| Teenage Stream Team rescues Parker Branch |
 FAYETTEVILLE
- Parker Branch won’t make it into Field and Stream or Outdoor Life as a
fishing hotspot. It’s just a little tributary creek in Washington
County.But it’s a much cleaner, healthier stream now through the work, innovation and campaigning of four young girls. Madeleine Hogue, Millie Hogue, Isabella Isaksen and Margaux Isaksen took on the troubles of Parker Branch, a stream southeast of Fayetteville and east of West Fork. It’s a tributary of the Middle Fork of the White River - little known outside the immediate area. The girls learned about Arkansas Stream Team, a program of the Arkansas Game and Fish Commission that enlists volunteers young, old and in between to help clean up and stabilize waters in all sections of the state. Stream Team is a statewide operation in the Fisheries Division of AGFC and is headed by Steve Filipek. The four girls also had guidance from AGFC’s David Evans of Harrison, the Stream Team coordinator for northwest Arkansas.  Parker
Branch’s troubles stemmed from the unpaved county road closely
paralleling it. Loose gravel from the road washed into the creek.
Grading and bush-hogging work on the road whacked trees, bushes and
other vegetation along the stream. And because that road was so close
and handy, trash of all sorts was illegally dumped.“We got our hands dirty and our feet wet,” said Margaux Isaksen. They picked up trash, hauled out discarded automobile tires from the creek. It started as a seemingly impossible task for four girls too young to drive on their own. Millie Hogue said, “We took 100-foot sections and made weekly observations.” They took water samples, and they wrote reports. Then they looked for help with the larger problem of the road and its maintenance. The four girls went to see Washington County Judge Jerry Hunton, and they called on the justice of the peace of the Parker Branch area, Butch Pond. The officials listened to them. “We formed a partnership with the county,” Millie Hogue said. Hunton and Pond looked at Parker Branch, followed what the girls were pointing out and assessed the problem. Hunton issued instructions to road crews working with graders and bush-hogs.  The
girls planted willows along the edge of the stream, an effective means
of stabilizing the banks as well as giving protection from debris from
the close-by county road. This was riparian restoration, the girls said,
a technical term not often heard from youngsters. They used material at hand and crafted a BFRB system. The initials, Millie Hogue explained, are for Big Fat Rock Barrier. The work and the result formed a learning project as well as a conservation and environmental achievement. All four of the girls are home-schooled. Madeleine Hogue said, “We learned about water testing, stream biology, public outreach, project writing, research and communication.” They attended Bug Kick Summer Camp and learned more about the world of streams. AGFC commissioner John Benjamin of Glenwood heard about the girls’ work on Parker Branch at a Stream Team conference and invited them to Little Rock to tell their story to all the Game and Fish Commission. Benjamin said, “These kids are our future and are where we are going.” Madeleine Hogue, Millie Hogue, Isabella Isaksen and Margaux Isaksen now have plans and goals beyond Parker Branch. Margaux Isaksen told the AGFC commissioners, “We want to help make an Adopt-A-County-Road program and to produce a how-to guide. We will speak to student groups and to civic clubs.” Parker Branch is in much better health now. Its cleaner water flows into the Middle Fork of the White then on downstream to Lake Sequoyah and on to the main White River and Beaver Lake. |
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