Buffalo National River watershed finally gets permanent protection from industrial agriculture

I've written a great, great deal about the Buffalo National River over the years, including when a hog CAFO was sited on the banks of one of its tributaries in 2012.  After a great deal of wrangling, that CAFO was ultimately bought out by the State of Arkansas for $6.2 million under former governor Asa Hutchinson.  

Here's an excerpt from a post about these recent events on Arkansas Outside, which explains that .  

The Arkansas Legislative Council on Friday gave final approval to a permanent moratorium on medium- and large-scale hog concentrated animal feeding operations (CAFOs) within the Buffalo National River watershed, cementing over a decade of advocacy from conservation groups and marking a significant milestone in the state’s environmental policy.

The decision, passed without debate, follows years of temporary protections and stems from heightened concerns about the impact of industrial swine farms on water quality in the nation’s first designated national river. The new rule permanently bans CAFOs, as defined by the Environmental Protection Agency, that are medium or large in size, based on animal count and waste production.

Environmental groups, including the Buffalo River Watershed Alliance, the Ozark Society, and the Arkansas chapter of the Sierra Club, hailed the decision as a crucial step to safeguard the river’s karst terrain, which is particularly vulnerable to groundwater pollution.

The move follows years of public outcry sparked by C&H Hog Farms, a large-scale swine operation permitted in 2012 under a general permit process that lacked public input. The farm, located near the town of Mount Judea, drew criticism and concern after manure from thousands of hogs was applied to fields near tributaries that feed the Buffalo.

* * * 

Agricultural interests, including the Arkansas Farm Bureau and the Arkansas Cattlemen’s Association, opposed the permanent moratorium. In comments to the state, they argued the ban was based on public perception rather than scientific evidence, and they warned of regulatory overreach that could limit farmers’ land use rights.

* * *

The rule change came under the broader context of Senate Bill 290, legislation initially intended to overhaul the state’s rulemaking process. The bill was amended during the legislative session to preserve moratoriums on CAFOs in the Buffalo River and Lake Maumelle watersheds. Future bans will now require legislative approval, reducing the ability of state agencies to act independently.

Governor Sarah Huckabee Sanders, who has expressed support for protecting the Buffalo River, reportedly threatened to veto the original version of the bill until amendments preserving the moratorium were included.

Read more about this year's legislative wrangling over the Buffalo and CAFOs here.  

Signs that rural voters are sticking with Trump, despite the pain of cuts

Two recent stories suggest that Trump voters--including rural ones--are loyal to Trump, even though some early decisions made by his administration are likely to hurt them.  The first of these stories, out of far northern California, was published in The Guardian and written by Dani Anguiano.  She reports from Shasta County, which has a recent history of right-wing activism and militias (read more here, here and here), and she quotes several residents.  Some excerpts follow: 

In March, about 150 people took to the streets in Redding, the Shasta county seat, to protest aggainst proposed cuts to the Department of Veterans Affairs. A month later more than 1,000 people in the area gathered to demonstrate against the administration’s policies.

Amid reports about possible reductions to Medicaid, the head of the area’s largest healthcare provider warned such action could have “crippling” impacts in a county where the local Medicaid provider serves nearly a third of the population. A bipartisan group of state lawmakers, including the region’s Republican representatives, signed a letter in late April urging Congress to protect Head Start, the federally funded education program.

 * * *

Bruce Ross, a Shasta county Republican, acknowledged the difficulties of seeing layoffs, but said he had been pleased with the direction of the administration.

“Everybody who lives up in north-eastern California knows folks who work for the Forest Service, or for federal agencies, and it’s tough for them. I think on a human level, that’s real,” Ross said. But, he added, he had seen a willingness on the part of the administration to listen when local officials have pushed back against proposed cuts, and the practical changes had ultimately, so far, been less severe than they initially seemed.

“There’s been a lot of drama about it. But I think the actual results have shown that the administration is listening to people and saying, OK, this is important. We’re gonna take it back.”

Congressman Doug LaMalfa, a Republican and staunch Trump supporter who represents a large swath of northern California’s interior, has acknowledged that some of his constituents, and Republicans broadly, are concerned, but echoed Ross’s sentiments. “But they’re listening to us. I got in a room with Elon [Musk] and his right-hand man. They’re understanding us now, and they’re going to look at it more through that lens, and they’ll certainly listen to us,’ he told the Chico Enterprise-Record in March.

More high profile than The Guardian story is sociologist Arlie Hochschild's piece in the New York Times a few days ago.  Her most recent book, Stolen Pride: Loss, Shame and the Rise of the Right, is set in Pikeville, Kentucky and the state's 5th congressional district, one of the poorest in the nation.  She spent several years living there off and on, getting to know folks, and that formed the basis of the 2024 book (just as several years of living in the Lake Charles, Louisiana area formed the basis for her 2106 Strangers in Their Own Land).  Now, Hochschild has gone back to Kentucky's 5th congressional district to talk to people about how they feel about the early days of the Trump administration.  Here's Hochschild's summation of how Trump's policies are likely to impact the region:  

[E]xperts predict Mr. Trump’s tariffs will raise prices, and his budget cuts will hit some of his strongest supporters the hardest. Meals on Wheels: cuts. Heating cost assistance: cuts. Black lung screening: cuts. One nearby office handling Social Security has closed. Even the Department of Veterans Affairs may have to pull back on the services it offers.

