Electric Island trail dedicated
The Arkansas Game and Fish Commission and The Nature Conservancy of Arkansas on Friday dedicated the new Electric Island Nature Trail on Lake Hamilton.
“This place is sort of cool, isn’t it?” Scott Simon, The Nature Conservancy of Arkansas director, said to the crowd of about 50 people who ventured across Lake Hamilton to the island for the dedication ceremony.
The 118-acre island was donated to The Nature Conservancy by Entergy Arkansas Inc. in 1981. Simon said Entergy donated the land “because they really wanted to keep this part of the lake natural — maintain that natural character for all of the residents and the visitors and, obviously, this is a key part of that.”
Electric Island is located to the
west of Garvan Woodland Gardens. The western trailhead is eight-tenths of a mile from the Andrew H. Hulsey State Fish Hatchery boat ramp and can be reached by paddle boat or motorboat, according to The Nature Conservancy.
Simon noted that, on a typical summer day on Lake Hamilton, there will be 50 boats in the coves around the island. More than 5,000 people live on the lake, “so it gets a lot of use on the outside.”
The Arkansas Game and Fish Commission “very graciously” agreed to help The Nature Conservancy oversee and manage the property, he said.
The speakers at Friday’s event included Kirsten Bartlow, AGFC’s watchable wildlife coordinator, who has previously credited wildlife biologist Jake Whisenhunt with the idea of creating a nature trail on the island, where hunting and camping are not allowed.
Work-release inmates from the Arkansas Department of Correction’s Benton Unit used hand tools to clear the 2-mile natural surface hiking loop, which has two trailheads, signage and beaches were boats can tie up.