Written by Bill Toland Arboretum Pinnacle Mountain State Park Trail Interpretation Guide 3/2010 Volunteer Interpreters: Check with Park Interpreters the day before you are coming to make sure your tour group is still scheduled and to give the park staff confidence that you remember your obligation. See if your group has any special interests or requests like an emphasis on trees, plants, etc. and review the size and age of the group. Show up about 30 minutes ahead of time at the Visitors Center to review any last minute details. You may check the pink scheduling sheet hanging on the wall on the right as you enter the park interpreters office. The pink sheet will give you the contact person for the group and other details that might be helpful. Dress appropriately, use bug spray, and bring your cell phone, something to write on, and a pointer like a mirror or green laser. At the end of the tour you do not need to check back with the park interpreters unless there was some issue or some question you couldnt answer. Professional Park Interpreters: Courtney Todd, Susan Staffeld, and Kristina Root. (501) 868-5806. Interpreters: On all of the trails, you will often have interpreting opportunities that pop-up along the way or that you could discuss at any point along the trail. Birds, reptiles, unique plants, and other features are common sights and you can address them wherever they best fit in your presentation. Below are some quick descriptions of common teachable moments. Vultures: There are two species of vultures in the park. Look up and if you see two-colored wings from below (silver and black) and a red (or different color than black) head, that is a turkey vulture. (They often hold their wings in a V shape. Turkey vultures glide a lot and rock back and forth.) Usually up above the turkey vulture you will see the Black vulture which has mainly black wings underneath with just a little white at the tips. (Black vultures flap their wings a lot more and glide only short distances. Their tails are shorter and their feet may extend all the way to the tip of the tail or beyond when in flight.) Using its very keen sense of smell, the turkey vulture smells dead stuff and then moves in. The black vulture is not as good at smelling dead things and often just waits for the turkey vulture to find something to eat and then moves in to steal it. Holes in the trees: Do those serve any purpose in nature? Lots of animals use the holes as their homes. The small holes may be for lizards, bees, wasps, etc., and the larger holes may be homes for owls, squirrels, woodpeckers, etc. Notice of all of the holes going around this tree in a row. What made those holes? (A: Yellow-bellied sapsucker.) Where did it get its name? (A: Sucking sap.)
Bare sticks: You may find some sticks with all of the bark missing. Why is the bark missing from this stick? What marks do you see on the stick? (A: These marks are teeth marks. Beavers have eaten the bark off the stick just like you would eat corn on the cob. Where do beavers live? (In dams they have built or along steep banks. They will dig a tunnel underwater and then up into the bank or dam so they can have an underwater entrance to their home. There are beavers around here, but you dont see them very often in the daytime except at dawn or dusk. Box Turtles: A land turtle that has a shell that hinges (like a box). Almost all box turtles in the park will be Three Toed (Eastern Box) Turtles which have three toes on their back feet, but they could have four. They will have a starburst pattern on the top of the shell (carapace) and a cream colored bottom of the shell (plastron). The carapace is like our backbone and the plastron is like our sternum, the shell does have blood vessels in it. The three-toed turtle lives in the woods and eats fruit on the ground (like wild strawberries), mushrooms, and earth worms. These turtles can live up to 40 years in the wild and 70 years in captivity. They are homebodies and will work their way back to where they live if taken elsewhere, so dont move them because they are in more danger as they cross roads trying to get back home than if you would have left them alone. It is illegal to take them from state parks. They have a tough time thriving due to being killed on roads and due to people picking them up and taking them home. These turtles along with any reptile can carry salmonella so we dont normally pass them around students. Wash your hands after handling them and use hand sanitizer if you have it. Exotic (non-native) Plants: Plants like Kudzu and the Japanese (yellow) Honeysuckle are not native plants. Kudzu was