CAVE SPRINGS -- The sound of traffic on Arkansas 112 faded away and was replaced by rustling leaves and flowing water as Delia Haak followed a trail Friday at the Illinois River watershed sanctuary.
Haak, Illinois River Watershed Partnership's executive director, talked about native plants that grow in the 30-acre sanctuary in Cave Springs as she followed the trail. The property, for example, is one of the few places in the world Ozark trillium grows, she said.
A celebration marked the opening of the sanctuary to the public on Saturday.
People will be allowed to visit from dawn to dusk daily, Haak said. The property includes two walking trails, a cave with a flowing spring, waterfall and lake, along with educational and historical landmarks, Haak said. Haak said the property will be used to educate visitors about watersheds.
"This is a watershed sanctuary," Haak said. "It needs to be a model of how a watershed works."
Agriculture and livestock, along with urban settings, all play a part in watersheds, Haak said. She said that is why the sanctuary also will have small livestock farms and gardens in the future. She said they will be used to demonstrate how to properly work with soil and livestock to preserve watersheds.
"Agriculture, animals and nature can co-exist," Haak said. "We tend to think it is either/or."
The Illinois River Watershed Partnership purchased the land in 2012 for $880,000, Haak said. She said the Walton Family Foundation provided a matching grant to cover half the cost.
Haak said the property is significant to the Illinois River Watershed. The property's Cave Springs Cave releases 2 million to 6 million gallons of water per day. The water flows into a lake which discharges water into Osage Creek, a tributary of the Illinois River.
Visitors to the sanctuary can hike a trail to the mouth of the cave where they can view the water cascading into a man-made system used to channel trout when the property was a hatchery in the 1950s.
The cave is closed to visitors to protect two species at risk of extinction, Haak said. The cave has the largest population of the Ozark Cavefish, a threatened species, Haak said. She said nearly 5,000 gray bats use the cave in the spring. The gray bat is an endangered species.
A large model of the opening of the cave can be found in the watershed learning center, Haak said. She said it provides children the opportunity to experience what it would be like to crawl through tunnels in the cave. The model is used to teach children about the bats and their migration.
The partnership also has held viewing parties of the bats flying out of the cave at dusk and plans to hold more in the future.
It has taken the partnership about two years to open the property to the public, Haak said. She said there were safety concerns that had to be addressed which included tearing down an old building on the site, along with clearing downed trees and constructing trails. Haak said there is more the organization plans to do on the site but they wanted to open it for public use as soon as possible. An outdoor classroom, urban farm, along with a green roof pavilion, are a few projects still in the works.
Building learning programs that can be tapped into through technology is another project planned, Roland Pinault, a member on the partnership board, said. Volunteers from Walmart, Motorola and Wachter came together recently to design a way to get wireless and cable Internet access to the site, Pinault said. He said the team was able to get all the material donated. There are now hotspots found throughout the property, he said. Pinault said the hotspots will allow visitors to connect with information. Phones can be used to log in to guided tours or to scan codes found along the trail. The hotspots also will help with presentations given in the outdoor classroom, he said. Information about protecting the watershed can be shared through the hotspots, as well as material about the wildlife and history of the property.
Water from the spring has been used by people in the region since at least the 1880s, Pinault said. A gristmill once stood at the site. It also was dammed for recreational use in the early 1900s; by the 1950s it was a trout hatchery. The city of Cave Springs received its water from the springs up until 1967.
"The same body of water has seen so many uses," Pinault said. "It has been used for industry, recreation and business and now is a sanctuary."
As Pinault and Haak prepared for the opening, a gentleman stopped by the site. Pat Robinson, the former pastor of Lake View Baptist Church where the Watershed Learning Center is now housed, introduced himself. He asked when the sanctuary would be opening to the public.
"I had wished for so many years that something would happen to this land," Robinson said. "I always wished someone would clean it up." The land sat vacant for many years, Robinson said. Before that, Robinson remembered fishing in the lake when it was still used as a fish hatchery.
On Saturday, the public was once again invited to fish in the lake. Fishing poles and kayaks were available for visitors to check out during the grand opening event from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. A chili lunch was also available, along with archery and an art exhibition.
For photos from the grand opening event, see Page 1B.
General News on 11/12/2014