If any single event was a watershed for conservation of the world's mangrove forests, it was the Indian Ocean tsunami of 2004. The day after Christmas that year, a magnitude 9.1 earthquake thundered along a fault line on the ocean floor with a force that sent waves — some a hundred feet high — surging toward the densely populated coasts encircling the Indian Ocean. The disaster took more than 225,000 lives.

While my state still boasts of woodlands, plains, and waterways with wildlife abounding, the region is a far and primal cry from the fauna-filled wilderness it once was. Prior to Euro-American settlement, Arkansas was a documented home to elk, American bison, red wolves, and mountain lions. Though we’re a few hundred miles southeast of their known historic range, I’d imagine a stray grizzly or two wandered down the Arkansas River in search of new territory.