By Jeff Niese

FAYETTEVILLE -- Development of nearly 300 acres of city-owned land may not only endanger a rare fish but also birds, local environmentalists say.

Mike Mlodinow, a local bird watcher, said the 289 acres of land near Interstate 540 are home to five species of birds that have been designated as vulnerable to extinction.

"This is the only place in the state where the Henslow's sparrow nests. It is a species of concern nationally and regionally," Mlodinow said of the land, which Mayor Dan Coody proposes to become a business park.

An 11-member task force, appointed by Coody, has been meeting since June to consider what the city should do with the land north of I-540 and west of Arkansas 112.

The city bought the land in 1990 for $1.3 million with the intention of developing it as a high-tech business park. Development efforts, however, stalled for a number of years as the city waited to get commitments from businesses to build in the area.

In 1999, a city-commissioned study found that about a third of the land, or 85 acres, qualifies as wetland. City officials originally believed that less than 10 acres were wetland.

Even before the city bought the land, however, researchers knew that the Arkansas darter, a relatively rare fish, was living in Wilson Spring, which is on the property. The fish is a candidate to be on the endangered-species list.

Now, a mayor-appointed task force is examining what to do with the property, with proposals ranging from developing nearly all the land to others that focus more on conservation.

Mlodinow said that, as a birder, his concerns are how development will affect the birds.

"I just think it would be good to try and marriage it so we still have the Henslow's sparrow," he said of the plans to develop the business park in ways that limit impact on the environment.

Northern Arkansas is included as part of the Central Hardwoods Bird Conservation Region, which stretches from northern Arkansas north to the Missouri River and east through Illinois and Indiana, and wraps south through Kentucky and Tennessee to extreme northern Alabama.

Henslow's sparrows, Bell's vireos, field sparrows, white-eyed vireos and yellow-breasted chats are believed to inhabit parts of the city land, Mlodinow said. He is mostly concerned with how the Henslow's sparrow will be affected, however, because it is of national concern. Some of the other birds are only considered vulnerable to extinction regionally.

The bird, weighing only about half an ounce, is a U.S. Fish and Wildlife Species of Concern. The songbird is about 5 inches long and nests in grassland near Clabber Creek, Mlodinow said.

The bird needs about 150 acres of grassland, Mlodinow said. He and fellow bird watchers identified three male-female pairs of Henslow's sparrows earlier this year at the site. That number could grow through breeding, he added.

One option that Mlodinow supports is a proposal for the city to lease the land to the Audubon Society.

Earlier this month, Don Nelms, chairman of the board of Audubon Arkansas, told the task force that his group was willing to take control of the property.

"This is one of the last prairies in this area that is still intact," Nelms said about the land. "We would be a good steward there."

Nelms said the Audubon Society is making the proposal to assist the city. The wetland make-up of the property would be very costly to develop, he said.

"I just didn't have a comfort level with the business plan they're proposing out there. So we made the offer to them from Audubon Arkansas representing National Audubon Society," he said.

The group is also proposing to build a nature center and to return Clabber Creek, which has been channelized, to its original state.

The task force meets again at 5 p.m. Tuesday at the Donald W. Reynolds Center for Enterprise Development at the University of Arkansas.