Date: 5/8/25 10:26 am From: JACQUE BROWN <bluebird2...> Subject: Re: “DOWNTOWN” CENTERTON SLATED FOR ARKANSAS IMPORTANT BIRD AREA
I live in Centerton and haven't heard about a "new downtown" but the old pastures are filling with homes and new schools.
Walmart created the infrastructure for a Superstore about 10 years ago across from the Centerton Pond before they decided they had already saturated the market and never built the store.
However I have heard there is going to be a new Walmart Distribution Center on Anglin Rd at the west side of Barron Rd, also a great place for Shorebirds such as Golden-Plovers during migration. The pastures on the other side of Barron Rd is still the Anglin property where they still run cows, it holds water after 3 days of rain and shorebirds gather there as well.
I'm hearing the fish hatchery is going to do some restructuring later this year, I don't really know what that means, they have built new ponds in the upper pond area recently. Walk in traffic will not be allowed during that time. I don't think the hatchery is going anywhere since the previously planned move to Cave Springs was nixed.
Maybe walmart sold them the land on 14th street where the Superstore was supposed to go all those years ago.
Jacque Brown, Centerton
On Thursday, May 8, 2025 at 07:39:57 AM CDT, Joseph Neal <0000078cbd583d7c-dmarc-request...> wrote:
Some of you, especially around Northwest Arkansas City, may have heard plans to build a new “downtown” area for Centerton. This would include the area currently home to Craig State Fish Hatchery, one of the first Important Bird Areas declared for Arkansas.Rapid urbanization of Centerton – close to the huge new Walmart world headquarters complex under development in Bentonville -- made such development almost predictable.We could see something like this coming 21 years ago – encroachment of urbanization as it rapidly destroyed one of the best bird habitats. Habitat for numerous plant and animal species unique to the wetlands of Tallgrass Prairies. The spring runs have a population of Swamp Milkweed, important to Monarch Butterflies. There are rare Ozark Cave Fish in the undergrounds of these springs.I had hoped one of the billionaires spun off from Walmart Empire would step in and acquire available property 20 years ago to protect a natural heritage unique in our part of the world. But no.Except to see the occasional rarity (like this season’s Long-tailed Duck), I quit going to Centerton after almost being run over by a string of dump trucks speeding up Fish Hatchery Road. They were building houses. I was building a database for Swamp Milkweed/Monarchs in the spring run associated with the hatchery.My first hatchery trips occurred with my old friend Charlie Wooten in early 1980s. I subsequently made many trips with Mike Mlodinow and others. Doug James for many years took his students to see spring migration there. Some of you who read this were probably students in those classes. I have attached 4 files to this email. These are pages of an article I wrote for the Arkansas Game and Fish Magazine “Arkansas Wildife” (May/June 2003), “Sandpipers at Centerton.”Don’t weep for me. Weep for a NWA City without such a source/support for the wildlife of North America. Source for inspiration about our unique Planet Earth. We can never replace what has been lost. And, as these plans move ahead, what will be further lost.
