Buck Island includes 500 acres of sandy beach.

JULY, 2011: Communities along the lower Mississippi River near Helena, Arkansas got an economic and outdoor recreation boost recently when the American Land Conservancy and the state of Arkansas collaborated to allow for public use of Buck Island for the first time, allowing visitors to experience a wild and scenic Mississippi island largely unchanged from the days of Mark Twain.

The public access easement was established in April through the Arkansas Game and Fish Commission with support from state lawmakers and local stakeholders. The agreement complements a conservation easement established by ALC with the US Natural Resource Conservation Service in October, 2010, which protects the island’s 880 acres of native timber. The island is owned by the American Land Conservancy.

Public access to Buck Island represents a rare opportunity on the lower Mississippi. This incredibly powerful river has shaped and defined riverside communities for centuries and is the lifeblood of regional economies. But it is bracketed by enormous levees and surrounded almost entirely by private land, making it a true hidden treasure; rarely visited by the millions whose lives it impacts.

The trail will eventually consist of a series of new access and camping points like Buck Island that will allow paddlers to enjoy multi-day river trips on one of the wildest and most natural sections of mighty Mississippi. Currently, 95% of the banks of the lower river are in private ownership, making access extremely difficult. In early 2011, Canoe & Kayak Magazine floated the proposed trail with ALC governmental affairs director, Tim Richardson, and John Ruskey of Quapaw Canoe Company in Helena. The resulting video, photo essay, and story provide an exciting glimpse into what the new water trail has to offer.

The trail and Buck Island itself will also provide benefits to nearby river communities, like Helena, including nature-based economic development, and opportunities for conservation education and youth programs. Helena-based Quapaw Canoe Company offers popular guided trips to the island, employing disadvantaged youth from nearby communities who are trained in canoe-building, canoe-guiding, and survival and camping skills. The short canoe trip from Helena to the island provides an excellent river experience plus outstanding opportunities on the island for camping, hiking, wildlife watching, paddling, and fishing. Additional tourist dollars are generated as visitors stay in local hotels, visit other nearby attractions, purchase gifts and gear in local stores, and visit local restaurants and taverns.

Buck Island is attracting other investments in the river as well. This spring, Quapaw is leading a post-flood river clean-up and youth skill-building project on the island with more than $72,000 in funding from the Community Foundation of Northwest Mississippi, made possible through the W.K. Kellogg Foundation. The historic 2011 flood left tons of logs, driftwood, plastic bottles, rubber tires, and industrial trash behind, as the island’s forests caught and filtered out debris picked up by the massive flood. While cleaning up the island, youth will learn how to cut and buck timber, clear brush, use a handsaw, chainsaw and hoe, and how to clear and mark trails.

Protection of Buck Island and management for public use also conserves extremely important wildlife habitat. Buck Island is a home to Arkansas’ largest Mississippi River nesting colony of interior least terns (an endangered species), and provides a stop-over site for migratory birds on the Mississippi Flyway, which is used by 60 percent of North American bird species. 

Learn more about Buck Island’s ecological resources here, and about this exciting project and the future of the Lower Mississippi Water Trail here.

Buck Island is part of ALC's campaign to conserve 22,000 acres in 2011. Learn more here.