Friends of Felsenthal
I recently had the opportunity to spend the day on the Ouachita River with Mr. Ronnie Greer, President of Friends of Felsenthal. The group was started in 1987 and has a membership base of around 100 people. They are a non-profit organization with 501c status. This cause is a true family affair for the Greer’s as Ronnie’s wife, Janice, is the Secretary for this group based in Felsenthal, Arkansas.
Friends of Felsenthal secured funding to construct a public fishing pier that cost in the neighborhood of $180,000; there will be a public dedication ceremony in mid-October of this year. They also maintain approximately 120 miles of ATV trails on the refuge that allows the public to see the refuge either by ATV or hiking.
Through an educational grant from the United States Fish & Game Commission, students at Crossett High School cleared a walking trail on the refuge as well as installing signs that specify the native trees and plants along its path.
Last month, the Arkansas Game & Fish Department released approximately 10,000 fingerling large mouth bass into the waters within the Refuge. The fingerlings were released in areas that would promote their survival by offering cover for them to have the best possible chance of survival.
The group also participated in the National Friends conference in our nation’s capitol this year, along with representatives from about 500 Friends groups in attendance. This was the fourth consecutive year the group has sent representatives to Washington, D.C. for the event. During this conference, Friends of Black Bayou, a local Monroe group, were named the Friends group of the year. Also, one full day was dedicated to lobbying their local representatives to push for better funding for the United States Federal Refuge systems.
Mr. Greer also is very active in working with the Arkansas Game & Fish Department; he assisted the state agency in re-populating Felsenthal Refuge with black bears from the White River Refuge. Over a five-year period they moved fifty-five female black bears with cubs to the Refuge by constructing man-made dens. The black bears were fitted with radio collars so they could be easily tracked and approximately twenty of them have remained on the Refuge, with the remainder traveling beyond the boundaries into natural habitat. Mr. Greer explained that when moving black bears, they move only females with cubs to promote the possibility of the bears taking up residence in their new surroundings. If they did not have the cub, they would immediately attempt to return to the place they were captured.
The group has also been very vocal in opposition to the proposed El Dorado Pipeline Project currently being considered by the Arkansas Department of Environmental Quality. Friends of Felsenthal has teamed up with Save the Ouachita, Inc. in the efforts to stop this project which will dump 20 million gallons of effluent (untreated) discharge directly into the Ouachita River via a nine-mile pipeline. In recent developments on the pipeline, the Arkansas Department of Environmental Quality has requested additional testing and modeling for the pipeline that will delay this project for at the least one year
© Keith Skinner - 2005 - All Rights Reserved - Originally Published in Louisiana Road Trips Magazine