White River A Blue Way. Not What You Think!

[taxidermist]

I said when this was annouced it was bad bad news for our area. Here is the truth!

http://www.mountaintalk97.com/

Click on Radio on Demand and then click Through the Looking Glass. 5-5-13

YOu will find out more about the government control over the whole White River Basin. From Rogers to the mouth at the Mississippi!

[gotmuddy]

the audio on demand isnt working for me. whats the scoop?

[joeD]

The scoop is... "Responsible Conservative Radio."

Well, one of those words is correct.

[Gavin]

Think the Farm Bureau is upset because the Blue Way designation might result in restrictions on agricultural runoff.

[Al Agnew]

Gavin is right.

And I like Taxi's drive-by, with no follow-up when the link didn't work for at least some people, me included. This is an issue that does have some importance. Let me see if I can give both sides...

This from The Nature Conservancy, from the news release announcing the designation:

Today at the Peabody Hotel, officials from state and federal agencies, local communities and businesses, and non-profit organizations announced the designation of the White River and its entire basin or watershed, as a “National Blueway.” The White River is the second watershed to receive such recognition; the first was the Connecticut River.

Established in 2012 by the Department of the Interior, the National Blueways System places national emphasis on the value of an approach to river conservation that considers all the activities and uses within the watershed and the effectiveness of local partner collaboration for project planning and delivery.

“The designation of the White River Watershed as a National Blueway validates the long-standing and on-going multi-faceted partnerships that have been actively conserving, protecting and restoring the White River and its tributaries for decades,” said Mike Knoedl, director of the Arkansas Game and Fish Commission.

Among the speakers at the event were Deputy Secretary of the Interior David Hayes, Deputy Undersecretary of Agriculture Ann Mills, Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary for the Army (Civil Works) Terrence “Rock” Salt, , U. S. Fish and Wildlife Southeast Region Director Cynthia Dohner, Senator Mark Pryor, Congressman Tim Griffin, Director for the Arkansas Department of Parks and Tourism, Richard Davies, Clarendon (Ark.) Mayor Jim Stinson, National Wildlife Refuge Association President David Houghton, and Scott Simon, director of The Nature Conservancy in Arkansas.

National Blueways are chosen because they are nationally significant and highly valued for their recreational, economic, cultural and ecological assets.

“The White River has great diversity from top to bottom,” said Richard Davies, director of the Arkansas Department of Parks and Tourism. “Its blue waters in the Ozarks attract trout anglers and enhance other outdoor recreational activities. In the Delta, its cypress-lined brown waters are known for top-notch bass fishing and world-class duck hunting. And along its entire length, agriculture is a crucial part of the economic picture.”

The White River is also important because it’s one of five commercially navigable rivers in Arkansas. “We are pleased to hear of this designation, and we look forward to being a part of the sustainable economic opportunities the White River provides,” said Gene Higginbotham, executive director of the Arkansas Waterways Commission, which is responsible for developing and protecting waterborne transportation in the state.

Flowing 722-miles from its headwaters in Arkansas’s Boston Mountains, the White River runs north into Missouri before coursing south through the Delta and into the Mississippi River in southeast Arkansas. Its watershed encompasses17.8 million acres, and the water in the White and its tributaries and reservoirs serve as a source of drinking water for many of the 1.2 million people living here. The White and its tributaries also provide water for irrigation for agriculture, which represents the greatest economic impact in the watershed, followed by recreation-based tourism.

Within the White River Watershed, natural areas that provide outdoor recreation opportunities, help improve water quality and provide wildlife habitat include 23 Corps of Engineers parks, three river parks managed by the National Park Service, three national wildlife refuges, two national forests, and more than 100 state-owned parks, wildlife management areas or conservation sites in Arkansas and Missouri. The watershed also encompasses thousands of acres conserved voluntarily by landowners through the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Wetlands Reserve Program, which is funded by the U.S. Farm Bill.

“Locally driven partnerships that include diverse interest groups working together were a key factor behind this designation,” said Scott Simon, director of The Nature Conservancy in Arkansas. “We hope this news and the momentum it causes will bring new partners that can help build an even brighter future for people and nature in this watershed.”

And this from Secure Arkansas, "a grassroots organization protecting the rights of Arkansas":

WHAT & WHERE?

In 2012, the Department of Interior established the National Blueways System which brings various unelected environmental stakeholders and organizations, as well as local, state, federal, and international bureaucrats together for environmental issues in the White River Watershed area and for building a sustainable economic region. In actuality, it looks like it could be a future federal land grab under United Nations Agenda 21, and we will be used as a biosphere model for other areas in the United States.

*Watershed means every square inch of land from which rainfall runoff eventually draws into the White River, including your own back yard! The misconception is that this affects ONLY the White River, but this is incorrect. This could affect your property even if you don’t live near the White River. Click here to view maps of the affected areas.

