Natural resources exec for state resigns post

Bruce Holland, executive director of the Arkansas Natural Resources Division, resigned from his position effective Friday.

Holland tendered his letter of resignation to Gov. Asa Hutchinson on Aug. 5, and it was to go into effect eight days later, on Friday.

“Since January 2015, I have proudly served in your administration,” Holland said in his resignation letter. “First as Executive Director of the Arkansas Livestock and Poultry Commission and since August 2016 as the Executive Director of the Arkansas Natural Resources Commission.”

Holland said in his resignation letter that the time was appropriate for him to pursue new opportunities.

“I cannot discuss my new position at this time,” he told the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette in a text message.

Holland was a Republican senator from Greenwood when he was appointed by then-Gov.-elect Hutchinson in 2015 as the executive director of the state’s Livestock and Poultry Commission.

Elected to the state Senate in 2010, Holland was chairman of the Senate Agriculture, Forestry and Economic Development Committee. He lost a reelection bid four years later.

The Natural Resources Division, according to its website, “establishes policy and makes funding and regu

latory decisions relative to soil conservation, nutrient management, water rights, dam safety and water resources planning and development.”

The agency had been named the Arkansas Natural Resources Commission in 2005. In 2019, it was renamed the Natural Resources Division and put under the Department of Agriculture as part of Hutchinson’s state agency reorganization.

Amy Lyman, spokeswoman for the Arkansas Department of Agriculture, when asked about the resignation, gave the newspaper Holland’s resignation letter after consulting with others. She said no replacement for the position had been named as of Friday afternoon.