Madison County Record

More tourism yields improved economy, cleaned-up town

Increase also impedes locals’ way of life

Posted Wednesday, November 22, 2023 9:45 am

By Ellen Kreth, For The Record

Second in a two-part series

FAYETTEVILLE, WEST VIRGINIA — After New River Gorge National River became America’s newest national park and preserve in a Covid-relief bill passed at the end of 2020, some area businesses saw an economic boom.

But smaller businesses haven’t reaped those same rewards. 

Real estate values increased but so has the list of people looking for affordable housing. 

Local and out-of-state developers are refurbishing dilapidated houses and buildings into apartments and a boutique hotel. A Hampton Inn is coming to the area.

Fayetteville is the closest town to New River Gorge National Park and Preserve. The town’s economy is good, but perhaps at the expense of a quiet life.

A coalition and business group in Arkansas have touted it as a model to explore re-designating public land around the Buffalo National River as a “national park preserve.”

In June 2022, the Runway Group, LLC, owned by brothers Steuart and Tom Walton, grandsons of Walmart founders Helen and Sam Walton and heirs to the Walmart fortune, quietly approached U.S. Rep. Bruce Westerman, R-Ark., who represents Arkansas’ 4th Congressional District and chairs the House Natural Resources Committee, with the idea of re-designation.  

The Runway Group is also a part of the Coalition for the Future of the Buffalo River National Park Preserve, who claims re-designating lands would make the “area the most active-use National Park in the country for outdoor recreation.”

Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders and Westerman have spoken about the possible re-designation. The First Gentleman, Bryan Sanders, and Tom Walton have promoted the idea of re-designation as a way to increasing the state’s tourism industry. Bryan Sanders began reaching out last spring to state officials about a possible re-designation. 

The Record traveled to Fayetteville, W. Va., and interviewed locals, elected officials, business owners, national park service employees, Realtors and vacation property managers to learn how re-designating the New River Gorge has changed the area and their way of life.

Federal Funding

New River Gorge Park and Preserve did not automatically get federal funding after its’ lands were re-designated. 

The Runway Group praised New River Gorge Park and Preserve’s success, noting it “recently celebrated $3.7B in federal funding since it was designated a National Park.”

The group based that funding information on a video in which U.S. Sen. Joe Manchin, D.- W. Va., who pushed for the re-designation along with U.S. Sen. Shelly Moore Capito, R.-W. Va., said $3.7 billion had flowed into the surrounding counties and but he does not mention direct funding for the park and preserve.

“We don’t actually specify who received the funding in our statement but do have a link to the video on our site for further reference to the $3.7 billion,” a Runway Group spokesperson said.

There have been misconceptions about how much federal funding would be provided to any type of national park or preserve on the Buffalo River. 

After re-designation, federal funding does not automatically flow into a new park and preserve or its surrounding communities. 

State Sen. Bryan King, R-Green Forest, who represents District 28, disputed claims that billions in federal funding would be given to the Buffalo National River if it was re-designated as either a park or preserve and reached out to Chase Emerson from the office of U.S. Senator John Boozman, R.-Ark.

“After consulting with our Department of Interior Legislative Staff,” Emerson wrote to King, “It seems that the initial projections of billions of dollars coming to any change in designation for the National River to a Park or Preserve seem exaggerated.

“There are some additional funding opportunities and mechanisms but not billions of dollars, to our knowledge,” Emerson wrote.

“Unfortunately there’s nothing that says, ‘OK, now you’re a national park, so you get an increase,” District Supervisor for Interpretation at New River Gorge Park and Preserve Dave Bieri said. 

“Everything’s kind of based on visitation and that takes a while. So at this point, we’re able to start showing we’ve got more and more visitors here,” Bieri said.

Even though tourists’ spending can pump money into the local economies in towns near national parks, such as Fayetteville, funding for national parks and preserves projects takes at least three years to obtain and even then money is not guaranteed. All national parks compete against each other for funding. 

Funding for national parks comes from various government funds. 

The Great American Outdoors Act (GAOA) passed in 2020 provided funding for National Park Service maintenance needs, mainly for large-scale projects that couldn’t be covered by a yearly budget. New River Gorge has about $30 million worth of projects funded by the act, but that isn’t connected to the park and preserve’s designation. GAOA money is available already to federal parks in Arkansas, including the Buffalo National River, said Lizzie Watts, Former Park Superintendent of New River Gorge National Park and Preserve.

New River Gorge has also continued to add land, last year adding 1,000 acres paid for by a land fund. Adding land to the park and preserve, coupled with the name change, provided a small increase in the park’s base appropriation, which includes line items such as salaries, utilities, and other continuing bills, Watts said.

In 2022, New River Gorge National Park and Preserve generated $96.1 million in “economic output,” and supported 1,044 jobs in the area, according to the 2022 National Park Visitor Spending Effects Report. 

In that same year, more than 1.5 million park visitors spent an estimated $79.3 million in local gateway regions while visiting the park and preserve. Eighty-eight percent of the visitors were from out-of-state, the report said. 

That same report noted the Buffalo National River contributed more than $78.4 million in “economic output,” had 1.3 million visitors to the area, and contributed more than $64.9 million in spending in local gateway communities. That supported 864 jobs and had a total economic output of $78.4 million. 

Even though the visitors are generating money for Fayetteville and its surrounding communities, the towns themselves are not recipients of that funding.

“I don’t see a big influx of money,” Fayetteville Town Manager Matt Diederich said.

Fayetteville Mayor Sharon Cruikshank said sales tax dollars increased, along with hotel and motel taxes, but that money is not designated for the town’s infrastructure. Rather, those taxes are required by state last to be used to promote visitation and tourism.

“We like that but that didn’t help with signage and building bathrooms,” Cruikshank said.

The re-designation has created jobs in the service industries throughout the region but the town has not added staff, but could in the future.

Diederich said the town is preparing for the possibility of adding a job to work on outdoor recreation. 

Also, the town built more trails with grant money it received for the development of lands that adjoin the federal park.

“Communities around the park are very much interested in what’s going on in the park and very much want to be a part of it,” Bieri said.

More Tourism

Tourism associated with New River Gorge has always been good for area businesses.

During Covid, tourists took advantage of the area as a place to enjoy outdoor recreation while remaining self-contained. 

Tourists increased and diversified when the area became a national park and preserve. 

Canyon Rim Visitor Center usually sees “about 300,000 to 350,000 visitors per year, and this year, they’re hitting 500,000,” Bieri said.

The type of visitor changed. The park saw an influx of people whose objective is to visit all 62 national parks. 

“It wasn’t just going to be recreational visitors anymore or sightseers to the bridge [one of West Virginia’s most photographed places],” said Watts, who worked for the National Park Service for 45 years. “They have high expectations. They want the resources there. They want the camping facilities available. All of the high expectations of going to Yellowstone National Park is what they expect. Your staff needs to be retrained and be prepared for that. 

“The community, in our case, had to step up because we didn’t have a lot of those big facilities. But the local communities outside of us did. And they were probably more prepared in some ways than the park was,” Watts said.

Bieri said visitors wearing various national park T-shirts come into the visitor center asking to get their national park passport stamped. 

For some, New River Gorge is replacing the annual beach trip. 

“This is where they’re coming and they’re going to go home with a hat and T-shirt” Bieri said.

Profits from the Canyon Ridge Visitor’s Center Store jumped 75%. 

Visitors consider a new park a destination. 

“I’ll tell you right now, you’re going to be overrun with traffic because the American vacationer is in love with the newest national park,” said Larry Nibert, owner of West Virginia Experience, a fishing and hunting guide service.

The kind of visitors changed too. 

Laurel Johnson, who grew up in the area and works in the service industry, said, “In the past, it was climbers, hikers, paddlers, people that we see all the time. Now there is a bigger group of explorers, adventurers, [and] people that just want to go to a different place.”

Andy Forron, owner of New River Bikes, said one of his coworkers moved to Fayetteville to ride bikes, another to rock climb, and other tourists visited to run rivers. Some of the best rock climbers and rafters in the world come to the area.

“It was an outdoor town. It was gritty or hard,” Forron said. “When we got a park, we got a bunch of people with sticks walking around that aren’t what we’re used to. I’m not saying it’s bad. We get a lot of people [who] just come in, walk around and walk off. We’re fine with that.”

Out-of-state visitors stay several days.

“Two years ago, if you came out here camping, unless it was a holiday weekend, I’d say you’ll have no problem finding a campsite down there,” Bieri said. “Now people come in and they’re gonna be there early because they fill up every night.”

Realtor and owner of Cathedral Cafe, Wendy Bayes, said concessionaires are catering to the tourist who will stay at a campground with lots of amenities, such as zip lining, swimming and rafting. 