We’re an agricultural state. An example of consequences are that farmers and cattlemen would be limited regarding the tilling of their soil and water runoff from their fields and pastures, and this would limit their ability to be profitable in their business. The government watershed regulations and restrictions will be extreme and oppressive. You could have no ability to decide what to do with your own property. It seems like these pro-conservation groups view wildlife as more important than humans.

Many international organizations who are supporting this Blueway designation and that supposedly protect habitats and millions of designated acres use the slogan: “Leave no trace”. This means no human carbon footprint: no human presence allowed. It’s time to say, “ENOUGH! This is oppressive!”

We understand that it’s important to take care of our natural resources, but federal government involvement is neither necessary nor desired.

WHO?

We mentioned these people, businesses, and groups who support the National Blueways System in our email from Saturday, May 18, 2013 entitled “Help Oppose the Destruction of Our Heartland!”

There are over 26 stakeholder groups that support the White River Watershed National Blueway designation, including:

The Arkansas Game and Fish Commission

The Audubon Society

Federal partners from the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers

The U.S. Department of Agriculture

The Department of the Interior

The Nature Conservancy

Ducks Unlimited

Several other agencies and businesses interested in environmentalism and conservation

Click here to view the sponsors of this designation.

WHY?

Why are the same bureaucrats and NGOs (Non-Governmental Organizations) who, in the 1990’s tried to give the same general area a U.N. title (“United Nations Biosphere”), now trying to call it by a National Blueway title? Remember the Ozark Man and Biosphere of the 1990′s? Recall that battle.

Why do bureaucrats & “do-good environmentalists” want to designate* your land without consulting you or notifying any of our Constitutional officers whom you have elected to protect you from such encroachment on your private property and on the public lands which your tax dollars maintain for your public access and enjoyment?

*Don’t be deceived by flattering bureaucratic designations. Designations always lead to stronger rules and regulations for you and me and what we can do on our own property.

It seems that some NGOs represent the United Nations, and the government represents some of the NGOs!

So let's see...first we have the monster under the bed, the dreaded United Nations control of "our" land. I have to say that this is about the stupidest, most tin-foil hat idea around, and I can't believe that supposedly intelligent people would buy into it. Don't you think that if the UN ever did even attempt to gain control of American land that there would be a war started to halt it?

And then it's the federal government controlling "our" land. Hey, the feds are always fair game.

And I like the list of organizations supporting the Blueway idea...those danged environmentalists!

Finally, though, in the paragraph starting with "We're an agricultural state." This is exactly where Gavin was right mentioning the Farm Bureau. The Farm Bureau, which purports to be for family farms but is actually dominated by industrial agriculture, doesn't want anything that could in any way restrict their apparently God-given right to do whatever the heck they want to make a buck, no matter how it affects everybody else. "The government watershed restrictions will be extreme and oppressive." How do they know that? In fact, exactly where is the rock bottom authority of the federal government to put on extreme and oppressive restrictions under this initiative. This is supposed to be a partnership between everybody with a stake in this to figure out watershed-wide ways of protecting the White River. Given that there are five big lakes, many miles of some of the best trout water in the country, a whole pile of warm water streams, sloughs, backwaters, marshes...in other words, some of the highest quality or potentially highest quality waters in the country involved, and a whole lot of dollars involved in recrational use of all those resources, it would seem that the watershed wide approach would make a lot of sense. But it truly might at some point in the future mean some very necessary restrictions on some of the worst farming practices, practices that should have been cleaned up long ago.

But the government hating "agin'ers" are now out in force.

[skeeter]

Think the Farm Bureau is upset because the Blue Way designation might result in restrictions on agricultural runoff.

Yeah, definitely.

Lot's of cattle in AR between the northern edge of the beginnings of the Boston Mtns. and the White and we all know about the Chicken and Turkey raising operations. Long Creek, Big Indian and the Kings' get hit hard with Ag runoff during moderate to heavy precip events.

What many of us are trying to figure out this year is why TR is the clearest it's been in 30 years. Reminds me of the early to mid 70's before the CAFO operations got rolling.

[Quillback]

Read in today's AR Gazette that the Feds are announcing a new plan to add approximately 125,000 acres to the White River NWR. One of the funding primary sources is revenue from Federal Duck stamp sales.

[gotmuddy]

I wonder whose pocket book that will be lining?

[Quillback]

Somebody will make some money, no doubt.

[hoglaw]

I'm sure some folks will do okay on the sale of land adjoining the existing refuge, but most don't really want to sell. I've been looking at big tracts of duck land lately - or I guess I should say looking for. Because there really aren't any. There's just not that much good delta timber land for sale. So I guess if any is going to be acquired, it's going to have to be at a hefty premium.

The history of Arkansas' big farming families and the succession of what is now the best green timber duck hunting land in the world is pretty fascinating. The Dunklins, Ramseys, and Blacks don't need the money for sure.