Northwest Arkansas Democrat-Gazette
Center wants to preserve land
Group seeks help to make purchase
FAYETTEVILLE — Conservationists say a patch of land near the southeast edge of town begs to be restored and preserved; they just need to buy it first.
The Watershed Conservation Resource Center, a nonprofit organization specializing in stream and river restoration, hopes to acquire about 98 acres east of Dead Horse Mountain Road, just south of Huntsville Road. It borders the Stonebridge Meadows Golf Course to the north and the West Fork of the White River runs through it. The land used to be owned by late developer Gary Combs.
A bank owns it now. Asking price for the land is $250,000, and the center has $100,000 to put toward the purchase. It’s seeking help to cover the rest.
Sandi Formica, the center’s director, gave a presentation to the City Council’s Water and Sewer Committee on Tuesday. The center wants to place the land in a perpetual conservation easement, which would keep it from being developed. The land sits in a floodplain and about half of it is unbuildable anyway, according to the center’s assessment.
Floodplains filter sediment naturally and help reduce stress on streams, benefiting ecological
habitats and maintaining water quality, Formica said.
“From a development standpoint, it’s not a great piece of property. But from a restoration standpoint, it’s a neat property,” she said. “I think it’ll turn into a real jewel.”
The center has worked on a number of spots within the watersheds of Northwest Arkansas. Stream restoration projects near the municipal airport, Noland Wastewater Treatment Plant, Kessler Mountain Regional Park and other locations have kept 15,000 tons of sediment out of the West Fork of the White River and Beaver Lake watersheds, according to the center’s estimates.
Restoration of the site also could mean a new boat dock on the West Fork, increasing public access to the river, Formica said. A bird and butterfly sanctuary is another possibility.
Joe Neal, an avid birder and member of the regional Audubon Society, said the site already has the life and characteristics of a seasonal wetland. Preserving the land will only bolster its natural activity, he said.
Such properties are becoming increasingly scarce with the rapid pace of development the city is experiencing, Neal said.
“There’s a need to have these places that are pieces of public or semi-public land, where people can go out and see biology in the real,” he said. “They can see the plants, they can see the animals, they can see the stream and study the stream ecology.”
Mark Kinion, Ward 2 council member who serves as chairman of the Water and Sewer Committee, said the potential is there. Improving the water quality coming in at the headwaters, feeding down into the drinking water supply at Beaver Lake, would serve as a valuable investment, he said.
“It is really important and exciting that we might have the opportunity to participate in some way to get that property,” he said.
Kinion asked Utilities Director Tim Nyander to come back at the next City Council committee meeting in December with an estimated value, monetary or otherwise, on restoring and preserving the area. Kinion said he sees the move as a return on an investment, and maintaining the quality of the water running through the city is the city’s responsibility.
The Arkansas Department of Environmental Quality has a set of water quality standards for cities to follow. The city buys treated drinking water from the Beaver Water District.
If a deal is struck, the center would do the restoration and the city would help buy the land. Nyander said there’s a water quality improvement line item in the budget. The city could put $125,000 toward the project, and the center could partner with another organization on the remaining $25,000, he said. It will be up to the full City Council to allocate any money.
The center could always use donations from the public to put toward projects, Formica said.