Visitors also come year-round.

“It’s more of a week than a weekend, so they’re staying for longer and I think they knew that would be great for the area,” Bayes said.

“We don’t really have an off-season,” Johnson said. “We have a super-slammed if-you-get-a-table-you’re-blessed season.”

November through spring “used to be the off-season, but now people are still coming here to climb or still come here to mountain bike, to hike, [and] to explore the area,” Diederich said.

“It’s still busier now in November on a Thursday then it used to be on a Saturday in July,” Forron said. 

The year-round tourism cycle forces locals to find other trails to explore or bike.

“What are you going to do on Saturday? You’re not,” Forron said. “You’re just going to leave. That trail that you used to go wander down with your dog in the morning, you can’t do that.”

Johnson said she and her parents still love the area but on weekends, they travel two hours north, away from the crowds.

“And that’s the best part about living here, in my opinion,” Johnson said. “There are so many cool places you can go to that you will never see anyone.”

Johnson said on weekends, rather than fighting the crowds, “What I love to do is just go out and bushwhack, just go out into the woods. I know the mountains here.”

Becky Sullivan, director of the New River Gorge Convention and Visitors Bureau, said locals still enjoy the river and the park. “You just have to know where to go.” 

The crowds make it harder for the people living there to enjoy eating in their local restaurants during the summer.

“You know, I used to go get a sandwich at lunchtime [at Cathedral Cafe] and now I don’t do that in the summer because I can’t do it in my half-hour lunch break anymore because there’s so many darn people there,” Bieri said with a smile.

Wait times can be more than two hours at the local pizzeria. Forron said when he gets together with friends, they order take-out.

Town Council member, parks director and vacation rental manager, Brian Good, said he’s OK with the sacrifice, noting restaurants don’t have to close in the winter and provide year-round jobs.

House/Vacation 

Rentals

Housing is in short supply, vacation rentals are plentiful, and property taxes have increased.  Dilapidated properties are being refurbished and repurposed. 

“Our town looks better than it’s ever looked,” Good said.

Fayetteville had 25 abandoned or dilapidated buildings in the area when Cruikshank became mayor. The town now has about three, she said.

“The re-designation did something to housing prices that made me happy, not only as a Realtor but as a local,” Bayes said. “People around West Virginia have been getting the short end of the stick their whole lives … It was nice to see these homes that were worth nothing get bought up for way more.”

But housing is in short supply. Most investors focus on vacation rentals, with more than 100 in the area. 

People moving to the area and seasonal workers can’t find affordable housing. 

“If we were to hire more employees, they couldn’t live here,” Forron said. “There is nowhere to live. If you don’t have a house now, you’re not getting a house.”

Jon Evans, who works with Forron, said his house is worth two or three times what he paid for it three years ago.

Farron lives in town. “I don’t have neighbors. I have one neighbor. Everybody else? They’re all Airbnbs,” he said. “I get new neighbors every three nights year-round. When I moved there, I had neighbors. Ten years ago, we had neighbors.”

Diederich said the re-designation raised the area’s cost of living, but, “We’re not at the point where you can’t live here and work here,” he said.

“But, it’s taken that starter home and turned it into a short-term rental. That was happening before the re-designation and Covid might have accelerated it,” he said.

Forron wants to see people put down roots in the area. 

People who own vacation rentals “pay property taxes, but they don’t live here,” he said. “They don’t buy gas, they don’t buy food, they don’t vote. Think about that.”

Good said the vacation rentals on Forron’s street are turning into rental homes again because investors are not able to get a good return on their investment as far as what they’re able to charge on a nightly basis. The vacation rental market is saturated.

But Good said people don’t have a clear perception of a vacation rental. 

“People from this region will vacation at the beach and don’t think twice about staying in an Airbnb there, but when they have Airbnb or guest tourism coming here, they have an issue with it,” Good said. 

“People say we don’t have housing but we do have housing within our region. You might not be downtown Fayetteville but you do have something two miles out of town,” Cruikshank  said. 

Fayetteville is short on hotels. A Hampton Inn is being built and a former school building is being turned into a boutique hotel, while another is being renovated into apartments. Nearby towns of Lewisville and Beckley are larger and offer more lodgings. 

Real property taxes have also increased. Nibert, who owns two homes, said, his taxes have increased 30% in the last three years. 

Bayes agreed that property taxes have increased, but not enough to make housing unaffordable. 

Locals said the schools continue to underperform despite the growth in the area and the increase in property taxes.

Going Forward

No legislation for making the Buffalo National River a national park or preserve  is currently being written, according to Westerman and Gov. Sanders. 

After the local pushback during a town hall meeting, the Runway Group said they are pulling back and taking no further steps. 

“We wanted to explore a new idea for our home state together. However, this is not our decision to make. There is no new action being taken,” a statement issued in October by the Runway Group said. 

The coalition took down its website after the town hall meeting. The Runway Group declined to name coalition members.

“Although it is in the purview of the House Natural Resources Committee to advance legislation to designate national parks, I’ve made it clear I would not support any proposition that does not have grassroots support from those that live, work, and raise their families in the Buffalo River watershed,” Westerman said. 

Watts said re-designating lands will impact communities near the Buffalo National River and close-by communities. 

“It can be a positive impact if it’s handled well. It can be not necessarily positive if it’s not handled well,” Watt said.

But will the locals’ way of life change? 

“Oh, I’d say it does. I mean it’s such a small town,” Watts said about Jasper, a town sitting near the Buffalo National River.

Living next to a national park or preserve or both has benefits for future generations. 

“They’re good for school systems because kids go out to parks. They get to learn more about the ecosystems. They learn about preservation and what they can do to preserve this planet and how we should protect the planet,” Watts said.

The impact will be the greatest if the Buffalo National River was re-designated as a national park. A preserve will not offer the area the same profile and not as many tourists will visit.

But communities most affected by a re-designation would need to buy into a change for it to be a success.

“If the locals don’t want it, I hope they don’t do it, personally because that’s their home. That’s been their home,” Watts said. “But it is good for business. It is good for the economy. And it does bring progress if you want it or not. But it all depends on how you plan.”

Democrat Gazette

OPINION | REX NELSON: A false narrative

Today at 2:00 a.m.

by Rex Nelson

It's a sunny Wednesday in October, the leaves are changing color, the square at Jasper is crowded with visitors, and I'm eating one of the best pizzas I've had in Arkansas. I'm at Jasper Pizza Co., the brainchild of Austin and Allison Nichols.

I stand at the counter and watch Austin make pizzas in a building that was constructed in the 1890s. The couple, who moved to this town of fewer than 600 residents from booming Fayetteville, opened the restaurant in May. Stories about the quality of the food spread quickly.

Austin and Allison know what they're doing. They've worked at some of the top restaurants in the state. They met while working for Yellow Rocket Concepts (the parent company of brands such as Local Lime, ZAZA, Big Orange and Lost Forty Brewing) at the Rogers location of Big Orange. They later worked for Jordan Wright, whose Wright's Barbecue has taken the state by storm since 2016. Austin is a Little Rock native, and Allison hails from Daytona Beach, Fla.

"We planned to move to Little Rock and operate the new Wright's Barbecue location there," Allison says. "We decided that first we would travel the country for six months. It was during that trip that we began talking about opening our own restaurant. We found this building in Jasper. We knew big things were about to happen in this area, and it seemed perfect for us since we could live on the second floor.

"We were afraid we were going to let Jordan down, but he wound up encouraging us. He told us that if we were ever going to open our own place, now was the time."

After lunch, I walk to the other side of the square and visit with Walter "Bubba" Lloyd Jr. at Bubba's Buffalo River Store. Lloyd, who grew up in North Little Rock, opened his first store several years ago across the street. Business was so good that he moved to a larger location.

This isn't the Booger Hollow type of tourist attraction that I associated with the Ozarks when I was growing up in Arkansas. Lloyd sells high-quality shirts, hats, coffee mugs and other things that tourists want these days.

Lloyd takes me to another old building he owns. He's remodeling it for a coffee shop that will open next spring. He likely will remodel the other side of that structure for an additional business later in 2024.

The investments being made by Lloyd and the Nichols family are the kind of quality capital investments downtown Jasper has needed for years. These businesses could be successful in any city in the country. Newton County, which is among the state's poorest counties, saw its population peak at 12,538 in the 1900 census. It was down to 7,225 by the 2020 census.

A few miles to the north along Arkansas 7, Bass Pro Shops founder Johnny Morris is turning the former Dogpatch USA amusement park into a nature park. Dogpatch opened in 1968 and closed in 1993. The 400-acre property was purchased by Morris for $1.1 million in 2020.

