Pack and Paddle
Summer 2004
PLAN EARLY FOR OZARK SOCIETY FALL MEETING!
By John Heuston
The site of the Ozark Society’s October 9-10 Fall Meeting, which will be hosted by the Bayou Chapter, is Daisy State Park in the Ouachita Mountains of Pike County is a very popular recreation destination and we were advised by park officials that our members who plan to camp would be wise to make their individual campground reservations as early as possible.
The well-equipped camping sites in the park were full when Margaret and I drove over to check things out in July – so you can imagine what it will be like in October!
Here’s the deal. Campers must register at the Visitor Center before occupying a campsite. All sites are assigned, but sixty percent of them can be reserved up to one year in advance. I’d suggest you do just that as soon as possible, otherwise these sites may be taken if you wait until late September or October to make your arrangements.
The park is located on the northern end of Lake Greeson, just 1/4 mile south of the small and very friendly town of Daisy on U.S. Highway 70. The equally small and friendly town of Kirby is nearby.
For information on park fees, services or pavilion reservations, contact Daisy State Park officials. The park’s mailing address is 103 East Park, Kirby, AR 71950. Their telephone number is (870) 398-4487, and park staff is on duty from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. The park also has an e-mail address, (daisy@arkansas.com)
Our Bayou brethren have reserved the spacious main pavilion at Daisy State park for our meeting/gathering site and it’s a modern marvel in itself! The pavilion is in a large open field, with lots of room for kids to romp, and parking nearby.
Camping is also available at nearby Lake Greeson, a typical Corps’ “flood control” project that plugged up the Little Missouri River back in 1950. The Corps’ information booklet notes that you should make camping reservations there by contacting the national Recreation Reservation Service, toll free, at 1-877-444-6777, or by visiting their web site www.ReserveUSA.com.
For those who prefer to sleep under a roof, there is an economical motel on the main street in Daisy, and Self Creek Lodge & Marina on nearby Lake Greeson offers “all the comforts of home” at its new log cottages situated on a ridge overlooking the lake just a few minutes drive from Daisy State Park.
The cottage floor plans include two bedroom, two bath, and three bedroom, three bath arrangements, and all interiors are appointed with a blend of antiques and contemporary furnishings. All cottages have two TVs, a DVD and VCR, plus a wood burning fireplace, hot tub, fully equipped kitchen, washer and dryer, and queen sleeper sofa.
Yeah, it can be tough out in the Great Outdoors!
These Self Creek accommodations definitely are not your crusty old tick-infested backpack tent, and therefore are priced accordingly. They have various bedroom and bath floor plans.
However, if several friendly folks with bedrolls got together and shared the cost of a cottage (about $175-plus per night) it wouldn’t reduce you to pauper status. Check it out.
Self Creek Lodge & Marina is located at 4192 Highway 70 West, Kirby, AR 71950. The telephone number is (870) 398-5000. The Fax number is (870) 398-500l. We were taken on a tour of the accommodations and it is definitely a First Class operation.
There are a variety of outdoor activities to enjoy at both Daisy State Park and in the nearby area. There are hiking trails and you can take a five-mile canoe float the Little Missouri River above Lake Greeson and fish for both smallmouth bass and trout. If you are also a trail biker or ATV enthusiast, the 31-mile Bear Creek Cycle Trail is only about 8 miles away.
The scenic Winding Stairs Area of the Little Missouri River is 22 miles from the park. The Cossatot River State Park Natural Area and the famous Cossatot Falls whitewater area are both located west of Daisy.
In brief, if you have time to spare either before or after our meeting, the Daisy State Park staff can guide you to some of the most unique and beautiful country in the Ouachita Mountains.
Come see for yourself in October!
Meet the President: Alice Andrews
My how time flies!
I want to reflect on the fact that it has been 7 years since that day in June 1997 when the Ozark Society gathered on the banks of the Buffalo National River and launched it’s first “All The Way” float trip from Newton County to the mouth of the Buffalo. It was our way of celebrating the river’s 25th anniversary as America’s first “National River.”