These are services people need. More than 40 percent of people in the Fifth District rely on Medicaid for their medical care, including addiction treatment. Now, Mr. Trump’s “big beautiful bill” is poised to cut benefits, which could lead to layoffs in the largest employer in eastern Kentucky, the Pikeville Medical Center. Meanwhile, many children in the district qualify for food stamps, and the administration’s chain saw is coming for those, too.

Hochschild found that some residents of the region seemed more committed to Mr. Trump than they had been before. Here are some key quotes:

Mr. Trump’s angry tone didn’t seem to bother his supporters in the district. Calling his opponents scum? “Oh, that’s how Trump talks. People know how he talks, and they voted for him. I wouldn’t talk that way and don’t like it, but I’m glad I voted for him,” said Andrew Scott, a Trump supporter and mayor of Coal Run Village, a town of around 1,600 nestled next to Pikeville.

As for the likely cuts to Medicaid, SNAP and Meals on Wheels, Mr. Scott mused, “You know how proud and stoic Appalachians are — we know how to take a little pain. People,” he explained, “may have to suffer now to help make America great later. Trump’s tariffs could raise prices but that will force companies to gradually relocate to the U.S.”

Many of the people I spoke to recognized that this bill would create some pain for them or their neighbors, but that didn’t seem to bother them. One Trump supporter told me that if you like the guy who’s making you suffer, you don’t mind so much. As Mr. Trump himself has put it, America is akin to a sick patient, and the tariffs are the surgery — “The patient lived, and is healing.”

This is consistent with something I've been saying since at least 2000:  Stubbornness is a real force to be reckoned with among many Trump voters (those we might label MAGA) and--for that matter--with some on the left, too. I think that progressives need to be willing to re-think our positions on some issues, especially in light of new information.  As one of my very progressive friends put it, we all need to be able to identify one issue on which we differ from the "progressive blob."   Of course I would say ditto for conservatives and the conservative blob.  

Also important is how progressives talk to Trump supporters, especially about things that may not go well for them.  I very much appreciated a quote Hochschild included in her NYT piece.  It's from an addiction counselor who is not a Trump supporter:

If people in Pike County or elsewhere get socked with higher prices, there might come a tipping point. But what happens then would hinge on how Democrats handle it, what better ideas they have to offer, their tone of voice. If the left starts scolding, "You Trump supporters brought this on yourselves," or "We told you so," people around here will get more pissed at the snarky left than they are at the hurtful right — and Trump will march on.

These possible reactions by the left are just what I documented in my "Rural Bashing," in which I also argued that "I told you so" is a very, very unhelpful response.   

In any event, these two stories remind me of a conversation I had with a Trump supporter in my hometown this spring.  I asked this person how the local school, which educates many children from low-income families, would get by without the Title I funding that flows from the Department of Education,  given that Trump was abolishing the Department.  She replied, "oh, he'll find a way to get us that money.  We can't survive without it."  As much as I oppose most Trump policies--certainly including abolition of the Department of Education, I hope she is right--that they will somehow get the funds they need--because I care so much about that school and that community.  

I also want to acknowledge that these stories and my anecdote run counter to the data in an early May story in Newsweek suggesting that Trump was losing support among rural voters.  Here's the key data from that story:

The 2024 election saw Trump win 63 percent of rural voters, up from 60 percent in 2020, according to AP VoteCast.

But a new PBS/NPR/Marist poll, conducted between April 21 and 23 among 1,439 adults, shows that Trump's support among rural voters is declining.

According to the poll, just 46 percent of rural voters now approve of Trump's job performance, while 45 percent disapprove. In February, 59 percent approved and 37 percent disapproved.

Trump's approval rating has also declined slightly among urban, small city, and suburban voters. Among big city voters, his approval has dropped from 42 percent to 40 percent. Among small city voters, his approval has dropped from 42 percent to 36 percent.

Meanwhile, among suburban voters, his approval rating has declined by 1 point to 40 percent. The only group that Trump has seen a rise in support from is small town voters, with 53 percent now approving of his job performance, up from 46 percent in February. The poll had a margin of error of ±3.3 percentage points.

Rural sociologist Tim Slack of Louisiana State University in Baton Rouge provided context on the cuts, including this:  

Poverty is higher in rural America. Underemployment is higher and labor force participation is lower among rural working-age folks. There is a wide and growing rural-urban gap in death rates among working-age people—part of the rural mortality penalty. So, the struggles are pronounced. 

Another rural institution certain to be hurt by Trump administration cuts: public libraries

Children's Section of Rio Vista Library, Solano County California
(c)Lisa R. Pruitt 2024

The likely disproportionate harm Trump administration policies and budget cuts will have on rural America has been a theme of several recent posts on the blog.  In this one, I'm going go to leverage a story by Emily Hays of Illinois Public Radio, who reported on the topic a few days ago from Greenup, population 1,365 in central Illinois.  The excerpt that follows provides insights into why rural libraries are so vulnerable and it echoes a theme from other stories about rural vulnerability: because of weak local tax bases, small towns and nonmetro counties are less able to absorb the loss of federal funds that have helped to provide all sorts of services.  

