Gravette Quarry Site

About the Program
The Gravette Quarry site, owned by CRH Americas Materials, is located north of Fayetteville, Arkansas, close to the Missouri border. CRH is a supplier of asphalt, aggregates, cement, ready-mixed concrete and paving and construction services in North America. Since 2009, the team  has managed a 2,820-acre forest. The forest is managed for optimal habitat and white-tailed deer population health. Four hundred acres of this area is also monitored and managed to control and eradicate invasive species. Employees are engaged in the project’s implementation and development. Arkansas Game and Fish Commission and Spring Valley Rod and Gun Club are partners engaged in the whitetail deer project. The project aligns with a general large-scale conservation initiative through its corporate sustainability plan.

Practices and Impacts

• The team uses collected data about forest health to make decisions about prioritizing annual thinning locations. Team members are involved in data collection on a planned, yearly basis as well as reporting information on tree health during other activities.
• The team uses best management practices to control and eradicate tree of heaven and musk thistle through mowing, hand-pulling and chemical application. Invasive species locations are monitored in spring, summer and fall. To engage more employees, posters are placed at the site office that show invasive species that may be on-site and contact numbers of those who can implement eradication actions.
• The team manages areas within the Gravette site as food plots and provides supplemental nutrition for white-tailed deer.
• The team works closely with the Arkansas Game and Fish Commission’s Deer Management Assistance Program to keep white-tailed deer populations at a healthy number and to cull sick individuals. All deer takes are recorded and can be compared from year to year. The deer project has been ongoing since 2008.
• The team also continuously monitors for feral hogs and report any suspected activity.