Title

UAPB Program Helps Landowner Retain, Enhance Family Farm

Relevance

{"ops":[{"insert":"An Arkansas landowner in Monroe County was recently contacted by a prospective buyer who offered her $15,000 for her family farm, which she inherited from her parents. The landowner felt distressed – on one hand, she knew her land was probably worth more than the offered sum. On the other hand, however, she feared her only other options for earning any money off her land were renting it out for hunting or perhaps harvesting some of her timberland. Because it had been 25 years since she last managed the timber stand, she did not feel like the latter was a viable option. Before making the decision to sell the land for $15,000, the landowner decided to take a chance and see if she could get the advice of the University of Arkansas at Pine Bluff (UAPB) Keeping it in the Family (KIITF) Sustainable Forestry and Land Retention Program. The program provides educational resources and technical assistance to African American and historically-underserved landowners forest landowners to protect and retain their family land for future generations.\n"}]}

Response

{"ops":[{"insert":"The KIITF forester who received the landowner’s call recalls her explaining her dilemma through tears. He advised her not to sell the land, reassuring her that she had other options. After KIITF personnel conducted a site visit to the land, they began exploring the landowner’s potential opportunities through the Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS). Upon observing that the landowner had many smart conservation practices already in place, KIITF personnel believed she would be a great candidate for receiving funding for more conservation enhancement activities through the NRCS Conservation Stewardship Program (CSP). The program offers payments to agricultural and forest producers who expand their existing conservation efforts by adopting additional conservation activities. \n"}]}

Results

{"ops":[{"insert":"After applying for the program, the landowner was awarded a five-year CSP contract for a total payment of $188,492. According to the KIITF conservation consultant, the minimum yearly CSP payment is $4,000, however, the landowner was promised a minimum payment of $18,000 per year due to the responsible management practices she already had in place.\n\nSpecifically, the CSP funding will be used to enhance the landowner’s farm and timber stand in several ways. Low-tech structures will be used to minimize, promote and sustain the natural processes of beaver dam activity and wood accumulation that lead to more fully connected floodplains; the forest stand will be improved by utilizing snags, den trees and coarse woody debris for wildlife habitat; the forest’s soil quality will be improved; rare or declining habitat will be restored to create refugia for documented occurrences of sensitive plant communities; and forest stand density will be reduced to limit wildfire risk.\n\nThe KIITF team continues to work with the landowner on ways she can receive income through her family land while simultaneously maintaining and enhancing it. The landowner has expressed that the KIITF team changed her life and allowed her to keep her family land that she had started to give up on.\n"}]}

Public Value Statement

{"ops":[{"insert":"According to the KIITF conservation consultant, this case proves that landowners are not limited to earning money on their land merely through harvesting timber and renting it to hunters. Funding through the U.S. Department of Agriculture is available to those who want to be good stewards of their land, maintaining and improving its sustainability. Programs such as this give landowners the chance to keep their land in the family name, all the while increasing its profitability and sustainability.\n"}]}

Primary Focus Area

Environmental Stewardship

Secondary Focus Area

Agricultural Systems

Impact Statement