Introduction to Natural Areas
What is a Natural Area
Prior to settlement, Arkansas was marked by an expansive mosaic of natural communities. In all, more than 40 different natural community types occurred across Arkansas's landscape. Since the 1800s, however, urban development, agriculture, fire suppression, and the spread of invasive plant species have destroyed or degraded many of these natural communities.
The Arkansas Natural Heritage Commission (ANHC) is charged with the responsibility of protecting the best of the last remaining vestiges of the state's natural communities. The ANHC does this through its System of Natural Areas. Natural areas are lands specifically managed to preserve, and sometimes restore, natural communities that have become rare.
Natural areas are more than just a glimpse into the past. What these areas ultimately can provide are blueprints for understanding how Arkansas's diverse ecosystems originally functioned. Such information will be especially vital as Arkansas continues to develop and address important environmental issues into the future.
Birth of the System
Following its establishment in 1973, the ANHC began to incorporate sites into its System of Natural Areas. Singer Forest Natural Area was Arkansas’s first natural area and was donated to the ANHC by the Singer Company in 1973. Roth Prairie, located in Arkansas County, was the first natural area purchased by the ANHC. It was acquired on July 23, 1976.
Data from the Arkansas Heritage Program has enabled the commission to make choices based upon scientific data. Many early acquisitions concentrated on small tracts to protect habitat of certain rare animals and plants. Near the White River in Stone County, Hell Creek Natural Area supports one of the only known populations of the federally endangered Hell Creek crayfish (Cambarus zophonastes). Warren Prairie Natural Area, for example, was acquired in 1983 and is one of only a handful of sites in the world where the federally threatened plant Geocarpon (Geocarpon minimum) grows. The small parcel that started out as Warren Prairie Natural Area has now grown to just over 2,000 acres.
Reconnecting Landscapes
From the mid-1980s to the present, the ANHC has focused on larger and more complex projects. Acquisition of 4,230 acres along 11 miles of the Cossatot River in 1987 was made possible by a partnership between Arkansas State Parks and the ANHC. The first tract to become Falcon Bottoms Natural Area was acquired in 1991. Additional tracts were added throughout the early 1990s. Acquisitions to this natural area from 2000-2003 enabled the commission to link isolated fragments of bottomland habitat. Today, Falcon Bottoms Natural Area protects more than 2,700 acres.
Partnerships with other governmental agencies, non-profits, and private industry have helped to fuel two recent large-scale conservation efforts. In 2003, The ANHC, the Arkansas Field Office of The Nature Conservancy (TNC), and Potlatch Corporation signed a forest management agreement for a perpetual conservation easement on a portion of Potlatch's holdings near Warren Prairie Natural Area. The easement now serves as an addition to Warren Prairie and has been the focus of innovative forest management techniques designed to restore pine savannas to the area. The ANHC, TNC, Potlatch, and the Arkansas Game and Fish Commission (AGFC) partnered in 2007 to form Moro Big Pine Natural Area-Wildlife Management Area; the largest natural area currently in the System. Located in southern Arkansas, the area is home to loblolly-shortleaf pine forests, one of the least-protected plant communities in the nation.