After a long, hard battle against the supporters of Gilbert Dam on the Buffalo River, led by our founder, Dr. Neil Compton of Bentonville and a host of loyal supporters across the state and nation, Congress established the Buffalo National River on March 1, 1972.
Those who participated in that first “All the Way Trip” enjoyed it so much they insisted that we make the float trip an annual event.
So far, we have, although we shortened it some and it now begins at Tyler Bend instead of the Highway 7 Bridge, and I want to take this opportunity to thank two of the leaders in this effort that have made this float trip so popular – Bill and Dana Steward. It’s a big job, and they’ve done it well.
The July 2004 issue of the Bayou Chapter newsletter, Bayou Byline, featured an article by member and publicist Jack Land that summed up the essence of our annual Buffalo River canoe outings.
“Each day was a succession of arising around 7:00 a.m. to coffee and breakfast, then we’d break down the group kitchen, after which we broke our personal camps down, and shoved off for the day at our own pace. The johnboats with all the gear would go ahead and pick out a lunch spot and we would regroup for sandwiches, dip and lemonade. Then it was off again to the evening camp for dinner and swimming, or whatever.
“Side trips included a short hike up to Cold Springs, to an old one-room school house, and then a LONG hike up Bear Creek in search of the largest shortleaf pine in Arkansas. We did not find it.”
“All in all it was a wonderful trip (my 3rd) and I am looking forward to many more. You should be proud to be a member of an organization that saved the Buffalo River and made it the first National River in America. If you have not been on this trip you owe it to yourself to go down the Buffalo River that was the main reason for the birth of our present day Ozark Society.”
Jack land summed it all up well, and I couldn’t agree more!
BNR Supt. Miller Retires
Ivan Miller, veteran National Park Service employee and Superintendent of the Buffalo National River, has retired from the service and has settled in Washington State, according to the BNR office at Harrison.
Miller’s successor has not yet been selected, according to the park staff, but we will be notified when a new superintendent is hired.
Oddly enough, candidates for the position of superintendent do not have to be employees of the National Park Service if they have the proper background and work experience, we were told. It will be interesting to see who gets this important position!
Conservation Corner
By Michael Farar, Conservation Chairman
Forty years ago this September, The Wilderness Society, a group of conservationists concerned about preserving at least some representative samples of our once virtually unbroken wilderness in the United States, celebrated one of their greatest achievements: passage of the Wilderness Act.
Drafted by Howard Zahniser, who was serving as the executive director of the Wilderness Society, this precedent-setting legislation did what no other nation had ever done: It created a way to protect wilderness – forever. Since that time, the Wilderness Society has been working with every supporter it could find, including the Ozark Society, to add “great places” to the National Wilderness Preservation System.
As a result, The Wilderness Society can be proud of the fact that there are 105 million acres of “America the Beautiful” that have been secured for future generations.
The work of the Wilderness Society also stimulated conservationists throughout the nation, including Arkansas, to take a look in their own back yards to see what federal lands could be protected.
As it turned out, wilderness advocates found quite a few pockets of wilderness left on Arkansas and Missouri public forest lands and, despite opposition from the timber industry, the Arkansas Wilderness Act of 1983 (S. 2125) did eventually become law and we now have an enduring legacy of wilderness in Arkansas.
What we call our “weekend walk-through wonders” may not rival the large western wilderness areas in sheer size, but they make up for it in quality, and are magnificent specimens of once-wild Arkansas. We will be wise to cherish and defend them against any and all unwarranted intrusions.
So, come September, wherever you are in the Ozark or Ouachita wilderness, let’s lift a canteen to our compatriots everywhere in the Wilderness Society and salute them as we celebrate their supreme accomplishment – passage of the Wilderness Act.
We should always remember that the wilderness of today needs protection for tomorrow.
