Researching Bottomland Hardwood
Forest Ecosystems to Preserve
the Mallard Ducks’ Natural Habitat

COME TALK ABOUT DUCK HABITAT!

“Field Set Aside” Field Day

Arkansas USDA-Natural Resources Conservation Service-Conservation Innovation Grant (CIG) Program

Sitka Scholars

The University of Arkansas at Monticello Graduate Certificate Program in Waterfowl Habitat and Recreation Management Program 2022-2023 Class has been selected. From left to right:

Eli Stinson (Louisiana Tech), Samantha Spaulding (SUNY-Cobleskill), Elijah Wojohn (LSU), Clayton Ernzen (Michigan State)

Congratulations Grads!

Congratulations to the first class of graduates of the University of Arkansas at Monticello Graduate Certificate Program in Waterfowl Habitat and Recreation Management Program. From left to right:

Delanie Warren
Katherine Allen
Brandon Bennett
Cole Howard

Learn More About Sitka

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Research Priorities

Five Oaks Ag Research and Education Center will be a leader in the research of bottomland hardwood forest ecosystems using the life history requirements of the mallard duck as indicators of the health of the ecosystem.

The Center’s
Research Priorities
will include but may not be limited to:

Improving

Red Oak Health and Root Vigor

Improving

Red Oak Acorn Production

Increasing

Moist Soil Agricultural Production

Increasing

The Regeneration
Rate of the Red Oak

Increasing

The Survival Rate of Bare Root Seedlings

Improving

Red Oak Health and Root Vigor

Increasing

The Regeneration
Rate of the Red Oak

Improving

Red Oak Acorn Production

Increasing

The Survival Rate of Bare Root Seedlings

Increasing

Moist Soil Agricultural  Production

Learn More

Educational Priorities

Five Oaks Ag Research and Education Center will oﬀer a unique learning environment for students of forestry, agriculture, and natural resource management. It will also provide opportunities for conservation and wildlife habitat professionals, and private landowners, to observe and understand contemporary science-based methods and strategies for preserving and improving the wetland ecosystem within the Mississippi Alluvial Valley.

Read Assessment Position

Educational Priorities

Five Oaks Ag Research and Education Center will oﬀer a unique learning environment for students of forestry, agriculture, and natural resource management. It will also provide opportunities for conservation and wildlife habitat professionals, and private landowners, to observe and understand contemporary science-based methods and strategies for preserving and improving the wetland ecosystem within the Mississippi Alluvial Valley.

Learn More

Connect with College of Forestry, Agriculture & Natural Resources

2021-2022 Inaugural Class

Wetland, wildfowl certificate program draws first class from four states. The students of the 2021-22 inaugural class are Brandon Bennett, Delanie Warren, Katherine Allen, and Cole Howard.

Download Full Press Release

What’s New

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History of Five Oaks

Five Oaks Duck Lodge, located in the heart of the Mississippi Flyway in Humphrey, Arkansas, was acquired by the Dunklin family in 1983. The entire complex includes more than 6,000 acres of ﬂooded timber and rice ﬁelds.

Five Oaks Lodge and the surrounding lands exist in harmony with nature, employing innovative, conscientious land-management practices that promote the health of the land and provide attractive year-round habitat for migratory and wintering waterfowl. Five Oaks owner George H. Dunklin, Jr. and his team have put decades of research and scientiﬁc study into the nurturing relationship between waterfowl and habitat, and the Five Oaks land-management plans have a national reputation for success.

History of Five Oaks

Five Oaks Duck Lodge, located in the heart of the Mississippi Flyway in Humphrey, Arkansas, was acquired by the Dunklin family in 1983. The entire complex includes more than 6,000 acres of ﬂooded timber and rice ﬁelds.

Five Oaks Lodge and the surrounding lands exist in harmony with nature, employing innovative, conscientious land-management practices that promote the health of the land and provide attractive year-round habitat for migratory and wintering waterfowl. Five Oaks owner George H. Dunklin, Jr. and his team have put decades of research and scientiﬁc study into the nurturing relationship between waterfowl and habitat, and the Five Oaks land-management plans have a national reputation for success.

Governing Board

George Dunklin

Founder and President
FOAgREC Board Member

Dale Hall

Vice President
FOAgREC Board Member

Ted Dickey

Secretary-Treasurer
FOAgREC Board Member

Jody Pagan

Chair of
FOAgREC Research Committee

Doug Osborne, Ph.D

Program Director
FOAgREC

The Mississippi Flyway

Five Oaks is in the heart of the Mississippi Flyway, which starts in central Canada and stretches to the Gulf of Mexico. The Mississippi Flyway is the name given to the route followed by ducks migrating from their breeding grounds in North America to their wintering grounds in the South. As the name suggests, the Mississippi Flyway follows the route of the Mississippi River in the United States – North America’s largest river system. Originating in northern Minnesota, the slow-ﬂowing river travels southwards for a distance of 2,530 miles, cutting through, or forming a border for, the states of Minnesota, Wisconsin, Iowa, Illinois, Missouri, Kentucky, Tennessee, Arkansas, Mississippi, and Louisiana before emptying into the Mississippi River Delta at the Gulf of Mexico. In most years, Arkansas winters more mallards than any other place in North America and a whole lot of them return year after year to Five Oaks.

Vision and Mission

Vision Statement

Our vision is to sustain the life history requirements of mallard ducks in the Mississippi Alluvial Valley through healthy hardwood stands and other wetland complexes, and consistently offer the nation’s highest quality waterfowl hunting experiences on both private and publicly held properties.

Mission Statement

The mission of Five Oaks Ag Research and Education Center is to sustain and increase a vanishing bottomland hardwood forest ecosystem using the life history requirements of the mallard duck as indicators of the health of the ecosystem, and develop scientific professionals and guide public and private forest management to increase this critical wetland ecosystem complex.

“

Everything we do today to benefit wetlands and waterfowl is a legacy that we are leaving to our children and grandchildren.

– Dale Hall,
Vice President of FOAgREC and
Former CEO of Ducks Unlimited

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