Take and Make Kits at the Newton County (AR) Library
(c) Lisa R. Pruitt 2025 

I'm also using this post to share some photos of rural libraries that I've taken in the past few years, some from my home county, Newton County, Arkansas, and some from California towns.  What I've seen in my hometown library, where I've spent more time recently, is that these institutions provide a wide range of services, from a seed bank to lending telescopes to craft bags for kids.  They host legal aid attorneys coming to chat about elder law and other issues residents may need to know about.  Sadly, to my mind, they may also mindlessly distribute The Epoch Times and other right-wing propaganda.  

(c) Lisa R. Pruitt 2025

The following excerpt from journalist Hayes story features her in conversation with Vickie Pierce, the retired English teacher working part time as the circulation clerk in what is described as one large room: 

Telescopes on loan at
Newton County Library, AR
(c) Lisa R. Pruitt 2025

PIERCE: We're a small-town library, so really small budget. And honestly, I'm not sure how we manage to stay open.

Reading room, Coleville Library,
Mono County, CA
(c)Lisa R. Pruitt 2024

HAYES: Part of how they stay open is through grants from the independent federal agency the Institute of Museum and Library Services. Before the pandemic, the federal government covered around 5% of Greenup library's operating costs. Kate McDowell is a professor at the University of Illinois School of Information Sciences. She says the IMLS is a very small agency...

KATE MCDOWELL: That has impacts on almost every community in the whole of the United States and territories.

HAYES: Public libraries get most of their funding from county and city taxes. IMLS distributes the majority of federal library funds. McDowell says the grants vary year to year and are often small, but they help libraries try new things.

MCDOWELL: What the IMLS funds is not just the subsistence of libraries, although that's there too - it's their future.

Mammoth Lakes Library,

 HAYES: IMLS gave out $267 million last year to libraries and museums. That's 3,000th of a percent of federal spending. But the future of that funding is in doubt. In March, almost all of the IMLS staff were put on administrative leave. In an executive order, President Trump claimed the move would reduce unnecessary bureaucracy. Greenup isn't expecting any federal money this year, and Pierce says the library is financially cautious.

PIERCE: We squeeze every penny three or four or five times to get the most out of it.

HAYES: And Pierce says the idea of taking more money away from libraries sickens her. The American Library Association says that's been happening nationwide to libraries and museums receiving IMLS grants.

Seed saving chart and seed library
Newton County (AR) Library 
(c) Lisa R. Pruitt 2025

* * *

[A] judge has temporarily blocked the Trump administration from dismantling the Institute of Museum and Library Services. Congress has funded the department through September. For now, Greenup Library says it's still providing the same services, but that could change for it and other rural libraries.

Prior posts about rural libraries are here.  I want to specifically highlight this 2013 NPR feature on a rural Missouri library.  Here's one from 2008 about a library in a barn in New England.  This 2017 post is about Douglas County, Oregon's decision not to keep open a single library.   And a dispute about how much to pay the librarian in this Arkansas county was the basis for political ponderings in this lengthy op-ed in the New York Times in 2019.

Libraries are important sources of WiFi,
as illustrated by this sign 
at the Newton County (AR) Library
(c) Lisa R. Pruitt 2025

As traditional media collapse, "The Epoch Times" gains a following in rural America

The newspaper racks at the Newton County (Arkansas) Library
are full of issues of The Epoch Times, along with News China 
(c) Lisa R. Pruitt 2025.

The New York Times journalist Eli Tan reported last week from Oakdale, California (population 23,181), on the evolution of that community's media ecosystem.  The headline for Tan's story focuses on events from 2020, "It was Just a Rumor on Facebook.  Then a Militia Showed Up" but the story is about the longer-term disintegration of local media, both before and after that 2020 event.  It's a story of how the local media dried up, leaving residents reliant on local Facebook groups, eventually supplemented by The Epoch Times, a publication of Falun Gong, a group associated with right-wing views and its opposition to the Chinese government. I want to focus on that part of the story because it relates to something I observed first-hand in my home county this year.  First, I'll share a bit more background on Oakdale, which is in Stanislaus County, in California's Central Valley:   

First the nearby newspapers shrank, and hundreds of local reporters in the region became handfuls. Then came the presidential elections of 2016 and 2020, and the pandemic; suddenly cable networks long deemed trustworthy were peddlers of fake news, on the right and the left.

By the 2024 election, when its county, Stanislaus, was among the 10 in California that President Trump flipped red, it wasn’t just trust in traditional media that had vanished from Oakdale — it was the media itself.

Now, in place of longtime TV pundits and radio hosts, residents turn to a new sphere of podcasters and online influencers to get their political news. Facebook groups for local events run by residents have replaced the role of local newspapers, elevating the county’s “keyboard warriors” to roles akin to editors in chief.

Many issues of News China magazine
were also on display in the 
Newton County Library

Of the 80 Oakdale residents The New York Times spoke to for this article, not a single one subscribed to a regional news site, The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal or The Washington Post.

Oakdale is not alone: Between news deserts expanding in rural areas and a growing distrust of national outlets, the town’s shift toward new sources of information is becoming commonplace in small communities across the country. 