In September, it was announced that the U.S. Department of Commerce's Economic Development Administration had awarded $1 million to the Marble Falls Sewer Improvement District for wastewater improvements. The project will be matched with $1.9 million in state funds and allow Morris' project to move forward.

In the application for the funds, it was estimated that there will be $40 million in private investment creating 166 jobs. I have a feeling that Morris' investment will end up being far higher. Like the Nichols family and Lloyd, he believes in quality. Even at $40 million, it represents the largest private investment in Newton County history.

The picture I just painted of the Jasper area is probably far different from the impression you got from the media following a recent town meeting. Angry local residents lashed out at the idea of change, even those changes that will improve their quality of life. What happened here represents a case study of the power of misinformation on social media. It shows us how even well-educated people can be duped by the social media mob.

Wild rumors began circulating in these hills after a coalition floated the idea of making the Buffalo National River a national park preserve. A poll was commissioned, and the rumors spread--Tom and Steuart Walton, grandsons of Walmart founder Sam Walton, want to take over Buffalo National River; the Sarah Sanders administration wants to take over Buffalo National River; eminent domain will again be used; hunting and fishing will be prohibited; the Waltons plan to mine the area.

None of these rumors are true, but I watched on social media as people (many of whom I consider friends) bought into them without any effort to obtain the facts. The first people to believe the lies were those who support conservation organizations and see themselves as heirs of the environmentalists who fought half a century ago to have the Buffalo declared our first national river.

What these folks didn't realize is that they're actually on the same side as the Walton brothers and others they were bashing.

Those in the coalition are searching for a way to obtain more federal funding to handle the crowds already visiting the Buffalo. A upgrade in the National Park Service pecking order might achieve that goal. Federal protection of the river isn't going away. That battle was won 51 years ago in the face of strong opposition from Newton County and Searcy County residents.

We need more rangers, restrooms and parking lots. All who study the issue should be able to agree on that. Yes, amateur naturalists, you and the Walton brothers are on the same side.

It's not just the NPS that's under-funded in Arkansas. It's also the U.S. Forest Service, U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service and U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. In a state where tourism represents the second-largest segment of the economy, you would think the six members of Arkansas' congressional delegation would work hard to get these agencies what they need while also ensuring that they prioritize the recreational aspects of their missions.

On the way to Jasper, I stopped at the popular Rotary Ann rest area along Arkansas 7. The Forest Service's interpretive panels were either missing or difficult to read. Frankly, it's embarrassing in a place that calls itself the Natural State.

In our highly politicized society, the next group to believe social media misinformation was made up of those who dislike Sanders. I've done extensive reporting on this issue for the past month, and I can't find much evidence of direct involvement by the governor or husband Bryan Sanders, who fancies himself as the state's outdoor czar. The anti-Sanders crowd, however, immediately believed rumors and joined the social media attacks.

I would like to offer this piece of public relations advice to the Walton brothers: It would be wise to distance yourself from Sarah and Bryan Sanders, since they're now the most divisive Arkansas public figures in my lifetime. They can add nothing but heartache to efforts to preserve and enhance outdoor recreational attributes in the Ozarks.

It's true that the Walton family has purchased more than 6,000 acres in the area. Take a step back from the social media rhetoric and consider this: The Waltons don't need to make money off this land. They already have plenty. They won't be clear-cutting the timber. They won't be mining gravel in streams. They won't be bringing in commercial hog and poultry operations.

They want to improve outdoor recreational opportunities, and you do that by keeping the land pristine. In that sense, they're the best possible owners.

Longtime residents must have their voices heard. But they also must realize a couple of things. First, the Buffalo National River doesn't belong to them. It belongs to all American taxpayers. That issue was settled in 1972. Second, there's no way to keep everything as it once was. In the words of Lou Holtz, you either get better or you get worse. Nothing stays the same.

It's time to abandon the social media madness and work together. The Buffalo deserves nothing less than a united front.

Rex Nelson is a senior editor at the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette.

Democrat Gazette

The downside of making Buffalo a national park

Today at 3:15 a.m.

by Bryan Hendricks

Glenn Wheeler, Newton County sheriff, says his county can't bear the burden of expanding the Buffalo National River into a national park.

Wheeler said he appreciates the Buffalo National River as a recreational resource. He is widely respected in the outdoor recreation industry, an accomplished outdoor photographer who served two terms on the board of directors for the defunct Southeastern Outdoor Press Association. He also served one term as its president and one term as its board chairman.

Wheeler can also do basic math, and he said that vastly inflating the number of people visiting his county will exceed the ability of his office to serve its constituents.

"We are the sheriff's office, but we do search and rescue and medical emergencies, too," Wheeler said. "We respond to all aspects of emergencies in this county."

Many of those responsibilities involve responding to emergencies on the Buffalo National River. They include search and rescue operations, recovering drowning victims, evacuating injured boaters from the river, evacuating injured hikers from the Buffalo River Trail and, according to Wheeler, evacuating people who are ill-conditioned to be on a wilderness trail in the first place. He said he has even been called to evacuate hikers who were simply too lazy to walk back to a trailhead.

On top of those duties, Wheeler's deputies manage traffic issues that occur from wildlife watchers admiring elk in Boxley Valley.

"At times I have one one deputy on duty to cover 822 square miles," Wheeler said. "When I have to send a deputy to deal with somebody blocking the highway at Ponca, and then we have to respond to a medical emergency in eastern Newton County, that's one hour just to get there. It puts that deputy in danger, but it also puts the public in danger because that deputy has to drive faster to respond to a critical medical situation or a motor vehicle accident where a timely response could be the difference between life or death."

Adding 200,000 visitors to Newton County by increasing visitation to a redesignated national park would stretch the sheriff's office beyond a breaking point, Wheeler said.

Wheeler said he computes that 200,000 number from estimates supplied by the Runway Group, which is promoting changing the Buffalo National River to a national park and preserve.

"I've heard different estimates from them, but they talked about 600,000 additional visitors a year to the entire Buffalo River," Wheeler said. "The Buffalo River is technically in four counties, but mainly it's in three counties. In the springtime and early summer, my county -- the upper Buffalo -- is the busiest. If you take a third of 600,000, and I'd say that's a conservative estimate, that's 200,000. To say that an extra 200,000 people a year in my county would overwhelm my resources would be a vast understatement."

Wouldn't nearly a quarter million additional visitors provide sufficient tax revenue to offset additional costs?

No, Wheeler said. He explained that county property taxes fund the sheriff's department, along with emergency medical services and fire protection services.

"The one message I'm trying to get out is that we value tourism in our county," Wheeler said. "As sheriff, I believe tourists are important to our economy. As a resident, I am very proud of my area, and I love sharing it with people.

"But with the resources and budget I have right now, it is a struggle to provide the services that Newton County residents and visitors deserve. If you add that much to my workload, I won't be able to do it."

Additionally, Wheeler said, the county does not have sufficient water, sewer or waste management to accommodate nearly a quarter million additional visitors every year. The roads are also inadequate to accommodate that many extra vehicles.

Wheeler said that the annual salary for a Newton County deputy sheriff is about $27,000, and that his department has bought three new vehicles since 2019.

"You're asking for someone to work for $27,000 in a hand-me-down car," Wheeler said. "That's a tough sell, and the Runway Group sure isn't offering to pitch in any extra money for salaries or to buy any vehicles."

The bottom line, Wheeler said, is that the Newton County Sheriff's Office has all it can do with the current level of visitation to the Buffalo National River. Intensifying its burden would be a disservice to Newton County residents and visitors, Wheeler said. It would reflect badly on the county, on the state, and on the Buffalo River.

Madison County Record

Changes afloat for nation’s newest park and preserve

Groups tout it as model for Buffalo River area

At the end of 2020 in the back of a Covid Relief Bill, legislation made New River Gorge the newest national park and preserve. An investment group and a coalition are touting it as a model for exploring whether to turn land around the Buffalo National River into either a national preserve or a national park.

Posted Wednesday, November 15, 2023 10:06 am

By Ellen Kreth, Record Publisher

First in a two-part series

FAYETTEVILLE, WEST VIRGINIA — New River Gorge became the nation’s second national river in 1978, its’ designation following the country’s first national river established in 1972: Arkansas’ Buffalo National River.

In December 2020, Congress re-designated New River Gorge National River to a national park and preserve, the only place in the country to have the combined distinction.

A coalition and business group in Arkansas have touted it as a model for re-designating public land around the Buffalo National River as a “national park preserve.”

In June 2022, the Runway Group, LLC, owned by brothers Steuart and Tom Walton, grandsons of Walmart founders Helen and Sam Walton and heirs to the Walmart fortune, quietly approached U.S. Rep. Bruce Westerman, R-Ark., who represents Arkansas’ 4th Congressional District and chairs the House Natural Resources Committee, with the idea of re-designation.

