Caught Lookin’ Farm recognized with 2024 Landowner Conservation Award from AGFC

LITTLE ROCK — Kyle and Laura Winning weren’t planning to be a showcase of land stewardship when they set out to buy land for a new home in 2020, but sometimes you find that piece of paradise to grow your roots and just have to go “all in.” The transformation of their 550-acre “Caught Lookin’ Farm” in Faulkner County not only offers local landowners a template for how to mingle agriculture with wildlife habitat, it earned them one of the Arkansas Game and Fish Commission Private Lands Habitat Division’s 2024 Landowner Conservation awards in July.

“Laura contacted me before she even closed on the property,” Clint Johnson, AGFC Quail Program coordinator and former private lands biologist, said. “The Winnings contact a biologist before any major decisions on the property and genuinely value their input.”

The land that captivated the Winnings was much larger than they first envisioned buying. According to Kyle Winning, they were really in the market for something 3 to 5 acres on which to build a house.

“We found a little more than a few acres,” Kyle Winning said. “Hopefully we’ll get around to designing a house that we actually will build.”

In the meantime, the Winnings have gone full steam ahead in reclaiming the land’s former glory in the foothills of the Ouachita Mountains.

“It was already fairly high quality,” Johnson said. “You could tell the property was remnant prairie and post oak savanna, but conditions were beginning to degrade from lack of fire and management.”

With the help and guidance of AGFC private lands biologists, the Winnings went to work eliminating the few invasive species that had cropped up and put the farm back into prime condition.

“They picked up the literal ‘drip’ torch,’” Johnson said. “They’re burning on their own now and have their staff trained in prescribed fire. Now it’s one of the highest quality private land sites I’ve worked on in my 10-year career as a private lands biologist.

“They enlisted the help of Quail Forever’s Habitat Crew and funding from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to restore the remnant prairie and savanna on the property,” Johnson said. “They used herbicide to remove fescue that had encroached on the prairie and removed cedar and hickory that had encroached on the savanna, followed up with prescribed fire to maintain those plant communities.”

Noah Wyatt, another private land biologist who worked with the Winnings, said the relationship has been nothing short of amazing.

“A lot of times we really have to be heavily involved in things like prescribed burning, but with them I was able to just give them a map of where they or their staff needed to burn and they would later send me a picture saying, ‘Hey we did it; we’ll see you next month for the next evaluation and what we can do next,’” Wyatt said.

In four short years, the Winnings, with the help of their son Cory, have improved the land so much that they have become the poster child for small- to medium-sized acreage improvements and have hosted site visits from nearby landowners looking to do the same.

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CUTLINES:

AWARD PHOTO
The Winning family and staff of Caught Lookin’ Farm was one of five organizations honored at the AGFC’s 2024 Landowner Conservation Award Banquet in July.

AERIAL
Caught Lookin’ Farm was much larger than the owners originally intended to purchase, but it’s become a true passion and inspiration for conservation. 

BURN
Prescribed fire and timber thinnings have restored much of the remnant prairie and savanna landscape on the Winning’s property. 

DEER
Wildlife from butterflies and pollinators to deer and other game species thrive thanks to the farm’s harmony of agriculture and conservation.