Buffalo River Watershed Alliance
Civileats.com
In rural communities, residents and family farmers are increasingly pitting the need to protect their waterways and natural areas for outdoor recreation against factory farms, which they say pollute the environment and threaten tourism dollars.
BY MALLORY DAILY
SEPTEMBER 28, 2021
In 2019, after seven years of public outcry, the Republican Governor of Arkansas agreed to a $6.2 million buyout of an industrial hog facility located near a major tributary of the Buffalo River, the first designated national river, which originates in the Boston Mountains of the Ozarks in northwestern Arkansas. It was a big win for clean water advocates and if it had just been an anonymous stream, the state would have never bought out the 6,500-hog JBS factory farm, said Gordon Watkins, sitting on the deck of the vacation rental he owns and manages in the watershed.
“Because it was the Buffalo National River, it garnered nationwide attention,” said Watkins, who is a retired organic farmer and the president of the Buffalo River Watershed Alliance, one of four organizations comprising a coalition that formed almost a decade ago when the public first caught wind of the hog facility.
More than 1.5 million people are estimated to visit the clear, bluff-lined river every year to hike, fish, camp, and paddle. They spent more than $66 million in 2020 and supported more than 960 jobs, according to data from the National Park Service. Watkins is one of many who operate vacation rentals near the park, which spans four counties, all of which have poverty rates higher than the national average.
“Most of my business is because of the Buffalo National River,” said Watkins. “That’s what brings people here. . . . Tourism is our bread and butter. It employs a whole lot more people than one hog barn did.”
In other regions, where animals are raised in concentrated animal feeding operations (CAFOs), it’s rare to find opponents successful in stopping the state from approving a CAFO permit, let alone altogether halting operations that have persisted for years. So the campaign to close C&H Hog Farms stands out—and it could be a sign of what’s ahead.
In rural communities, residents and family farmers are increasingly pitting the need to protect their waterways and natural areas for outdoor recreation against factory farms, which they say pollute the environment and threaten tourism dollars. In framing their opposition to industrial animal agriculture in this way, the groups open the door for unlikely allies to join the fight for heavier regulations. In some cases, these campaigns have resulted in bipartisan support for stricter monitoring of the environmental impacts of CAFOs—and have even led to cross-the-aisle discussions about creating CAFO moratoriums in environmentally sensitive regions.
Two years after the anti-CAFO faction near the Buffalo River emerged victorious, a community near the Bloody Run Stream in Iowa is challenging a new cattle feedlot through legal action. Other communities in the Midwest are also framing the fight against industrial animal ag as a battle to protect open spaces and the right to clean, safe outdoor recreation. And, as family farming and environmental advocates realize success with this strategy, they are creating a roadmap for others to challenge the proliferation of factory farms in their own backyards.
In the fight to “Save the Buffalo . . . Again,” a slogan that refers to environmentalists’ initial attempts to prevent the damming of the river in the 1960s, supporting rural recreation became a key leverage point in challenging the power of Big Ag. Outdoor recreation, of course, relies upon the health of local natural resources.
“There was the saying that ‘Brazil gets the meat, JBS gets the money, and the Buffalo River gets the shit,’” said Watkins, referring to the lack of local benefits corporate-backed CAFOs provide. Typically, corporations own the hogs in the facility while local operators care for the animals and own the land upon which the CAFO was built, as well as the debt it takes to build it and the manure the hogs leave behind.
When C&H was in operation, it stored up to two million gallons of liquid hog waste in open pits, referred to as “lagoons,” on the property, and it periodically spread the waste on nearby farm fields as fertilizer. Some CAFO manure has been shown to have enough nitrogen, phosphorus, antibiotics, and pathogens such as E. coli to wreak havoc on sensitive ecosystems and pollute water used for drinking and recreating.
The C&H farm was situated in a karst topography, a type of landscape known for its fractured limestone bedrock, caves, and sinkholes. Some scientists refer to karst as an underground terrain of “swiss cheese,” where pollutants that exist on the earth’s surface are at higher risk of reaching groundwater and spreading beyond the intended application sites. While the topography contributes to the beauty of the region and its appeal for nature-loving tourists, it also means that pollutants can spread quickly.
With the help of a professor emeritus in hydrogeology from the University of Arkansas, advocates put together a series of dye tracing tests that showed the complex system of subsurface water flow near the CAFO. The authors cited the need for further in-depth study to monitor the spread of possible pollutants far beyond the farm site and the surrounding spreading fields.
But a five-year study conducted by Big Creek Research and Extension Team (BCRET), a state-funded project to evaluate the impact of C&H Farms on the watershed, found no proof of direct pollution from the farm. Still, advocates were not convinced. They raised the alarm about the threat of pollution and publicized their loss of faith in the state to conduct “sound” research, which was ultimately enough to mobilize statewide opposition to the continued operation of the facility.
Leaks and spills due to improper storage or transport of the manure, as well as runoff from mismanaged application to farm fields, can contribute to a host of environmental and public health complications, including toxic algal blooms, fish kills, and blue baby syndrome.
Ben Milburn, owner of Buffalo River Outfitters, a canoe rental and lodging company that serves park visitors, has perennial concerns about the river’s water quality. For Milburn, the mismanagement of human wastewater in surrounding communities and decreased funding for park maintenance compounds with the acute pollution pressures from industrial agriculture.
Milburn, who also serves as a member of the state-funded Buffalo River Conservation Committee, said the state should be responsible for creating restrictions for farmers in the watershed.
“Without [the state] protecting it and limiting what a farmer can do when it comes to fertilizer in their fields or in agricultural production” the community is in trouble, he said. “There’s got to be some type of oversight or there is the potential for problems.”
The potential for pollution from CAFOs can be extreme. In 2018, flooding in North Carolina due to Hurricane Florence caused 50 manure lagoons to overflow. In Iowa, the state with the largest number of permitted CAFOs in the nation, environmental groups have estimated the plan to clean up nitrates in the capital’s drinking water will take 22,000 years to complete.
Nitrate pollution not only results from excessive applications of manure to crop fields, but also from applications of synthetic fertilizer. Both sources are used to enhance the fertility of fields growing grains that, among other uses, end up in the mouths of livestock in these factory farms.
While CAFO opponents have long cited the risks these facilities pose to both environmental and human health in their campaigns, some communities are bringing in a third element: preserving local recreation industries.
Jenna Pollock grew up on a family farm in the northeast corner of Iowa among the rolling hills, limestone bluffs, and meandering rivers of the Driftless region. She still helps her family raise cattle, hogs, hay, corn, and soybeans while serving as the Clayton County Conservation Director. She says she’s accustomed to the tensions that arise between agriculture and outdoor recreation, and it can be a struggle to keep a foot in both worlds.
