2020 Private Lands Conservation Champion

Johnny & Karen Armstrong - Lincoln Parish, Louisiana

Dr. Johnny Armstrong and Karen Armstrong have actively managed their 500-acre property in Lincoln Parish, located within the West Gulf Coastal Plain/Ouachitas, to maintain and enhance an old growth stand of shortleaf pine/oak-hickory woodland for 13 years. Maintenance and enhancement of this site has been accomplished utilizing a variety of management techniques, including prescribed fire, selective herbicide application, and understory restoration using native seed from Louisiana. The Armstrong family has personally conducted the majority of this stewardship work, including hand collecting and planting native grass seed for understory establishment. Technical Assistance has been utilized from the Natural Resource Conservation Service (NRCS), D' Arbonne Soil and Water Conservation District and other partners. Dr. Armstrong has participated in NRCS programs such as EQIP and CSP, and a large portion of the property is enrolled in a voluntary Conservation Easement with The Nature Conservancy. The property is also part of the Louisiana Department of Wildlife and Fisheries Natural Areas Registry.

Maintenance of this property is essential and consistent with the goals of conservation delivery for three primary reasons. First, the shortleaf pine/oak-hickory woodland community is critically imperiled (Sl} in the state and globally vulnerable (G2/G3). This community once covered an estimated 4-6 million acres in Louisiana, but, currently, less than approximately 10 percent remains. Much of the remaining acreage in Louisiana is less than exemplary, and it is rare to find examples that have both high quality overstory and a well-developed herbaceous understory layer. Dr. Armstrong has worked with the US Forest Service to collect seeds of native Louisiana plants to enhance the understory of the forest on the property. As a result of the Armstrong family's stewardship activities, they have created what is perhaps the best example of this community type in the state. Secondly, the stewardship activities carried out on this property have improved habitat for many game and non-game species. Dr. Armstrong's use of prescribed fire to maintain an open woodland ecosystem creates excellent habitat for wild turkey, northern bobwhite quail and white-tailed deer. This shortleaf pine/oak-hickory woodland provides an open understory that is suitable habitat for many grassland birds and other Species of Greatest Conservation Need (SGCN), including grasshopper sparrow, Bach man's sparrow, and red-cockaded woodpecker. Work is also taking place to protect and enhance the riparian areas associated with this habitat.

Finally, as featured in NRCS' January 2019 edition of the Louisiana Conservation Update, the Armstrong family goes out of their way to share their property and experience to enhance conservation education of the general public and university students. Dr. Armstrong has given several guest lectures to conservation biology classes at Louisiana Tech University, sharing his restoration experience with undergraduate students. He has also allowed university faculty and graduate students to conduct research projects on the property which contribute to an enhanced understanding of this unique woodland community and the organisms that utilize it. Dr. Armstrong also willingly shares his restoration expertise with landowners in the surrounding area so that they may benefit from his experience. Brant Bradley, District Conservationist with the NRCS in Lincoln Parish, summarized this landowner's focus well, stating, "It's easy to work with Dr. Armstrong, because he already has the passion and desire to take conservation on his property to the next level."

For their multiple contributions as private landowner conservationists and local stewardship leaders, NRCS and LDWF jointly feel that Dr. Johnny and Karen Armstrong are model conservation champions for the Lower Mississippi Valley Joint Venture.