Buffalo Point Spring Meeting April 21

Spring Meeting Program: Outdoors Skills You Can Use!

Chapter Chairman Susan Young and members of the Highlands Chapter in Northwest Arkansas have decided to focus the April 21-22 Spring Meeting 2001 program at Buffalo Point on a variety of outdoor skills that active outdoor people need to know to safely and comfortably enjoy the world that begins
where the pavement ends.

As Susan says, here's the scoop.

Friday, April 20 ­ This day is for early bird arrival and camp setup at Buffalo Point on the Buffalo National River. Group campsite 5 has been reserved for the Ozark Society. The fee for group camping is $2 per person, per night (50% discount for Golden Age Passport holders). This is a walk-in camping area for tent campers only, but the walk is only a distance of about 50 feet. Nearby are restrooms, drinking water, picnic tables, and fire grates. Shower facilities are located in the main campground. Pavilion 1, where we will hold the meeting, is adjacent to our group camping area.  A map and additional information on Buffalo Point and its facilities is
available at the Visitor's Center.

Saturday, April 21 ­ The meeting will begin at 8:30 a.m. with registration at Pavilion 1. Coffee and goodies will be available.

The General Business Meeting will convene in the pavilion at 10 a.m., followed by the Board of Directors meeting and lunch.

At 1:30 p.m.  Zed Davenport and Sammy Lail of the BNR staff will update us on current trail work on the Buffalo National River.

At 2:30 p.m. we will begin our afternoon program of Concurrent Activities.

Activity One: Duane Woltjen of the Highlands Chapter, one of the Society's two State Directors for Arkansas (Judy Parker of Little Rock's Pulaski Chapter is the other director) will instruct us on map and compass use in the field. Duane will also explain some of the finer points of using the new and increasing popular GeoPositional Satellite (GPS) navigational units. He said it would be helpful if you could bring these items with you: (1)  the Cozahome USGS 71/2  minute series quadrangle map, (2) the Trails Illustrated Buffalo National River East Half topographical map, and (3) the instruction book for your GPS (which, hopefully, you will have read ahead of time!)
Bring a compass, note pad and pencil, your daypack and water. The group will then do an orienteering hike of about l mile in the immediate Buffalo Point area.

Activity Two: Richard McFadden of the Pulaski Chapter will tackle the tricky subject of tying knots for packers and paddlers that will stay tied! When you mess around in canoes and wild country as much as we do, that's a good skill to acquire! 

Activity Three: Outings chairman Bill Steward of the Pulaski Chapter, the trip leader/organizer for our annual summer Buffalo National River float trips, will present a session on First Aid for River and Trail.  Bad things can sometimes happen in good country it's best to be prepared! Activities Two and Three will last about 45 minutes each. Each session will be presented twice, so participants can switch and attend both presentations.

We will wind up Saturday's activities at 6 p.m. with our traditional Potluck Supper at the pavilion. Bring your table service, cup, a dish to share, and your favorite folding chair. After supper we will enjoy a jam session and gabfest. If you play a musical instrument, bring it! This will be a laid-back chance for fun and fellowship, and could very well lead to the founding of the Ozark Society Orchestra!

Sunday, April 22

Leaving Buffalo Point at 9 a.m., Ken Smith, author of The Buffalo River Country, will lead a ³Hiking Tour of Historic Rush.  Now a ghost town, Rush became a boom town after zinc was discovered there in 1880. When the
Morning Star Mine was opened in the early Nineties, miners pried from its ore face a single mass of pure zinc carbonate weighing 12,750 pounds, Smith wrote in his book. The miners called it Jumbo and after a torturous trip
by wagon, water and rail, Jumbo won a gold medal at the 1893 World's Fair at Chicago and this sent speculators flying to Rush.

Ken will lead us around Rush and explain the town's role in the Buffalo River Country's colorful history during a time when mining fever captured newspaper headlines throughout the Ozarks.

Bob Cross will also lead a group to Rush, but this one by canoe. The Buffalo River Chapter is making its canoes available for this trip, which may include some stops and hiking along the way if time permits.

