Scouts work to enhance wildlife areas

Eagle Scout projects in central Arkansas have helped not only the prospective scout attain his chief goal in the Boy Scouts of America, they’ve enhanced some Arkansas Game and Fish Commission’s wildlife management areas.

Last year, Clark McCarley Jr. planned and built an information kiosk that will serve the users of Cypress Bayou wildlife management area, near U.S. Highway 67-167 between Ward and Beebe. Game and Fish covered the cost of construction materials, according to Matthew Warriner, Game and Fish wildlife management assistant chief.

“This is a great addition for people, such as duck hunters, who will come to Cypress Bayou, which recently saw a large expansion to benefit waterfowl hunters,” Warriner said.

McCarley, a senior this year at Little Rock Catholic High School, said, “I had always wanted to do something that had to do with conservation. At first I wanted to do something like wood duck boxes, but the person I talked to said they really needed a map kiosk, so that’s how I got it. I had about 13 people helping me. We got it done in about two days.”

McCarley completed the project last October in time for the first waterfowl season in Cypress Bayou for public hunting as a wildlife management area. McCarley is a member of Scout Troop 395, based at St. James United Methodist Church in west Little Rock.

Johnny Waldrup, Game and Fish biologist supervisor over the region that includes Cypress Bayou, said he met with McCarley and the other helpers.

“I thought it was great. It’s a great addition to the area,” Waldrup said. ‘It’s providing a public service project for that scout that in turn we can use as an information board for the users of the tract.”

Henry Gray Hurricane Lake Wildlife Management Area, near U.S. 67 close to Bald Knob, also has benefited in recent years from Eagle Scout efforts, said Josh Green, a Game and Fish conservation program technician based out of Brinkley. Green 26 wood duck boxes, a kiosk to hold area maps, three bat boxes and campsite maintenance work had been completed in the past three years.

Each of the five Eagle Scout projects on Henry Gray Hurricane Lake tract has benefited wildlife and the public users, Green said.