ST.
CHARLES - White River National Wildlife Refuge will host its third
annual Wildlife Festival on Saturday, Oct. 8, at the refuge visitor's
center located off Arkansas Highway 1 about a quarter mile south of St.
Charles.
Events include wildlife programs and seminars, White River boat tours,
morning guided walks and activities for children. The festival will also
provide an opportunity for viewing newly installed exhibits in the
center.
Festival hours will be 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. There is no charge for the
activities, including the boat tours, will be free. The non-profit
Friends of the White River National Wildlife Refuge will sell
refreshments with proceeds to benefit the group’s activities.
Among
the wildlife programs will be a presentation on the Ivory-billed
Woodpecker, a bird long believed extinct until rediscovered in 2004
living in the Big Woods region of Eastern Arkansas; the Little Rock
Zoo’s birds of prey program; and a nature photography workshop.
Activities for children will include birdhouse and birdfeeder
construction, T-shirt printing using animal stamps, button making and
face painting. Round-trip shuttles will operate from the center to the
boat-tour launch site. Tours will depart hourly from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m.
Established in 1935, the refuge is the largest of the 10 federal
wildlife refuges located in Arkansas, covering some 160,000 acres along
the lower 90 miles of the White. For more festival information, phone
(870) 282-8238. Additional refuge information is available online at
http://whiteriver.fws.gov. |