Arkansas Democrat-Gazette columnist Rex Nelson published a wish list last week of things he'd like to see happen in Arkansas this year. Among them, he this wrote this about Newton County, where I grew up (and about which I've often written on the blog):
I would like to see brothers Tom and Steuart Walton, along with Bass Pro Shops founder Johnny Morris, continue their environmentally sensitive efforts to transform Newton County into a nationally known outdoor recreational hub. Rather than sawing down trees, mining gravel from streams, raising hogs and raising chickens, hardworking people in this part of the Ozarks will be able to make a good living in ways that don't harm the environment. The massive investments being made by the Waltons and Morris will lead to new shops and restaurants. Entrepreneurs already are starting to discover formerly sleepy places like Jasper.
This sort of thinking is not new to Nelson (formerly a senior advisor to Governor Mike Huckabee in the late 1990s), as you can see from reading prior blog posts here, here, and here.
What is especially striking about this most recent Nelson column is how condescending Nelson is to long-time Newton County residents--perhaps I should call them legacy residents--whose vision differs from his. Theirs is often the vision passed down from their parents, one that has them making money off the land in whatever way they can, including from industrial agriculture and timber harvesting. As I have written previously, it would be interesting to know the extent to which the county's legacy families benefit from development like that which Nelson promotes--and the extent to which they have a say in how--and how fast--it happens.
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