A seasonal wetland associated with tallgrass prairie habitat the area offers exceptional birding opportunities. The Woosley Wet Prairie Sanctuary was established by the City of Fayetteville as part of wetland compensatory mitigation requirements under Section 404 Permit 14207 by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Little Rock District. The 44-acre mitigation site was constructed to offset the permane
nt alteration of 9.88 acres of wetlands from construction of the City’s Wastewater Systems Improvement Project. Hydrological modifications were made by construction of earthen berms to create a mix of habitats such as wet meadow wetlands, marsh and open water habitat, and forested wetlands. Design work was a joint effort of ecologists from Environmental Consulting Operations, Inc., and engineers from McGoodwin, Williams, and Yates Consulting Engineers, Inc.. The site, originally a tall grass wet prairie, still has intact upland prairie mounds that appear to have never been subjected to plowing, and depressional areas between mounds where water seasonally ponds forming wetlands. Such prairie mounds and wet prairie depressions were common in the area prior to the western expansion by settlers in the early to mid 1800’s. Recognizing that this is a very rare and endangered natural resource in northwest Arkansas, the designers developed a wetland mitigation strategy with the objective of restoring the natural prairie ecosystem that once existed on the site. Plant ecologists universally agree that today, prairie is the rarest and most fragmented of North American ecosystems, and the one most in danger of being lost completely. Tall grass prairies once extended from Manitoba to the Texas Coast and eastward into Indiana. Today, only 2,000 acres (only one percent) of the original two million acres of tall grass prairie in this region of the country are as yet unplowed. Decades of crop farming, cattle grazing, mowing for hay, fire suppression, introduction of non-native plant species, and drainage ditches have contributed to the pre-restoration degraded condition of the Woolsey Wet Prairie Sanctuary. Such land uses reduced native prairie grasses and allowed invasive plant species; including fescue, ryegrass, velvet grass, bromegrass, ragweed, Japanese honeysuckle, sumac, blackberry, sassafras, and persimmon; to overtake native plant species as community dominants. The Woolsey Wet Prairie Sanctuary is part of the original prairie of Prairie Township, Fayetteville, Arkansas that extended all the way to the Prairie Grove and Lincoln areas in Washington County. Conversion of an estimated 100,000 acres of prairie habitat to production of wheat in northwest Arkansas in the late 1800’s and early 1900’s was the beginning of the decimation of prairie habitat. The Woolsey Wet Prairie Sanctuary is named after, and was a part of, the original farm settled in 1830 by Samuel Gilbert Woolsey (1791-1858) and his wife, Matilda (1794-1871) only two years after Washington County was formed, and six years before Arkansas achieved statehood. Samuel Woolsey was born and raised on a Kentucky farm, and grew into manhood as a noted hunter and scout. In 1808, he lived for a period of time in Missouri, later marrying Matilda Thompson about 1810 in Illinois. After Samuel served in the War of 1812, he moved his family to Hempstead County, Arkansas in 1814, and later moved to the homestead on this property owned by the City of Fayetteville in 1830. Undoubtedly, the elk, bison, prairie chickens, passenger pigeon, ruffed grouse, and Carolina parakeet were commonplace in the frontier life known by the Woolsey family. The Woolsey’s participated with four other couples to form the Farmington Ebenezer Methodist Church in 1833. A building plot was offered by the Kinnibrugh couple and a small log building was erected with one door and a window, split log benches and one song book Mrs. Kinnibrugh brought from Virginia. The singing was read line by line and led by the song leader. A Circuit Rider came once each month for church services or for memorial services for those who died during the month. Being a War of 1812 veteran is most likely the reason the Woolsey’s came to northwest Arkansas. Veterans of the War of 1812 received quarter sections of prairie land in Arkansas as compensation for war duty. Together, Samuel and Matilda had thirteen children, some of who are buried at the Woolsey Cemetery located on this property with their parents. Restoration tools for “bringing back the prairie ecosystem of the past” include preservation of the microtopography (mounds and depressions), construction of earthen berms as hydrological controls to offset man-made drainage ditches and the original construction of Broyles Road, seeding of native vegetation, herbicides, and controlled burning to simulate pre-settlement natural environmental conditions. This is a step by step cause and effect process, called “adaptive management” whereby each tool is not employed until after reviewing the results of the previous tool(s). Drainage ditches reduced the original wet prairie acreage, and decades of fire suppression, introduction of non-native invasive plants, overgrazing, and over-haying created a severely degraded prairie remnant. Through the implementation of adaptive management since 2006 Woolsey Wet Prairie currently has over 427 species of plants that have been documented to occur at the site, 10 of which are considered species of concern by the Arkansas Natural Heritage Commission. Woolsey Wet Prairie also boasts a variety of state and county birding records and is truly a one of a kind unique habitat for a plethora of plant and wildlife species.