People should sign up for the above activities when they register on Saturday. The canoe rental, payable at registration, will be $18 per canoe, whether its for two or three people. If you don't have a canoeing partner, pay $9.00 and we'll match you up.

Chairman Young says we owe a hearty vote of thanks to Eunice Noland and Bob Cross for organizing all these activities for the Spring Meeting. So, THANKS, Eunice and Bob!

It's going to be a great rendezvous and a lot of fun. See you at the Point!

Conservation Observations - By Paul Means

A new chief executive officer will soon arrive in the Arkansas Ozarks to run a large organization that attracts up to a million visitors annually and generates some $36 million each year in tourism revenues for the four-county region it serves, while providing steady jobs for a lot of local residents.

His name is Ivan D. Miller and his organization is the National Park Service staff at the Buffalo National River, our nation's first "national river," a unique category within the National Park System that the Ozark Society was instrumental in creating after a ten-year struggle from 1962 to 1972.

Miller will replace our friend John "Jack" Linahan, who retired from the National Park Service in September 2000 after a long and distinguished career.

As this is written, Miller is expected to begin his duties on April 1. Miller is currently the superintendent at Great Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore in Michigan.

In announcing the appointment, NPS Midwest Regional Director William W. Schenk said, "We are especially pleased that Ivan will remain part of the Midwest management team. He has done an outstanding job for us at Sleeping Bear Dunes and addressed numerous resource management and park operations issues. His experience will be particularly applicable at Buffalo National River."

Miller's experience at a variety of positions will no doubt serve him well at the BNR, where "park bashing" is a popular pastime with a small group of locals who see a sinister "conspiracy" in just about everything the staff wants to do to protect and improve the national river.

Miller began his NPS career as a seasonal park ranger at Glacier National Park, Montana. His first permanent assignment as a park ranger was at Yosemite National Park. He then served five years at Denali national Park, Alaska, as District Ranger and Chief of Resource Interpretation and Resource Management, Miller then served as a park planner in the NPS Office of Legislation where he worked on proposed new park areas in Alaska. Subsequent assignments include Superintendent of Grand Portage National Monument, Minnesota, and Chief of Environmental Quality and Compliance for the Pacific Northwest region of the NPS in Seattle.

Miller's diverse background also includes a foreign assignment to assist the Saudi Arabian government in developing their national park system.

Miller and his wife, Darlene, have two grown sons.

I believe it would be appropriate for all of us to drop the Millers a card (BNR, PO Box 1173, Harrison, AR 72602) and welcome them both to one of the most beautiful places in North America, if not the world ­ the Buffalo River Country ­ still flowing free and undammed from headwaters to mouth.

And while we all relish the beauty and adventure we find there, let us never forget that the Buffalo National River is also a major economic force in the Ozark Region that supports numerous private businesses and directly or indirectly puts bread on the table for a lot of families in Newton, Searcy, Marion and Baxter counties.  

YOUR HOTLINE TO GOVERNMENT! 

ARKANSAS

Governor Mike Huckabee, Governor's office, State Capitol, Little Rock, AR 72201; phone, 682-2345.

 Senator Blanche Lambert Lincoln, 359 Dirksen Senate Office Bldg., Washington DC, 20510. DC phone: (202) 224-4843; DC Fax (202) 228-1371. Arkansas phone, (501) 375-2993; Arkansas Fax: 501) 375-7064. E-mail; Blance-Lincoln@Lincoln. Senate. Gov

Senator Tim Hutchinson, 245 Dirksen Senate Office Bldg., Washington DC 20510-0001; DC telephone (202) 224-2353; Arkansas telephone: (501) 324-6336; E-mail, senator.Hutchinson@hutchinson.senate.gov

Representative Vic Snyder, 1319 Longworth House Office Bldg., Washington D. C. 20515-0001. DC telephone: (202) 225-2506; DC Fax (202) 225-5903; Arkansas telephone; (501) 324-6029. E-mail: snyder.congress!@mail.hmouse.gov