The Runway Group is also a part of the Coalition for the Future of the Buffalo River National Park Preserve, who claims re-designating lands would make the “area the most active-use National Park in the country for outdoor recreation.”

The Record traveled to Fayetteville, W. Va., and interviewed elected officials, business owners, national park service employees, service-industry workers, Realtors, and vacation property managers to find out how re-designating the New River Gorge has changed the area and their way of life.

A town with a population of approximately 2,800, according to the U.S. Census, Fayetteville, W. Va. is the town closest to the new park and preserve. The town square and county courthouse anchor the downtown area. It has a mayor, town council, town manager, a visitors center, and convention and visitors bureau and other parks visited by people from all over the world for outdoor recreation.

Three hotels, more than 100 vacation rentals and private and public campgrounds provide tourists a place to stay. The square and downtown boast locally owned restaurants.

U.S. Route 19, a four-lane highway, runs through the town and leads to several larger gateway communities.

Wendy Bayes, a Realtor and owner of a favorite local restaurant, Cathedral Cafe in downtown Fayetteville, moved to the area in 1994.

“There’s a fine line between the ‘from here’s’ and ‘the not-from-here’s.’ And by having a local cafe and raising my kids in the area, I’ve gotten very lucky to be embraced,” Bayes said.

The re-designation of New River Gorge to a national park and preserve changed the community. It boosted tourism by 30 to 35%, increased business by at least the same figures and prompted local and outside investors to buy and renovate properties and build hotels and apartments. Vacation rentals have increased, money is being pumped into the local economy, and private campgrounds are popping up. Locals are happy that lands they grew up on are protected from being developed by the park designation. 

They are prideful of their area and community, touting the landscape and the kind-hearted and friendly people. They noted their distaste for a hillbilly reputation.

Even with the positive economic indicators brought by the re-designation, people disagreed on whether the change, coupled with the increase in outdoor recreation during Covid, have been good for their community. 

“I feel there’s a huge animosity between locals non-willing to change and a person, like myself,” who embraces growth and is an outdoor-recreation enthusiast, said Fayetteville town councilman Brian Good, who manages the city parks and some private vacation rentals.

But they all agreed the current infrastructure is lacking, housing and lodging are in short supply, eating in their favorite restaurants can be problematic, property values and taxes have increased, parking “is horrible” and traffic is congested, and the school system continues to rank near the bottom of the state’s school districts.

Even though the area saw tourism explode in 2020 due to people getting outside during Covid, some locals think the re-designation happened too fast and the area was unprepared.

“We were on a 20-year plan and it got pushed to a two-year plan,” Bayes said.

Local business owner, Andy Forron, owner of New River Bikes, advised people around the Buffalo to “brace for impact,” if the land was to be re-designated.

Mayor Sharon Cruikshank says she’s “happy but not satisfied” and would have preferred “a little more support with infrastructure, parking, signage from the National Park Service,” but realizes it is “strapped as well.”

Town Manager Matt Diederich doesn’t see a lot of cons, but, “Some of the locals want it to be a quiet town and it’s not a quiet town anymore.”

Larry Nibert’s business, West Virginia Experience, a fishing and hunting guide service, has experienced an increase in calls, but “with a lot more business comes a lot more traffic, comes a lot more stress and a lot more headaches.”

Nibert said locals are not happy with the change. “When you talk to people, ask them if they’re local or are they an implant. I think you’ll find the implants are less opposed than the locals who run businesses.”

Lizzie Watts, who was park superintendent when New River Gorge became a national park and preserve, said some “really good things” come from re-designation but the process has to be handled well.

Watts, who worked for the NPS for 45 years, said its’ mission is to “preserve and protect the park’s resources, our American history, our stories, our culture for the next generation. As long as we’re true to that, even making good money, it’s not a bad thing if it’s done the right way for the business side of things.

“But for all the ranchers and farmers that live on that river, your stories are just as important. Their way of life has been farming the pastures and their way of passing that down to the next generation has to be honored,” Watts said.

Park and Preserve 

Designation

Talk began of turning the New River Gorge area into a national park when it was designated a national river, but those plans stalled because of hunters’ opposition.

The prospect resurfaced around 2018.

Re-designating the land “was driven by locals, convention bureaus, local tourism boards, people who were looking to benefit from the economic benefits of having a national park,” according to Dave Bieri, district supervisor for interpretation at New River Gorge Park and Preserve.

Rafting companies pushed for the re-designation, according to Becky Sullivan, director of the New River Gorge Convention and Visitors Bureau. Some of the concessionaires hired lobbyists to push the change.

They wanted to attract more visitors, spur economic activity and increase tax revenue for infrastructure, and they had the support of West Virginia’s U.S. Senators, Joe Manchin III, a Democrat, and Shelley Moore Capito, a Republican.

Manchin and Capito “wanted to see it happen really bad, so they just kept pursuing it,” Sullivan said. “Being a national park state, they knew what it would do for the area bringing in tourism, bringing in the people, and increasing a positive awareness for the state.”

The process took about two years.

To become a national park, the U.S. Secretary of Interior must value the area for its national significance and stories it can tell. The New River Gorge National Park and Preserve tells the stories of the area’s geology, coal mining, railroading, logging and natural resources, Watts said.

Manchin and Capito held town hall meetings, in which quizzical, concerned and angry citizens asked questions and voiced frustrations.

Watts testified on Capitol Hill before the Senate Natural Resources Committee and again when that committee came to Beckley, W. Va., a larger town, 22 miles from Fayetteville.

“They don’t do that very often, have a meeting outside of D.C.,” Watts said.

But Manchin and Capito wanted to hear from local citizens.

“They wanted their side of the story,” Watts said. “How did they feel? What were their concerns? Anything they wanted to ask was put on the record.”

Conversations about the change “became heated quite often,” Watts said.

Bayes said most attending were opposed. “Others were just like, ‘Yeah, ok, let’s go.’”

Nibert attended the meetings, saying, “It was pretty obvious to me from the get-go that there were certain local monies who were going to benefit a lot more than small businesses like mine.”

The prevalent concern was taking away hunting rights.

“Property values were a concern but hunting was a huge issue because hunters didn’t want to lose the property that they’ve hunted on for years and years and years,” Sullivan said.

Distinctions exist between a national park, a national preserve and a national reserve.

A national park is the highest of all statuses, bringing in far more tourists, but also restricting hunting and fishing rights. “It must be found to be nationally unique and significant enough to become a national park instead of a river,” Watts said.

A national preserve may allow hunting and fishing rights, oil and gas exploration and mineral extractions and the re-designation is easier to achieve.

“A preserve allows the community to do what has always been done,” Watts said.

A national reserve has even less restrictions, continuing to allow hunting, fishing, and oil and gas exploration and mineral extractions and allows the land management to be turned over to a state.

In December 2020, a time when the area was still experiencing an influx of visitors due to Covid, a clause in the back of a Covid relief bill made some land around New River Gorge a national park and other lands a preserve, expanding the area by 3,000 acres and giving hunters rights on the preserve but not in the park.

Buffalo National 

River Process

The processes used to make the Buffalo River a national one and the prospect of making it a park or preserve or both have differed from those used for New River Gorge’s re-designation.

Before becoming a national river, land ownership around New River Gorge was varied, some lands were privately owned while others were owned by former coal-mining companies. Some owners chose to sell their property. The government did not use eminent domain or condemn any lands while establishing New River Gorge National River.

Lands around the Buffalo River were mostly privately owned. Eminent domain was used to make some land part of the Buffalo National River. Strong feelings about the public taking of private lands remain a source of deep anger and consternation more than 50 years later.

Legislation making the Buffalo River a national one enacted on March 1, 1972, maintained hunting and fishing rights but did not provide rights for mineral extractions or oil and gas exploration.

Confusion surrounds what was being pursued by the Runway Group and the coalition. In some comments, the Runway Group insisted the designation would be only a preserve.  

However, in informational “fact sheets” produced by the Runway Group, it used terminology of park and preserve interchangeably, sometimes touting the success of a national park, other times, stating it only intended to seek information on a preserve and at other times stating the “path to action is clear” for turning the land into a “national park preserve.”

The fact sheets’ first page states, “A National Park would preserve the Buffalo River way of life.”

Some people living around the Buffalo National River do not want the land open to gas and oil exploration or mineral extraction.

“The First Gentleman [Bryan Sanders, chair of a state tourism council] does not support nor has he even discussed the idea of drilling or mining in the Buffalo National River,” Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders’ spokesperson Alexa Henning said recently in a written statement.

The Runway Group stated through its literature that mineral extraction and oil and gas exploration would be allowed if the land were re-designated as a preserve.

Big money often comes from mineral extractions and oil and gas explorations, Watts said.

