The University of Arkansas System’s Division of Agriculture has scrapped a controversial sale of 6,300 acres in East Arkansas that recent legislation attempted to prohibit.

The UA, in its most recent appearance before the legislature, uncomfortably said it was bound by a contract to sell the acreage to a private company, but that it was working to settle the affair. (Which I took to mean it was working to get an agreement from the buyer to drop the deal.) In addition to legislative opposition, Sen. John Boozman said he wouldn’t allow approval of a required federal waiver to sell the land.

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The UA announcement said the UA and the buyer, Lobo Farms, had mutually agreed to terminate the contract.

The UA had proposed to sell part of recreational acreage in St. Francis County known as the Pine Tree Research Station. It’s popular with local hunters, who objected to the loss of the property. The UA Division wanted to use $5 million of the money for a rice research station at Jonesboro.

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The UA statement, first reported by Arkansas Business’ Mark Friedman, said:

While we are ready to move on from this contentious matter, we are disappointed in losing the $17 million in vital funding the sale would have provided to the Division for rice research, as well as critical and deferred maintenance needs across the state.

UPDATE: I asked if UA had to pay any consideration to extract itself from contract. A spokesman said it paid $22,500 for a land survey, but gets to keep the results of the survey.

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