why this place matters
The Cache River is a rare thread of the remaining 20% of the bottomland hardwood wetlands complex historically known as the “Great Swamp.”
The Great Swamp is estimated to have once encompassed 25 million acres of the Mississippi Alluvial Valley. This vast ecosystem stretched from Missouri’s bootheel to Louisiana’s southernmost marshes. It is now lost in American memory through draining, timbering, and development from the post-Civil War era to the 1970s.
The Cache River is a designated Wetland of International Importance under the Ramsar Convention. It was one of the first twelve so designated in America and is now one of only forty-one.
This is one of the region’s last remaining corridors of intact bottomland hardwood forest. The McCartney Woods sprawls out within this historic river basin, and its restoration is part of a much bigger story.
The Federal government, the state of Arkansas, and, perhaps most importantly, private landowners now carry the burden of caring for much of the land that matters most.
That’s why this place has such substance beyond its boundary lines. What happens here with how we restore, how we hunt, how we teach others, will echo in other watersheds and communities.
The McCartney Woods is a call to set higher standards. We are putting to the test whether or not the highest and best use of these historic places is as the Ramsar treaty puts it: “the economic worth of the ecosystem services provided by intact, naturally functioning wetlands is frequently much greater than the perceived benefits of converting them to ‘more valuable’ intensive land use.”
An American Symbol
The Ramsar Convention on Wetlands, signed in 1971, is an international treaty dedicated to wetland conservation and their strategic use. Its primary focus is to halt the loss of irreplaceable wetlands and ensure their management through national action and worldwide cooperation. Wetlands (such as marshes, swamps, bogs, and floodplains) play a critical role in biodiversity, water purification, flood mitigation, and climate regulation. All of these are profoundly important if humans are to flourish.
When a country designates a site under the Ramsar Convention as a “Wetland of International Importance,” it publicly recognizes its exceptional ecological value, particularly for waterfowl and wetland-dependent species.
While the designation does not create new legal protections, it compels the signing governments (including the United States, which signed in 1986) to promote the conservation and sustainable use of those sites and consider them in policy and development planning.
It also signals to landowners that much more might be at stake than they’ve historically realized.
One of the most prominent Ramsar sites in the United States is the Cache River region of eastern Arkansas. This site also encompasses significant portions of the Cache River National Wildlife Refuge and the Lower White River floodplain, forming one of North America’s most extensive remaining tracts of bottomland hardwood forest.
The Cache River system supports over 50 species of native trees, hundreds of bird species, and a rich diversity of aquatic and terrestrial wildlife. The Ramsar designation promoted the Cache River to a level of prominence globally, clarifying its vital role in migratory bird pathways, wetland biodiversity, and long-term ecological value. It also catalyzed collaborative conservation efforts among federal agencies, nonprofits like The Nature Conservancy, Ducks Unlimited, and private landowners.
The Cache River serves as a glimpse of the potential for wetland restoration and habitat protection, and an American symbol of how international recognition can help drive local and regional stewardship. But this only remains true if each passing generation takes up the responsibility.
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