University of Arkansas Press Publishes Guide to the Big Woods of Arkansas

Tupelo-cypress swamp forest.

Green heron.

Green tree frog.

Paddling in the Big Woods on H-Lake. White River NWR. Courtesy of Dillon Blankenship.

View from the Bayou DeView Birding Trail with water tupelo submerged in Apple Lake. Dagmar WMA.

Photo Submitted

FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. – Exploring the Big Woods: A Guide to the Last Great Forest of the Arkansas Delta, by Matthew Moran (UA Press) is a natural history of an ecosystem that once stretched from southern Illinois to the Gulf Coast. It’s also a guide to help readers discover the land, plants and animals, as well as the hiking and canoeing opportunities of this unique and beautiful place.

The Big Woods is a corridor of bottomland hardwood forest along Arkansas’s lower White River, the largest block of forest remaining in the northern Mississippi Alluvial Plain.

When Matthew Moran, professor of biology at Hendrix College, first visited the Big Woods, it had been reduced to 5 percent of its former glory. A forest that once covered eight million acres in Arkansas had been drained and cleared for agriculture—rice, corn, soybeans, and cotton grown on some of the richest soil on Earth. Thanks to the foresight of concerned conservationists over the years, , Moran found, these few remnants were still like no other place in the mid-South.

The wildlife that inhabit the Big Woods include several endangered and declining species that still thrive there. The White River and its tributaries still meander relatively unimpeded through the heart of the Big Woods, periodically flooding the forest and releasing their supply of essential nutrients.

Exploring the Big Woods is a guide for those who want to visit this extraordinary piece of nature.

“From 2011 to 2013, I spent many days exploring and scouting the locations described in this book,” said Moran. “Over those years I came to realize how special the Big Woods is. The book is not exhaustive, but it tries to assist in your personal exploration of the Big Woods and begin your naturalist’s education about this great place. More people who are interested in nature need to visit the Big Woods. Perhaps in no other place in the mid South can you see wildlife at this level of abundance and experience a bottomland forest of this quality.”

About the University of Arkansas: The University of Arkansas provides an internationally competitive education for undergraduate and graduate students in more than 200 academic programs. The university contributes new knowledge, economic development, basic and applied research, and creative activity while also providing service to academic and professional disciplines. The Carnegie Foundation classifies the University of Arkansas among only 2 percent of universities in America that have the highest level of research activity. U.S. News & World Report ranks the University of Arkansas among its top American public research universities. Founded in 1871, the University of Arkansas comprises 10 colleges and schools and maintains a low student-to-faculty ratio that promotes personal attention and close mentoring.