Earlier this year, the Northwest Arkansas Land Trust and its partners completed the permanent protection of 769-acre property at the headwaters of the White River in southern Madison County. Ozarks at Large’s Jack Travis visited the site with biologist and Land Trust philanthropy director Marson Nance to learn what the new preserve means for water, wildlife and the region.
“We are at the 769-acre White River Headwaters Preserve, which is a name that the Land trust gave this property, and so it might be subject to change in the future, but it really describes where we're at right now. We are in southern Madison County, about halfway between Pettigrew and Saint Paul and a little historic community called Dutton, Arkansas.”
The land is primarily oak hardwood forests, with the beginnings of the white River running through it. Protecting the property required years of work and several sources of funding. Nance says the trust purchased the land through a Forest Legacy Grant, a program of the US Forest Service that the Arkansas Department of Agriculture's Forestry Division administers.
“Funding was also provided by the Conservation Fund and for and by Beaver Water District to purchase this property from the Johnson family, who had been out on this property for years and years and years, and loved it.”
The Johnsons worked with the Land Trust to find an actionable price for the land.
“The Johnsons actually agreed to sell the property at what's called a bargain sale. So they actually took about 10% off the fair market value to sell it to us a little cheaper to make the grant work and to guarantee that the property would be protected forever.”
Once the purchase was complete, the Land Trust transferred the property to the Arkansas Natural Heritage Commission, which will own and manage the property as part of the state's system of natural areas.
“This is really the first project the Land Trust has worked on where we did most of the legwork, but in the end, we ultimately don't hold an easement on it or hold the property. Part of the federal grant requirement was that a state agency hold the property, and so ANHC was the perfect fit for that, because this is kind of in their mission as well to protect these natural landscapes.”
The Johnson family had been trying to secure permanent protection for the land for years. Nance said their motivation was simple.
“They just love the property. The Johnsons, Phyllis and Charles are just awesome folks. They're long-time Fayettevillians and really embedded in the community, they had gotten this property to just recreate on and do a little cattle grazing and just to enjoy, to get out of town. They both had pretty hectic jobs and stuff, from what I understand. And so they love this place. And we find this a lot with landowners. They find a little spot of heaven and they don't want to see it turn into something else, you know? And so they were really adamant that the property be protected so that it would maintain its quality of forest habitat and some open areas and just be another place on the map in northwest Arkansas that was protected for everyone.”
From a small bridge over the river, the White looks more like a trickle than the wider water many Arkansans picture. But Nance says headwaters like this are where most streams and tributaries begin, and what happens here shapes the water downstream.
“So we are at the headwaters of the White River, in most watersheds, most of the miles of streams and tributaries happen within the headwaters area. And this all flows pretty much north up through Fayetteville all the way to Beaver Lake, which is the drinking water for 600,000 people in our region.”
Protecting large forested tracts at the top of the watershed helps limit erosion and pollution before they enter the river.
“And so protecting these huge chunks of land maintains the ecological integrity. But also it prevents certain activities that could be detrimental to the water quality.”
He pointed to practices that cause streambank erosion and sediment and nutrient pollution.
“The cleaner we can keep the water at the beginning, the cleaner is downstream. And so the cleaner it is downstream, and ultimately, when it hits Beaver Lake, the less effort it takes to clean that water to actually make it drinkable for everybody in northwest Arkansas.”
That has a financial impact as well.
“That ultimately can help keep water bills down. We all end up paying a water bill at the end of the day. And so the worse the water is, the more it has to be treated, the more expensive it is to treat that water. And that gets passed on to the end of the line consumer like you and me, so it's not just an ecological protection, it's an economic protection. It's a guarantee that we will always have safe, healthy drinking water in northwest Arkansas.”
Nance says several major rivers headwaters begin in the hills within a small radius of the preserve. The preserve also protects habitat for animals that rely on clean water and intact forests.
“So what's really cool about this property is it does protect several, what's considered species of greatest conservation need in Arkansas. So there's several aquatic species, some fish and stuff in here, too. What's really cool is it provides habitat for several species of bats, which are under threat from habitat loss everywhere. But several of them here in northwest Arkansas are considered either federally threatened or state species of conservation concern. So Indiana bat, gray bat, Ozark big eared bat. A lot of those bats require these kind of open forest habitats with water, to complete their life cycles.”
In addition to ecological benefits, the land includes important cultural resources.
“So there's a registered Osage Bluff shelter on the property, north of us. And which is really cool. And so at the Land Trust we're trying to protect some of those cultural resources as well. And so a property like this that's got ecological benefits, economic benefits, cultural benefits, , it just kind of checks all the boxes you want to have for a property to be protected. And so that's why we're really excited about the protection of this one in particular, because it does check all the boxes when we look strategically at land conservation and landscape scale conservation as well.”
The new preserve connects directly to the Ozark National Forest on the other side of the mountain, expanding a larger block of public land.
“And so by doing that, we're just increasing the availability of the ecosystem for all the wildlife that depend on it.”
The Arkansas Natural Heritage Commission will now decide how to manage the site and how to eventually open it for visitors.
“That's the plan. ANHG has to create that management plan. I don't know what any of that will look like. The property is in their hands now. And so just like the rest of their system of natural areas. Yeah, there will be opportunities for public access in the future. I don't know how long that will take. I know at the Land Trust, at least it takes a long time to plan out public access. And so they're just at the beginning stages now of trying to conceptualize and figure out what the best use for the property will be. But yeah, that's the goal is to be able to get people out here and see it and be able to hike around and enjoy the benefits of protected lands like this.”
Although the site feels remote from the urban centers of northwest Arkansas, Nance says its protection affects residents throughout the region.
“We're in what seems to a lot of people, especially in our urban core, is kind of a far flung area of Madison County. But we're all connected. We all live downstream. There's a lot of our watershed partners point out a lot, and by protecting areas, even if they're not within the urban core, they still impact us and within the urban core in northwest Arkansas.”
For Nance, the project is also personally meaningful.
“Oh, man. Just the wildlife we're able to protect. I'm a biologist at heart, and so I like all the creatures, the plants and animals that call these areas home. And so I'm always excited to see protected lands increase. I'm excited to see lands put into permanent protection because I know that northwest Arkansas, it's a biodiversity hotspot in the country. It's so important for a lot of wildlife, even wildlife that are just migrating through here at certain times of the year. And so by protecting spots like this, large tracts of land we're basically able to do the most good for the most number of species at a time.”
He says the project shows how many people and organizations in Northwest Arkansas are willing to work together to conserve land and water.
“It's not just the Land Trust. We have watershed partners and state agencies and other environmental nonprofits educating kids and I mean, all the things. And so, it's just a testament to northwest Arkansas and our real values in cherishing our natural surroundings, that we're able to have so many partners working on this and so many members of our community that support these initiatives.
“And so a lot of our work at the Land Trust, we can't do it without support from our community. We're truly a grassroots led organization. The partnerships are so important in Arkansas in particular. We don't have a lot of state funding like other states do, for conservation work and stuff. And so we have to get real creative in how we protect these places. And for nonprofits and other NGOs working with federal and state agencies and sometimes private individuals as well, like the Johnsons, that's really what makes it happen. We're not on an island. We're not doing this alone. Everybody's working together on these projects. And that's one of the things I love about working and living and raising a family in northwest Arkansas.”
You can visit the Northwest Arkansas Land Trust website for more information on the Land Trust and the new White River Headwaters Preserve.
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