“We have to do things with a little greater care, because we are in such a volatile ecosystem,” Pollock said.
Pollock’s community is grappling with the risks posed by a large cattle feedlot owned by Supreme Beef, LLC. It is situated near Bloody Run Creek, a cold-water trout stream designated as one of Iowa’s 34 “outstanding waters” (which stand out when compared to the agency’s 773 impaired water segments).
Earlier this year, the Iowa Department of Natural Resources (DNR)—the same agency that designates Bloody Run as protected—approved the expansion of a cattle feedlot near the headwaters of the stream from 2,700-head of cattle to 11,600, making it one of the largest livestock facilities in the County. The feedlot’s plans include spreading manure on more than 40 fields near the creek. Like the area where C&H is located in Arkansas, the Driftless region in Iowa is known for its karst topography.
Small, rural economies cannot ignore the local dollars that sites like Bloody Run bring in through hosting sites for camping, fishing, and hiking. In 2015, visitor expenditures equaled more than $33 million in Clayton County, in addition to the $50 million attributed to the nearby River Bluffs Scenic By-Way, which passes through both Clayton and Fayette counties, according to the most recent available data from the U.S. Travel Association.
Recreation economies are gaining attention on a national scale as well. In 2017, spurred by the Outdoor Recreation Jobs and Economic Impact Act passed by Congress, the Bureau of Economic Analysis included the outdoor recreation industry in its GDP calculations for the first time. The agency’s most recent report, released in 2020, shows that the outdoor recreation industry makes up 2.1 percent of U.S. gross domestic product and exceeds the size of the agriculture industry.
“More places are thinking about outdoor recreation as a viable economic development strategy, especially in places that have been reliant on natural resources, at least with those more extractive industries,” said Megan Lawson, an economist with Headwaters Economics, a community development and land management research firm.
“Communities are seeing outdoor recreation as a way to even out the booms and busts of those extractive industries . . . as they respond to big macroeconomic fluctuations,” Lawson continued. “That’s something that I’ve really seen change.”
Still, recreation economies are no silver bullet. For one, Lawson said, counties with developed recreation economies have lower wages and higher housing costs on average. But wages are growing at a faster rate than those in counties without recreation, according to Headwaters Economics data.
While agribusiness has long touted itself as one of the only industries that continues to invest in the rural Midwest, it has become an increasingly concentrated sector that pushes out small producers and prioritizes corporate profits.
Because of the pollution risks posed to lands and waters used for hunting and fishing, Jessica Mazour of the Sierra Club’s Iowa Chapter said that unlikely allies are joining the fight to close down the Supreme Beef feedlot near Bloody Run, including politically conservative residents who typically support the development of industrial agriculture in their region.
“Recreation has become a bigger piece of the puzzle than it ever has been before,” said Mazour. “[Iowans] are not going to get any benefit from the factory farm moving into their area, but they will benefit if they have an area where people are coming and spending money to make use of the natural resources.”
Organizers in Arkansas reported similar cross-the-aisle efforts. Carol Bitting, a longtime caver in the Buffalo River Watershed and advocate for the closure of the hog CAFO there, found that she often received the support of landowners who wouldn’t speak out publicly, but who allowed her and a team of researchers to use their land in order to conduct the dye-tracing tests.
“The community supported me during the testing,” said Bitting. “But they also said, ‘If you tell anybody I agree with you, I’ll never admit it in public. We can’t talk about that here.’”
Other CAFO opposition campaigns in the Midwest are also seeing gradual bipartisan support for heavier regulation of these facilities. Rural sociology scholar Loka Ashwood has tracked two bipartisan efforts that led to operators withdrawing CAFO plans in Illinois, resulting in what she calls “pragmatic politics without parties.” In Missouri, the owner of a hog CAFO withdrew their application for a 10,500 hog facility after months of bipartisan opposition from folks motivated by protecting a nearby 6,000 acre conservation area.
Despite these recent patterns, the fate of Iowa’s Bloody Run Creek remains unknown. The Sierra Club and affiliated groups have filed suit against Iowa DNR’s approval of the Supreme Beef feedlot, based on what they view to be miscalculations in the operation’s manure spreading plans.
“Being an Iowa farm boy, you understand that agriculture is a part of life,” said David Klemme, who grew up on a corn and soybean farm and is now a member of Trout Unlimited in Iowa, a national organization funded by fishers to conserve and recover waterways that host wild and native trout populations.
“I think the question is, how can we try to balance the agricultural practices with the needs of the environment? And if we know CAFOs are [going to be] in Iowa, how do we make sure that where they’re being placed makes the most sense for everyone?”
All photos by Mallory Daily.
Mallory Daily is a 2021 Pulitzer Center Reporting Fellow; this reporting was supported by the Pulitzer Center.
Newton County Times
By JEFF DEZORT jeffd@newtoncountytimes.com
JASPER — Bob Ziehmer, senior director of conservation for Bass Pro Shops, the premiere outdoor and conservation company whose mission is to inspire everyone to enjoy, love and conserve the great outdoors, said he welcomes the opportunity to work with state and local officials as the Springfield, Missouri-based business develops one of its latest projects, the Marble Falls Nature Park.
Ziehmer and other company officials, attended the quarterly meeting of the Buffalo River Conservation Committee (BRCC) held at the Jasper School Cafeteria on Tuesday afternoon. They were featured on the agenda to present what Bass Pro Shops founder and CEO John L. “Johnny” Morris has in mind for the former Dogpatch USA theme park in Newton County.
Morris purchased the 400-acre piece of property just over a year ago. At the time the company announced in a press release that Morris was in the early stages of exploring specific plans for the property, but any possible future development will be an extension of his other projects, which aim to connect families to nature.
Ziehmer confirmed that the project is continuing towards that goal of meeting the company’s three pillars of protecting wildlife and habitat, connecting new audiences to the outdoors and advocating for sportsmen’s rights and the outdoors.
The BRCC was established by an Executive Order of Gov. Asa Hutchinson in 2019. Its purpose is to implement projects in the Buffalo River Watershed to protect the quality and enhance the value of the Buffalo National River in partnership with local stakeholders.
Members of the committee are the secretaries of the Department of Agriculture, Department of Parks, Heritage and Tourism, Department of Energy and Environment and the Department of Health. Wes Ward, secretary of the agriculture department, is the chairman and he presided over Tuesday’s meeting. While several of the members attended virtually, many of their staff members were present.