Unlike the public meetings about the re-designation at New River Gorge, several actions took place quietly in the 15 months between the Runway Group’s meeting with Westerman and the public learning about the re-designation possibility, including discussions with Gov. Sanders and Westerman and the Runway Group and Bryan Sanders.

In January, Gov. Sanders signed an executive order establishing the 18-member Natural State Advisory Council in an effort to increase the state’s tourism business. She appointed Bryan Sanders as chairman and Tom Walton as a member. 

This spring, Bryan Sanders, who spoke alongside Tom Walton, told members of the Rotary Club of Little Rock that he wanted to double the state’s outdoor recreation economy from its current $3.5 billion to $7 billion in the next 10 years. At the same time, Bryan Sanders began contacting state officials about re-designation.

Austin Albers, a member of the Natural State Advisory Council and president and owner of Buffalo Outdoor Center, a concessionaire, reached out to Watts asking about New River Gorge Park and Preserve’s re-designation.

In September, in an effort to gauge public opinion about the potential re-designation, the Runway Group hired Selzer & Co., who polled 412 voters in Baxter, Madison, Marion, Newton and Searcy counties about the proposal. Most of those surveyed indicated they were in favor.

No legislation is currently being written, according to Westerman and Gov. Sanders. After local pushback during a town hall meeting, the Runway Group said they are pulling back and taking no further steps. 

“The designation change for the Buffalo National River is not our decision to make, but we believe it’s an idea worth exploring,” a Runway Group statement said. 

The coalition took down its website. The Runway Group declined to name coalition members.

Infrastructure

Change came fast to the New River Gorge area.

“We thought we were going to have time to prepare and then all of a sudden, bam, it’s done,” Cruikshank said.

Lack of infrastructure caught everyone off guard when federal funding did not accompany re-designation.

“When I talk infrastructure, I’m talking about roads, the boat ramps, I’m talking the trails. I’m talking the parking,” Nibert said.

Nibert lives within 200 yards of NPS land and near a popular hiking trail. “Any given Friday, Saturday or Sunday, that parking lot is full and people are out there parked along the road. Half the time, their vehicles are parked in the way,” he said.

“We have more parking violations, people parking in handicapped or no-parking or loading zones only,” Cruikshank said.

The towing business increased, Sullivan said.

And people are not accustomed to one-lane dirt roads.

“You definitely want people who know how to drive on a dirt road, rather than trying to go 55, especially in the summer when you’re going to have a nice dust cloud,” Cruikshank said.

Recently, Nibert was driving clients to the river in his 1994 Chevrolet Suburban when he had to slam on the brakes. “Here comes probably 10 sports cars. I’m not talking a Camaro. I’m talking Lamborghinis, Porsches and they’re about to run us in the ditch,” he said.

“They drive like bats out of hell. I’m talking a small percentage of folks, but it goes back to infrastructure. We were not prepared to deal with this, in my opinion.”

Nibert said he’s seen RVs parked on boat ramps and “People sitting out there having coffee because they ain’t got enough sense to realize that’s a boat ramp.”

People think since it’s a national park, they can do whatever they want, he said. “Well, no you can’t. There’s still those of us out there trying to make a living,” Nibert said.

Visitors cause traffic jams by driving at a snail’s pace across the four-lane New River Gorge Bridge, an iconic bridge and one of the most photographed places in West Virginia. Locals know to travel the inside lane and prepare to suddenly stop at times.

Though Nibert said everyone “should get out there to enjoy God’s creation,” he would like to see fewer people on his road.  

“There’s too many doggone people going in and out of these roads and using these areas at times and it is, it’s stressful.”

Nibert doubted when Manchin told those attending the meetings not to worry about infrastructure because Manchin was on the appropriations committee and he would just delegate more funds to the area.

Progress is being made, but with growing pains.

Diederich said the city is “doing a bunch of planning right now. It’s key to get the community involved in it,” to hear their thoughts and assessments of the town’s strengths and weaknesses.

The city is studying zoning laws and looking to increase parking by building lots on city-owned property or buying private property to build parking lots.

The park and preserve is working with the state to provide more parking.

But, parking is a double-edged sword.

Providing too much parking will bring in more people and the trails will become more crowded and deteriorate.

Bayes believes infrastructure will be in place in 10 years and notes the town has made a lot of progress in just two years.

The locals have built more trails on private property, Forron said.

Forron said if re-designation is being proposed, the government needs to “give the park money, put money into the infrastructure, build the park first and give the towns and communities a chance. That would be the ideal situation.”

He said the town could have benefitted from three-year notice to “get our ducks in a row and get a couple more trails built.”

Increased Business

No one disputes business in the area increased.

Business was on the upswing during the end of Covid, but when the national river changed to a national park and preserve, “It went crazy,” Bayes said.

Business at Bayes’s cafe doubled in one year and is now beginning to even out.

Calls to Nibert’s business increased by 50 to 60%. That equated to a 40% gain for the number of trips he booked, “Because at some point you gotta be able to say, ‘No.’”

Nibert noted it’s only been about three years.

“You know, I’m going to say this and definitely quote me on this. I am very happy with what the New River Gorge and National Preserve designation has done for me and my family financially. As a local, it needs a heck of a lot of work.”

While Nibert acknowledges the good economics of having a national park near his property and business, he laments losing a quiet lifestyle.

“Money ain’t everything. Way of life and having a little bit of peace in life and not seeing 40% more traffic on your road that comes by your house, you know what I mean. There’s so much of it that I just don’t give a s**t for.”

Forron’s business has also increased.

“Everybody in town that works in the service industry has more money,” he said.

But, “We’re poor. We are poor here.”

The resort-type concessionaires offering more activities, such as horseback riding, zip lining, rock climbing, have taken business away from the smaller whitewater rafting resorts, Sullivan said. Whitewater rafting has declined a bit but rock climbing has increased, she said.

“When I started guiding in 1991, there was probably about 20 whitewater companies,” Nibert said. “There was a handful of fishing companies — two or three or four. And what happened is the big fish started eating the little fish and you turned all these little companies into huge companies.”

Nibert estimates one local rafting business handles 50,000 people a year. Nibert’s business has about 1,000 on a good year.

When the land was re-designated, the state maintained control of licensing and permits for the whitewater rafting companies.

As the Buffalo National River, anyone can float or raft New River Gorge, provided they have the experience to handle some of the whitewater currents. They do not have to have a permit.

But Nibert and Forron expect that to change, despite the national park and preserve not having a gated main entrance and no way to monitor those using the river.

The New River Gorge Park and Preserve has not announced any type of permitting requirement.

Still, Nibert thinks in the future, permits will be required.

“Because how else do you expect to pay for the improvement of infrastructure, the employing of people to take care of this infrastructure from law enforcement to trash cleanup and road building? How else do you propose to pay for this, without either charging more taxes and/or fees to users?”

Nibert says the park and preserve could install gates and booths at access points.

“Joe Manchin looked at several of us and said that’ll never happen, you guys will basically be grandfathered in. You’ll never have to pay fees, permits. Bulls**t. It’s coming.”

Evans believes fees will be required if the park service expects to make money.

“They’ll figure out how to monetize it,” Forron said.

Good is glad to see the town have more income, despite some outfitters capitalizing on it more than others.

“I have zero more money than I had before because of the national park. I guess I have more opportunity to go do stuff,” Good said.

“It depends on what perspective you’re looking at it. If you own a hotel or a business, you’re going to make a lot more money,” Bieri said. “But, we also have people complain about the increase in traffic and housing, it’s hard to find, stuff like that. So again, it depends on your perspective and where you’re coming from.”

Before the park designation, New River Gorge was an unknown place.

“And now everybody knows about us. So you know that comes with the good and the bad,” Bieri said.

Bayes welcomes the influx of tourists.

“There are people from all over the place and they’re always very excited to be here and I love playing tour guide. I’ll go out and hike with people that I don’t know. It’s very small-town here,” Bayes said.

Laurel Johnson, who works in the service industry, grew up in the area.

“I lived on this super awesome secret river. I didn’t even know that people paid money to do the things I was doing,” she said.

Forron hopes the people visiting will like the area and decide to move, “And be contributing members of our community.”

No matter the local opinion, the park and preserve re-designation will continue to bring more and more people to the area.

Good tells his “buddies … you can get right or get left. You either get a ride and get on board with this or make plan B.”

Johnson said her grandparents, who opposed the progress, are learning to adapt.

 

Democrat Gazette

OPINION | REX NELSON: Change is coming

Democrat Gazette

OPINION | ARKANSAS SPORTSMAN: Buffalo River boat rentals will get more expensive

November 12, 2023 at 3:04 a.m.

by Bryan Hendricks

Starting next spring, expect the cost to rent a canoe or kayak on the Buffalo National River to increase.