brought into the U.S. in the late 1800s to help control erosion, but kudzu vines are very invasive, crowd out native plants, and are very difficult to keep in check. They will cover anything in their path, and over a period of years they will kill trees by blocking the light from the trees. Japanese honeysuckle (not the red, native honeysuckle) was also introduced into the US in the late 1800s as an ornamental plant, but it is also very invasive. Some people call these plants Japanese monsters because like Godzilla they take over everything in their path. Green Anole Lizard: A green lizard that looks like a gecko is probably a Green Anole. It is green, but can rapidly change to brown or some color in between. The male can extend its throatfan to expose more colors for attracting a mate. You will usually see it on a vertical surface like a tree trunk. Five-Lined Skink: A medium-sized, brownish lizard with five longitudinal lines is probably a five-lined skink. The juveniles may have very brilliant striping and a blue tail. Stripes fade with age and older adults may be uniformly brown. The male will have a red-orange head in breeding season. Speckled Kingsnake: The kingsnake is a constrictor that eats rodents, lizards, birds, and can eat other snakes including the poisonous ones. This a handy snake to have around! Black Rat Snake: The Black Rat Snake eats rats, mice, birds, and bird eggs. In many places the rat snake is called a chicken snake because it would often be found in chicken coops trying to eat the eggs. According to a reliable source, their bite feels like a cat bite. Very good climber to
get to eggs. Will vibrate its tail when threatened trying to look like a rattlesnake. Banded Water Snake: We have a lot of these snakes in PMSP and they are often confused for water moccasins. The young ones are more brightly colored, but the banding on the adults is often not visible unless you are up close. They feed on fish, frogs, and tadpoles and are often seen basking in the sun on brush piles or along the trails. American Tent Caterpillar Webs: These caterpillars group together to form silken webs in the forks of trees. During the caterpillar stage, the caterpillars rarely come out of the large communal webs, but when they do they can eat so much of the foliage that they can kill a tree. The moth is dark brown with two white lines parallel to the outer edges of the wings. Sweet Gum Trees: Fruit is a spiny ball often scattered on the ground. You can show how the seeds have fallen out. Also the sap in these trees was used as chewing gum years ago. Frogs and Toads: The forest is full of frogs and toads. Frogs are generally closer to the water and spend more time in the water. Frogs have smooth skin that is moist to the touch while toads tend to be more dry and rough. Toads have a toxin on their skin as a defense mechanism against being eaten, but the idea that you get warts from toads is not true. Toads are generally short hoppers. Toads and frogs tend to come out when it rains and the males of both are very noisy, especially at night during the breeding season. Daddy-Long-Legs: While the daddy-long-legs is an arachnid, it is not a spider. Spiders have a cephalothoraxes and abdomens separated by a waist. Daddy-long-legs have a cephalothorax that is widely joined to the abdomen, so daddy-longlegs have just one body part instead of two like spiders have. Termites or Ants? We often see winged creatures along the trails. Are they swarming ants or termites? Termites have two sets of wings of equal length, but ants forewings are longer than their hindwings. Termites have a straight waist, ants waists are pinched. Termite antennae are straight, ants antennae are elbowed. (It pays to carry a small magnifying glass.) Whether termite or ant they are good for the forest breaking down dead plants, processing plant and animal residue, and fitting in the food chain. Dragonfly or Damselfly? It is difficult to tell them apart in flight. At rest, dragonflies hold their wings perpendicular from their bodies. Damselflies fold their wings into a straight line and hold them parallel to their bodies over their backs. Damselflies are also smaller Arboretum Trail Interpretation Guide Arboretum Trail Interpretation Notes The boxes behind the explanation plaques are batteries for the audio player in the audio sign panels. To be honest, it is hard to hear the audio with a group and in many cases it is a list of trees that school kids are not familiar with anyway, so you might want to just talk about the
