CONWAY, Ark. (September 19, 2016) – Hendrix College biology professor Dr. Matthew D. Moran’s new book
Exploring the Big Woods:
A Guide to the Last Great Forest of the Arkansas Delta
was recently published by the University of Arkansas Press.
A natural history and a guide to one of the last remnants of Mississippi bottomland forest, an ecosystem that once stretched from southern Illinois to the Gulf Coast Exploring the Big Woods “will introduce readers to the natural features, plants, animals, and hiking and canoeing trails going deep into the
forests and swamps of this rare and beautiful natural resource.”
Moran first visited the Big Woods area in Arkansas in 2004, after hearing about it from fellow nature enthusiasts.
“I had heard that this was the last of the great Mississippi bottomland forests, once covering eight million acres in Arkansas alone, now reduced by 95 percent to a few remaining remnants, the rest ditched, drained, and cleared for agriculture where rice, corn,
soybeans, and cotton are grown today on what might be the richest soil on the planet,” Moran writes in the book’s introduction. “I was told that I had better see the Big Woods now, for event this tiny museum-piece survivor might not persist in the face of the insatiable human appetites for resources.”
In 2013, Moran and his students partnered with the White River National Wildlife Refuge to complete a
brochure for the three-mile H Lake Canoe trail that winds through the old river channels and oxbow lakes in the Big Woods area near St. Charles off of Route 1 in southeast Arkansas.
Moran and three former Hendrix students from Arkansas (Emily Deitchler '13 of Eureka Springs, Heather McPherson '12 of Little Rock, and Dillon Blankenship '12 of Pea Ridge) completed the field work in fall 2011, while another student (Katie Kilpatrick '13 of Fort Smith) handled
the mapmaking.
The project was designed to help naturalists and outdoor enthusiasts make their way through one of the best birding sites on the Mississippi River flyway, Moran said.
The H Lake Canoe Trail brochure and Exploring the Big Woods were supported by the Judy and Randy Wilbourn Odyssey Professorship, which Moran held. Odyssey Professorships offer support for Hendrix faculty members who design projects that increase hands-on learning opportunities for students.
Dr. Moran joined the Hendrix Biology Department in 1996. His research has resulted in publications in grassland ecology, plant and animal interactions, paleoecology of the Pleistocene, and conservation biology. In 2014, he published
Guide to the
Trails of Petit Jean State Park
, the first comprehensive educational guidebook for the state park’s hiking trail system.
Exploring the Big Woods is available through the
publisher, as well as at
Village Books in Conway and through
Amazon.
Moran will sign copies of Exploring the Big Woods on Saturday, September 24, from 11:30 a.m. – 12:30 p.m., at Village Books during Family Weekend 2016.
About Hendrix College
Hendrix College is a private liberal arts college in Conway, Arkansas. Founded in 1876 and affiliated with the United Methodist Church since 1884, Hendrix is featured in Colleges That Change Lives: 40 Schools That
Will Change the Way You Think about Collegesand is nationally recognized in numerous college guides, lists, and rankings for academic quality, community, innovation, and value. For more information, visit
www.hendrix.edu.