Here is more coverage of the rural news desert phenomenon. 

As local news outlets shrank throughout the Central Valley in the 2010s, Facebook groups dedicated to local events started popping up in their place. 

* * *  

The town is still able to support a weekly newspaper called The Oakdale Leader, which shares a handful of reporters with nine other local newspapers in the Central Valley, all owned by Hank Vander Veen, its publisher and a former circulation director at the Modesto Bee.

* * *

It isn’t just local news habits that are changing in Oakdale. Since the pandemic, a wider skepticism for everything including vaccines and the price of eggs has changed the way people approach information in general: The thinking is, do your own research, and trust neither side.

Newton County Library, Feb. 2025
(c) Lisa R. Pruitt 2025

Here is another post about misinformation influencing politics in rural communities.  Tan's story in the NYT continues:

Alternative news in Oakdale has even extended into print. In barber shops, clock repair stores and diners across town, copies of a peculiar newspaper appear on tables and bookshelves: The Epoch Times.

The media outlet is affiliated with the Chinese spiritual movement Falun Gong, and it is known to include right-wing misinformation with an anti-China slant. (The outlet did not respond to a request for comment.) A weekly print subscription costs less than $15 a year, but most store owners in Oakdale said they didn’t initially pay for a subscription — the editions just started showing up in the mail during the pandemic.

This brought to mind what I saw in the Newton County (Arkansas) Library (in my hometown) when I visited in February, 2025:  the newspaper rack was dominated by just two publications, The Epoch Times and the local(ish) Harrison Daily Times, from neighboring Boone County.  Oddly, there was no copy of the local weekly, The Newton County Times, on display.  (It is owned by the same company that owns the Harrison Daily Times and currently operates out of the same office in Boone County--that is, The Newton County Times has no physical presence in Newton County except when the reporter comes over from Harrison, Boone County's seat, to cover events like local government meetings).  

I was back in Newton County in early April and again popped into the library.  Nothing had changed in terms of what was on display--well, the issues of The Epoch Times and The Harrison Daily Times were more recent because it was April and no longer February.  On this latter visit, the librarian was present, and so I asked her about the prominence of The Epoch Times--and why she carried it at all.  She said that a patron had requested it.  My facial response was skeptical, perhaps even as strong as an eye roll.  Though what I was really judging was her decision to display this propaganda so prominently, especially when there was so little counter-balance of real news.  Not a copy of the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette, let alone any national newspaper, in sight.    

Now, however, that I've read this New York Times story, I'm skeptical in a different way about what the librarian told me.  I suggest The Epoch Times is being sent to lots of local libraries, and those without much else--and those who don't see how biased it is--simply display it.  After all, they have plenty of room, and it's no tax at all on their budgets.   

It seems this is an important bit of information toward understanding the media ecosystem that has led to a right-ward shift in the rural vote. 

It also reminds me of some billboards for The Epoch Times I saw on California's I-80 in the last year.  Those billboards proclaimed The Epoch Times the most trusted news source in America, a claim that made me very skeptical.   Here's a story about those billboards and how they showed up in Tampa, Florida. from Axios. 

Rural schools in Texas, Arkansas and elsewhere threatened by vouchers that divert tax dollars to private schools

Jasper School District Truck, Jasper, Arkansas, February 2025
The Jasper District includes schools in Kingston (neighboring Madison County)
and Oark (neighboring Johnson County).  
(c) Lisa R. Pruitt 2025

The Texas House of Representatives voted this week to create "one of the largest taxpayer-funded school voucher programs," which the New York Times characterized as "a hard-fought victory for private school choice activists as they turn their attention to a nationwide voucher push."

I and students in the Law and Rural Livelihoods course have previously written a number of blog posts here about this issue in the context of Texas and other states, with particular concern for the consequences for rural schools. Those concerns were also called out this week by Dallas-area Democratic Representative Chris Turner, who commented that the measure “will harm students with disabilities. It will harm rural students.”  He also expressed concern that it will effectively "resegregate education."  

The New York Times provides this further context on this week's vote, including attention to the rural angle: 

[S]ome Democrats argued that what they called a “voucher scam” was a giveaway to parents who have already opted out of public education.

* * * 

Vouchers have been a priority for [Governor Greg] Abbott for several years. But strong resistance from Democrats and some rural Republicans in the Texas House — who feared the program would undercut their local schools — prevented it from becoming law.

* * * 

There has often been resistance to private school vouchers in conservative rural regions, where few private schools exist and public school districts are sometimes a county’s largest employer.

That dynamic was further documented in the Texas Monthly story that is the focus of this mid-2023 post.  The NY Times coverage of events in Texas this week continues:   

But the growth of alternative models for education has convinced some policymakers that rural students will have more options than they would have in the past. Those models include for-profit virtual schools and microschools, which are often run by a single educator working out of a home or a rented space.

