OPINION

OPINION | REX NELSON: A conservation victory

During the years I lived on Capitol Hill in Washington, D.C., and covered Congress for the Arkansas Democrat, bipartisanship was alive. There were some nasty political fights, but there also were things on which Democrats and Republicans worked together. It was still a time in the late 1980s when members of Congress could argue on the floor during the day and then have dinner together that night.

Things began to change in the 1990s. More than three decades after my stint in Washington, major bipartisan accomplishments are rare. The best news to come out of Washington in a long time was on Aug. 4 when President Trump signed into law the Great American Outdoors Act, which will provide significantly increased funding for national parks, forests, wildlife refuges and other federal holdings.

"From an environmental standpoint and from just the beauty of our country standpoint, there hasn't been anything like this since Teddy Roosevelt, I suspect," Trump said.

A president who usually exaggerates was on target this time. The act will provide $9.5 billion during the next five years to start clearing up the maintenance backlog on federal lands. It also allocates $900 million a year to the Land and Water Conservation Fund. With tens of thousands of acres of national forests, 10 national wildlife refuges and seven National Park Service facilities, Arkansas will be a key beneficiary of the Great American Outdoors Act. It's the single greatest financial commitment to increasing public land access and recreational opportunities in my lifetime.

The act passed the U.S. House by a vote of 310-107 in July after having passed the U.S. Senate by a vote of 73-25 in June. While the National Park Service will receive $6.5 billion of the $9.5 billion pot, the Congressional Sportsmen's Foundation led an effort to secure $3 billion to maintain public land infrastructure overseen by the Bureau of Land Management, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and the U.S. Forest Service.

"This legislation will advance conservation, increase access for hunters and anglers, provide much-needed support for public lands and waters, and boost the already formidable sporting-conservation economy," said Jeff Crane, the president of the Congressional Sportsmen's Foundation.

U.S. Rep. Raul Grijalva, the Arizona Democrat who chairs the House Natural Resources Committee, said: "We have allowed our national parks to fall into disrepair. At the same time, we have failed to meet the full promise of the Land and Water Conservation Fund. ... Today we take the opportunity to remedy both of those failures."

The Forest Service says that 99 percent of the 193 million acres it administers nationwide are open to hunting, and at least 99 percent of rivers, streams and lakes in national forests are open to fishing. Money spent to address the maintenance backlog is expected to create more than 100,000 jobs. Meanwhile, the $900 million for the Land and Water Conservation Fund will ensure additional recreational access at the local level. The fund has completed a project in every county in the country. It's among the most successful conservation programs in American history. The money comes from federal oil and gas revenue.

While Hot Springs National Park is the only designated national park in Arkansas, there are six other National Park Service facilities in the state. They are Arkansas Post National Memorial, Buffalo National River (the first river in the country to receive that designation), Fort Smith National Historic Site, Little Rock Central High School National Historic Site, Pea Ridge National Military Park, and the President William Jefferson Clinton Birthplace Home National Historic Site at Hope. All seven facilities can expect to see improvements during the next five years.

The three national forests in the state are the Ouachita, Ozark and St. Francis. The Ozark and St. Francis operate as a single administrative unit headquartered in Russellville. The 10 national wildlife refuges are maintained by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. Lowland refuges in the eastern part of the state are Bald Knob, Big Lake, Cache River, White River and Wapanocca. Lowland refuges in far south Arkansas are Felsenthal and Overflow. Refuges in the western half of the state are Holla Bend on the Arkansas River near Dardanelle, Pond Creek on the Little River near Ashdown and Logan Cave in northwest Arkansas.

Since Trump mentioned Teddy Roosevelt, I should note that the national wildlife refuge system began when Roosevelt designated Florida's Pelican Island as the first federal refuge in 1903. Since then, the system has grown to almost 600 refuges encompassing more than 150 million acres.

Big Lake near Manila is the third oldest inland refuge in the country. The area, altered by sinking land during the New Madrid earthquakes of 1811-12, saw violence and legal fights between members of expensive hunting clubs and commercial hunters from 1870-1915. The refuge was established in 1915 in an attempt to end that violence. It covers 11,047 acres. About 200 species of birds call Big Lake home.

Logan Cave, on the other hand, is one of the nation's newest refuges. There were 123 acres set aside in Benton County in March 1989 as the 455th national wildlife refuge. The cave on the property is considered among the highest quality limestone caves in the Ozarks. A spring-fed creek that originates in the cave hosts the endangered Ozark cavefish and an endangered crawfish. The cave is also home to the equally endangered gray bat.

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Senior Editor Rex Nelson's column appears regularly in the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette. He's also the author of the Southern Fried blog at rexnelsonsouthernfried.com.

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