Spencer Jones, PE, Great River Engineering, of Springfield, Missouri, involved in the development of the former theme park, gave the committee a sneak peak of what Bass Pro Shop’s newest outdoor venue will be about. Its name is Marble Falls Nature Park and will have features almost identical to the much larger Dogwood Canyon Nature Park near Lampe, Missouri.
Spencer said the park will focus on the community’s history which includes being the site where a block of marble was quarried, carved and transported to the nation’s capital in 1836 and was one of the first stones to be incorporated into the Washington Monument. The site was also where Peter Bellah built the original water powered grist mill. The town, then known as Marble City, became a health resort featuring the healing waters from the spring. Later, Albert Raney Sr. developed the site on Mill Creek into a trout hatchery which eventually led to the development of the area into Dogpatch USA.
Like Dogwood Canyon, Marble Falls Nature Park may include a working mill and restaurant, offer trout fishing and fly-fishing lessons, provide wildlife tours with displays of animals such as buffalo, horseback riding and mostly programs dedicated to educating the public on conservation.
The deterioration of the theme park has had a negative impact on the water quality of the creek which is a part of the Buffalo River Watershed.
Water resources appears to be the priority issue of the new owner. Spencer said working with BRCC will be needed to repair and update the drinking water and waste water systems serving the park and the surrounding community. The Basin Valley Water District has a very leaky system. It was built in 1969. “They are pumping more water than they are selling.”
The gravity sewer system was also built in 1969. It was designed to operate with a large flow, but with the lower flow today it does not meet discharge limits, Spencer said.
Another area of concern is the transportation system, namely state Highway 7. He said the highway’s alignment has created accidents and congestion. “We are working with the state to help address those issues.”
It comes down to a public/private partnership. The company is reaching out into the community to work with the Marble Falls Sewer Improvement District, the Basin Valley Water District and the Arkansas Department of Transportation to deal with these environmental and safety issues and improve the quality of life and economic development for the entire region, Spencer concluded in the presentation to the BRCC.
America’s first national river beckons with blazing color and mountain adventures.
By Katie Strasberg Rousso
September 15, 2021
Bordered by multicolored bluffs and tucked deep in the deciduous forests of Northwest Arkansas, a ribbon of rapids and pools reflects the Americana charm and natural splendor you can find only in the Ozark Mountains. On either side of the cool, free-flowing river, hollows flanking the water conceal outtakes from another time—from prehistoric sites dating back thousands of years to untamed wilderness and waterfalls left wholly untouched. On the Buffalo National River, the park's waters stretch as wide from west to east as they reach back into history, preserving a landscape riddled with culture yet unharmed by the passage of time.
In 1972, the Buffalo became the first national river in America, a designation that allowed its unique waters to remain naturally dependent on rainfall without any dams. This swath of preserved currents reaches more than 135 miles across the top of the Natural State, beginning in the Boston Mountains and traveling farther into the Ozarks. It's long enough to have upper, middle, and lower sections and intimately connects communities in four counties. Sloshing waters framed by massive bluffs thread through campgrounds and gravel bars, offering self-proclaimed "river rats" a haven for both kayaking and rafting trips. But the river's reliance on rainfall lends it a distinct seasonality, because it doesn't have any dams to control it. In the spring and summer, it's a magnet for paddle-armed explorers eager to get wet. When fall rolls around, lower water levels in the western section of the park (the Upper Buffalo Wilderness area) lead to land-based excursions that are more laid-back.
"The Buffalo National River is the crown jewel of the state when it comes to scenery," says Austin Albers, president of the Buffalo Outdoor Center. "That is especially true in the fall, when colorful leaves dot the bluff lines." Born and raised in the area, Albers has witnessed the floating season's crowds give way to a more relaxed mix of couples and retirees when the weather cools off here.
While you'll find bustling river waters in the Lower Buffalo Wilderness area during the autumn months, the upper section turns into a trickle, allowing foliage seekers to relish the region's kaleidoscopic display from the banks and bluffs. Pleasant weather lures hikers farther into the park's 94,293 acres, where wooded paths reveal shelters of prehistoric hunters and gatherers as well as sites where Mississippian communities once farmed the floodplain.
Savor the woodlands and waterfalls this season by making your home base in the upper region of the river at Ponca, a tiny, off-the-grid mountain town near the edge of the park. In this area, the Lost Valley Trail is a must. The 2.4-mile walk winds past natural bridges to the 53-foot plunge of Eden Falls and the mouth of Cob Cave, which was once a shelter for Native Americans. Hikers seeking a challenge can get a bird's-eye view on the Goat Trail. The 5.9-mile, moderately challenging path climbs onto the ledge of Big Bluff, which is the tallest sheer bluff face between the Appalachian Mountains and the Rockies. History lovers should check out the Parker-Hickman Farmstead along the Buffalo River Trail. Built in the 1840s, the home offers a fascinating snapshot of the lifestyle of those who settled in the Ozarks then.
More of the past awaits in the Boxley Valley Historic District, where the remains of an enduring agrarian community collide with some of the park's most beloved wildlife. Elk were reintroduced here in the 1980s, and these animals now number in the hundreds. In fall, they flock to wide-open fields to graze in this area of the park, allowing for frequent sightings against a backdrop of crimson-speckled trees.
If you'd prefer a horseback ride, book a guided trip at Rimrock Cove Ranch. Saddle up, and they will lead you through thick, fire-toned forests and bubbling streams. Bikers can catch a thrill nearby, where almost 40 miles of switchbacks on the Upper Buffalo Mountain Bike Trail trace their way through the highest points in the Ozarks.
At nightfall, don't forget to look up, says Cassie Branstetter, branch chief of interpretation on the Buffalo National River. "The area is a designated International Dark Sky Park, and it is known for having particularly clear views of the Milky Way during fall and winter, when there is less moisture in the air," says Branstetter.
Don't miss one of the most photographed scenes in the state at Hawksbill Crag. This rocky cliff overlooking the valley is accessible through the 3-mile Whitaker Point Trail.
Deceptively named, Twin Falls Trail is less than a half-mile walk to a gorgeous triple waterfall.
Explore the Pedestal Rocks Scenic Area via the Kings Bluff or Pedestal Rocks Trails. Both offer nearly 2-mile walks through bluffs and promise wooded hillside views.
Scramble to the top of Sam's Throne Trail for stellar rock formations and panoramic vistas.
Arkansasonline
OPINION
Over my many decades as a homeowner and having experienced life in both a big city (Houston) and an Arkansas rural county (Newton), I’ve learned a lot about necessities. In my book, water tops every list.
We depended on well water in Newton County, but it was very limited so we learned how to wash dishes using only a gallon. We’d flush sparingly sometimes using saved bath water; we siphoned rainwater from the roof gutters into our cistern-like well; and we bought our drinking water in 5-gallon bottles.
