Jacksonville, AR

About the Program
Ashland Inc. in Jacksonville, Arkansas, is implementing restoration of several habitat areas and seeks to continuously improve the utility of the 93-acre site as wildlife habitat. Vertac Chemical Corporation, a superfund site, operated the plant until 1986. This site was degraded over decades of use as government munitions factory, then to formulate insecticides and herbicides. From July 2002 to the present, Hercules (Ashland Inc.) has contracted with Genesis Environmental to operate and maintain the leachate collection system, groundwater recovery system and treatment facilities. Kennedy Jenks conducts project planning, management of implementation and data collection and data evaluation for the program. Terracon implements monitoring and data collection and project maintenance.

Practices and Impacts

• Team members have installed and regularly monitor wood duck boxes. The box was not utilized during the 2022 and 2023 nesting seasons, and a nesting attempt has not been made since 2020. Management recommendations include making repairs or potentially replacing the wood duck box.
• Team members have installed and regularly monitor nesting structures for cavity nesting passerines such as eastern bluebirds In 2022, six nest boxes were observed to contain signs of nesting or nest-building throughout the monitoring season. Of those six, eggs or live young were observed during a monitoring event in three boxes.
• In 2023, four nest boxes were observed to contain signs of nesting or nest-building throughout the monitoring season. Eggs or live young were observed during a monitoring event in all 4 of those boxes. 
• A total of eight distinct mammal species were captured on camera, several of which (coyote, racoon, white-tailed deer) captured individuals at multiple different life stages. This indicates that the habitat is being used year-round by these mammals for foraging as well as breeding and rearing young. 
• In 2022, the camera in the natural regrowth area captured five different species, with the most common being white-tailed deer. Over 300 wildlife sightings were captured. In 2023, technical issues with the game camera resulted in only five months of data collected. White-tailed deer remained the most dominant species captured, in addition to several raccoon sightings. In total, 161 wildlife sightings were captured in 2023.
• From March through September 2023, a variety of pollinators were observed on site including bumblebees, dragonflies, grasshoppers and a variety of butterflies. Individuals observed were all in the adult life stage and were observed both flying throughout the habitat and landing on grasses and flowering vegetation within the grassland.
• Twelve unique tree species were identified during monitoring of the urban reforestation area. Of the 12 species, 11 were native.