<p>The federal government took land surrounding Wapanocca Lake in the early 1960s, turning it into a wildlife refuge.</p>
Jonathan and Bob Driver are starting to get the feeling they’re no longer welcome on federal land their family has farmed for four generations. But the Drivers, who farm near Turrell, Ark., are not going away easy.
The Driver family has farmed inside the Wapanocca National Wildlife Refuge for over a half a century under cooperative farming agreements with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and its predecessors. In recent years, however, FWS has progressively reduced the Drivers’ refuge acreage. In addition, the Drivers, along with many others who farm federal lands to benefit wildlife, have had to deal with increasing restrictions on federally-owned land leased to them for farming, including not allowing the planting of genetically-engineered crops.
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