The Postco, LLC property is a 1,301-acre irregularly shaped tract that is largely in an alluvial floodplain. The property was once part of a vast bottomland hardwood forest that covered the Ouachita River Valley.
The timber on the property was cleared and some wetlands were drained in the 1960s and early 1970s to convert the property to rice and soybean cultivation. In the late 1980s, the Farmer’s Home Administration foreclosed on the property, and it was eventually deeded to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (Service). The Service began re-establishing hardwoods and restoring moist-soil areas with water control structures. Eventually, Postco, LLC acquired the property.
The current owner, Glen Post, is protecting and managing the property for wildlife and recreation. As the property is in the center of a vast area of restored habitat, this easement is an essential addition to the network of lands managed for wildlife in the region.
There are 120 acres currently enrolled in the Service’s Partners for Fish and Wildlife Program. This acreage was planted in bottomland hardwoods that will benefit federal trust species, including the pink mucket pearly mussel, Louisiana black bear, migratory songbirds, and numerous hawks and owls.
Four different areas on the property are being enhanced and managed as moist-soil areas. These areas will be used by wading birds and shorebirds during the winter and spring. Overwintering and migrating waterfowl will also use these shallow water areas and flooded timber.
Since this property was once part of a vast bottomland hardwood forest, the mature hardwoods along the drains and the immature, planted hardwoods are used by a diverse terrestrial and wetland-dependent species of wildlife.