During our once a week trip into Jasper, I’d start our dirty clothes washing at the laundromat and go next door to take care of my shopping at Bob’s Grocery. Such is the efficiency of a small town. When we moved into medium-sized Fayetteville, we felt really spoiled to have drinkable and dependable water.
People rarely get excited over water until nothing is coming out of their spigot. My goal lately in writing about this most precious of liquids is to acquaint the thousands of newcomers to this region with where their water comes from, what watershed provides it, and how people impact water quality and supply.
Last time I wrote about the Illinois River Watershed Partnership that advocates for water quality on the western flanks of Rogers, Benton-ville, Springdale and Fayetteville. But those four primary cities, and the smaller secondary ones that they supply with wholesale water, all depend on the Beaver Water District. It is the largest drinking water provider in Northwest Arkansas serving over a half a million people (about one in six Arkansawyers).
The Beaver Lake-White River watershed that feeds the district’s supply stretches east past Huntsville, north as far as Gateway, south to Winslow and into Crawford County, and its west rim runs through parts of the four larger cities. (“Watershed Maps” at: www.bwdh2.orgdetail the boundaries. To see which watershed you live in, go to: https://watersheds.cast.uark.edu/find_your_watershed.html)
The history of the dam, finished in 1966, that impounded the White River to form the reservoir is documented on the website in, “Beaver Lake: NW Arkansas’ Ace In The Hole.”
That web location is also packed with video tours of the treatment facilities and educational materials, which include lesson plans, events, games, experiments and even a virtual science fair.
The district has three independent water treatment plants to furnish the area’s needs. The four primary cities’ resource demand in 1973 was about 15 million gallons per day (mgd). Data in 2019 reported the treated demand average at 55 mgd and a peak summer day may reach 90 mgd. The pumping capacity the district has at its intake at the lake is 150 mgd. How water quality becomes degraded and addressing that harm boils down to understanding that water flows downhill and picks up stuff as it travels.
District information states, “Lake water quality is still good but under stress due to rising levels of sediment and algae-feeding nutrients,” and “45% of the watershed is ranked moderate to severe in erosion hazard potential.”
We all need to comprehend that anything that stirs up dirt, like road building and building developments, can send that dirt into creeks and rivers. So, to protect water we have to also protect land and its vegetation. The old adage about “an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure,” really rings true against the high costs of cleaning water for its next use and for our next drink.
Our beloved Buffalo River’s threatened watershed from hog manure taught us some hard geological lessons about water passing through fractured and soluble limestone karst. Anything that goes on or under the ground can go into the water.
The district’s information warns that, “78% of the watershed is very limited for conventional septic system suitability.” And, clean water advocates even emphasize that dog poop is a real problem so please, clean up after Fido and Rover!
In Houston our water adventures were in the extremes of drought and flood. In Newton County we learned that every drop was precious. In Fayetteville we’ve led a charmed life water-wise, but I’ll never take water for granted thanks to knowing what life is like without its abundance. If this region does reach 800,000 population by 2040, as has been projected, we need to respect our water supply and practice sustainability of this resource that we cannot live without.
As goes its water, so goes Northwest Arkansas.
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Release Date: Jul 26, 2021
RUSSELLVILLE, Ark.– July 26, 2021— Ozark-St. Francis National Forest biologists located an Indiana bat maternity colony while conducting monitoring surveys on the Big Piney Ranger District in Newton County, in July.
The discovery is the first time that an Indiana bat maternity colony has been found in the Ozark Region in Arkansas.
Female Indiana bats form social colonies, typically under peeling bark on dead trees, to birth and raise their young. Indiana bat use of caves in the Ozarks for winter hibernation is well known, and some stay in nearby forests through the summer, but all prior evidence indicated that females migrated to large rivers or bottomland forests during the summer to form maternity colonies.
“This exciting discovery offers an opportunity to learn more about the habitat and use of forested lands by this rare species,” said Ozark-St. Francis Forest Supervisor Lori Wood. “We are taking protective steps as identified in the recent Forest Plan Bat Amendment to protect this maternity colony and the surrounding area.”
Biologists net bats and record their calls as they feed at night in order to understand the distribution of different species and understand how they are using forest habitats on the Ozark-St. Francis National Forests. Forest Service biologists work closely with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, Arkansas Game and Fish Commission, and other partners to collect bat monitoring data, which is shared with researchers, partners and biologists to help promote conservation efforts.
Now that a maternity colony has been found, the Ozark-St. Francis National Forests will continue monitoring the bats to determine which trees the bats use. The Forest Service will ensure that maternity trees are protected and natural resource management activities within a quarter mile of those trees are avoided during the time of year that the colony is active in raising their young.
Indiana bats were listed as endangered in 1967 and have recently been impacted by white-nose syndrome, a serious bat disease caused by a fungus.
• The recent Forest Plan Bat Amendment documents are available online at: https://www.fs.usda.gov/project/?project=55628.
• A copy of the 2005 Revised Land and Resources Management Plan (Forest Plan) and associated amendments for the Ozark-St. Francis National Forests are available online at: https://www.fs.usda.gov/main/osfnf/landmanagement/planning
For more information on the Ozark St. Francis National Forests, visit https://www.fs.usda.gov/osfnf/.
Indiana Bat Photo Caption:
Ozark-St. Francis National Forest biologists located an Indiana bat maternity colony while conducting monitoring surveys on the Big Piney Ranger District in Newton County, in July. The discovery is the first time that an Indiana bat maternity colony has been found in the Ozark Region in Arkansas. Photo by Brian Dennis, Environmental Solutions Innovations, Inc.
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The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) prohibits discrimination in all its programs and activities on the basis of race, color, national origin, age, disability, and where applicable, sex, marital status, familial status, parental status, religion, sexual orientation, genetic information, political beliefs, reprisal, or because all or part of an individual’s income is derived from any public assistance program. (Not all prohibited bases apply to all programs.) Persons with disabilities who require alternative means for communication of program information (Braille, large print, audiotape, etc.) should contact USDA’s TARGET Center at (202) 720-2600 (voice and TDD). To file a complaint of discrimination, write USDA, Director, Office of Civil Rights, 1400 Independence Avenue, S.W., Washington, D.C. 20250-9410, or call (800) 795-3272 (voice) or (202) 720-6382 (TDD). USDA is an equal opportunity provider and employer.