Natural Division and skip playing the audio. If you do decide to use them, only the leader should push the button that starts the audio player. The batteries are not always charged up and working, so dont rely on the audio for your tour. If you have time, test them before the tour starts. There are several side loops or spurs you can take through some of the Natural Divisions. Unless you are taking a college-level botany class out or you intend on having a small group sit quietly until wildlife might come to you, suggest you stay on the paved path so you are exposed to ticks. With the exception of the very short River Overlook trail, most of the trails are about 2/10s of a mile long and take too much time unless you are looking for something specific. These side trails would be best saved for when small groups are out there on their own. Wire fencing is wrapped around many of the trees in the Arboretum. Why? To keep animals like beavers and deer from killing them. Deer will eat the foliage and will also rub it off as they are using the trees to rub the velvet off their antlers or leave their scent. The fences are around sweet gum trees predominantly because that is the tree that beavers seem to prefer to eat. The many small plants and new trees in the Arboretum need more water than we normally get from rain. Throughout the forest you will see hoses, pipes, and valve boxes that are part of the sprinkler system. The blue pipes seen in the forest are markers for valves. The white pipes and flags sticking up show trees that have been planted, most likely for scientific or educational purposes. Markers on the ground or trail that look like nails with washers driven into the trail through the asphalt are grid markers. Because the arboretum is built for scientific and educational purposes, scientists have set up a grid to help identify the location of plants and ground features. Those markers show where the grid lines cross. Dr. Robert Wright is the curator emeritus of the arboretum and you will often see him out there, possibly in his small red pickup truck. Ryan Williams is on the paid staff of PMSP as the Arboretum Coordinator. General Instructions for Groups: (Best done at the Y near the start of the trail where the benches are.) 1. Stay on the pavement (wildflowers and other small plants will be trying to bloom). Also you might get into poison ivy or pick up a tick. Ticks are half vampire, half blood balloon and you dont need that. 2. You may not pick or take any plant, rock, or animal in any State Park. Nothing would be left if everyone took even one small piece of the park. The only thing you can pick up is litter and we really appreciate you doing that! 3. Help protect Pinnacle Mountain State Park for your friends and other children. Never remove plants or animals. Stay on marked trails or access walks. Be very quiet so you dont scare off wildlife. Never leave anything in nature that doesnt belong there. 4. Look and listen. You may not see animals, but you may hear them or see evidence of them like feathers, tracks, homes, or scat.
5. If you spot something, point so everyone can share/see it. Do not yell because you might scare off an animal, or you might scare me off! 6. The leader is always in front, so dont get ahead of me. I walk backwards a lot. The greasy spots you see along the trail are students who got in front of me and I backed up over them. Intro: (Best done at the Y near the start of the trail where the benches are.) We are going to walk along the Arboretum Trail today. An arboretum is a place where plants are grown for scientific and educational purposes. The Arkansas Arboretum is a 71-acre site where we can learn about native trees, shrubs, and plants that are typical in Arkansas's six, major natural divisions. Arkansas has about 200 species of wild trees, and all of them are very important to the environment and economy of Arkansas, but we will only see a small sample of trees and plants today. The Arboretum Trail is 6/10 of a mile through the Arkansas Arboretum and our tour will take about 1½ hours. On this trail we will make a virtual tour around the State of Arkansas to visit each of the six Natural Divisions and talk about the characteristics of each. Arkansas is very unique in the fact that it was completely under the ocean 400-600 million years or so ago and has been under water off and on for the past 1.4 billion years. Some parts like the Ozarks were under shallow water (only a few hundred feet) and the tops of the Ozark plateaus were often out of the water. Central Arkansas from around Little Rock to the south was under extremely deep water (8,000). The last time this area was under the ocean was about 65 million years ago. The highly varied geologic history of this area means each of our six natural divisions has unique features, and each area has its own variety of trees and plants. (The wooden sign announcing your arrival in the Ozark Plateau is before the sign for the Six Natural Divisions, so try to hold off talking about the Ozarks until you have given a quick overview of how the state is divided up.) Overview of the Six Natural Divisions of Arkansas review each very briefly (info on plaque). 