Hiking Trail on Baker Prairie Dedicated in Honor of a Harrison High School Graduate
August 2006

According to The Nature Conservancy in Arkansas, the trail was dedicated as the Dayle McCune Hiking Trail. McCune, the former Elizabeth Dayle Williams, said she will attend the dedication and again visit the prairie and its purple coneflowers, grasses and other diverse plants and wildlife.

McCune retired from The Nature Conservancy in 2005 after 20 years with the organization. She retired as associate director of philanthropy. On her retirement, the agency's board of trustees said they would name any Nature Conservancy property in the state in her honor.

"I love every property we were ever involved in helping to save," she said Thursday. "Baker Prairie is so special.

"It's in my hometown, and I helped with the fundraising effort. I know people who made the gifts. Baker Prairie is a very special place to me."

The daughter of Clarence and Beth Williams graduated from Harrison High School in 1956. She became involved in the Nature Conservancy through a "wonderful coincidence.

"A friend I had worked with at another organization went to work for the Nature Conservancy when it started up. A couple of years later, they had an opening on the staff and she asked me to interview. She said the job was something I could do.

"It was supposed to be a temporary job."

Asked about The Nature Conservancy, she replied, "I had always loved the natural world. I loved to work for something that made a difference."

During her career, she watched the "dramatic change that has happened in our society, the loss of all kinds of our environment ... loss of wetlands, air and water quality suffered. "People have become concerned about the places they love disappearing, places where they grew up and had access.

"To me, that's a big thing."

According to a press release, McCune worked for The Nature Conservancy in Arkansas from 1985 to 2005. "Dayle was instrumental in establishing and developing Arkansas' planned giving program, called The Legacy Club.

"During her tenure, the Arkansas Field Office has been a positive and growing force for the cause of conservation, evolving from a staff of four in 1985 to a staff of more than 50 in six offices in 2006 - all dedicated to the protection of biological diversity in Arkansas.

"During the last 20 years, the membership of The Nature Conservancy in Arkansas, with Dayle's help, expanded from a handful of members to well over 6,000 members today, including more than 100 Legacy Club members, thus forming the solid base of support needed for the Conservancy to accomplish its mission. Dayle and her husband Wendell (Bud) are in the Legacy Club themselves."

They have two sons: Drs. David and Debbie McCune and their three children live in Spokane, Wash., and Wade and Carolyn McCune and their daughter, Nora, live in Little Rock.

McCune remarked that she grew up in Harrison but didn't know about Baker Prairie until she went to work for The Nature Conservancy and met Harrison residents like Martha Milburn, JoAnne Rife and others who worked locally to save the prairie. "I've been there many times now. I might have been on it as a child when it was a hayfield, but I didn't know its importance ... a natural treasure."

Baker Prairie Natural Area is a remnant of what was once a 5,000-acre tallgrass prairie located west and south of present day downtown Harrison. It is the largest known remnant of Ozark Mountain prairie occurring on a chert substrate. The prairie harbors several species of animals and plants of special concern in Arkansas. The area is managed cooperatively by The Nature Conservancy and the Arkansas Natural Heritage Commission.