National Park Service Buffalo National River
A new National Park Service (NPS) report shows that 1.5 million visitors to Buffalo National River in 2020 spent $66.3 million in communities near the park. That spending supported 960 jobs in the local area and had a cumulative benefit to the local economy of $76.1 million. “Buffalo National River is a one of a kind Arkansas jewel that attracts visitors from all over the country. During the Covid-19 pandemic, even more folks came out to enjoy the river and the outdoors. It is great to see our local communities' benefit from the positive economic impacts from park visitors.” said Superintendent Mark Foust. “We are working hard with Buffalo River Watershed partners to conserve the National River and provide for its enjoyment for future generations of visitors, especially at a time when park visitation is increasing.” The peer-reviewed visitor spending analysis was conducted by economists with the National Park Service and the U.S. Geological Survey. Across the country, the report shows $14.5 billion of direct spending by more than 237 million park visitors in communities within 60 miles of a national park. This spending supported 234,000 jobs nationally; 194,400 of those jobs are found in these gateway communities. The cumulative benefit to the U.S. economy was $28.6 billion. Looking at the economics of National Park Service visitor spending nationally, the lodging sector had the highest direct effects, with $5 billion in economic output. The restaurants sector had the second greatest effects, with $3 billion in economic output. National Park Service visitor spending on lodging supported more than 43,100 jobs and more than 45,900 jobs in restaurants across the country. Visitor spending in the recreation industries supported more than 18,100 jobs and spending in retail supported more than 14,300 jobs. Report authors also produce an interactive tool that enables users to explore visitor spending, jobs, labor income, value added, and output effects by sector for national, state, and local economies. Users can also view year-by-year trend data. The interactive tool and report are available on the NPS Social Science Program page on NPS.gov
But some groups still have concerns
by Ashton Eley
The National Forest Service plans to move forward with a wide variety of proposed activities at Robert's Gap, though some environmental groups remain concerned about the possibility of negative ecological effects.
The Robert's Gap Project spans 39,697 acres in the northwest corner of the Big Piney Ranger District in Newton and Madison counties, including the headwaters of the Kings, White and Buffalo rivers. It has been three years in the making and includes commercial timber harvesting, prescribed burning, wildlife activities and mountain bike trail improvements and additions.
The goals of the project are to increase species diversity on the land and to protect adjacent private property, said Tim Jones, Big Piney District ranger.
"Overall, the Forest Service long-term goal is the productivity and health and diversity across this landscape. This plan implements that," he said.
The Ozark Society, Buffalo River Watershed Alliance and National Parks Conservation Association have each written objections to most aspects of the project, raising concerns about protecting water quality and native species, including the endangered bat populations.
"Our biggest concern is with the cumulative effects of this pretty large project. This is at the headwaters of two of Arkansas' most important recreational streams -- the Kings River and the Buffalo River -- and adjacent to the Upper Buffalo Wilderness Area," said Gordon Watkins, president of the Buffalo River Watershed Alliance, which submitted its latest objection letter May 20.
HABITAT CONCERNS
The first public notice of the project came in January 2018. Since then, the Forest Service has held two public meetings, notified neighboring landowners, met with local officials and consulted other state and federal agencies as well as advocacy organizations.
"The initial proposal was based on the best science available," Jones said. "The public involvement led to the development of a different alternative that the public has helped shape and has been a big help."
Changes to the initial proposal included cutting down on herbicides from 18.2% to 7.7% of the area and shifting to more spot and manual treatment methods. The herbicides are used to control invasive or encroaching plant species.
"We would really rather them eliminate the use of herbicides altogether because of risks involved in a primary contact waterway that's used by millions of people," Watkins said.
More than 10,000 acres of prescribed burns were proposed to help reduce overcrowded vegetation that can lead to wildfires and also limit diversity of the forest floor, Jones said. However, Ozark Society President David Peterson said it can be irritating to those in the area and may not do as much good for the forest as some think.
The watershed alliance voiced concerns in its letter about how the proposals could affect bat populations as well as their food sources in the area. The Forest Service plans to take precautions in known maternity roost sites and to avoid burning during pup season.
Erosion in these steep areas into the waterways has been a point both for and against parts of the project. According to the Forest Service's assessment, roads and trails and the adjacent areas proposed for reconstruction, maintenance, closure and decommissioning would continue to deteriorate if nothing were done.
New, temporary roads would be created for the proposed timber harvesting. These proposed 38 miles of road, along with 20 miles of burn-control lines, could lead to more erosion, Watkins said.
"Any logging road you build creates erosion problems. We asked them to limit the amount of road work," Peterson said. "[Overall] it isn't ideal from our point of view, but it isn't too bad."
The alliance would like the Forest Service to complete an updated environmental impact statement, which would be more extensive than the assessment published in March, Watkins said.
AREA VISITORS
Recreational interest in the area is high, Jones said. About 40,000 people hike the trails each year, according to pre-pandemic Forest Service estimates.
"With covid, we've seen an uptick in visitation to national forests all across the country," he said.
Residents have complained about some visitors parking on their private properties, Jones said. The Forest Service plans to add about 50 parking spaces at Hawksbill Crag along the west side of Cave Mountain Road by widening the road up to 30 feet.
It also plans to modify some trails based on use and maintenance resources.
The area also attracts mountain bikers from around the U.S. who are looking for the backcountry experience offered by the 35-mile Buffalo Headwaters Mountain Bike Trail. During the last weekend in January, 300-400 riders visited for the Headwaters Challenge -- three days of rides and camping hosted by the Ozark Off Road Cyclists.
The Robert's Gap Project includes construction of nearly 14 miles of mountain bike trail, the majority of which would be easy to moderate in difficulty level. It would also remove more than 8 miles of trail that is currently on county and Forest Service system roads.
This is a decrease from the original proposal of 24 miles of new trails because of public input, according to the Forest Service.
"It's very steep and subject to erosion. The bike trails they have now seem pretty well-designed, but if you put more and more bike trails, then it will become something other than a natural area," Peterson said.
Although compromises were made, the current plan will still lead to better trail alignment and take away the risk of riding on the road, said David VanSandt, president of Ozark Off Road Cyclists.
The nonprofit will oversee the additions with grant funding and continue to maintain the system by hand, which it does with the help of volunteers.
The public commentary period on the proposal ends today. More information can be found and comments can be submitted at www.fs.usda.gov/project/?project=53597.
The Forest Service plans to start implementing parts of the project as early as this fall.
KUAF Radio
By JACQUELINE FROELICH
Listen here
USDA Natural Resources Conservation Service is calling forpublic comment on a proposal to remove the term “karst” from its National Handbook of Conservation Practices, regarding sinkholes. Ozarks environmental consultant Dane Schumacher says karst designations are critical to conserving watersheds. The deadline to comment is Thursday, Apr. 8, 2021. Submit your comments here
Columbia Missourian
Mallory Daily
In January 2020, a pork corporation came knocking in Livingston County.