1. Ozark Plateau The Ozark Highlands are flat-topped mountains that were pushed up from the shallow sea floor. The area in the NW part of the state where it borders with Missouri averages over 1,000 in elevation. From there it drops down to the SE corner of the state which is barely 100 above sea level. 2. Arkansas River Valley This valley is about 40 miles wide with the Arkansas River in the middle. It generally runs from Ft. Smith to about Little Rock, and the plains around the river east of that generally have the characteristics of the other areas around it. 3. Ouachita Mountains The Ouachitas are East-West running ridges (unusual since most mountain ranges in U.S. run North-South) characterized by sharp-pointed ridges with steep slopes. Pinnacle Mountain is at the edge of the Ouachita Mountains and the Arkansas River Valley. 4. West Gulf Coastal Plain This relatively flat land gently slopes all the way down to the gulf coast. The land is composed mostly of sediment from under shallow oceans. 5. Mississippi Alluvial Plain (aka The Delta) This area was also once under the Gulf of Mexico and the underlying land is mostly composed from sediment. The rivers coming
from the glaciers up north (glaciers got as far south as Missouri, but not Arkansas) washed away the sand and gravel and left silt. Its a very fertile area. 6. Crowleys Ridge (named for Benjamin Crowley) Crowleys name was pronounced Crauley, but now either Crowley or Crauley is OK. This area is only about 150 miles long and 1 to 5 miles wide. Devils Walking Stick: (several specimen behind the Natural Divisions interpretive sign) Tall, skinny tree with branches only near the top. If you grab the skinny trunk you will feel the very sharp thorns some say only the devil would use it. You can see ringed scars along the trunk every six inches or so. These represent each years growth. Ozark Plateau Interpretive Plaque (Audio Available) The plateau has a horizontal limestone base with thin soil that is best for oak/hickory forests along with other upland hardwoods. The easily dissolved limestone allows erosion by water such as the White, Buffalo, and Mulberry rivers so there are lots of canyons, sinkholes, underground streams, and caves like Blanchard Springs. The Ozark Mountains may have been named for Aux Arc, a French trading post located there in the 1700s. In French, Aux Arc means "at the bow." Forest Layers: Forests are basically layers of foliage. At the top the leaves of the very tall trees form a canopy. Below that is the under story made up of shorter trees, shrubs, and bushes. At the bottom are the grasses, ferns, and ground cover. One of the primary determinants of the forest layer is the amount of sunlight that plants need and the amount they can get. Plants that need a lot of light wont grow under a complete canopy (until a tree falls creating a tunnel of light that car reach the ground). There is a Silent War in the woods for light, food, and air. This is one of the main areas where non-native plants damage our forests the delicate balance of plant layers that has evolved over time is disrupted by plants that need less (or more) light and crowd out native species that would normally do well in our forests. See if you can recognize exotic species in the woods. West Gulf Coastal Plain Interpretive Plaque (Audio Available) Camden, El Dorado, Texarkana, Sheridan are a few cities in the area. The natural, mixed pine and hardwood forests in this division are almost completely gone. Now pine forests planted by the paper companies cover most of the area. In the high grounds you can find a mixture of hardwoods and pines, while in the wetter areas you will find only hardwoods. May Apple: About 15 yards past the audio plaque under the marked Post Oak tree, there is a field of May Apple on both sides of the trail. This plant is easy to recognize and to remember the name of. Rattlesnake Root: Another 15 yards down the trail behind the bench on the left is a Rattlesnake Root plant. It is about 8 tall and has 3-fingered palmated leaves that come to points. However, the typical tall Rattlesnake Root will get 2-3 high and the leaves become very variable in shape.
