MIDLAND -- The Arkansas Natural Heritage Commission is in the process of developing a management plan for 1,191 acres it bought in south Sebastian County earlier this year.
Ryan Spotts, the commission's chief of land acquisition and stewardship, said the commission paid more than $1.7 million to SGW Mountaintop for the land in late May. This led to the land becoming the Sugarloaf Mountains-Midland Peak Natural Area.
The Natural Heritage Commission website describes natural areas as land specifically managed to preserve, and at times restore, natural communities that have become rare in Arkansas since widespread settlement of the area took place in the 1800s. Urban development, agriculture, fire suppression and the spread of invasive plant species have destroyed or degraded many of the natural communities the state previously had.
Theo Witsell, ecologist and chief of research for the Natural Heritage Commission, said Arkansas' natural areas can be considered a "living library," a reference point for how the state used to be due to the lack of human change they experienced. Many of these areas have rare species of plants and animals that are only found in intact habitats, or rare types of habitats, such as grasslands.
Many people are interested in the scientific value of these natural areas, according to Witsell.
Spotts said the Natural Heritage Commission's purchase in Sebastian County is its most recent land acquisition to create a natural area in Arkansas. All its natural areas are open to the public, although certain activities, such as camping, are prohibited, given the priority the commission places on the ecology of these areas.
The management plan the commission is creating for its new property will include what natural communities are there and what plant species it wants to either encourage or curb, according to Spotts. It will also include a list of priorities to address issues at the area, such as invasive plant species.
"It's sort of like a long-term plan for how we want to get this site where it should be and keep it there," Spotts said.
Spotts said she hopes the management plan will be finished by the end of the year. The commission will afterwards do an internal review to determine whether possible additions, such as a parking lot and trails, could be implemented and how to do so. The commission will also post signs indicating boundaries at the property, which will be open to hunting provided the Arkansas Game and Fish Commission gives its approval.
Witsell wrote in a site report the 1,191 acres is southwest of Midland. It extends to Sugarloaf Lake, which is owned by the Game and Fish Commission, on the northwest end while Sebastian County's Bob Boyer Park borders it to the northeast. The property itself is described as "rugged and mountainous," containing the 1,996-ft. East Midland Peak and part of the ridge connecting it to West Midland Peak, both of which are part of the Sugarloaf Mountains.
The report states the natural area is home to at least four plant species conservation concern on a state level, which includes three that are also a global concern. The rarest is the maple-leaf oak tree, which is confirmed to occur in only four sites worldwide and all at high elevation peaks in the Arkansas Valley and Ouachita Mountains in Arkansas.
"It's actually the largest population in the world, that is, over 1,000 individuals of this tree, and they're all up at the very top of this area that we bought," Witsell said.
The two other plant species of global conservation concern in the new natural area include the Ouachita indigo bush and Church's wild rye while another species present, the long-bract spiderwort , remains a state concern, according to Witsell's report.
The report states natural communities that include woodland, forests, glades, savannas, cliffs and wetland can also be found in the area, among other things.
Spotts noted a major landslide wiped out part of Sugarloaf Mountain Road, a county road that runs through the property from the northwest from Sugar Loaf Lake down to the southeast north of Hartford, shortly before the commission's purchase in May. This has made it impossible to drive from one end of the property to the other, with the road also being untraversable to hikers. The commission doesn't plan to fix this road due to the expense that would be involved.
Jim Carter, county road superintendent, confirmed the landslide happened about three months ago. He said about 200 yards of Sugarloaf Mountain Road fell about 50 feet.
The damage is too extensive for the Road Department to repair as well, according to Carter. In his opinion, a new road would have to be built in its place on the land the Natural Heritage Commission purchased.
Spotts said the commission hopes to work with Sebastian County to co-manage the natural area and the county's Bob Boyer Park to help facilitate things such as burns and thinnings at both sites. This is based on conversations with the county, including Jay Randolph, county park administrator and golf course superintendent.
Randolph on Monday likewise expressed hope to work with the commission to enhance both the natural area and the park through prescribed burns and other maintenance measures. Randolph participated in some of the visits the commission made to the property before buying it, according to Witsell's report.
A wooded landscape is seen on Friday, July 15, 2022, at the Sugarloaf Mountains-Midland Peak Natural Area in Hartford. The Arkansas Natural Heritage Commission purchased 1,191 acres in south Sebastian County to create this natural area in late May. Visit nwaonline.com/220717Daily/ for today's photo gallery. (NWA Democrat-Gazette/Hank Layton)
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NoneTotal Natural Areas
The Arkansas Natural Heritage Commission has 78 natural areas spanning 73,443 total acres in 50 counties.
Source: Arkansas Natural Heritage Commission