Meanwhile, in Texas' neighbor to the northeast, Arkansas-Democrat Gazette columnist Rex Nelson has written a few pieces on that state's voucher scheme, part of the LEARNS Act that Governor Sarah Huckabee Sanders signed into law in 2023.  In a March 23, 2025 column titled "An Education Debacle," Nelson begins by couching what is at stake for rural schools in terms of rural population loss and the collapse of communities associated with the loss of a local school.  He leads with the illustration of Lake View, in Phillips County, in the Mississippi Delta region.  Nelson observes that the town's population dropped from 609 in the 1980 census to 327 in 2020, a rate of loss faster than most places in the nation.  He also points out that Lake View is one of just a few incorporated cities in Arkansas where the population is more than 90% Black.   

But Nelson leads with Lake View for a reason in addition to its population loss.  He writes: 

Lake View became a household term in Arkansas as a case named Lake View School District No. 25 v. Huckabee wound its way through the courts. When the Arkansas Supreme Court ruled in November 2002 that the state's system of funding public education was unconstitutional, it in essence said this: The child who lives at Lake View deserves the same educational opportunities as a child living in Bentonville.

Nelson names Bentonville, in particular, because it is one of the wealthiest communities in the state.  It has become affluent not least because it is the home of Walmart and one of the richest families in the nation, the Waltons. 

Eventually, Nelson uses his column to dig into Governor Sanders.  This is an especially interesting turn since Nelson previously worked for her father, Mike Huckabee, when Hucakbee was the state's governor.  This column is such a straight-talking doozie that I'm going to indulge myself a long quote from it.  

In 2022, Arkansas voters elected a young political operative named Sarah Sanders governor. Sanders had achieved minor fame in the MAGA movement for serving as Donald Trump's press secretary and lying to the media on Trump's behalf. She raised money from MAGA cultists across the country... 

Though she remained far more interested in Washington politics than Arkansas public policy, Sanders took office in January 2023. Indebted to her out-of-state funders, she needed to produce what they would consider "wins." One such win would be a statewide school voucher program under which taxpayers would foot part of the bill for children attending private schools.

The bill was based on a template from out-of-state organizations. There was little input from teachers and administrators in Arkansas.

Until this year, bills promoting vouchers in Texas consistently were defeated by a coalition of urban Democrats and rural Republicans. Rural Republicans realized such a scheme would be devastating for their public school districts.

Sanders faced no such problem in a state where GOP legislators are scared of their own shadows. They fear those out-of-state MAGA adherents will fund primary opponents. They asked no questions and went along with the voucher plan, often against the advice of superintendents and teachers back home.

I waited two years before writing about the voucher scheme. I don't like knee-jerk reactions to calls for school reform. I've been a strong supporter of public charter schools. But after two years, the picture is becoming clear. A statewide voucher system doesn't improve outcomes in a poor rural state such as Arkansas. In fact, it's nothing short of a debacle.  (emphasis added)

It's also unconstitutional under the reasoning of the Lake View ruling. The state must give the same support to that child in Lake View as a child in Bentonville. In much of Arkansas, there are no close private schools that offer a good education.

A few days after this column appeared, the Democrat-Gazette published a story headlined, "Arkansas sees more than 33,000 students applying for next school year’s vouchers."  The lengthy story by Lena Miano leads with this further background and data breakdown: 

Created through the LEARNS Act of 2023, the Education Freedom Account program provides state funding for private and home school costs and was gradually rolled out over three years, with next fall marking the first time vouchers are available to all school-age children in the state.

The window, which opened on March 3 and closed Sunday, saw 23,357 students selecting private schools while the remaining 10,393 applicants indicated homeschooling as their choice for next school year,

The story uses the word "rural" only once, in this quote from Representative Jim Wooten of Beebe, who has proposed a bill requiring that private schools participating in the voucher program must comply with the same state laws and Arkansas Department of Education reporting requirements as public schools.  He states that he does not oppose private schools, but that "the voucher program is 'damaging, hurtful and harmful to public education,' particularly in smaller, rural parts of the state."

Then, on March 30, 2025, Nelson published, "Welfare for the rich," from which I drew this excerpt.  As you'll see Nelson ultimately returns to the matter with which he led in the prior week's column--the matter of rural decline: 

As one longtime educator told me: "You can pretty well paint the word 'Christian' on the side of a barn, call it a school and start collecting state money. It's troubling."

An Arkansas historian I know was even more frank, calling the voucher program "the greatest grift in the history of Arkansas, and that's saying something given the history of this state."

Rural Arkansans don't have the opportunity that my wife and I had because we happened to live in Arkansas' largest city. Either there are no private schools close, or the ones that are close don't shine academically.

That reminds me of this bit from the Miano story above, out of Ash Flat, Arkansas, population 1,109.  There, the voucher program has allowed The Underwood Branch Homeschool Cooperative "to provide personalized, special education services to dozens of homeschooled students this year."  I guess this is what the New York Times calls a "microschool" in its coverage, quoted above.  The Miano story in the Democrat-Gazette continues:  

The state's program has "really impacted us, just being able to let families afford to be able to do what we're doing -- and then also on the business end, we are able to provide it because without it, there's just no way that we could do it," [the founder] said, adding that the voucher program has gone toward building costs, tuition, therapy services and more her team offers.

The Ash Flat cooperative, which welcomed its first students this fall, now serves 45 students--35 of which are voucher program participants -- and has 90 K-12 grade students on a waitlist.