This plant is in the aster family and it is just a cool name for kids to remember. Big Leaf Magnolia: Another 20 yards down on the left side is a small section with small, recently planted Big Leaf Magnolia. There are just a few leaves, but their size makes them interesting to kids. Arkansas River Valley Interpretive Plaque (Audio Available) This area along the Arkansas River is characterized by oxbows, swamps, and hills. In this natural division of the state you will often have wet areas right next to dry areas (compare the top of Pinnacle Mountain with the lowlands you are in) which provides a diversity of plants and animals. Of course the dams built to help control flooding and allow navigation on the Arkansas River have changed the area a great deal. As strange as it may seem, the Arkansas River Valley has the three tallest mountains in Arkansas. What is the tallest mountain in the Arkansas River Valley? Mt. Magazine (2,753) is nearly three times the height of Pinnacle Mountain (1,011). The Arkansas River Valley contains isolated flat topped mesas like Petit Jean, Mt. Nebo, and Mt. Magazine. Major cities in the valley are Conway, Russellville, and Ft. Smith. River Overlook Trail: (Just before entering the Mississippi Alluvial Plain.) This is a very short spur that is worth the short side trip if time allows. On the right as you cross the culverts is a very cool hole in a large willow oak. The river overlook of the Little Maumelle River has benches at it provides an opportunity to see Bald Cypress trees and possibly fish or turtles. Mississippi Alluvial Plain Interpretive Plaque (Audio Available) This major division in Eastern Arkansas is also called The Delta. This area is mostly flat land and has many old river channels running through it that are now bayous. These bayous and channels are a natural flood area and the flood water leaves a very rich silt/sludge deposit on the surface which makes it a great soil to grow soybeans, cotton, corn, and rice. Even the Cache River is part of an ancient Mississippi River channel. Years ago this was all natural virgin forest with a lot of willow oak, water oak, and huge cypress trees. Deer were extremely plentiful in the area until the land was cleared. Hundreds of years ago the old growth trees were used by Indians to make canoes. These trees were so large that the canoes made from them could hold 50 or more people! These old growth trees were (and are) the home of the Ivory Billed Woodpecker. Mushrooms on Dead Logs: On the right side of the trail are several dead logs covered with fan-shaped mushrooms. These mushrooms are Violet Toothed Polypores. They are very common and may range from white to brown and usually have green and violet hues. They live for many years, but go dormant in the winter. Swamp Trees: Water Tupelo Plaque (by the creek where the railroad ties are). You can also see a medium sized Bald Cypress from there, but the sign on it is blocked by a shrub. In eastern Arkansas you will see a lot of swamp trees since most of this area was swamp land. You can see the Cypress trees here along the creek and their knees sticking out of the ground. These trees would drown if their knees were under water for a long period of time because the knees stick up into the air to help the roots breathe. Also planted here is a Water Tupelo Tree that has no
knees. These are just two examples of swamp trees grown in eastern Arkansas wetlands. In some places in Arkansas you will find swamp trees although there are no longer swamps in the area. If you find swamp trees in the woods, you can be assured the area used to be a swamp. Sycamore Tree Plaque: Notice that the bark on the lower trunk looks healthy and the bark on the upper trunk looks sick. This is a sick-a-more tree (pun intended for memory purposes). Southern Red Oak: On the right there is a very large Southern Red Oak. Its sheer size as an oak tree makes it interesting. Note! 50 yards past the Southern Red Oak Tree at the big bend past the two benches, you can see a long depression in the land where a wagon trail probably existed in the past. Crowleys Ridge Interpretive Plaque (Audio Available) Tulip Tree aka Yellow Poplar: (On right just before you get to the Crowleys Ridge Audio Plaque.) The Tulip tree and the Climbing Magnolia vine only grow wild on Crowleys ridge. When planted they can grow elsewhere, but they only occur naturally on Crowleys Ridge. The unusual strip of land we call Crowleys Ridge is in eastern Arkansas and parallels the Mississippi River. It is an erosional remnant left between where the Mississippi River runs now and where it ran millions of years ago on the west side of the ridge. The cities of West Helena, Forrest City, Wynne, and Jonesboro are located on this ridge. This long narrow body of land sticks up 250 high above the Delta. On top of the ridge is wind-blown dust called loess (pronounced luss) that is as much as 50 feet deep and is highly subject to erosion. Years back someone brought a plant from Japan to try to control erosion on this ridge. What is that plant called? Kudzu a fast growing plant that envelopes everything in its path. Ouachita Mountains Interpretive Plaque (Audio Available) The Ouachitas are East-West running ridges (unusual since most mountain ranges in U.S. run North-South) characterized by sharp-pointed ridges with steep slopes. Pinnacle Mountain is at the edge of the Ouachita Mountains and the Arkansas River Valley. Pinnacle Mountain is only 1,011 feet tall making it the third highest in Pulaski County behind Shinall (aka Chenal) Mountain (1060) and Suck Mountain (1053). Layers of rock are tilted instead of horizontal. The land is mostly sandstone and shale that was pushed up from a deep slope under the ocean about 300 million years ago. The EW running ridges with southern exposures have mostly pines on the south slopes and mostly hardwoods on the north slopes. Valleys have mixtures of pine and hardwoods. Resurrection Fern: On the left is a good example of Resurrection Fern. It does not feed off the tree, but gets all of its nutrients from the sun, air, and rain. Without rain it dries up, the fronds turn brown and curl up, and the plant goes dormant. As soon as it rains it comes back out in vivid green. It can remain in this dormant stage for up to 100 years, and then pop back to life after a rain.
