Community Tree grant aims to reforest riparian areas to protect Brewer Lake and reduce treatment costs

The Conway Tree Board heard a presentation from the Arkansas Forest and Drinking Water Collaborative about a three-year Community Tree grant to establish locally sourced, potted riparian trees for drinking-water watersheds including Brewer Lake.

Environmental consultant Joy Wasson, who represents the collaborative, said the project will produce locally potted trees, offer technical and limited financial assistance for site preparation and irrigation, and build a "riparian tree bank" so landowners in qualifying watersheds can receive trees cost-free. "This is a 3 year project," Wasson said, and the collaborative plans to grow what she described as a modest number of trees (Wasson later stated a broader target of 5,000–7,000 across sites).

Wasson explained the rationale: riparian buffers reduce erosion and sediment that drive rising water-treatment costs. She described examples where streams feeding drinking-water intakes have required expensive treatment upgrades in order to remove sediment and organics. The collaborative has partnered with Central Arkansas Water, Beaver Water District, the University of Arkansas and the state forestry division, Wasson said, and has potted about "3,300 seedlings across the three sites" in the first 12 months of the grant effort.

Steven Hogan, a water systems engineer who spoke about Conway Corp's local water-supply context, said most of Conway’s water is supplied from Brewer Lake and noted the system’s capacity: "we get about there's about 19,000,000 gallons a day of water that can come out of that lake, safely." Hogan described recurring seasonal taste-and-odor issues driven by stratification and nutrient inputs and said Conway has added treatment, including powdered activated carbon, and is developing a watershed management plan with consultant Black & Veatch to prioritize best-management practices such as riparian plantings.

Board members asked about selection of landowners and monitoring. Wasson said priority sites are identified using watershed models, partner networks (for example the Beaver Watershed Alliance in northwest Arkansas), NRCS contacts and local extension offices; she described follow-up inspections that typically occur within about "3 to 6 months" after planting and stressed that the first droughty summer is critical to survival. To address irrigation challenges on remote properties, the collaborative is working with University of Arkansas engineering students to prototype mobile, solar-powered irrigation units the collaborative can move between sites.

The presentation closed with a call for local landowners and volunteers. Wasson pointed people to the collaborative website (arforestsandwater.com) and the Conway-specific landing page and landowner interest form. The board and presenters said the collaborative will use public meetings, partner networks and direct outreach to recruit landowners and match limited irrigation and contracting support to high-impact sites.

Next steps: the collaborative will continue outreach in the Brewer Lake watershed and coordinate with Conway Corp on prioritizing parcels identified in the watershed-management model; the collaborative also expects to scale volunteer potting and to pilot the irrigation units during the coming planting season.