Representative Asa  Hutchinson, House of Representatives, Washington D.C. 20515.   D.C. telephone, (202) 225-4301; Fayetteville, (501) 442-5258

Rep. Marion Berry, House of Representatives, Washington D. C. 20515.  DC telephone, (202) 224-4076; Jonesboro, (870) 972-4600

Representative Mike Ross, 514 Cannon Office Bldg., Washington, D.C. 20515. Arkansas phone: Prescott (501) 682-2345; DC phone (202) 544-7357 and (202) 225-3772; E-mail, ross4congress.com

OKLAHOMA

Gov. Frank Keating, 212 State Capitol Bldg., Oklahoma City, OK 73105; Phone: (405) 521-2342; E-mail: governor@oklaosf:state.ok.us

Sen. Jim Inhofe, 453 Russell Senate Office Bldg., Washington DC 20510-3601; Phone: (202) 224-4721; E-Mail: Tulsa phone: (918)748-5111; E-mail: jim -inhofe@inhofe.senate.gov

Sen. Don Nickles, 133 Hart Senate Office Bldg., Washington, DC 20510-3602; Phone: 9202) 224-5754; Tulsa phone: (918) 581-7651. E-mail: senator@nickles.senate.gov

Rep. Ernest J. Istook, Jr., ll9 Cannon House Office Bldg., Washington DC 20515-3605; Phone: (202) 225-2132. Oklahoma City phone: (405)942-3636. E-mail: istook@mail.house.gov

Rep. Steve Largent, 426 Cannon House Office Bldg., Washington, DC 20515; phone: (202) 225-2211. Tulsa phone: (918) 749-0014. E-mail okO1.largent@mail.house.gov

Rep. Tom Coburn, 429 Cannon House Office Bldg.,Washington DC 20515. Phone: (202)225-2701. Muskogee Phone: (918) 687-2533. E-mail: rep coburn@mail.house.Gov

Rep. Frank D. Lucus, 438 Cannon House Office Bldg., Washington DC 20515. Phone: (202) 225-5565; Oklahoma City Phone: (405) 235-5311. E-mail: www.house.gov/writerep

Rep. J.C. Watts, Jr., 1210 Longworth House Office Bldg., Washington, DC 20515. Phone (202) 225-6165. Norman phone: (405) 329-6500.E-mail: rep.jcwatts@mail house.gov.

Rep. Rep. Wes Watkins, 1401 Longworth House Office Bldg., Washington DC 20515. Phone: (202) 225-2565; McAlester phone: (918) 423-5951. E-Mail: weswatkins@mail.house.gov

(Editorıs note: Oklahoma Director Phil Lorenz compiled this listing of his stateıs elected representatives ­ anyone willing to tackle  Missouri or Louisiana?)

Stay Informed on the Web!

Members who are Internet users can stay updated on Ozark Society issues and activities by checking our web site: www.ozarksociety.net

E-MAIL ACTION LINE!

NOTICE: Bill Steward of Little Rock is setting up an E-mail contact system so that we can notify as many members as possible via the internet whenever a conservation   emergency or something else happens that members need to know about. If you aren't already on Steward's E-mail list please contact him at Steward 810 @aol.com.

ORAL HISTORY: PRESERVING A LEGACY OF CONSERVATION
By Steve Noland

The 1991 Spring Meeting of the Ozark Society brought two things: ³The Buffalo River Canoeing Guide² and the formation of the Oral History Committee.

The purpose of this committee remains the same today as it was then -- to capture an audio-visual oral history of the Ozark Society for present and future generations. It is part of the "conservation and education" mission of the Society. It is one way to educate the general public about our organization's role in the preservation of the Buffalo River as America's first "National River," and our other conservation efforts. We wanted these members who lived it to tell their stories in their own words.

The Committee met with Tim Bass of TL Bass and Associates of Fort Smith.  They are professionals at making documentary films. We discussed the merits of several mediums. The group agreed to use 16mm format because of its longevity. However, this medium had two drawbacks: cost and production time. So we recently changed to the newer digital format, which also offers longevity, along with faster production time, and much lower cost.

