2023 Issue 4 Jul/Aug Focus - Mid-South Magazine

Big River Crossing, the scenic pedestrian bridge adjacent
to the Harahan Bridge, opened to much excitement in
2016, providing an almost one-mile span for walkers
across the Mississippi, with novel views of the river and the
Memphis skyline. But some might have wondered, “Is that
it, do we just turn around?” Those looking for more trails or
a destination after crossing into Arkansas will have a new
park to visit, Ducks Unlimited Park, nestled to the north on
the shore of the Mississippi, a work in progress.
Unlike Shelby Farms Park, an urban park about
14 miles from downtown, the primary goal of Ducks
Unlimited Park is restoration of the wetlands back to its
natural state: bottomland hardwoods and bald cypress
swamp. According to the EPA, bottomland forests—
forested wetlands that can survive in areas that are
seasonally flooded —covered almost 30 million acres
of the southeastern United States 200 years ago, but a
majority of this land was lost to farming, with only 40%
remaining today. With the eventual restoration project of
the park, many acres of the 1500 total will be restored to
their natural state to help better control our floodplain
and improve water quality by filtering pollutants
and reducing sediment before the water returns to
the Mississippi. Alongside the restored wetlands,
the remaining acreage will provide recreational and
educational benefits to park visitors.
Chris Ware, executive director of Ducks Unlimited
Park, says the idea for the park developed after realizing
that 250,000 people crossed the Harahan Bridge the
first year it was open. Now that total is 1.5 million and
counting: the fan base was ready and interest was
apparent. But a park on the Arkansas side didn’t become
a reality until the group was fortunate enough to make
deals with some of the very willing landowners who also
shared in the new vision for the area.
Ware says, “We were lucky that the majority of the
landowners were from the area or were Memphians, so
they understood the benefit and impact that can happen
with wild trails and spaces for the city to expand a bit
recreationally.” Over several years, several million dollars
for land acquisition was secured and land deals were
negotiated that were beneficial to all.
Tenn Green, a Nashville land conservation organization,
stepped up as the first key stakeholder to buy several
parcels and start the process of land acquisition for the
park. Then when the Big River Crossing group established
that the goal would be wetlands restoration, they reached
out to Ducks Unlimited (with a national headquarters in
Memphis), which has an extensive wetlands restoration
background, to discuss a partnership. Ducks Unlimited
was excited by the prospect and was interested in coming
on board—at first as technical assistance, but they quickly
realized the potential for the area and expressed interest in
contributing in bigger ways.
Ducks Unlimited CEO Adam Putnam and several other
local board members saw the possibility to show the
public their expertise in wetlands restoration work they
conduct all over North America. Here was the opportunity,
right in their own backyard, to have a footprint and legacy
in the Memphis area, in addition to having a campus here.
Ware says that since Ducks Unlimited has been involved,
park development has taken off and gone from something
that might happen to something that is going to happen:
“This park is a reality now. Ducks Unlimited has been
instrumental in lining up donors and fundraising partners,
fundraising at a corporate level and individual donor level.”
He says they have been great partners, including their field
resource office in Jackson, Mississippi, which employs welltrained
scientists and engineers that know exactly how to
bring property back from agricultural use. Ducks Unlimited
Part of the existing trail
system already at the site
JUL+AUG 2023 | focuslgbt.com | Memphis Green 13