United Hog Systems notified nearby landowners that they were filing an application for a 5,700-hog operation.
It was the first permit for a concentrated animal feeding operation, also known as a CAFO, issued for the northwest Missouri county in more than two decades.
The timing was no accident. State lawmakers had recently passed legislation that would wipe a 1997 county ordinance off the books that allowed local officials to regulate such operations and the millions of gallons of waste they produce.
When the Missouri Department of Natural Resources approved the United Hog permit in May of 2020, local residents banded together to file an appeal. They named themselves Poosey Neighbors United after their beloved nearby Poosey Conservation area. In addition to the list of common concerns raised when huge animal feeding operations move in nearby, they feared that mismanagement of the CAFO’s hog manure would compromise water quality in Poosey’s fishing lakes and perhaps even their own water supply.
A few months later, the state struck another blow. The Missouri Department of Natural Resources proposed a change to the regulatory definition of the groundwater table as it concerns CAFO designs. The change would exclude a form of groundwater called “perched water," which may be present on the proposed CAFO site.
“These rollbacks have been systematic,” said Susan Fair, a Livingston County resident advocating for stricter CAFO regulations. “And this won’t be the last of it.”
As industrial agriculture moved into the state in the 1990s, a handful of counties saw the need to create local regulations for CAFOs.
Livingston County was one of the earliest to pass such an ordinance, in 1997. Since then, a total of 20 counties have put similar health ordinances in place, though enforcement is varied.
“There was just an awful lot of things that DNR addressed that we thought needed to be stronger,” said Eva Danner Horton, former presiding commissioner in Livingston County.
Danner Horton was among the team of elected officials who drafted and signed the original ordinance and later revised it in 2009. She said it was never the intention of the commission to keep CAFOs out completely.
“The intent was to make them good neighbors,” Danner Horton said.
Compared to statewide regulations, the Livingston County ordinance provides stronger setback distances between CAFOs and residences. It also outlines the option for the commission to enforce groundwater and emissions monitoring. CAFO operators are required to furnish a surety bond between $15,000 and $100,000 to the county treasurer for manure storage systems to cover any future liability. Additionally, before the permit is approved, the county is required to hold a local public hearing.
In 2019, Senate Bill 391 passed, preempting local health ordinances like the one in Livingston County that are more stringent than statewide regulations. The law is being challenged in court by a small group of counties and concerned citizens, who are hoping, at the very least, that their local ordinances will be grandfathered in. Livingston County Presiding Commissioner Ed Douglas said he is glad to see the lawsuit but didn’t feel the need to join it.
As residents await the judgment, they face the reality of having little control over who moves in next door.
Bert Wire’s property is roughly 2,200 feet from the proposed CAFO site. He remembers the day he officially found out about the application through a letter in the mail, after hearing about the possibility around town for months.
“Nobody wants a CAFO in their own backyard,” Wire said. “I’ve been in the farming industry for over 40 years. I grew up on a dairy farm in Illinois. I’m used to the smell of livestock. But this is something completely different.”
Wire is referring to the odorous cocktail of particulate matter and pollutants such as ammonia and hydrogen sulfide churned out of the massive hog barns by exhaust fans. After Wire and his neighbors appealed the initial United Hog permit granted by the Department of Natural Resources, the company withdrew its original application and submitted a new one for approximately 10,500 hogs, making it a Class 1B Operation. At that size, the CAFO would hold more than 8 million gallons of manure in a 12-foot-deep cemented underground storage pit roughly the area of two-and-a-half football fields.
The department requires that those pits must be at least two feet above the groundwater table. But, last spring, Wire and two neighbors had a hunch that groundwater was more accessible than United Hog Systems let on in their application.
At the time, one of his neighbors was renting a parcel of land on the proposed CAFO footprint. To investigate, they fixed a posthole digger to a skid loader and set out to dig a series of holes. Out of the six holes they dug at depths of two to three feet, four filled with water. To them, this was evidence that the groundwater table was accessible at shallow depths and that the CAFO construction would violate those regulations.
During the administrative court hearing, as part of the CAFO permit appeal process, Jeff Browning, an engineer hired by United Hog Systems, testified that based on the photo evidence, the water in the holes dug by the Poosey Neighbors group “look artificial.” But Browning also noted that the company hired to complete borings to determine groundwater depth had “hit a little perched water” during their site survey. Since then, many debates have ensued about perched water, and whether it could interfere with underground manure pits.
Those debates were amplified months later when the Missouri Clean Water Commission announced a plan to exclude perched water from the definition of the groundwater table used in CAFO design regulations. The Department of Natural Resources’ Water Protection Program Director Chris Wieberg said during a public meeting that they were attempting to fix an error discovered during the appeal process of the United Hog permit.
Perched groundwater occurs when a body of groundwater is sandwiched between two sections of unsaturated earth above the main body of groundwater. Perched water bodies can come and go depending on the season and amounts of precipitation. Sometimes perched water happens to be the only potable water supply available, meaning that some wells pull directly from it.
“You don’t know how deep perched water goes unless you install groundwater monitoring wells around the perimeter of the entire site and you take groundwater samples over an extended period of time,” said Stephen Jeffery, the lawyer representing Neighbors United and the challenge to SB 391. “From that data, you can make scientific conclusions. But right now, DNR is jumping the gun. They are reaching these conclusions, but they have no data to back it up.”
Opponents of this definition change also find it odd that the Department of Natural Resources is only attempting to exclude perched water from CAFO regulations, but that they are not advocating for a perched groundwater exemption for all waste containment design regulations.
A Department of Natural Resources spokesperson stated that the agency’s intention for the definition change is to correct an “inadvertent deletion” of the exemption to the groundwater table definition, which occurred during efforts to reduce “red tape” language while Eric Greitens was governor. The agency did not provide further comment to the Missourian.
Robert Brundage, a representative of the Missouri Pork Association and the Missouri Cattlemen's Association, has also spoken in favor of the definition change. During DNR's first public meeting on the issue, he stated that a failure to correct the inadvertent deletion is “not fair to the regulated community” who rely on clear definitions to conduct their business in accordance with state laws.
Brundage, who has also represented United Hog Systems in the past but did not provide comment to the Missourian about their pending application, also denied assertions that CAFOs pose a threat to groundwater.
“If it’s some kind of chronic problem that exists every single day that a CAFO is out there and operating, and they’ve been operating for years in the state of Missouri, where are all the people with their polluted wells and their health being impacted?” asked Brundage during the meeting. “We haven’t seen it.”
