FAYETTEVILLE — Another seed has been planted to preserve Fayetteville’s natural spaces.
Dr. Pete Heinzelmann and his wife, Margo, established the Fayetteville Natural Areas Foundation Fund, a charitable fund of the Northwest Arkansas Community Foundation.
“It’s a small seed that’s starting here,” Pete Heinzelmann told a crowd of about 40 people Friday afternoon gathered under the Lindsey-Underwood Pavilion in Mount Sequoyah Woods Park. “It’s going to take a lot of nurturing from a lot of people.”
The fund will be managed by the Northwest Arkansas Community Foundation. Neither Heinzelmann nor Anita Scism, president and CEO of the foundation, would say how much money the Heinzelmanns gave.
The Heinzelmanns are hoping their gift will inspire others to give, either now or later as a bequest from wills.
“This fund will provide grants to Fayetteville to preserve and acquire more natural lands,” said Connie Edmonston, director of the Fayetteville Parks and Recreation Division.
Only the city of Fayetteville can be the recipient of the funds mony, and they must be used toward acquiring natural areas, Heinzelmann said. The city will apply through a grant application process, he explained.
A six-person advisory committee will review the application to determine the integrity of the request, Heinzelmann said. The advisory committee will be made up of the chairman of Fayetteville Environmental Action Committee, director of the Fayetteville chapter of the Nature Conservancy, the director of the Arkansas chapter of the Audubon Society, chairman of the Fayetteville Natural Heritage Association, chairman of the Fayetteville Parks and Recreation Advisory Board, and the director of the Fayetteville Parks and Recreation Division.
The advisory committee is only advisory, Heinzelmann noted. The final decision to award a grant is made by the Northwest Arkansas Community Foundation.