So far, the committee has interviewed numerous early members of the Ozark Society, including our founding president, Dr. Neil Compton of Bentonville; Dr. Joe Nix of Arkadelphia, who succeeded  Dr. Compton as president in 1972; Joe Clark, editor of the original "Ozark Society Bulletin," the forerunner of today's "Pack & Paddle;" Hubert and Mary Virginia Ferguson of Boxley Valley and their son, John; Harold and Margaret Hedges of Harrison, authors of canoe guides to the Buffalo and Mulberry rivers; Kenneth L. Smith, author of the book, "The Buffalo River Country;" the first book that made our publishing program possible; H. Charles Johnston, Jr., of Little Rock, chairman of the first "chapter" of the parent Society (now the Pulaski Chapter at Little Rock); Leonard Heiman, also a leader in the Ozark Wilderness Waterways Club of Kansas City; Charles "Mac" McRaven of Virginia, a former resident of St. Joe who was an  organizer and leader of the anti-dam Buffalo River Landowners Association in the 1960s; Bob Ferris; Eunice Noland; former Congressman John Paul Hammerschmidt; John Dillard; Joe Barnes; Marvin DeMuth;   former BNR Superintendent John (Jack) Linahan; and photo-journalists Nancy Jack and John Heuston.

These interviews ranged in duration from several minutes to more than an hour. If you have been a member of the Ozark Society for any length of time, you probably know most of these people and can guess the topics.

We wish to express our appreciation to several honorary committee members who, if not for their guidance and help, we would still be on the first interview. They are Hubert and Mary Virginia Ferguson and John Heuston.. Eunice Noland of Fayetteville also deserves a big "Thank You" for the lunches she has prepared for the committee and interviewees while on location.

Tim Bass and Barry Gooch, the photojournalists who are preserving our oral history, have been extremely understanding and patient with us and deserve our respect and admiration for their considerable talents. Their original video documentary, "The Buffalo River S A National Treasure" has won a major documentary film award and acclaim from reviewers. They know their business, and it shows.

In 2001, we hope to interview other early Ozark Society members in Missouri, Oklahoma and Louisiana. The plan is to spend some time in the Harrison, Marshall and Fayetteville areas. We also hope to interview some of our opponents in the 10-year "Battle for the Buffalo" so that their views can also be recorded for posterity before they pass from the earthly scene. Many of them already have.

Our long term goals are twofold: first, to continue gathering our oral history so that at some point we can make a donation of our efforts to the archives of a state institution interested in conservation history; and second, use these interviews to produce a documentary video on the Ozark Society's role in the preservation of the Buffalo River for the education and enjoyment of future generations.

If anyone can suggest other people we should interview who have historical associations with the Ozark Society, please contact committee members Alice Andrews (501-666-5070; Brenda Crites (573-335-4521); or Steve Noland, 2451 Manor Dr., Fayetteville, AR 72703 (501-521-8401).

THE UNEASY CHAIR
By John Heuston

Attention all stream anglers!

Whether you are a fly flipper, spin-casting enthusiast, or cane pole worm dunker, the next time you visit your favorite mountain stream or river, grab a handful of leaves from the forest floor and kiss them. Why? Because if it wasn't for all the forest leaf litter in the headwaters of your favorite stream or creek, you wouldn't have any fish to catch!

Speaking to the March meeting of the Pulaski Chapter, Ozark Society, biologist Raye Nilius (pronounced Nye-luss) of the U. S. Fish and Wildlife Service field office at Conway, explained exactly why there can be no such thing as a "small, insignificant dam" on the headwaters of a mountain stream like Bear Creek!

In brief, even a small dam can mess up the complex aquatic ecology of an entire stream and kill or severely deplete the tiny aquatic invertebrates that process the food game fish depend on for survival. This is pretty technical stuff, folks, but back in 1980 aquatic scientists figured out something they call the "River Continuum Concept (RCC)" which suggests that species assemblages at any position along the length of a river system can be predicated based upon the form of energy present in the particular reach.

