|
|
| |
| Fri, Aug. 29, 2008 |  |
 |
|
||
| |
Conservation project takes shape in South Arkansas Saturday, Nov 25, 2006 By Joe Mosby A pendulum in the Arkansas outdoors may have started a swing back with the signing of an agreement Tuesday at Little Rock. A nice-sized chunk of land reverted from being leased to deer hunting clubs to being open to the public. Moro Big Pine Conservation project - 16,000 acres - is in the V of southern Calhoun County between the Ouachita River and Moro Creek. It is a short distance from Moro Bay State Park, and north of El Dorado. Felsenthal National Wildlife Refuge, with its 65,000 acres, is to the southeast. The project is a conservation easement, a partnership of landowner Potlatch Forest Holdings Inc. and Arkansas Game and Fish Commission, The Nature Conservancy, Arkansas Department of Natural Heritage and Arkansas Forestry Commission. It will be operated by AGFC as a wildlife management area. A conservation easement is a legal agreement on a piece of property that limits certain types of uses or prevents development from taking place now and in the future, but enables the landowner to retain ownership. Potlatch will continue to work the land to produce timber, but within some guidelines agreed among the five partners. Scott Simon of The Nature Conservancy said that along with no development, this would mean an extended rotation for pine trees - something like 45 years from planting to harvest instead of the more common 20 years. Natural regeneration would be used instead of planting seedlings. "Ecological thinning" would be worked along with prescribed fires - controlled burns. Simon said, "It's not a case of either or but a case of both," and the familiar phrase "win-win" was voiced several times by persons involved in the agreement, a first in Arkansas. The area will open to public use next July after hunting leases expire and the club members have time to removed structures like clubhouses and permanent deer stands. This is close to the heart of Arkansas' most prolific deer area, and the land currently is leased by 19 different private hunting clubs. Some numbers and a pencil will illustrate why the conservation easement was attractive to Potlatch. The 16,000 acres are leased at prices per year ranging from $3.50 to $5 an acre, a person involved in the forming of the agreement said. Using $4 per acre as an average price, it means Potlatch receives $64,000 a year form the hunting leases in addition to any timber revenue. With the agreement, Potlatch will get $6.7 million on the front end for the lifetime easement. This equals about 105 years of lease money at the current price. Potlatch, a major timber producing firm, will keep title to the land and will continue to grow and harvest trees under the guidelines. But wildlife habitat and protection of the endangered red-cockaded woodpecker will also be priorities. The red-cockaded has been on the endangered list for years, joined in 2005 by the elusive ivory-billed woodpecker of East Arkansas. Red-cockadeds live in large mature pine trees, and this is a major reason for the long rotation in harvesting the trees on Moro Big Pine. Scott Henderson, director of the Game and Fish Commission, said, "This is a great opportunity to create a wildlife management area in South Arkansas. There is a long and rich heritage of hunting and other outdoor recreation in this part of the state. This deal is good for the people of Arkansas, good for wildlife and good for conservation. "This is a 'working forest' conservation easement - one that allows for traditional forest uses, such as timber operations and hunting, that are both ecologically sustainable and economically viable. Basically, the forest will be managed in a way that continues to provide forestry jobs, wood products and also protects the environment for future generations of Arkansans." Along with plentiful deer, Moro Big Pine has a good population of turkeys, huntable quail and a few black bears. Jim Newberry, Arkansas regional resource manager for Potlatch, said his company is playing a significant role in protecting Moro Big Pine's loblolly-shortleaf pine flatwoods, one of the least-protected plant communities in the United States. -------- Joe Mosby is the retired news editor of the Arkansas Game and Fish Commission and Arkansas' best known outdoor writer. His work is distributed by the Arkansas News Bureau in Little Rock. He can be reached by e-mail at jhmosby@cyberback.com. |