Audubon Secures Fourche Cleanup Grant
Congratulations are due Executive Director Ken Smith and the staff of Audubon Arkansas for finally obtaining a long sought $1.3 million federal grant to clean up Fourche Creek and its watershed and restore the numerous esthetic and recreational opportunities this area has to offer near downtown Little Rock.
Two earlier grant attempts had been turned down.
The Audubon project is one of 14 in the nation to earn a portion of $14.2 million in federal funding that was set aside to restore and protect ailing watersheds – and for many years the Fourche Creek Watershed definitely qualified as a sick aquatic area. It had become a dumping ground for just about everything imaginable and most people had avoided it like a plague.
No more. After years of planting trees, restoring eroded stream banks, and conducting canoe trash pickups, the hard work of Audubon staff members and a host of volunteers, including members of the Ozark Society, has paid off.
The Fourche Creek Project Leader for Audubon, Daniel DeVun, was very pleased to be one of only 14 successful grant winners in the entire nation. They should be happy. Congratulations Audubon – a good neighbor that promises good things and delivers results!
The Uneasy Chair
By John Heuston, Communications Chairman
The ever-present “Uneasy Quotient” has risen considerably in recent weeks.
The Bush Administration has decided it is time to make their political payback to Big Timber and is planning to abandon the 3-year old “roadless rule” in our national forests that the Clinton Administration initiated in January 2001 and the public has supported with enthusiasm.
This latest act of environmental irresponsibility by President Bush and his handlers would drop the protective shield that former President Clinton wrapped around 58.5 million acres of our nation’s remaining wild public land forests to protect them from logging, mining, oil drilling and a host of other abuses.
The Roadless Rule was established to ensure that these protected forests would continue to provide clean drinking water, habitat for wildlife, and myriad opportunities for the type of unconfined outdoor recreation that Ozark Society members cherish.
The Roadless Initiative was not just a fad for the few. More than 2.5 million Americans endorsed this initiative after decades of scientific study, 600 public hearings, and 1.6 million supporting comments, including those from the Ozark Society and other state, regional, and national conservation organizations.
This is a good plan; let’s keep it intact.
The Bush Administration apparently does not understand that one of the reasons these pockets of public lands have remained roadless and unlogged for so long is that it in many cases it would cost more to log these rugged and remote roadless areas than the timber is worth. Otherwise, they would have been cut over long ago. There is just no compelling need or reason to log these remaining roadless areas—period.
However, it seems that some loggers will try almost anything to get access to a stand of timber they want. Back when the Ozark Society was doing surveys of potential wilderness areas for protection, I remember a USFS employee in the Sylamore District laughing over an incident where some local loggers tried to get permission to cut timber in an especially rugged, isolated canyon. He said the loggers wanted permission to lower their mules down into the canyon on ropes!
The USFS thought the proposal amusing, but not practical, and turned them down.
Unfortunately, but not unexpectedly, Arkansas’ Republican Governor Mike Huckabee has issued a statement supporting the Bush administration’s plan, according to a recent article in the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette.
This is scary, because under the current replacement rule, the forests would be protected from “development” for only another 18 months. After that, it will be up to the governors of the concerned states to petition the U.S. Dept. of Agriculture to retain roadless protections in their states! That’s what makes Gov. Huckabee’s reported position so scary.
Obviously, we need to write, phone and/or personally contact the governor and our elected representatives to protest this unpardonable giveaway of these last remnants of roadless public forests to the timber industry.
Before my retirement, I was delegated to serve on then Gov. Bill Clinton’s “Plant The Future” timber task force by my boss, and I learned a lot from the experience.
However, unlike Arkansas Forestry Association Director Kelly Robbins, who lobbies for the timber industry, I definitely do not believe that his idea of giving “states more control over national forests” is a good one. In fact, it’s a terrible idea that definitely does not pass the “smell test” and the USFS and the citizenry should fight this timber industry fantasy tooth and nail. You just don’t let the foxes guard the hen house!
