2003 Arkansas Envirothon Special Topic Scenario

Agricultural Land Conservation and Preservation

        Greenwood Farms has been in the Gruen family for five generations. The founders of the family emigrated to the Possum River Valley from Germany in the 1840s. The original family acquired a modest 60 acres and over a period of time acquired more land until they had 840 acres in the farm.

    The Gruen family was an innovative, diversified family. They originally raised oats, corn, barley, wheat, and a large garden. They planted varieties of vegetables they had brought over from the old country. These vegetable varieties were saved and seeds were passed on from generation to generation within the family. The family still uses several of the heirloom varieties in the yearly family garden.

    The family had a diversity of livestock on the original farm. This diversity included sheep, cattle, hogs, chickens, turkeys, and draft horses. The modern farm still has a small herd of livestock (cattle, chickens and horses). The horses are no longer used to plow with, but are kept around for sentimental reasons more than anything else. Modern tractors and other equipment are now used to operate the farm.  A lot of the old horse drawn equipment has been kept though as mementos of the past. The farm has changed over the years and most of the fields are now planted to forage and hay crops although some are still planted to oats, wheat, and corn. Most of the row crops are sold to local livestock producers. The farm was one of the first farms signed up with the local Conservation District soon after the District was organized. Your family has always practiced good management on the farm.

     You, the five children, inherited the farm when your parents passed away last year. Though you have worked on the farm over the years since you graduated from high school and college and have helped your parents keep the farm running and raising the family garden, only one of you has stayed on the farm. You and your spouse live in the remodeled timber frame German style farmhouse originally built in 1858. The old timber frame barn built in 1888 is in good shape. The other four of you live in Walsh Falls. All of you live within three miles of the farm. The farmhouse and barn were added to the county list of historical structures in 1968.  Located on the northwestern corner of the farm is the old family cemetery where four generations of the family are buried. Within the cemetery stands an extremely large white pine and several large birch and oak trees planted by the second generation family members.

       In 1882 the NR&CS railroad came through the valley and cut across the farm. 600 acres of the farm is on one side and 240 acres are on the other. The railroad took a narrow fenced corridor across the farm. This corridor has reverted to the native vegetation of the area and several T/E species of plants have established themselves there. A local chapter of the state native plant society inventoried the plants along the railroad right-of-way on one of its numerous field trips to the area. Your parents were founding members of this organization. The rail line was abandoned in 1978 and ownership of the land has reverted to the family. McClure Creek, with its clear water and sandy bottom, crosses the property and goes under the old railroad. A marshy area of at least twenty-five acres is located across the railroad line on the far edge of the farm. The creek meanders through the marsh on its way to the Possum River. There is a large spring at the base of one of the slopes on the farm that runs year around and feeds into McClure Creek. The spring was the original water source for the farmstead.  Biology students at the local community college have sampled McClure Creek for macro-invertebrates and fish species several times over the last decade. While no T/E species have been found there, several species including mayflies, caddisflies, dragonflies, damselflies, crayfish, perch, and darters have been identified and collected from it. There is a fenced off corridor of hardwoods along the creek. Present within this corridor are birch, maples, oaks, white pine, and several other species along with a mixture of shrubs and grasses. Several species of wildlife call the wooded corridor home, including white-tailed deer, raccoon, barred owls, mink, skunk, two species of bats, rabbits, white-footed mice and an occasional horned owl. The fields along the creek bottom are sandy loam soils with occasional inclusions of clay where the old creek meanders were located. Over the years, there have been several arrow points and potshards found in the field along the creek bottom. The artifacts have been kept by the family and are displayed in the hall of the house

      Walsh Falls has grown drastically in the last few years. The town has grown toward the farm and the city limits are adjacent to the farm. The city wants to annex the farm next year. You have been told that if this occurs, the property will no longer be allowed to operate as a farm.  Neighbors moving to the edge of town have complained about the noise of the equipment early in the mornings on the weekends and the occasional smell from the livestock.

      Joe Onsalot, a local realtor has offered to buy the farm from you. He has offered your family one and a half times the going rate for land. He has told the eldest of you he wishes to subdivide the farm into two and half acre tracts for development. He has even hinted that sooner or later the city will annex the farm and you will lose everything, because then you can no longer farm the property, taxes will go up, and you will lose the farm anyway. So therefore you should just go ahead and sell to him.

     As the five heirs of the farm, you wish to see the farm kept in production as a farm and not subdivided. Your job, as owners of Greenwood Farm, is to present to the Walsh Falls city counsel your proposal to keep the farm as it is, a viable part of the county’s history and the last working farm adjacent to the city. You have been allowed twenty minutes on the city counsel meeting agenda to present this. They will have the chance to ask questions of the five of you after your presentation. Good luck on your presentation to the city counsel.