Howard and Verna Plank of Pocahontas are the April, 2008 Arkansas FireWise Home of the Month. The home was nominated by Curtis Shepherd, Randolph County Ranger.

Mr. & Mrs. Plank own almost 1,000 acres along the foothills of the Ozarks north of Pocahontas.  The access road is paved and runs along a ridge to the home on the end of the point. The land is home to deer, wild turkeys and squirrels.

This beautiful home was at moderate risk until the Planks signed up for the Environmental Quality Incentives Program, also known as EQUIP, which is a Natural Resources Conservation Service, NRCS, program which provides cost share and incentive payments to implement conservation practices on eligible agricultural land.  It is a voluntary program that promotes environmental quality and agricultural production as compatible goals. The Randolph County Arkansas Forestry Commission Crew was contracted to conduct a control burn on almost 250 acres in March 2007.  This control burn reduced the heavy fuel load that had accumulated throughout the years. The burn not only killed much of the brush, but it killed most of the red cedars that had invaded the area. Mr. Plank plans to burn the tract on a three-year rotation.

The beautiful home and lawn, which is lean, clean and green, now has extended defensible space of several hundred feet 360 degrees around the home as a result of the control burn.