Representative Berry with Senators Lincoln and Pryor Announce $288,930 For Land Acquisition

The grant will provide funding for targeted land acquisitions in Clay, Jackson and Monroe counties that are harboring populations of endangered red-cockaded woodpeckers and pondberry where they currently have no protection. The acquisitions will also protect the last remaining breeding group of the Mississippi Alluvial Plain population of the endangered red-cockaded woodpecker and provide it with the potential for population growth.

Additional habitat will be protected at the Pine City Headwater Swamp Conservation Area for potential reestablishment efforts. Acquisition of additional lands in Arkansas suitable to support stable populations of pondberry and/or to provide buffers to currently protected populations will be important to the recovery of this plant and will protect it from further loss of habitat. The grant will also provide a buffer to protect a large population of the plant at the Stateline Sand Ponds Natural Area.