Audubon’s NATIVE project is training farmers to grow native plants as an environmentally friendly, climate change-resistant specialty crop that provides both income and on-farm wildlife habitat. Income is from the sale of seed to meet the growing demand for locally sourced native warm season grasses, including Big Bluestem, Little Bluestem, Indiangrass, and Switchgrass, plus pollinator-friendly forbs, like Blazingstar, Coneflower, and Compassplant, needed to restore Arkansas's prairies.
Restoration of prairie ecosystems, once home to the Greater Prairie-Chicken, will help other declining grassland birds such as the Northern Bobwhite, Grasshopper Sparrow, and Dickcissel.
Audubon Arkansas's Flail-vac is up and running, sweeping up Little Bluestem seeds so that farm production plots can be made for Audubon's NATIVE Project.
Wildflower Plug Planting
Downloadable Resources
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Have Seed, Will Travel
This past growing season five farmers harvested four grass species and ten wildflower species, including Switchgrass, Little Bluestem, Slender Mountainmint, and Rattlesnake Master.
Wildflower Plugs Have Arrived!
Prairie wildflowers will soon be sown into production plots in the Arkansas River Valley.
USDA 2501 Grant
Audubon Arkansas awarded a USDA grant to put working lands to work for birds and people.
Conservation Innovation Grant
Audubon Arkansas was awarded a USDA Conservation Innovation Grant
NATIVE Project Presentation
Audubon’s Native Agriculture To InVigorate Ecosystems (NATIVE) project is training farmers to grow native plants as an environmentally friendly, climate change-resistant specialty crop that provides both income and on-farm wildlife habitat. Income is from the sale of seed to meet the growing demand for locally sourced native warm season grasses and pollinator-friendly forbs needed to restore Arkansas's prairies.
Arkansas Native Seed Program Presentation
The Arkansas Native Seed Program, a collaborative effort of several state, federal, and private conservation partners led by the Arkansas Natural Heritage Commission, is working to develop commercially available sources of local native plant materials for large-scale revegetation and restoration projects in Arkansas.
NATIVE Project
Working with local farmers to to promote native grasses and preserve ecosystems.
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