End of trail: The sign indicates you are headed back into the Ozark Plateau section of the Arboretum, but you are almost back to the beginning. Keep in mind you are only seeing the trail in one season. Come back during other seasons of the year to see the forest in a different stage of life! Do you have any questions? What was your favorite part of the tour? We enjoyed having you! (If there were any unanswered questions, get a mailing or email address and send the answers ASAP.) You may also want to follow up by giving the questions below to the teacher for later use. Pinnacle Mountain State Park Arboretum Trail Questions Thank you for visiting us at your Pinnacle Mountain State Park! We always enjoy having groups come to learn more. We have some questions for you to help you remember your visit. 1. What was your favorite thing to see or learn about on the Arboretum Trail? Why? 2. What is an arboretum and what is it used for? 3. Name two different kinds of birds you saw or heard on your field trip. 4. Name two different trees you saw at the Arboretum and what did you like about them? 5. Name the six major natural divisions of Arkansas. 6. What is the tallest mountain in Arkansas and what natural division of the state is it in? 7. Which direction do the Ouachita Mountains run? Why is that interesting? 8. What are two possible uses of the cypress knees to the tree? 9. How many people could fit in one of the large canoes Indians built from swamp trees? 10. How can you help protect Pinnacle Mountain State Park for your friends and other children? 11. What was the distance you walked on Arboretum Trail? Arboretum Trail Questions with Answers for Teachers and Parents Thank you for visiting us at your Pinnacle Mountain State Park! We always enjoy having groups come to learn more. We have some questions for you to help you remember your visit. What was your favorite thing to see or learn about on the Arboretum Trail? Why?
Self What is an arboretum and what is it used for? An arboretum is a place where plants are grown for scientific and educational purposes. Name two different kinds of birds you saw or heard on your field trip. Self Name two different trees you saw at the Arboretum and what did you like about them? Self Name the six major natural divisions of Arkansas. Ozark Highlands, Arkansas River Valley, Ouachita Mountains, Gulf Coastal Plain, Mississippi Alluvial Plain (Delta), Crowleys Ridge What is the tallest mountain in Arkansas and what natural division of the state is it in? Mt. Magazine which is in the Arkansas River Valley Which direction do the Ouachita Mountains run? Why is that interesting? They run East-West whereas most mountain ranges in the U.S. run North-South. The EW running ridges with southern exposures have mostly pines on the south slopes and mostly hardwoods on the north slopes. What are two uses of the cypress knees to the tree? They hold the tree upright and provide oxygen for the root system. How many people could fit in one of the large canoes Indians built from swamp trees? 50 How can you help protect Pinnacle Mountain State Park for your friends and other children? Never remove plants or animals. Stay on marked trails or access walks. Be very quiet so you dont scare off wildlife. Never leave anything in wetlands. What was the distance you walked on Arboretum Trail? 6/10 of a mile