansas are one of the most important wintering areas for mallards in North America.

Managing Rice for Ducks is a conservation education program in which Arkansas youths work with cooperating rice farmers, county extension agents, and wildlife biologists to provide habitat for waterfowl and other wetland-dependent wildlife. Youths ages 9 to 19 are eligible to participate in the program. They are asked to work with one or more farmers to develop a management plan and assist them with maintenance activities, such as keeping levees in good repair and managing water levels. They must also keep a log book of field management practices and may be requested to make presentations at local civic meetings and media events regarding their program activities and accomplishments.

During winter 2000-2001, over 9,000 acres of rice were enrolled by 34 Managing Rice for Ducks participants in 10 Arkansas counties. Since the program began in 1995, nearly 50,000 acres have been managed to benefit wintering waterfowl. Two important aspects of harvested rice-field management promoted by this program are "rolling" rice stubble and shallow flooding of fields through late winter. When residual rice stubble is rolled, rather than burned or disked, nutrients are added to the soil. Flooded, these fields provide waste rice and weed seeds to wintering ducks and geese, and the remaining straw supports protein-rich aquatic invertebrates needed by waterfowl during late winter. Also, with winter flooding, soil erosion and compaction is reduced.

Program youth may work individually or as a team. Those who have been judged to have the best projects at the county level become eligible to enter a statewide competition. Annual awards are given to the top three individual and team projects. Past award winners have received wildlife art prints, shotguns, and savings bonds, and the top two senior-division individuals win a tour sponsored by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service of the waterfowl nesting grounds in North Dakota. The highlight of this tour is a visit to J. Clark Salyer National Wildlife Refuge, where the youngsters have an opportunity to spend a day assisting refuge staff with duck banding. They also visit several waterfowl habitat development projects within the Prairie Pothole Region.

When habitat components come together, it is simply a matter of "If you flood it, they will come." Through sound agriculture and resource management, the Managing Rice for Ducks program is helping to provide "fields of dreams" to waterfowl that winter in the rice-growing regions of Arkansas.

For more information, contact Tom Edwards, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, Wildlife and Habitat Management Office, 110 Industrial Street, Hazen, Arkansas 72064, (870) 255-3812, tom_edwards@fws.gov.

Managing Rice for Ducks Partners

Arkansas Game and Fish Commission
Arkansas Game and Fish Foundation
Ducks Unlimited, Inc.
University of Arkansas Cooperative Extension Service
U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service