Sweden Creek Falls Natural Area; located in the Boston Mountains of northern Arkansas.
Arkansas
Natural Heritage Commission
Website:
http://www.naturalheritage.com
State Government Affiliation:
a division of the Department of Arkansas Heritage
Naural Areas:
62 sites totaling over 25,000 acres of land.
Funding:
State General Revenue, state grants funded by Real Estate Transfer Tax, portion of 1/8th Cent Conservation Sales Tax (constitutional amendment), federal grants, donations
Land Acquisition:
Acquisitions target locations of exceptional importance to the state’s biodiversity throughout its six natural divisions according to a strategic planning process. Sound scientific site conservation methodologies, combined with analysis of natural heritage data, factor in prioritizing areas of conservation concern. Arkansas staff pursues negotiations for those that can be successfully managed.
Protection:
Arkansas’s natural area ownership may be fee-title, conservation easement, or other agreement that conveys interest in perpetuity. Articles of Dedication are required, and must be in writing, under seal, acknowledged, and ultimately recorded by the recorder of deeds in each county where the property lies.
Stewardship:
Arkansas staff and contractors work diligently to observe, study, plan, develop, and continually update detailed management plans for each natural area. The commission’s Rules and Regulations stipulate a three-year revision cycle and peer-review process. Each Management Plan follows an established format based on a conservation vision and incorporates activities in five general categories: routine grounds maintenance, prescribed fire management, invasive species management, restoration, and research/monitoring.
Current Events:
Partnerships, with state and federal agencies, private non-profit organizations, and private landowners, often allow the ANHC to have a much larger impact than it could by working alone. When appropriate, conservation easements offer opportunities to broaden the scope of land protection at a lower cost than fee-title purchases. Oftentimes building these coalitions greatly increases the scale of our projects and also our chances for success.
The ANHC partnered with the Arkansas Game & Fish Commission, the Arkansas Forestry Commission, and The Nature Conservancy to reach an agreement with Potlatch Corporation in south Arkansas, on lands identified as ecologically significant by the ANHC. Plans call for the Arkansas Game and Fish Commission to establish a wildlife management area, which means the site will be open for public hunting in a part of the state where relatively little public land exists. Also, Potlatch will continue ecologically sustainable timber operations, providing jobs and supplies for local mills. The ANHC proposes to add the 16,000-acre “Moro Big Pine” project area as the largest component of the System of Natural Areas, conserving habitat for the federally listed endangered red-cockaded woodpecker and other rare species.