There are very few streams in the Arkansas Ozarks that paddlers can float year round. The Illinois River is a notable exception. This is because the Illinois River is fed by countless springs. Millions of gallons of fresh spring water provides the baseflow needed to keep the river floatable all year, and supports our excellent smallmouth bass fisheries. These cold spring runs and the vegetation that grows in them are also critical habitat to many state species of greatest conservation need, such as the Arkansas Darter and Least Darter. We often determine how healthy a water source is for human consumption by the kinds of aquatic species we find in that water. Some species can survive in mucky, polluted water, while others cannot. If we find too few of the species that, like us, prefer clean water, it means that we humans will likely have a problem with our drinking water.

These landowners chose to protect the spring run on their property by planting an acre of native trees and grasses along its banks. A combination of seed, plugs, and ball & burlap trees were used on this project. The grasses filter sediment and other pollutants out of stormwater runoff, shade and cool the narrow stream, and create the kinds of habitats that clean-water loving creatures (like us) need to survive.

Participating in IRWP’s Riparian Restoration Program helped the landowners purchase and install several thousand native grass plugs along this spring run. Look at how quickly those switchgrass plugs took off!

To learn more about the program, check out our website: www.irwp.org/rrp