Tuition is $10,000 per year, with the vouchers covering just over $6,800 of that and financial aid options provided by the cooperative offered for families who can't afford to pay the remaining costs, Horton said.

The cooperative team expects to move from its current, temporary church building to its own permanent facility this May. The new building, made possible by a loan and increased enrollment, will house three classrooms, a main area, full kitchen and storage spaces along with a porch, playground, mud kitchen, nature trails and a myriad of animals -- horses, goats, sheep, chickens and pigs -- to meet students' outdoor needs.

Whether this Ash Flat institution is tantamount to a barn with "Christian" painted on the side, I cannot say, but it is interesting to have some details about how the voucher funds are being used in one rural community.  

Nelson's column continues: 

Funding the voucher scheme will cost the state more and more in the years ahead. That will come at the expense of public school funding. As one who travels through and writes about rural Arkansas, I worry. Rural schools won't have the funds they need to operate. Parents will move elsewhere. Enrollment numbers will fall to the point that those schools cease to exist. Once schools die, the communities around them will die.

Nelson notes that these concerns to preserve rural schools and communities are what have led Colorado, Kentucky, and Nebraska to reject similar schemes.   

With rural Texas lawmakers failing to hold the line against vouchers after a years-long struggle, this is an issue rural education advocates will surely continue to watch closely.  With Arkansas a few years ahead of its behemoth sister state to the southwest on the voucher path, the consequences of these programs on rural schools may be revealed in Arkansas before they are known in the Lone Star State. 

Postscript:  On April 24, 2025, the Arkansas Times published this commentary on the Arkansas voucher scheme.  Benjamin Hardy writes under the headline, "Texas joins Arkansas in the great Republican school voucher experiment."  He leads with news that the Texas Senate has now joined that state's lower chamber in support of the program: 

After years of resisting Texas Gov. Greg Abbott’s plans to create a universal school voucher program like those in Arkansas and other red states, rural Republican legislators in the Lone Star State finally caved.

On Thursday, the Texas Senate gave final passage to a bill that will devote $1 billion over the next two years to set up “education savings accounts” to pay for private school tuition and other expenses beginning in the 2026-27 school year.

Hardy also provides additional information about the implementation and cost of the program, in both Arkansas and Texas:  

Arkansas gradually phased its program in, perhaps so as to soften the gigantic blow to the state budget. LEARNS vouchers were available only to certain groups of students in the first two years.

In Year 3, the upcoming 2025-26 school year, the vouchers will be available to all students in Arkansas — and will cost the state a whopping $277 million. On a per capita basis, that’s way more than the $1 billion the Texas program is supposed to cost over the first biennium. But the price tag in Texas will certainly balloon: A fiscal statement estimated vouchers will cost the state $3.8 billion on net by 2030.

It's going to be interesting to see how these states' budgets will absorb these costs in coming years.  It will also be interesting to see the impact the schemes will have on rural schools' budgets--especially in an era when many expect Title I funding to dwindle under the Trump administration.   

When will women in rural Missouri have true abortion access?

On November 5, 2024, as much of the country watched Donald Trump regain the presidency, abortion advocates in Missouri celebrated. Amendment 3, a ballot proposition to repeal Missouri's total abortion ban, had passed. Missouri was one of seven states that enacted amendments to protect abortion rights on November 5. And in a state that Donald Trump won by over 18 points, voters had somehow simultaneously restored the right to abortion by a narrow margin of 52 to 48 percent. For abortion advocates, passing Amendment 3 was a hard-fought but undeniable victory. 

Then, the question became: "What's next?"

For rural Missourians, the answer is complicated. Over the past few decades, Missouri has severely limited abortion access. Hit hardest were women in rural communities. For years, there were only three abortion clinics in Missouri, which has a population of over 6 million. By 2017, a Planned Parenthood in St. Louis was the only place in the entire state you could get a medical abortion. And in 2022, Missouri passed the "Right to Life of the Unborn Child Act," a trigger ban that months later became the first in the nation to go into effect when Dobbs v. Jackson overturned the constitutional right to an abortion. 

This was the landscape framing desperate efforts to restore medical access to abortion in Missouri. But celebrations fell quiet in weeks after the election as anti-abortion advocates began to respond. Elected officials in Missouri pledged to "vigorously defend" abortion bans in the state. On January 16, 2025, U.S. Senator Josh Hawley (R-MO) introduced federal legislation to defund Planned Parenthood. I felt my own stomach churn when my little sister, a veterinary student at the University of Missouri, texted me: "I'm getting anxious. About living [here]." 

One-third of Missourians live in rural areas. But even those in urban counties have felt the effects of the decades-long effort to restrict access to abortion. Columbia, Missouri, where my sister lives, has a population of 130,000. But it's over a two hour drive to St. Louis, where the sole abortion provider in Missouri is located. Rural Ozark County ⁠— which has a 29.6 percent poverty rate, the highest in the state — is a four hour drive from St. Louis. Not to mention travel costs, medical expenses, and scraping together time off work — all challenges exacerbated by rurality.