As reported Friday in the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette, the National Park Service has proposed prohibiting Buffalo River outfitters from shuttling customer vehicles to their takeout points. Instead, outfitters will be required to transport customers back to their points of origin.

The new policy, if adopted, will take effect in 2026. However, outfitters will probably increase canoe rental fees in 2024 to raise capital to purchase new buses to handle larger numbers of passengers. Most will probably implement the new policy ahead of schedule.

Currently, outfitters use a mishmash of tactics to transport canoeists and kayakers to and from the river. Wild Bill's Canoe Rental in Yellville offers two popular floats from Spring Creek Recreation Area to the Arkansas 14 bridge, and a longer float from Spring Creek to Rush. In 2023, similar to the proposed policy, customers left their vehicles at the Highway 14 Access and met the outfitter at scheduled times at either takeout point. The outfitter shuttled large groups back to Arkansas 14 in a small bus, and shuttled individuals in a van or pickup truck.

Crockett's Canoe Rental at Harriet operates primarily between Maumee and Spring Creek. They take large groups to the launch point in buses or trucks and shuttled individual vehicles to takeout points, as does Silver Hill Canoe Rental at Silver Hill.

Outfitters on the middle part of the river often have canoes waiting at access points like Woolum, Baker Ford or Tyler Bend. Customers drive their own vehicles to the put-ins, and the outfitters shuttle their vehicles to the takeouts at Tyler Bend Recreation Area, Grinder's Ferry (U.S. 65), or Gilbert.

Outfitters on the upper river typically offer day floats from Steel Creek to Kyle's Landing, and overnight floats from Steel Creek to Pruitt.

Supposedly, the new policy intends to relieve vehicle congestion and traffic at small access areas like Kyles, Rush, Grinder's Ferry and Gilbert, which don't have much parking capacity. It will consolidate vehicle congestion at the river's main launch areas at Steel Creek, Tyler Bend, Pruitt and Arkansas 14.

To transport a greater number of people in a more orderly fashion, outfitters say they will have to buy bigger buses, and also buses with four-wheel drive.

The roads to Kyle's Landing and Baker Ford are steep and narrow. A vehicle traversing the roads often will need new brake pads frequently, but we haven't seen road conditions that would require four-wheel drive.

However, those roads are too narrow in places to accommodate two-way traffic for regular passenger vehicles. If you meet somebody coming the other way, one vehicle often must pull to the side. It would be very difficult for buses to traverse that road without a lot of coordination.

On the other hand, discontinuing vehicle shuttles will ease staffing pressure on outfitters because they won't have to dispatch employees to shuttle customer vehicles.

Currently, outfitters charges about $40 to shuttle customer vehicles. Since outfitters will assume the entire cost of the effort and assets to comply with the policy, they will probably transfer the cost of shuttling to the cost of renting a boat.

Outfitters will have to buy additional vans or buses, and that will translate directly to additional maintenance costs. Multiple daily trips on rutted, potholed mountain roads damages vehicles. Shuttling more people will require more road exposure, which will require more maintenance.

Ultimately, the cost of implementing new policy will regulate small outfitters out of business.

Influential people in the state's tourism industry want to transform the Buffalo National River into a model similar to the New River Gorge National Park and Preserve in West Virginia. That will change a lot of things, many of which are beyond the scope of this column.

In the short term, most visitors will notice only a higher cost to rent a boat.

Democrat Gazette

Buffalo shuttling to change in 2026

Operators can’t move clients’ cars

BILL BOWDEN
ARKANSAS DEMOCRAT-GAZETTE

Beginning in 2026, canoe and kayak concessioners along the Buffalo National River will no longer be allowed to shuttle the private vehicles of park visitors to locations up or down river, according to a prospectus released Monday by the National Park Service.

Instead, customers should be transported in buses or vans owned, leased or rented by the concessioners, according to the prospectus.

The change is an effort to relieve vehicle congestion at river access points, where parking is limited.

But it will be “almost impossible” to get buses down the narrow, curving gravel road leading to Kyle’s Landing Campground to pick up floaters, said Austin Albers, president/owner of Buffalo Outdoor Center in Ponca.

Since the 1960s, outfitters on the upper Buffalo River have shuttled customer vehicles to Kyle’s Landing, a popular take-out spot for people who begin their float at Ponca or Steel Creek Campground.

“This section [from Ponca to Kyle’s Landing] is 10.7-miles long and takes around 4 to 6 hours to complete, depending upon the individual, the river level and the amount of time you linger along the way,” according to the Buffalo Outdoor Center’s website. “It features the scenic icons of the upper Buffalo River — majestic Big Bluff and Hemmed-In Hollow, both the tallest of their kind (bluff face and waterfall, respectively) between the Rockies and the Appalachians.” The reason outfitters on the upper Buffalo haven’t been using buses — which are used on the middle and lower sections of the river — is that the 2.6-mile stretch of Newton County Road 56 that leads from Arkansas 74 to Kyle’s Landing is difficult to traverse, Albers said.

“They have signs up on Kyle’s road that say ‘recommended for four-wheel drive, high-clearance vehicles only,’” he said. “How many four-wheel drive buses do you know of? Or vans?” According to a “business opportunity” document that’s part of the prospectus packet, “Parking visitors’ vehicles at the Concessioner’s place of business, transporting (shuttling) people in Concession-owned vans and buses to the put-in location, and picking up people at the take-out location greatly relieves congestion issues while mitigating park resource damage.” And a draft operating plan in the packet states: “Concessioners must shuttle their clients and their rental vessels only in concession-owned or leased/rented vehicles after December 31, 2025. They may not shuttle private vehicles for either their clients or other park visitors after December 31, 2025.” It will be particularly difficult when a bus meets another vehicle on the road to Kyle’s Landing, said Albers.

“That’s why everybody in the upper district has always operated the way we have, in essence valeting people’s vehicles from Point A to Point B, because you can get smaller vehicles in and out versus the buses,” he said. “It’s almost impossible.” The concessioners in the upper Buffalo region who have operated buses primarily did so from the Pruitt to Hasty section, where it’s easier to get buses in and out, Albers said.

He said the shuttling of private vehicles is also a more “curated experience.” “When you get off the river, especially in early spring, and you’re cold and you’re wet, the last thing you want to do is wait for a bus to get there and then the bus getting out of there,” said Albers. “It’s going to take a lot longer.” Floaters arriving at Kyle’s Landing usually have a dry change of clothes in the car, Albers said. And from there, they can drive home without heading back up river in a bus or van to get to their vehicle.

“In this upper district, where it’s an early springtime [float], you’ve got colder temperatures,” said Albers. “People get wet, they’re cold, they’re ready to put dry clothes on and get in their warm vehicle and leave. People become accustomed to that, to having their stuff there when they get there. Now, it’s going to add a whole ‘nuther hour on the end of their trip just to get back to their vehicles.” Albers said he doesn’t know yet if the outfitters have any options to get the National Park Service to change this rule before it’s implemented in 2026.

Albers said the park needs more federal funding to help with infrastructure such as roads, parking lots and access to restrooms.

“This is their way of doing it, to constrain the concessioners more,” he said.

Aaron Jones, the river manager at Lost Valley Canoe & Lodging in Ponca, said the change could cost his family’s business about $250,000 if they have to buy four new vans.

He found a used Ford Transit van that can seat 15 passengers for $20,000. But it has 100,000 miles on it.

“This is definitely going to change our operating plan,” he said.

Running a shuttle round trip to Kyle’s Landing takes at least 45 minutes, but customers may have to wait until several boaters arrive at the pick-up location before being hauled the 12 miles back to Ponca, Jones said. They’ll also have a vehicle there to pick up rented canoes and kayaks.

Some boaters take multi-day trips from the upper to the lower Buffalo. In that case, the shuttle can take four hours round trip, he said.

Also, noted Jones, bus drivers would have to have a commercial driver’s license.

Both Jones and Albers said they don’t have sufficient parking at their businesses for all the customers who have been leaving vehicles at Kyle’s Landing to be picked up after a float.

Outfitters say the new rule could cause more parking problems if couples or groups who bring their own water vessels decide to drive two vehicles so they can shuttle themselves. That would take up two parking spaces in the park.

The park service intends to award 12 concession contracts to provide canoe/kayak and shuttle services for a term of 10 years beginning Jan. 1, 2025, according to the prospectus.

There are currently 12 concession contracts to provide canoe and shuttle services at the Buffalo National River.

The existing contracts, started on Jan. 1, 2013, expired on Dec. 31, 2022, and will be extended through Dec. 31, 2024.

The Buffalo National River had 1.3 million visitors in 2022, according to the park service.

Albers is a member of the Natural State Advisory Council, which was established by Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders in January to promote tourism and outdoor recreation in Arkansas.

