Little Rock Garden Club Restoring Native Prairie Plants and Pollinator Species with Two GCA Grants.

Two GCA Grants Foster Civic Involvement

November 13, 2024

By: Jenne Williams

Sometimes one excellent project will inspire and lead to another.  This is the case of Little Rock Garden Club’s (LRGC) project, known as The Covey, which starting in 2018, was funded over three years with a $6,000 GCA Partners4Plants (P4P) grant.  Building on the success of the Covey, in 2022, LRGC received a $10,000 GCA Common Ground Collaborative (CGC) grant to restore yet another piece of land at Gillam Park on the Audubon Delta property. 

The Covey transformed a former sod farm into a prairie habitat.  LRGC members collaborated with six non-profits and state agencies: Arkansas Game & Fish Commission, Arkansas Natural Heritage Commission, Audubon Delta, Central Arkansas Water, Quail Forever, and The Nature Conservancy.   LRGC members, alongside their partners, collected seeds from local sources and planted them on the property after prescribed burns cleared out invasive plants. The team successfully seeded 90 percent of the project site with native plants. 

This planting of native prairie plants and pollinator species on 12 acres near central Arkansas’s largest water-supply reservoir benefits Northern Bobwhite Quail, Monarch butterflies, pollinators, and other indigenous wildlife species.  The restoration also ensures protection of the state’s water quality by enhancing filtration of the landscape.  

Continuing The Covey project’s mission, LRGC partnered with ACCESS Life, a program for adults with disabilities, to transform seven acres of rare oak savannah located in the heart of Little Rock. The CGC grant, along with funds from LRGC, will help build an outdoor classroom aimed to benefit inner city children.

The GCA’s P4P grants facilitate hands-on projects between GCA clubs and public land managers.  CGC grants aim to support member clubs to build long-term relationships with diverse communities while developing, improving, and maintaining public land and programs. 

GCA’s P4P and CGC grants in Little Rock are great examples highlighting community involvement in conservation efforts and the importance of partnerships to achieve conservation goals.