While Amendment 3 granted abortion access until the point of fetal viability, the St. Louis Planned Parenthood cannot legally resume providing abortions. This is, in part, due to a December ruling by Jackson County Judge Jerri Zhang which upheld licensure requirements for abortion clinics — meaning that though Missourians have a renewed right to abortion, there is no place for them to obtain one. This leaves rural women in Missouri vulnerable, particularly those in the southern half, where the nearest abortion clinic might be several states away. 

However, progress was made: In the same opinion, Judge Zhang struck down other restrictive laws, including a 72-hour waiting period and a requirement that physicians who perform abortions have admitting privileges in all hospitals that provide obstetric or gynaecological care within "30 minutes or a 15-minute drive." Judge Zhang considered rural Missourians in the decision, writing that: 

[A] person who travels three hours to get a medication abortion and then returns home, would not benefit from [these restrictions]. If complications arise after taking the medication, the individual would need to seek emergency care at the nearest hospital emergency room, as with any other medical emergency.

Aside from the judiciary, what else can be done? In a state like Missouri, where only 28.9 percent of statewide legislators are women, many will turn to grassroots organizing. "What's Next?," an organization dedicated to improving abortion access in Missouri, has advocated for Know-Your-Rights Trainings and other local initiatives. In a 2024 study by the Kaiser Family Foundation, over 35 percent of rural women reported they wouldn't know where to go or where to find abortion information. This post by Rooney Debutts details other statewide legislative efforts to improve abortion access. 

One thing is clear: The fight for abortion access in rural Missouri is far from over. 

Arkansas newspaper columnist's 2025 wish list implicates ecotourism, local autonomy, and the future of my home town

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.  

Another Tim Walz profile, this one in the uber-urban LA Times

Hailey Branson-Potts of the Los Angeles Times reports on her recent trip to Tim Walz's two Nebraska home towns: Valentine (population 2,737) and Butte (population 326).  Here are some rural-focused excerpts: 

During the 2022 midterm elections, 69% of rural voters cast ballots for Republicans, compared with 29% supporting Democrats, according to the Pew Research Center. Among urban voters, 68% supported Democrats and 30% backed Republicans.

Randy Adkins, a political scientist at the University of Nebraska Omaha, said he does not see places like Nebraska suddenly going blue.

“What we’re seeing in the polls right now is there’s a little bit of movement toward Harris, but people made hard decisions and they made them a long time ago,” he said.

Still, there is palpable excitement among rural Democratic organizers, who say they have long been overlooked by their national party.

Jane Kleeb, chair of the Nebraska Democratic Party, said in an email that Harris “has absolutely expanded the map beyond swing states with Tim Walz” and that “we do not have to hand him a briefing book on rural issues, because he has lived our experiences.”

Among Democrats’ many identity-based Zoom fundraising calls that have raised millions — including “White Dudes for Harris” — was an event last week called “Rural Folks for Harris.” It drew about 6,000 listeners across 48 states and raised $22,000.

In Valentine, there were no visible yard signs for Harris or Trump this week. At the Cherry County Rodeo, people donned cowboy hats, not MAGA caps.

The story appeared on the front page of the paper, above the fold, on Friday, August 16, 2024.  

Rallying to keep post office closure brought community group together

The headline in my hometown newspaper, The Newton County Times, a few months ago was "Mt. Judea Alliance mission:  Advocate for community and rural way of life."  It's a feel-good story about a group in my home county, but no where does the story use the word rural or otherwise suggest precisely what is distinctly rural about what the community group is doing or protecting.  

Here's the story, for which there is no link on the newspaper's website: 

The Mt. Judea Area Allieance never does anything political nor takes a position on issues.  "Except that's how we started," laughed Beth Ardapple, of the Cave Creek community. 

Ardapple is a member of the Alliance and she spoke about the organization during the April 25 meeting of Community Matters, a coalition of non-profit organizations serving the residents of Newton County.  The meeting was held at the Jasper First Baptist Church.  Each month a member organization is asked to present itself to the group. 

The Mt. Judea Area Alliance originally formed in 2011 when community residents joined together to successfully fight the U.S. Postal SErvice's plan to close rural post offices including the one at Mr. Judea.  Ardapple said she delved into the history of the organization and found documentation noting that residents had written and sent 192 letters to a postal manager asking that ht epost office be spared.  It worked.  

It was a positive experience and community members continued to meet and address issue of local relevance and importance.  It came up with a mission to be an advocate of the community and the rual way of life.  Early leaders included the late Donna Dodson and teh late Sharon Pierce. Anita Hudson, Ima Jean Freeman, Bertie Wells and Ardapple continue to be the core group.  It has about ten active members today. 

Projects have involved community beautification, a mini senior center, street music and dancing, back to school breakfasts for teachers and staff, summer learning camps, participation in the Arkansas Quilt Trail and helps offer community service hours to area students. 

The most successful project was the initiation in the county of the Dolly Parton Imagination Library.  Wells, a former school librarian, took it on as personal project. 

It grew and was adopted into the programs offered through the Newton County Library.  Library Director Kenya Windel reported later in the meeting that Newton County was recently recognized by the state organization for the county's volume of memberships.  About 90% of Newton County children are enrolled. 

"That was a one-woman show," said Ardapple.  She was determined that all children aged birth through 5 could get a free book every month from the Dolly Parton Imagination Library.  

