Preserving the Environment

The Advantages section of our web site includes a page called Green Building that describes some of the many environmental benefits of steel construction. For Kodiak Steel Homes^® company management, concern for the environment is much more than a selling point. The people behind this company have a deep personal commitment to preserving our natural resources and wildlife, and they are not just talking about it; they are doing something about it in a big way.

A Green House
One of our owners, Scott House, now spends most of his time at his 1200 acre Bearitage Farm in Northeast Arkansas. Although Bearitage is located in the heart of one of the most productive agricultural regions in the country, it has fewer than 150 acres of cultivated row crops. Instead of planting rice and corn fields, Scott has devoted the majority of his land to wildlife habitat. He has restored a unique and diverse ecology there that includes lakes, green tree reservoirs, cypress swamps, moist soil and wetlands areas, and hardwood forest.

Sacrifices and Rewards
The more than 1000 acres of habitat at Bearitage did not revert to a more natural state on their own. Since he established Bearitage in 1997, Scott has planted more than 50,000 trees, built miles of levees, contoured and levelled huge tracts of land, and installed massive irrigation systems. In his latest project, Scott is reshaping 85 acres to create a "prairie pothole" wetland. To be sure, he has had a lot of help. Government agencies and private organizations like the National Resources Conservation Service and Ducks Unlimited have provided some of the labor, funds, and equipment needed for these projects, but Scott is contributing a great deal of his own time and money, not to mention sacrificing the profits he could have earned by farming all this land.

National and State Acclaim
Scott and his wife Barbara have earned some impressive recognition for their conservation efforts. In August of 2007, on behalf of The Arkansas Wildlife Federation, Governor Mike Beebe presented them with the Rex Hancock Conservationist of the Year Award. In the fall of 2006, the USDA and other federal agencies flew Scott and Barbara to Washington for a ceremony held at the Jack Russell Office Building of the United States Senate that recognized thirteen landowners for outstanding achievements in conservation. As the only honorees nominated by multiple agencies, including the U.S Fish and Wildlife Service and the Farm Service Agency, Scott and Barbara were the featured guests.

An Enduring Legacy
Scott's work at Bearitage is already serving the public, and he is making sure that it will continue to benefit coming generations. Dozens of students in biology and wildlife management from Arkansas State University and other nearby colleges have traveled to Bearitage to study its ecology and the tools and methods used to create it. Scott is putting the land in a permanent trust that will maintain and provide access to this unique environment for the forseeable future.

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