Wieberg echoed that sentiment. He said during the November meeting that DNR probably works two cases a year related to unintentional discharge of manure from transfer technologies or land application equipment.
“I can’t put my finger on or think towards a case that we worked where we had groundwater contamination as a result of a spill, and definitely not a result of a leak,” said Wieberg, in response to a question submitted by the public during the meeting.
Though there are no documented cases of groundwater contamination as a result of CAFO mismanagement or infrastructure failure, proponents for stricter regulations say that DNR is not looking closely enough.
DNR does not require ongoing groundwater monitoring for Class 1B or Class 1C CAFOs. This essentially means that they rely on operators to self-report when something goes awry. Danner Horton, the former Livingston County commissioner, says this is like having “the fox watch the chickens,” and it’s a big reason why she advocated for the ability for local officials to monitor CAFO sites while she was in office.
“When’s the last time you drove down the highway over the speed limit and said, ‘Well, now, I’m going to call the sheriff so he can sit and watch me?’” asked Wire. “(The operators) are not going to call DNR. They’re going to wait to respond until somebody like me raises hell.”
It’s not just spills or leaks that advocates worry about. Mismanagement of the millions of gallons of manure applied on nearby farm fields is also a point of concern, and there’s no shortage of documented cases. Advocates point toward a 10,000-gallon manure runoff event from a 5,600-hog CAFO in Callaway County in 2014, which made its way to a tributary of Millers Creek in the Mark Twain National Forest, resulting in a $12,000 fine, according to DNR documents.
Another incident in Audrain County led to more than 45,000 aquatic animals dying as a result of hog effluent discharged into Sandy Creek in 2018. A year later, another incident occurred along a tributary of the West Fork Cuivre River that resulted in a 3,300 fish kill. Neither Callaway nor Audrain counties had local health ordinances for CAFOs.
In other words, opponents of the proposed United Hog CAFO aren’t just worried about perched water. They argue a mismanagement incident of equivalent size could pollute their much beloved Poosey Conservation area, an approximately 6,000-acre site with hardwood forests, tallgrass prairie and several lakes for fishing.
“Our conservation areas are funded by the one-eighth cent sales tax that was passed in 1976,” said Doug Doughty, a row crop farmer with a small cow-calf herd in Livingston County. He is also a member of the Jackson Township board. “When you think about the millions of dollars that Missourians have invested into our conservation areas and state parks system, what are people going to do when CAFOs move in here like they did in Iowa and their outdoor experiences are not what they used to be?”
Hydrogeologists have also gotten involved in the debate. The Missouri section of the American Institute of Professional Geologists wrote a letter to urge Wieberg to create a working group of geologists and other qualified professionals to provide input on the proposed perched water exemption.
“Why did they make an exception to selectively exclude perched water?” asked Matthew Rhoades, president-elect of AIPG and a member of the Missouri section. “It doesn't make scientific sense. It doesn't make good technical sense. You wouldn't do that with any other kind of industrial facility.”
Rhoades, who describes himself as a “capitalist, pro-ag, pork guy,” said AIPG did not receive a response from DNR, although the offer still stands to create a working group of geologic experts to discuss the issue.
The Clean Water Commission not only moved forward with the definition change in mid-December, but they also invoked an emergency rule change that expedites the approval process. That move was quickly challenged in court and parties are awaiting the judgment. In the meantime, the public comment period is underway.
Opponents to the rule change say that this is just the most recent in a pattern of loosening statewide regulations for CAFOs.
“We’re seeing agribusiness corporations getting even more concentrated, so concentrated that they own and control huge percentages of commodity markets and industries,” said Tim Gibbons, communications director for the Missouri Rural Crisis Center. “And when you lose competition and you have huge amounts of corporate concentration, family farmers lose, consumers lose, our environment loses and our fight for democracy loses.”
State Rep. Rusty Black, R-Chillicothe, has property just a few miles from the proposed CAFO site in Livingston County. He says that while he doesn’t have an issue with CAFOs coming into his district, as a small-scale cattle farmer he recognizes the future implications of letting big agriculture operations take up space.
“I’ve been told I will live long enough to no longer be viable in the cattle business,” Black said. “I used to not think that was true, but since I’ve been here, maybe I’ll be able to raise cows for hobby, but me being able to sell is probably on its way out.”
Black said he would love for his grandchildren to experience the days he spent in his youth on his grandparent’s farm but agriculture is “ever evolving.”
Part of that evolution has been ushered in by Missouri lawmakers as they’ve opened their arms to agribusiness in the state.
But rural communities do not always experience the financial boom they’re promised when big agriculture operations move in. According to Livingston County Presiding Commissioner Ed Douglas, it remains unclear how many jobs will be created by the United Hog CAFO, how transportation infrastructure will be affected due to increased truck traffic and to what extent property values may decline over the long term in the areas surrounding the facilities.
“A lot of times CAFOs are actually extractive of the community’s resources and they’re actually going to impose more costs, especially to the taxpayer, for having to maintain the roads with all of these truckloads of animals or feed or tankers of manure,” said Ashlen Busick, a regional representative of the Socially Responsible Agriculture Project, an advocate for family farms. “These smaller communities and townships have to foot the bill for keeping up with road maintenance. They really have to carry the burden for the CAFO.”
Human health is also a factor in the argument to heavily regulate CAFOs. Some studies show that human proximity to CAFOs has been linked to exacerbated asthma symptoms and allergies, and the CDC reports that repeated exposure to emissions from CAFOs can increase a person’s likelihood of developing respiratory diseases.
But for some, the benefits of being a welcoming state to industrial agriculture far outweigh the potential risks. According to the MU Extension website, Missouri ranks in the top ten for pork production in the U.S., amounting to a nearly $1 billion industry for the state.
Ray Massey, professor of agricultural economics with MU Extension, said that few people raise small numbers of pigs these days because it’s difficult to make a profit on a small scale. “The larger you are, you can raise pigs for a lower price. Now, it doesn’t go on forever, but if you have 5,000 pigs you can raise them cheaper than if you had 1,000 pigs,” Massey said.
According to Massey, who has worked for MU Extension for 25 years, CAFOs provide some of the only agriculture jobs available in rural regions. “So do you want zero employment ... or do you want a business that will raise pigs, employ construction and feed manufacturers and veterinarians?” Massey asked.
It can be difficult to track CAFO contract arrangements because oftentimes U.S. companies own the land and the facilities but foreign corporations own the livestock. United Hog Systems, the company behind the Livingston County CAFO permit, is a domestic company based in Marshall, and the land the CAFO would be built on is managed by a firm based in Grower. These project stakeholders are not in Livingston County.
