Pine Tree land to remain public after UA ends contract

Sale of 6,300 acres opposed by Legislature

The University of Arkansas Division of Agriculture has officially backed out of its contract with Lobo Farms to sell 6,300 acres of public access land at the Pine Tree Research Station.

The possibility of the sale of the land was first announced in March 2020. The sale would have supplied more than $16 million in support funds to the Division of Agriculture.

However, however, the public land would have become privately owned, costing many people their hunting, fishing and activity areas.

UA Trustees voted last year in favor of a resolution allowing roughly 6,300 acres of timberland to be sold to Lobo Farms, LLC in Fisher.

The land, however, was purchased by the University in 1960 from the federal government with the stipulation that it shall remain open to the public or the land would revert back to the federal government. The sale of the land needed approval in Congress, although state and federal legislatures fought back against the university's attempted sale.

District 23 Senator Ronald Caldwell, R-Wynne, said he received a call from the U of A early Tuesday morning informing him of the agreement.

"I was on my way to Little Rock when received a call from the University of Arkansas around 8:30 Tuesday morning," said Caldwell. "I was told that the University had reached an agreement with Lobo Farms to terminate the contract and not proceed with the land sale."

Charles Gaines, an avid outdoorsman who uses the Pine Tree land regularly, said there is so much more offered at the Pine Tree station than just a place to hunt on the public land.

"Around here, there are a lot of places to hunt, but most of them are private," said Gaines. "This is one of the only places that allows public hunting in this area. There is fishing, hunting and you can do pretty much anything you would like to do out there, within the confines of the law of course,” he said

Gaines said that he is overjoyed to learn of the University's decision to back out of the contract.

"I used to be a Scoutmaster here in Forrest City and there were many times that I would take my Troop out there to complete merit badges," said Gaines. "It was easy to access and we could be out there legally without needing permission. The University would help us by answering questions as well.

“There have been two Eagle Scout projects done out there,” Gaines continued. “They constructed wood duck boxes out there in a partnership with AGFC. The Wynne Troop, Troop 18, cleaned up an old cemetery off of SFC 107. They cleaned it up and now it looks like a cemetery where it had once been overgrown and taken over by woods. There is a lot more than hunting and fishing that goes on out there. I like to call it an outdoor classroom. My kids and I have gone out there to collect bugs for projects. I am just overjoyed that the U of A backed out of the contract. It will be a great thing for our community."

Nate Hinkle, a spokesman for the University of Arkansas system was quoted in the DemocratGazette as saying that the agreement was reached between the Division of Agriculture and the prospective buyers.

Caldwell said that after nearly a year of working to stop the sale of the land, the hard work paid off.

"We have worked 51 weeks on this, trying to get this stopped," said Caldwell. "It started last year on the last week of June. It is a good example of the common man being able to work through state government to get something stopped."

(Continued from Page 1) According to Caldwell, the state legislature is doing all it can to be able to keep the land open to the public.

"I had a citizen call me last year to tell me about the possibility of the land being sold and that the deer permits sold by game and fish had dropped significantly," said Caldwell. "We dug into the claim and discovered that the University did indeed have a contract to sell a portion of the land. We considered the contract to be non-valid because they did not have their ducks in a row. Through legislative work, we were able to stop the sale and we are going to continue doing everything we can to keep this land open to the public."

Gaines stated that it was the right thing to do to back out of the contract with Lobo Farms and that the next step needs to be to give the land to a group that could maintain it as a wildlife management area.

"The next step that we need to do is get the land transferred to someone like the Land Commission or the Arkansas Game and Fish Commission or some group like that," said Gaines. "This way it could remain a wildlife management area forever. It is great news that the University was able to come to an agreement with Lobo Farms to back out of the contract. I believe that was the right thing to do."

In an interview with the Democrat-Gazette, Caldwell said he wants to continue to work with the UA Division of Agriculture to make life better for Arkansas farmers.

"It's something that should have been done at least six or eight months ago," Caldwell said. "The news was well-received, but not totally unexpected. That sales contract was set to expire June 30. I just couldn't see the UA renewing it. I am not one to carry grudges. I want to continue to work with the Division of Agriculture to make life better for the Arkansas farmer in any way we can."