Madison County Record

Resolution opposing re-designation sails through

Newton County preps to protect land rights

Posted Wednesday, November 8, 2023 9:45 am

By Ellen Kreth, For The Record

Newton County Quorum Court members passed a resolution at their Nov. 6 meeting opposing “the changing of the name designation or expansion of the Buffalo National River, and any further negative impact on the agricultural lands or infringement on private ownership on the Buffalo National River Watershed.”

The vote was unanimous with approximately 25 citizens in attendance.

Justice of the Peace Jamie Mefford said the court wanted to show its opposition to any name change, park expansion, private land rights restrictions and any agricultural restrictions.

Mefford said little discussion by court members took place before the vote because, “We’re all in agreement that we just don’t want the changes.”

The resolution follows recent discussions of making public lands around the Buffalo National River into a national park preserve.

In July 2022, the Runway Group approached U.S. Rep. Bruce Westerman, R-Ark., who represents Arkansas’ 4th Congressional District and chairs the Natural Resources Committee, with the idea re-designating the land.

The Buffalo National River became America’s first national river in 1972. At that time, the federal government used eminent domain on some landowners.

The Runway Group is owned by Steuart and Tom Walton, grandsons of Walmart founders Helen and Sam Walton.

Proponents of the idea emphasize re-designating federal land around the river will bring more tourism, jobs, and money, which could be used to improve the park’s infrastructure, as well as enhance economic benefits and growth to Newton and Searcy counties and their gateway communities.

In September, in an effort to gauge public opinion, the Runway Group hired Selzer & Co., who polled 412 voters in Baxter, Madison, Marion, Newton and Searcy counties about a change and produced a flyer with the results.

However, locals say they are opposed to the change. Mefford said no constituents have approached him in support of the idea.

“I couldn’t understand why they didn’t bring it to the local cities, and the local county governments before they ever even started anything with it,” Mefford said.

The Record broke the story on Oct. 4, making the public aware of discussions about re-designating lands.

Recently, Runway Group’s Vice President of Corporate and Community Affairs Krista Cupp said the group is not pressing forward with a re-designation. There are “no next steps,” she said.

Cupp said when the group approached Westerman, it didn’t present a proposal but asked if the re-designation was worth exploring.     

Westerman has stated that no plans exist now to draft legislation turning the lands into a preserve.

Mefford realizes the county’s resolution holds no weight if a federal law were passed.

“We have no power over the federal government,” he said.

Mefford said even though the Runway Group has said it is no longer pursuing the option, “I think the next time we’ll hear about it, it’ll be up in Congress.

“You know, the people that are pushing this are very powerful and they have the money and they have the lobbyists.”

Mefford, who is serving his third two-year term, said people in his district and in Newton County remain on edge based upon recent large land purchases in the area.

Walton Enterprises, owned by the Walton family, owns more than 6,000 acres in Kingston in Madison County and has purchased three historic buildings on the Kingston Square they plan to renovate.

Unconfirmed reports indicate the Runway Group has made plans to purchase Horseshoe Canyon, a large dude ranch near Jasper in Newton County.

In 2020, Bass Pro Shop Founder Johnny Morris bought Dogpatch U.S.A., a theme park in Newton County that opened in 1968 but was shuttered in 1993.

Mefford said the recent land purchases have the court members considering ordinances that were passed in approximately 1998 dealing with county landowners rights.

“And we’re in the process of dragging that out and getting the dust off of it.”

Currently, the county has no zoning ordinances and requires no building permits.

Even though zoning requirements were brought up at Monday’s meeting, Mefford said, “We know what’s coming. It’s everywhere. But we don’t want to infringe on anybody’s property rights.

“Things have been simple, ’til now,” he said.

But “big growth” is coming and he’s worried about how the county will pay for it.

The county is at least “62 percent government owned,” but with very little tax base, receiving payments in lieu of taxes [PILT], Mefford said. PILT payments are “federal payments that help local governments offset losses in property taxes due to the existence of nontaxable Federal lands within their boundaries,” according to the U.S. Department of Interior.

“So we’re sitting here with 1,500 miles of dirt roads in this county. And we’ve got a $1.3 million budget, $1.4, a little more than that with FEMA, but it takes $800,000 to pay our employees in the road department and that don’t leave a lot,” Mefford said.

southlands by Boyce Upholt

Populism & Southern Lands Pt. 1: From Ozarks to Oz

"Rich men not from here are pushing to change a way of life"

I’ve been thinking a lot about public lands lately, in part because the federal government has launched an initiative to “conserve” at least 30% of the country by 2030. Over the next two weeks, I’ll look at two controversies over public lands and conservation in the South. Up first: the Buffalo River.

NOV 7, 2023  

For the people along the Buffalo River, in northwestern Arkansas, it was a lose-lose.

The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers wanted to build a dam that would flood their land. A bunch of nature lovers wanted to stop the dam by turning the river into one long park—what one local called a “130-mile-long zoo.”

The nature-lovers won, which is why in 1972 the Buffalo became the country’s first “national river,” a designation that protects the scenic character of this river. The federal government bought up the surrounding property, a fact that still stings. When I visited in 2021, one resident told me that local house fires are sometimes blamed on arson—the result of a still-simmering schism between those who would invite in tourists and those who would rather keep their old way of life intact.

Now, a half-century later, the Walton family is backing an effort to bring more attention to the Buffalo River—which has set off a new wave of anger.

A reader emailed me last week to tell me that more than a thousand people had turned up for a recent public meeting in the town of Jasper, Ark. That’s more than twice the town’s population.

The Buffalo winds through the Arkansas Ozarks, through proudly rural communities. The first time I visited, I didn’t realize that many of the surrounding counties are dry. My friends and I had to track down a “bootlegger” who sold cases of beer out of a backyard shed. You can go a bit north and get lost in the neon glitz of Branson, Missouri, but along the Buffalo the amenities are minimal. I fell in love with the region.

By the time I began to visit, the decision to turn the Buffalo River into a national river had been accepted as the “right course,” at least according to the Northwest Arkansas Democrat-Gazette. (As one old-timer told the paper in 2012, “They took our land away, but it’s still there, and it’s not covered up by water.”) Back in September, locals began to receive phone calls from a research firm asking questions about whether they’d like to take the protections even further. The idea was to bump up the Buffalo from a “national river” to a “national park and preserve.”

A national park is a bigger deal than a national river.¹ A mysterious group konwn as the “Coalition for the Buffalo River National Park Preserve” had sponsored the survey; a representative later said the hope is that a redesignation could “generate more funding” that can help with the upkeep of infrastructure along the river. The upgrade would require an act of Congress, and according to a flyer printed by the coalition (and cited by the Madison County Record, which has lifted its paywall on its excellent coverage of this issue), two-thirds of survey recipients would want their representatives to vote for such a bill.

The crowd in Jasper, though, saw things differently.

Our country’s national parks were, according to Wallace Stegner, “America’s best idea”—“absolutely American, absolutely democratic, they reflect us at our best rather than our worst.”

I’m generally sympathetic to this idea, though, as always, if you zoom in close, you’ll find some blemishes. I’ll skip over the fact that establishing many parks required a process of ethnic cleansing, since I imagine that’s an idea familiar to most of my readers. But consider how the country’s first national park, at Yellowstone, came to be: a railroad company realized it stood to profit mightily if it could convince the federal government to establish a tourist park. For all the beauty of the national parks, this great American idea doubled as a scheme to help turn wealthy men even wealthier.

Fifty years after Yellowstone was founded, the federal government officially ended its program of lands sales. Nearly half the U.S. West remains public land. That sparked simmering resentment—a long effort to turn the vast expanses of public land into state or private property. (One prominent recent manifestation is the Bundy family.) But the self-dubbed “Sagebrush Rebellion” never gained much foothold in the South, for an obvious reason: by the late nineteenth century, almost all of the South had been privatized. The federal government owns 10% or less of most Southern states.

That created its own complications over public land, as the story of the Buffalo National River shows: parkland had to be wrested back from private owners, sometimes unwilling owners. What remains most salient here are issues of class; the fear in the Ozarks now is that the Yellowstone history is being repeated. At the meeting in Jasper—which was organized by various locals who were worried that the survey’s results were misleading—one resident declared that “rich men not from here are pushing to change a way of life.”

The Coalition for the Buffalo River National Park Preserve was eventually revealed to include one key member: a company called Runway LLC, which was launched by two of the grandsons of Walmart founder Sam Walton. Dogged reporting in the Recordrevealed that Runway’s leadership had been discussing the redesignation of the Buffalo River with state officials since at least the summer of 2022—long before any public discussion was held on the local level. 