According to testimony in the administrative commission hearing regarding the appeal of United Hog's initial permit, Brazilian-based JBS owns the hogs in United Hog operations. JBS is a Brazilian corporation and the largest meat producer in the world. They received $78 million in U.S. bailout assistance in 2019, according to reporting by The Washington Post. The company has also been charged with price fixing, meat contamination and violating U.S. anti-corruption laws.
“Industrialization and corporate takeover of our livestock markets would not look the way it looks without a lot of unintentional backing by taxpayers. It’s all a setup game for them to control our food system,” Gibbons said.
Foreign ownership, diminished local control and jargon-filled regulatory debates inaccessible to most members of the public are intersecting issues that come with a globalized, industrial food system. But the future implications for Livingston County residents remain unknown.
“What’s going to happen to our town?” asked Susan Fair, a Livingston County resident organizing around these issues. “If we have no say, I mean, do they just get to do what they want? It makes me nervous, but we don’t have to just roll over.”
Ashlen Busick grew up about a mile from a 72-barn CAFO that housed 80,000 hogs in Putnam County, just a few hours northeast of Livingston County.
She remembers having to hold her breath as her school bus passed the CAFO each day to avoid the surrounding “blanket of stench.” Her family was one of the few opposed to its construction shortly after Missouri lawmakers opened up Putnam, Mercer and Sullivan counties to corporate farms through an exemption to the 1975 family farm law.
“When the CAFO was first proposed, I remember the divide beginning to grow,” said Busick, who is now a regional representative of the Socially Responsible Agriculture Project, an advocate for family farms. “Because my family chose to speak out against this CAFO being located near our farm, my family no longer felt welcome at our church. And people made threats. There’s a lot of that I’m actually still learning about because my parents shielded me from it.”
Chief among her family’s concerns was the impact corporate-backed farms would have on small farmer livelihoods. The presence of CAFOs in the United States has risen rapidly since the 1980s, when market-driven consolidation of livestock farms began forcing many small family farmers out of business, and legislators began introducing legislation to support those trends.
Since then, Missouri has lost 80% of its hog farmers.
by Rex Nelson
In the late 1950s and early 1960s, there was increased interest across Arkansas in preventing the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers from building a dam on the Buffalo River. On May 24, 1962, the first members of what would become known as the Ozark Society held an organizational meeting on the campus of the University of Arkansas at Fayetteville.
Members of the Nature Conservancy were there that night to show a film about the float trip U.S. Supreme Court Justice William O. Douglas had taken on the Buffalo earlier in the spring.
People were asked to pay $1 each to join the organization. A Bentonville doctor named Neil Compton was elected as the first president. Joe and Maxine Clark became editors of the Ozark Society Bulletin. A Little Rock chapter led by Charles Johnston Jr. was organized in February 1963.
The Ozark Society sponsored a float on the Buffalo in the spring of 1963. The first statewide meeting was held at Fort Smith that summer. Membership grew rapidly. The organization attracted national publicity and received the 1968 National Conservation Achievement Award.
The Ozark Society was successful in its primary mission. Not only was no dam built, Congress in 1972 established a new designation within the national park system. The Buffalo River became America's first national river, setting the stage for more to come. President Richard Nixon signed the bill in March 1972.
"What a lot of us forget when we're recreating on the 135 miles of this free-flowing river or the surrounding 95,000 acres is that before this was public land, it was people's homes and livelihoods," the National Park Service wrote in a social media post that marked the 49th anniversary of Nixon signing the bill. "Many of the trails you can enjoy here today were originally built by early settlers as roadways connecting their communities' homesteads, churches, farms, mines and mills. Many of the park's campgrounds used to be somebody's agricultural fields.
"Many bluff shelters and bottomlands were seasonal hunting camps for indigenous peoples. The river itself was a means of transportation and commerce, connecting rural communities along the Buffalo to larger outposts across the White and Mississippi River basins."
The society didn't simply bask in past successes. It attempted to prevent dams on other streams in Arkansas and led the fight for more public access to the Mulberry River. It lobbied for creation of the Arkansas Natural Heritage Commission and passage of the Arkansas Wild and Scenic Rivers Act. It worked in Washington to ensure that places in Arkansas were protected by the National Wilderness Acts of 1975 and 1983. Chapters were added in Missouri and Louisiana.
"The challenge goes on," Compton said. "There are other lands and rivers, other wilderness areas, to save and to share with all."
In 1975, the nonprofit Ozark Society Foundation was created to support the society's educational and recreational activities in the region. The foundation became a publisher of high-quality conservation and nature-related books. Since 1967, the society and foundation have produced more than two dozen publications. These include canoe and hiking guides, natural and cultural histories, and field guides.
The most recent publication is a monumental 520-page guide, "Trees, Shrubs and Woody Vines of Arkansas." It will be the go-to guide for Arkansas trees for years to come. I think Compton, who died in February 1999 at age 86, would be pleased with this effort were he still around.
In writing and discussing Arkansas history, we tend to focus on political and business leaders. But Compton, who was born in August 1912 at Falling Springs Flats in Benton County, should be recognized alongside our greatest Arkansans ever for his efforts to preserve parts of what we now refer to as the Natural State. He had a deep love for the natural aspects of this state from the start.
Compton attended elementary school at Bozarth, a rural school near Gentry. After graduating from high school at Bentonville in 1931, Compton entered the UA. He graduated four years later with degrees in geology and zoology.
Compton married hiking and canoeing partner Laurene Putman of Bentonville in September 1935. In 1939, Compton graduated from medical school in Little Rock. After an internship in Camden, N.J., he went to work as a health officer in Bradley County and later Washington County for the state Board of Health.
He was a resident in obstetrics at St. Vincent Infirmary at Little Rock in 1948-49 after having served during World War II in the U.S. Navy. Following a long practice in the field of obstetrics and gynecology, Compton would often joke that he had "delivered enough babies to staff my own navy."
It's for his conservation efforts, though, that this avid hiker and canoeist will be remembered. That 1962 meeting at Waterman Hall on the UA campus was the start of a 12-year tenure as Ozark Society president.
A book titled "The High Ozarks: A Vision of Eden," which featured Compton's photographs, was published in 1982. In 1992, the University of Arkansas Press published his book "The Battle for the Buffalo River: A Conservation Crisis in the Ozarks." Five years later, the Ozark Society published Compton's "The Buffalo River in Black and White."
In September 1987, National Park Service director William Penn Mott appointed Compton an honorary national park ranger. It's fitting that after his death in 1999, his family chose to scatter some of his ashes in the Buffalo River.
Senior Editor Rex Nelson's column appears regularly in the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette. He's also the author of the Southern Fried blog at rexnelsonsouthernfried.com.
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