State buys 160 acres to aid national park

HOT SPRINGS — The state has acquired another 160 acres near the 5.8-mile extension of the King Expressway in its ongoing effort to help protect Hot Springs National Park’s namesake thermal springs.

The acquisition is part of the more than 2,000 acres the state has acquired since 2018.

The acreage is in the recharge zone, an area that funnels runoff to hot springs that flow from the southwestern slope of Hot Springs Mountain. Too much development in the recharge zone could threaten the springs’ viability, the state said.

“The initial geological survey of the bypass extension revealed that about half of the recharge area was not in the National Park,” said Amy Lyman, director of marketing and communications for the Arkansas Department of Agriculture.

“It was in private ownership. With that knowledge, new at that time, the Forestry Division of the Arkansas Department of Agriculture volunteered to look for funding sources to ensure that the recharge area could remain in its natural condition as forests. Rainwater must filter through the rock formations from the surface to keep the hot springs viable.”

Last month, the Agriculture Department acquired an 80-acre parcel bisected by Deerpark Road northeast of the extension, which the Arkansas Department of Transportation said is scheduled to open later this year. According to property records, the land was acquired for $320,000.

Two 40- acre parcels about a mile southwest of last month’s acquisition were obtained in December. In January 2020, the state purchased a 287-acre tract east of the extension from Deltic Timber for $ 975,000. A clause in the deed prohibits disturbance of the property other than what is required to preserve its health and sustainability. The deed for the 40-acre parcel acquired last month included a similar clause.

“Since May 2018, the Arkansas Department of Agriculture has purchased 2,120 acres near the 5-mile extension of the King Expressway, all purchases made between willing sellers and the willing buyer,” Lyman said. “Without protection, the hot springs could cool or cease to flow. All the tracts purchased will be managed in their natural forested condition.”

Lyman said Arkansas Natural and Cultural Resource Council grant funds were used to purchase the 80-acre parcel acquired last month. She said the state also uses the funds as matches for Forest Legacy Program federal grants.

According to information from the U.S. Forest Service, the Hot Springs area has received almost $5 million in FLP grants since fiscal year 2019.

An April 2019 Federal Highway Administration report, which reevaluated a 2005 environmental assessment of a right of way corridor that tracked closely to the current path of the extension, said the state Department of Transportation would permanently protect 60 acres above the 660-foot elevation. That’s the height geologists have said is the minimum elevation from which runoff can reach the park’s thermal springs via ground fractures and faults in the recharge zone.

Runoff entering at a lower elevation doesn’t have the hydraulic force to descend to depths of 7,000 feet, where it gets heated to 170 degrees before rising to the surface. Putting drainage or impermeable surfaces at or above the 660-foot threshold blocks or diverts rainfall that would otherwise replenish the springs, geologists have said.