Troubled waters

Frustrations flow over Buffalo River idea

It’s not that often people are so eager to get into a public school cafeteria that the crowd simply won’t fit.

We’ve never eaten in the Jasper School District cafeteria. Maybe the food is excellent. It could be we’re letting both the direct experiences and the stereotypes of our educational past color our opinions about school cafeterias.

In any case, food wasn’t on the menu Thursday evening in Jasper. Still, you could say the mass of neighbors and others who crammed into the cafeteria were drawn there because they think something’s cooking. And gauging from their comments, it had already left a bad taste in their mouths.

“Today it appears rich men not from here are pushing to change our way of life once again,” said Billy Bell of Newton Coun- ty. “We do not need their redesignation, and we definitely do not need them deciding how to change our Buffalo River.”

For those who’ve been living under an Ozarks boulder for the last few weeks, we’ll explain. Many of the 1,100-plus people who showed up Thursday got riled up after they learned that someone had advanced changes to the federal designation of the Buffalo National River.

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Those not from around these parts may be unfamiliar with the battle that raged in the 1960s over the future of the beautiful and rugged Buffalo River. The 20th century’s technological know-how inspired a movement to harness the power of rivers and streams. Building dams was all the rage. Damming the Buffalo River was an idea pitched at different times from the turn of the century as a way to support navigation, flood control or economic development. Lest anyone think otherwise, there were many Arkansans who embraced what they viewed as the benefits of damming the river.

Other priorities around the nation, high costs, national politics and the occasional war interrupted much of that planning, but in the 1960s, the idea began to find some traction. Conservationists in Arkansas and beyond fought for the preservation of the Buffalo, knowing its alteration would destroy a natural wonder they believed was deserving of federal protection. Their work resulted in designation in 1972 of the Buffalo as the first national river, to be managed by the National Park Service.

The river, a paradise for paddlers, hikers, campers and swimmers, is experienced annually by about 1.3 million visitors, who spend millions of dollars.

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Nobody’s talking about damming the river today. But all those folks in the Jasper school cafeteria are wary of a new idea: changing the river to a national park and preserve.

What would that mean? That answer hasn’t been fully explored, at least not publicly. But people who think it’s an idea worth considering say a redesignation could raise its national profile and attract more visitors. It could, they say, also open new avenues of funding not now available to a national river.

The frustration made clear Thursday evening arises from people’s surprise that such an idea was under any level of consideration. Residents learned of the idea, in most if not all instances, from a telephone polling call some of them received in September. “If there were a vote in Congress to designate the river as the Buffalo River National Park & Preserve, would you want your member of Congress to vote for or against it?” the caller asked.

Polls are designed to gauge people’s responses to the questions posed, but this one raised more questions than it answered. In the days since, reporting has revealed the involvement of the Walton family, whose vast wealth originated with patriarch Sam Walton’s founding of Walmart Stores Inc. in Bentonville. The family is well known for its generous philanthropic contributions in Northwest Arkansas and beyond. Two of Sam Walton’s grandchildren, Tom and Steuart Walton, have in particular been active through their company, the Runway Group, in promoting their vision of outdoor recreation in their home state, much of it in the realm of mountain biking.

It turns out the Runway Group clued in U.S. Rep. Bruce Westerman about 14 months before anyone in Baxter, Madison, Marion, Newton and Searcy counties received any calls. Gov. Sarah Sanders and her husband, Bryan, have known about it for a while, too. The governor appointed Bryan Sanders to head her creation, the Natural State Advisory Council, with a mission to grow the economic impact of Arkansas tourism. Tom Walton is also a member of the council.

It’s safe to say many of the people jammed inside the cafeteria — another 1,900 were watching online — didn’t take kindly to the role of “last to know.”

“Change of this type needs to be considered by all who are affected,” said Jacque Alexander of Back Country Horsemen of Arkansas, Buffalo River chapter. “All classes of citizens need to be considered, not just people with a lot of money.”

“It’s great to throw out some ideas. That’s where planning starts,” said Gordon Watkins, president of the Buffalo River Watershed Alliance. “But they started from the top down instead of the bottom up.”

“At the end of the day, what the Runway Group proposal has done here … is tell us we regular folks in the Ozarks are in the way of what rich folks who want to have a playground are trying to do,” said Jared Phillips, a farmer, historian and author.

For its part, the Runway Group acknowledged the ultimate decision over the river’s future doesn’t belong to them, but in a statement said the redesignation is an idea worth exploring.

There’s no harm in such a suggestion. But because of the way the idea was handled, people who live or own property near the Buffalo River can’t really be blamed for feeling as though someone was making plans for their lives without consulting them. Someone with access to powerful decision makers. When you’re dealing with people who have deep, sometimes generational, roots — yes, even those who might have once been referred to as hillbillies just for calling the backwoods of Arkansas home — maybe starting the conversation with them instead of a congressman or a governor would have been the right call.

Based on their many contributions to the state, we think the Walton brothers might have simply miscalculated their approach to this idea. But that miscalculation has revived distrust that, for some, has simmered even back to the establishment of the national river designation.

The question of whether the new designation has any merit is entirely secondary now. It’s hard for trust to be restored once it’s gone. If Thursday evening’s crowd communicated anything, it’s that it’s definitely gone, or at least damaged.

If there’s a next step, it should probably start in Jasper rather than in Bentonville, Little Rock or Washington, D.C.