2021 Private Lands Conservation Champion

Walker Morris - Crittenden County, AR

Walker Morris has been a long-standing advocate of quail and quail habitat conservation. He has transformed his property from an all row-crop farm to a wildlife friendly agricultural landscape. On his property, he has implemented three CRP practices: CP22 – Riparian Forest Buffers (65 acres), CP33 – Wildlife Habitat for Upland Birds (45 acres), and CP42 – Pollinators (16 acres) (his most recent work at the time of this award). Mr. Morris also plays an active role in the management his CRP habitat with a very extensive prescribed burn rotation.  Besides being actively involved with the CRP rented acreages listed above, Mr. Morris is involved with many other wildlife friendly activities around his property including: prescribed burning, strip-disking, herbicide spraying, brushy cover planting, Egyptian Wheat food plots, and predator trapping. He has also paid for and planted additional plots of Native Warm Season Grasses (NWSG) out of his own pocket to supplement the habitat that he established on his property through CRP.

Mr. Morris not only has a great piece of property, but he is also very enthusiastic about recruiting more landowners into the various conservation programs. He has actively worked with surrounding landowners to help make their properties more wildlife friendly. In the past, Mr. Morris has co-hosted workshops on his property with the Arkansas Game and Fish Commission (AGFC) Quail Program. His property served as a field tour site to help biologists and other conservation workers from NRCS and FSA to better understand the specific Farm Bill conservation programs that are beneficial to quail. His prolonged dedication to quail habitat, his use of these beneficial programs, and his desire to properly manage the habitats made his property the perfect example to showcase these programs to conservationists.  

In 2015, the CRP program celebrated its 30th Anniversary. With this milestone, the national FSA office wanted to do something special. Therefore, they decided to publish 30 CRP success stories from around the nation. With the help of Diana Colvard, the Agricultural Programs Specialist for Arkansas Farm Service Agency, AGFC wrote an article about Mr. Morris and his property as a nomination. His success story was chosen for publication for the event and was the only one published from Arkansas!

Due to the extensive work on his property and his enthusiastic encouragement for landowners to get involved with wildlife conservation, Mr. Morris is an exemplary conservation landowner - a Conservation Champion!