Scientists say species in the headwaters regions rely upon allochthonous input from overhanging riparian vegetation; mid-reach streams rely upon algal or rooted vascular plant production; and large river species collect and process food particles lost from headwaters and mid-reach streams. All these little aquatic critters that contribute to the food chain have a specific job to do and it works out very well, whether habitat-challenged human dam engineers understand it or not!

Nature designed an army of  aquatic invertebrates that are tasked to do very specific jobs: Some have mouth parts (throphic structures) that are designed just for shredding leaf matter. They are appropriately called "shredders." The shredders live only where their mouth parts will permit them to live. They are present only when leaf matter is present, and are dormant when it is not. Next in the chain are the ³collectors² who gather up the shredded
leaf matter. Next are the ³scrappers² who help process it, and the "predators" who apparently feed on all of the above so they don't get too numerous. In turn, the smallmouth bass, Ozark bass, and other game fish we seek feed on the predators, such as the hellgrammite, which is why these ugly, biting critters make such good bait!

So, lets all get out there and hug those leaves! It makes for better fishing.

MISCHIEF AFOOT AT THE LEDGE!

There is nothing like a gathering of the Arkansas General Assembly to bring home the point that quarterly publications like Pack & Paddle have their place, but they are woefully inadequate for updating the membership on fast-breaking news about conservation issues, especially when the Legislature is in session!

For example, as this issue is going to press, the House Agri Committee is debating HB2342, which is designed to exclude Lee Creek in Northwest Arkansas from the list of "Extraordinary Resource Waters" so that a water supply dam can be built on it! In addition to setting a dangerous precedent for other ERW streams, it is considered unnecessary because Fort Smith could meet Crawford County's perceived water needs without damming a prized fishing and recreational stream.

However HB2342  turns out, this incident illustrates the need for a faster method of communications among the Ozark Society leadership.

So, please check the Ozark Society web page  (www. ozarksociety.net) as often as possible to see whatıs going on. However, even this takes time to prepare, so Bill Steward is working up an E-mail notification process. He requests the E-mail addresses of all our members who are not yet signed on with him. Send your E-mail addresses to Steward at Steward810@aol.com. For Internet information on state government activities, log on to www.arkleg.state.ar.us.

CURRENTS
By Stewart Noland
President, Ozark Society

Do you still have the "ice storm blues?"  Winter wearing thin?

Then take heart; the Ozark Society Colorado Outing will take place from July 22-28 in the Collegiate Peaks/Arkansas River area of Colorado. That's a great place to be in July, and now is the time to plan for it!

Reservations have been made at the Cascade Campground and participants should plan to arrive at the campground by late afternoon July 22. Cascade Campground is located west of Nathrop on County Road 162.

The first group meal will be dinner at the campground, and all meals between this one and breakfast on July 22 will be provided as part of the trip.

If you prefer to stay in a motel, please make reservations at the nearby Mt. Princeton Hot Springs Lodge, 15870 County road 162, Nathrop, Colorado 81236. Their phone number is (719)-395-2361.

Meals at the Cascade Campground will be prepared for all trip participants, regardless of whether you are camping or staying at the lodge.

Multiple activities will be available each day, including rafting, canoeing, and kayaking on the nearby Arkansas River. There are also opportunities for mountain biking, horseback riding, fishing, hiking, and day trips to regional points of interest. Several of our Bayou Brethren have agreed to coordinate the kitchens, while I will coordinate the river activities.

The cost per trip participant for persons who plan to camp is $110, which includes the campground fee and food. The cost for those who choose to make alternate lodging arrangements is $85 and includes food only.

You must be an Ozark Society Member to participate. Ozark Society dues of at least $15 must be included in your trip fee if you are not already a member.

You can confirm your spot now by sending a check for your trip (including Ozark Society $15 dues, if applicable, made out to the Ozark Society. Mail it to Financial Chairman Bob Ritchie, 1509 Old Forge Dr., Little Rock, AR 72227. If you have any questions concerning the trip, then contact Stewart Noland at (501) 666-2989, or by E-Mail to bosshq@aol.com. We hope to see you in Colorado come July!