The Record also noted that another Walton-affiliated LLC has bought thousands of contiguous acres of land just west of the Buffalo, as well as three historic buildings on a town square, which are now undergoing renovation. The Waltons are working to rebrand the Ozarks as “Oz”—as an exciting, liveable place for young professionals. (The Walton family is not alone: Johnny Morris, the owner of Bass Pro Shops, has already opened a private “nature park” near the Buffalo River.) It’s easy enough to connect the dots, then: “The proposed project appears to be primarily a marketing tool to increase economic development of the surrounding area,” as the Buffalo River Watershed Alliance has put it. 

One point of contention is the murky label “national park and preserve.” National parks and national preserves are different categories, as the latter designation allows certain “consumptive uses” on the land, including hunting and fishing. That seems to be key to the Buffalo River proposal, given that its advocates are calling the river a potential sportsman’s paradise.² The “park and preserve” concept would include various parcels, with the “preserve” land open to hunting, while the “park” land would be devoted to nonconsumptive recreation.

These conflicting labels, though, mean that what sounds like increased protection is not necessarily. Preserve is a looser category. Sometimes the management of national preserves is transferred to state or local authorities, who may not be as rigorous as the federal government in protecting the land.³

In the wake of the outrage, the Runway Group has “retracted” its proposal, according to according to the Record. Though they’ve also said there’s nothing to retract since they just wanted to start a conversation. But having a conversation seems to be another matter: after initially expressing their intention to attend, representatives from Runway decided not to join the meeting in Jasper.

I get the sense that some of the opponents of the new proposal don’t necessarily want more promotion—or more tourists. During coronavirus lockdowns, the Buffalo was mobbed by crowds, and it’s not clear that a new national park and preserve would receive enough funding to keep up with the increased tourism it might attract. The Buffalo River and the surrounding parkland may technically belong to every American, at this point, but if every American came to visit, that would not be great for the river itself.

Here we get to an essential but little-asked question when it comes to “protecting” and “conserving” nature: what are we trying to achieve? Is this for the sake of nature? Or is it so that we—the rest of the country—have a store of lands where we can go out and see beauty? Some along the Buffalo believe this land will be best protected by being left alone, in relative obscurity. It doesn’t need to be everyone’s river, because it’s theirs.

The debate over public land is not only a debate over the future of nature—but also over how society as a whole should relate to that nature. Next week, in part two of this series, we’ll turn our attention to Florida, where the pressures of capitalism have forged unusual alliances between people who typically fight over conservation.

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Democrat Gazette

Opinion

OPINION | REX NELSON: Loving it to death

by Rex Nelson | Today at 4:10 a.m.

History is repeating itself in the Arkansas Ozarks.

When a brave band of environmentalists began the fight decades ago to have the Buffalo River designated as the nation’s first national river, their strongest opposition came from area residents. Now that a new group is attempting to have the river upgraded to national park status, complaints are again being heard.

The difference in this era of social media is that misinformation spreads like wildfire, people become upset, and politicians feel the need to demagogue an issue rather than simply explain the facts.

“The continual threat of a dam on the Buffalo caught the attention of Arkansas conservation groups and those who had begun using the river for recreation,” Suzie Rogers writes for the Central Arkansas Library System’s Encyclopedia of Arkansas. “In the early 1960s, advocates for dams and advocates for a free-flowing stream formed opposing organizations. The pro-dam Buffalo River Improvement Association, established by James Tudor of Marshall, and the anti-dam Ozark Society, which included environmentalist Neil Compton, emerged as the leading players in the drama.

“The dam proponents worked with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and U.S. Rep. James Trimble. The free-flowing stream advocates made overtures to the U.S. Department of the Interior. In 1961, a National Park Service planning team undertook a site survey of the Buffalo River area. The team was favorably impressed and recommended establishment of a park on the Buffalo River to be called a national river.” Years of intense political and public relations battles followed.

“A decade of political maneuverings, speeches and media attention—including a canoe trip on the Buffalo by Supreme Court Justice William O. Douglas—came to a head in December 1965 when Gov. Orval Faubus wrote the Corps that he could not support the idea of a dam on the Buffalo,” Rogers writes. “The Corps withdrew its proposal. In 1966, John Paul Hammerschmidt of Harrison defeated Trimble and indicated that he would support the concept of creating a park along the river.

“Hammerschmidt and Sens. J. William Fulbright and John L. McClellan introduced the first Buffalo National River park legislation in 1967. The final park legislation was introduced in 1971, and hearings were held in late 1971. In February 1972, Congress voted to establish the nation’s first national river.” President Richard Nixon signed legislation to put the river under the protection of the National Park Service on March 1, 1972, a century after the establishment of Yellowstone, the first national park.

The law states: “That for the purposes of conserving and interpreting an area containing unique scenic and scientific features, and preserving as a free-flowing stream an important segment of the Buffalo River in Arkansas for the benefit and enjoyment of present and future generations, the Secretary of the Interior … may establish and administer the Buffalo National River.” The area overseen by NPS encompasses 135 miles of the 150-mile-long river. According to the law, total acreage can’t exceed 95,730 acres. Hunting and fishing are allowed as traditional uses. Many residents were given an option to use their land for up to 25 years. Still, eminent domain proceedings were necessary, and feelings were hurt.

There has always been a deep distrust of government in the hills of Newton, Searcy, Marion, Madison and Baxter counties. That distrust erupted again this fall with word that a coalition is floating the idea of making the Buffalo National River a national park preserve. A regular national park restricts hunting and other activities. A national park preserve would protect hunting, fishing and trapping rights.

The group is using as a model New River Gorge National Park and Preserve in West Virginia. It allows hunting and fishing and doesn’t require fees or permits.

New River Gorge National River was established in 1978. It was redesignated in 2021 as New River Gorge National Park and Preserve. It encompasses more than 70,000 acres along 53 miles of the New River. The river, thought to be among the oldest rivers in the world, carved the deepest and longest river gorge in the Appalachian Mountains.

Why the status change? Because national park status will make the Buffalo a higher priority inside the National Park Service. And adding “preserve” prohibits additional restrictions and fees. Rumors about use of eminent domain and stringent restrictions are simply false. Elected officials need to have the guts to tell their constituents that the rumors have no basis in fact.

“We’re loving the Buffalo to death,” says Mike Mills, the Arkansas outdoors icon who knows more about the river than anyone alive. Mills says more federal funding is needed for parking at trailheads and for public restrooms. People now park along roads, often blocking traffic. They also use the woods as their restroom. Most of the current infrastructure dates back to the late 1970s.

Austin Albers, president and owner of Buffalo Outdoor Center, told The Madison County Record: “You’re looking at positive economic impact, prolonging and protecting the national park, the national river, protecting what brings people here—hunting, fishing, floating, all of that. None of that changes. And that’s why it’s a national park preserve and not just a national park.

“So if we can transition to a national park preserve versus a national river …. and get more infrastructure put into place, I think it’s a win for everybody.” Rumors began to spread when the coalition hired Selzer & Co. to poll 412 voters in Baxter, Madison, Marion, Newton and Searcy counties. The survey was conducted Sept. 11-13. It found that: m 95 percent were in favor of no private land being taken to create a national park preserve.

m 93 percent were in favor of rules protecting the river from pollution and industrial uses.

m 89 percent opposed any new taxes to support the national park preserve.

m 86 percent were in favor of grandfathering local businesses into any new commercial business rules.

m 83 percent were in favor of hunting regulations staying the same.

m 64 percent said they would want their member of Congress to vote for designation of the river as a national park preserve.

Nearly a fifth of Americans are within 500 miles of the Buffalo National River. In that area, there are only three national parks: Hot Springs, Mammoth Cave in Kentucky, and Gateway Arch in Missouri. None of those are recreation-focused areas.

“More visitors are coming,” a flyer from the coalition states. “Our natural lands must be actively preserved—or be lost. Private investments are certainly expected to increase interest and visitors. . . . In this rural part of the country, nature is treasured and many make their living from an economy that depends on tourism. Requiring only a change in the lands’s designation, more visitors will bring more jobs and more economic benefits.” In addition to their distrust of government, those who live in these hills distrust outsiders. They’re concerned by the large amounts of land being bought by entities associated with brothers Tom and Steuart Walton of Bentonville. I know the Walton brothers, and I want to make one thing clear: Their motives are pure. They realize that our state’s ability to attract and keep talented people in the decades ahead will rest in part on our protecting and enhancing outdoor recreational attributes.

The Walton brothers could live anywhere in the world and do anything they want. But their focus these days is on enhancing quality of life in Arkansas. Other states should be so lucky. Their involvement in the Coalition for Buffalo River National Park Preserve doesn’t worry me. It gives me hope that this effort will succeed.

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Rex Nelson is a senior editor at the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette.