Rockwater Village's very own Karen Martin, senior editor for the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette, recently published an engaging article titled "Runnin' Wild in the Streets." The piece beautifully showcases the harmony and abundance of nature within Rockwater's growing urban environment.
Rockwater embraces a way of life that values the outdoors by crafting a porch-friendly, walkable community where neighbors can get to know one another on a more human scale while enjoying the river and the trail. Rockwater's design has been intentional --carefully curating a convenient and healthy balance between the environment and urban living - a place of refuge from the hustle and bustle of the nearby cities.
As part of the design, Noah Miriglia of Concrete Creations added "footprints" of Arkansas native species in the sidewalks throughout the Gardens at Rockwater. If you look closely you can see the footprints of geese, deer, blue jay, and bobcat adding a touch of natural beauty to the surrounding neighborhood.
Karen Martin's article, "Runnin' Wild in the Streets," perfectly captures the essence of Rockwater and its profound connection with nature. It is an important read for those who want to delve deeper into the values that define our community.
Here is Karen's full article:
Runnin' Wild in the Streets
Less than a mile from downtown Argenta, Rockwater Boulevard curves through a neighborhood of elegant houses, thoughtful landscaping, upscale multi-story apartments, well-traveled sidewalks, and bike trails. New construction is ongoing, creating plenty of heavy-vehicle traffic and noisy, dust-producing building activity.
Along its edge, between the looming residences that face the Arkansas River and Rockwater Marina, is the Arkansas River Trail. Despite being embedded in a teeming urban surrounding, it offers breathtaking scenery, including opportunities to observe wildlife—a lot more wildlife than you’d expect to see so near the bustle of restaurant- and shop-laden Argenta and the wide vehicular bridges that connect the North Little Rock and Little Rock downtowns.
Somehow, in the midst of all this urbanity, a two-legged visitor can encounter woodchucks, snakes, hawks, vultures, ducks, deer, egrets, turtles of all sizes (sunning themselves, as many as 15 at a time, on a fallen log that stretches into the river), squirrels, raccoons, and Canada gooses along the riverside trail. (Gooses, not geese; I picked this up—and can’t let it go—from watching an episode of Canadian comedy series “Letterkenny,” in which Jared Keeso as Wayne and Michelle Mylett as his sister Katy angrily correct another character who refers to the majestic birds as “geese.”)
While walking along the River Trail the other day, my small dogs were astonished to add a good-sized armadillo to the wildlife lineup; they’d never seen one before and seemed puzzled as to what it was, although they were determined to pursue it (strong leashes prevented such an adventure).
Unlike most of the roadside armadillos I’ve seen, this one was alive and well, scuttling along the pitched bank of the river near a busy construction site of 360-some apartments. I’ve seen very few that have been hit by cars, unlike what I used to see on roads along Washington, D.C.’s Rock Creek Park, where squirrels sometimes fell out of trees and landed on busy thoroughfares, seldom surviving the fall or the onslaught of vehicles.
Despite plenty of traffic on Rockwater Boulevard, which turns into River Road a bit farther west, animals seem to thrive here.
Why are our untamed creatures co-existing with humans, houses, bicycles, and motorized vehicles in the Rockwater area? You’d think they would move westward and set up shop in the heavily wooded and rugged sections of Burns Park.
It’s probably because their habitat hasn’t been radically disturbed.
The River Trail winds through dense areas covered with plenty of vegetation. The vehicle roadway eventually is blocked by bollards, and the bike portion of the Trail continues along a winding route into Burns Park.
Or maybe it’s because they’re wily. According to earth.org, some animals, especially small ones, are more flexible than we think in terms of their ability to evolve and adapt to changing environments. Most of the time, these behavioral and biological changes are brought about by human factors such as the introduction of man-made infrastructure and the patterns of urban living. Scientists call this human-induced rapid evolutionary change.
Most critters, says a friend at Arkansas Game and Fish Commission, do well in urban areas as long as they don’t become reliant on people.
Small animals are more likely to live in cities because they don’t need much space or food to survive.
It is also observed, researchers say, that evolution tends to happen more frequently for animals with smaller body sizes because of their shorter life spans and greater numbers of offspring per pregnancy that accommodate faster genetic mutations.
And phys.org shares a research hypothesis that some species may be able to adapt to urban conditions faster and better than others because of useful characteristics such as learning ability, mobility and flexibility. It is also known that animals such as squirrels and birds are often bolder in urban areas than their cousins in the countryside; their vigilance and escape distances decrease.
That’s clear from the near-fearlessness of those previously mentioned gooses and the dive-bombing from mockingbirds and swallows I barely dodge when walking my dogs. Talk about territorial—I’ve learned to stay clear of the trees from which they plot their targeted attacks.
Although their bird-sized aggression is intimidating, I’m glad they have no fear of settling into our urban/natural/mixed use neighborhood. All are welcome here.