We can only hope that Governor Huckabee will grant clemency to Arkansas’ few remaining public land roadless areas as readily as he has to Arkansas’ convicted murderers.
In the meantime, Gene Karpinski, executive director of the U.S. Public Interest Research Group (PIRG) has a web site that covers this crucial issue thoroughly – http://www.USPIRG.org. Check it out and vote for in favor of our public forests.
BUFFALO RIVER HANDBOOK
By John Heuston
Veteran Ozark Society member and book author Kenneth L. (Ken) Smith of Fayetteville has outdone himself this time with his latest work on the Buffalo River Country of Arkansas’ fabled Ozark Mountain Region.
Simply entitled “Buffalo River Handbook,” his new book is just that, a handbook, not a feature story, but an exhaustively researched compilation of facts and information about America’s first “National River” and the people who have lived within its influence. Smith even has answers to questions that most of us would never have thought to ask; whether they concern the flora and fauna of the Buffalo River Watershed, or the Native Americans and hardy pioneers that settled along the river in times of peace and Civil War.
I stayed up half the night just skipping through Smith’s draft copy. This book is such a handy resource guide it makes you want to toss your gear in the canoe-laden vehicle and head for the river at the first opportunity to check all this stuff out!
The book is being published by the nonprofit, volunteer-run, Ozark Society Foundation. Foundation treasurer Dana Steward, herself a book author, points out that “The Buffalo River is Arkansas’ number one scenic, recreational resource – for a million visitors a year. But there’s been no easy way to answer all their questions. Visitors want to know about the rivers’ beautiful bluffs, plants, animals, and history. Now we have a book with the answers.”
The Handbook is in three parts. Part One has chapters covering the river’s geology, biology, human settlement, and present day management. Part Two is a mile-by-mile guide to the river, keyed to information given in Part One. Part Three is a guide to walking trails, also cross-referenced to information in the opening chapters.
With 448 pages, including 172 photographs, drawings, maps, and diagrams, the compact Handbook is in guidebook format designed for carrying in a canoe or backpack. The book is also coordinated with two comprehensive maps of the Buffalo National River published by national Geographic/Trails Illustrated. The guide for river floaters is keyed to waterproof maps in the Foundation’s newly revised Buffalo National River Canoeing Guide.
Ken Smith, one of the early advocates of saving the Buffalo River from being destroyed by proposed Army Corps of Engineers dams on the river at Gilbert and Lone Rock, is widely known as the author-photographer of The Buffalo River Country, first published in 1967 and still in print.
One thing for sure, this handbook will make the reader an instant hero with younger family members and friends who have a way of asking challenging questions. For example: “Daddy, how did those river bluffs get so big and why are they all streaked up with those blue and red colors?
Heck, just flip the handbook open to page 53 and read: “Creation of the ages, Painted Bluff at Buffalo Point displays two of the Buffalo’s major rock formations. The cliff’s lower half is Everton Limestone, deposited in a shallow sea and then exposed above water level. Erosion then shaped its uneven surface. Later the sea returned and piled sand on the limestone; this eventually became the St. Peter Limestone, the upper half of the bluff.
“ Geologists call the wavy boundary between the limestone and the sandstone an unconformity, marking the episode of erosion between times of deposition. This uneven line between the Everton Formation and the St. Peter Sandstone is the most easily recognized of many geologic unconformities along the Buffalo.”
Oh Boy! How I wish I’d had this handbook with me when my son was 8 years old and full of more questions than the Buffalo River has gravel bars! So, become an instant family celebrity. This book will save you!
At the time this issue of P&P was being prepared, the book copy and illustrations had been turned over to the printer and hopefully the Buffalo River Handbook will soon be available to all of us through Ozark Society Books, P.O. Box 3503, Little Rock, AR 72203, and at area bookstores, outdoor outfitters, and other retailers.
The book price is expected to be $19.95.
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