Baker University Considers Developing in the Baker Wetlands

On April 23rd, 2024, the Save the Wakarusa River Valley (SWRV) community was informed that Baker University was considering selling ~17 acres of upland prairie to private developers for "affordable housing." Baker would be in direct violation of their agreements with the KDOT and the City of Lawrence in stewarding their wetlands in perpetuity.

Selling the land for "affordable housing" is a gross violation of this agreement and a laughable attempt by Baker to prey on the public's lack of oversight and information regarding the history of the Haskell-Baker wetlands.

Baker sacrificed 56 of the stolen 572.68 acres of historical HINU lands to gain an extra 412 acres from KDOT. If Baker sells the 17-acre prairie parcel, they will make a 100% profit off of the mitigation land they swore to protect, further exacerbating environmental racism in the Indigenous community of Lawrence. This ploy to sell the land is just a reimagining of the SLT, during which Baker baited HINU by promising to give back a portion of the wetlands (that were already taken from HINU) if they agreed to the 31st Street mitigation which would have cut into HINU's campus. Not once did Baker support HINU's legitimate concerns for the environment, for the children, or for the spiritual and cultural connection the lands and Peoples share. Today they are continuing the tradition of ignoring HINU and perpetuating direct harm to the Indigenous community by severing the connection to the land.

The decision to sell this parcel of land came after the City Commission approved the re-zoning of the New Boston Crossing (NBCO) parcel directly west. There is no doubt Baker was emboldened by the City's lack of concern about environmentally sensitive lands.

Unfortunately, this validates what environmental advocates have been saying for years, if NBCO or any other potential development proceeds in this area, the whole Wakarusa watershed will be developed one way or another. With Baker piggybacking off of the NBCO, there is no assurance the rest of the wetlands or the delicate floodplains of the Wakarusa will be preserved.

Baker's Attempt to Spin the Narrative

Baker KDOT agreement .pdf

After an anonymous source let the greater community of Lawrence know what was happening with Baker's intent to sell a portion of the Haskell-Baker wetlands, Baker responded with a misinformed, at best, and intentionally misleading, at worst, statement in response. According to the press release dated April 25th, Baker claimed that 16-acre parcel of land is "not a part of the Baker Wetlands." However, this is unequivocally false. On their own website, Baker also claims "the wetlands" are 927 acres, a number that can only be calculated if you combine the historical Haskell-Baker wetlands (~522 acres reduced from 572.68 acres pre-SLT) and the mitigated lands: the prairie (75 acres), the riparian forest (27 acres), and the wetlands (310 acres). Claiming this parcel is not part of the Baker Wetlands is not only an attempt to minimize the ecological necessity of wet prairie in a wetland habitat but also implies that upland prairie is somehow less important or valued than the wetlands; therefore, the loss of the prairie for "affordable housing" is of no consequence.

Not only is this statement intellectually dishonest, discounted by Baker's definition of the wetlands, but it is also legally false. This parcel of upland wet prairie was given to Baker, for free, by KDOT as part of the mitigation agreement (to the left) that allowed construction of the SLT on 56 acres of the original Haskell-Baker wetland system. This mitigation agreement between KDOT and Baker explicitly defines the Baker Wetlands as "collectively, the existing Baker wetlands, restored wetlands, and future habitat." Future habitat is further defined as "Wetlands, upland prairie, and riparian habitat to be created, restored, or preserved by Baker pursuant to this Supplemental Agreement." Additionally, there is a provision that requires Baker to "take all necessary actions to protect the Future Habitat and all other Restored Wetlands created by Baker from man-induced disturbances that would affect the property's ability to function as a Habitat."

The decision to consider selling the parcel of land came roughly a month after the Lawrence City Commission approved the re-zoning of the New Boston Crossing (NBCO) parcel directly west. There is no doubt Baker was emboldened by the City's lack of concern about environmentally sensitive lands. They maintained silence and actively silenced their wetland staff from attending meetings or speaking publicly about the NBCO. This silencing of wetland staff was orchestrated with the full knowledge that the institution had been in talks for months to sell this prairie.

Baker's Lack of Respect for the Indigenous Community

On May 16, 2024, the Haskell National Board of Regents sent a letter to Baker University, the developers of the New Boston Crossing, and the United States Army Corps of Engineers (USACE). This letter encouraged Baker to give the land to Haskell Indian Nations University (HINU) and denounced continued land grabs by local government and commercial developers. To date, Baker has yet to respond to the Haskell Regents. Instead, Baker stated they "voted" to keep the land "due to extensive data gathering and deliberation." Unfortunately, this is just the most recent example of Baker disrespecting HINU and the Indigenous Community.

In 1968, Baker was given 572.68 acres of land that was previously Haskell property, known as the Haskell Farm or Haskell Wetlands. The land was removed from Haskell's possession by the Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA) in 1958 and declared surplus land. Between 1958 and 1967, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service took ownership of the 572.68 acres put in surplus. These parcels were subsequently transferred to the Department of Health, Education, and Welfare in April 1967. On August 30, 1968, Baker University signed a Quitclaim Deed transferring the Haskell Wetlands to the Trustees of Baker University, for free. The only provision in the deed was that the wetlands be used for education for 30 years. The terms of the deed expired in 1998.

The restoration of these lands, as told by Baker, was the heroic efforts of Ivan and Roger Boyd. Nowhere on Baker's Wetland webpage does it mention if there was any collaboration with Indigenous individuals, HINU, local Tribes, or Indigenous scientists in the restoration efforts of the wetlands. This glaring absence is a testament to the fact that Indigenous students, community members, and Elders were not a holistic part of the restoration of Indigenous Peoples' sacred lands. Baker continued to isolate itself from HINU, drawing an artificial boundary between "Haskell Wetlands" and "Baker Wetlands." This ultimately coalesced during the movement against the South Lawrence Trafficway (SLT) and its subsequent destruction of wetlands.

Baker believed that the SLT should be along the 31st mitigation line, a move that would eat up the southernmost border of the HINU wetlands, whereas HINU opposed any and all development of SLT on the wetlands North of the Wakarusa, proposing an alternative route running South of the Wakarusa. During this period Baker "offered" a portion of the wetlands that ran along the Wakarusa River if HINU agreed to the 31st alignment. Baker never clarified how much land was going to be given back to HINU, but the irony of "gifting" back stolen land in exchange for a concession of HINU wetland destruction surely cannot be lost.

Trafficway proponents also tried to bribe HINU with $5 million. In 2008 Baker was given an endowment fund of $9 million, (an extra $3 million paid for wetland restoration, building of the Discovery Center, and all infrastructure) by KDOT, a stark contrast to the inflated $5 million ($6.46 million in 2008) originally offered to HINU. Baker also claimed that they would turn the portion of the original Haskell lands to the public but failed to do so. Because of Baker's willingness to destroy 56 acres of restored wetlands, land that originally belonged to Haskell, they also received 412 additional acres, for free. HINU to this day has yet to receive any compensation for the damage that the SLT did and continues to do to the wetlands. Baker has yet to ever speak out about this unfair bargain, obviously instigated by systemic racism against Indigenous Peoples.

The institutional racism and absence of Indigenous recognition are still found to this day in the way that Baker as an institution refuses collaborate with Haskell for stewardship of the joint wetlands, in the way that Baker communicates about HINU (or direct absence of any acknowledgment), the narrative in the Discovery Center about Indigenous people, and the way Baker applied for a Heritage Conservation Council grant for "interpretative signs" without any matching, or letter of endorsement or any plan to work with HINU students, alumni, or the institution itself. Baker maps located in the wetlands conveniently do not outline the Haskell Wetlands.