"That's kind of the way we work.  If somebody has something they are interested in doing, everybody says that's fine and if they want to join us, they join in."

Current projects are the annual Heritage Days held at the Mt. Judea School and the annual community yard sale also on the school grounds.  This year's yard sale is scheduled for Saturday, May 4.

The only time these events were suspended was during the pandemic.

The group maintains a blessing box at the Mercantile.  There is also a little free library in the old post office building. 

The Alliance also provide some amenities for the visitors who came to Mt. Judea to watch the April 8 solar eclipse.  

Members have also recently taken on the restoration of the Sam Davis Cemetery.  Davis is the historical figure behind Sam's Throne the local geological and historic landmark just outside Mt. Judea.  

What school choice looks like in rural Arkansas: Tiny district turns to YouTube and Facebook ads to attract students

School choice is a topic I've been interested in for some time, certainly since school consolidation was mandated in Arkansas in the early aughts.  I wrote about it here in 2012.  During a recent visit to Arkansas for the April eclipse, I saw the electronic billboards at schools in Cotter and Bee Branch touting their schools in that context--that is, they were recruiting students. As I observed back in 2012, I find this curious given that rural students typically already must travel inconvenient distances to get to the nearest school, so it's always struck me as unlikely that students (and their parents) would choose to travel greater distances to a neighboring school district.  

More recently, "school choice" is back in the news because of the proliferation of voucher programs that permit parents to use public tax money to send their children to private schools, including religious ones.  The Washington Post ran a big feature on the topic a few days ago.

Now, I see in my hometown Newton County Times (May 8, 2024 issue; no link is available on the newspaper's website) that the tiny Deer/Mt. Judea School District there is engaged in an advertisement streaming campaign to reach prospective students who might choose the school.  Deer/Mt Judea is perennially on the verge of closure due to falling below the enrollment threshold.  (That was the topic of this 2011 post) The school board engaged A4 Advertising, a "national advertising and data company that provides audience-based multiscreen advertising solutions."  The company is targeting only households with children aged 4 to 18.  The ad executive, Tonda Mixon, proposed sending ads about the school's "latest curriculum of drone technology, cave exploration and study as well as its more established distance learning program to designated households within a 50-mile radius of the school district."  

At the April 25 board meeting, the board got data about the 15-second and 30-second commericals that have been running on YouTube.  The ads have been streamed 48,000 times, and the VCR (Video Completion Rate is 96% and 97%). The ads are not skippable, which lends to a higher VCR rate, though viewers could still click away from the website when they see the ad come up.  Most of the advertisements are being viewed on television sets rahte rhtan on computers and tablets, Mixon reported.  

The superintendent said the school is now looking at doing "some Facebook advertising and boosting to generate about 27,000 additional views."  The board will decide over the next few months how hard it wants to push the different ads.  The school board president said he expects to see the fruits of the advertising effort in six to eight months.  The story reports that "Patrons of the school district voiced their concerns that the school board wasn't doing enough to promote the schools and raise the district's enrollment numbers." 

The story explains that the "drone technology and caving programs were recently added to the district's curriculum based on student interest.  The school district pioneered digital learning prior to the COVID-19 pandemic when schools suddenly had to initiate distance learning programs for their stay-at-home students.  That reduced the number of students enrolled in Deer-Mt. Judea's program.  However, schools have begun to abandon distance learning in favor of returning to tradition in-person teaching.  The school district's digital program has rebounded and recently the program's director said all of the existing student slots were full."  

In other business, the school board authorized the purchase of 300 Chromebooks for $96,528, which will come from federal funds.  Currently, the school has "stacks of expired units," an apparent reference to the fact they "can be updated only so often."  It was reported that two or three of the Chromebooks are turned in each day for repair.  After gathering three bids for the purchase, the school negotiated to get the devices for less than $300/each. 

In other front page news from the May 8, 2024 issue were these headlines: 

• Senate approves new regulations for crypto mining (republishing a press release from the Arkansas Senate)
• Administrative office of the Courts delivers naloxone kits (several employees of the administrative office of the court, a circuit judge, and drug court personnel are pictured with the story)
• Despite bad weather Career and Info Fair reigns in Bradley Park.   An accompanying photos features two employees of the Newton County Sheriff's Office, the jail administrator and a deputy.  a jailer position is currently open.  Health insurance benefits are included.  
• Waterfall tour May 11.  This Spring Waterfall Chasing Back Road Tour is sponsored by Jasper Advertising and Promotion Commission, and the cost is $50/vehicle. 

History repeats itself on Arkansas' Buffalo River

I grew up on chatter about the Buffalo National River, the nation's first national river, which was designated in 1972.  I grew up on that chatter because I grew up five miles from the river, in Newton County, Arkansas, home of the river's headwaters.  

My parents talked in my early childhood about their friends--the parents of my friends--whose land was condemned by eminent domain to become part of the park's land, owned and controlled by the federal government.  

While I was still a tween and teen, I saw the establishment of canoe rental enterprises in Jasper and surrounding communities, businesses that had been granted concessions by the National Park Service.  The county attracted growing numbers of tourists as it was remade into a regional ecotourism destination.  (Read more about that here and here; this is just some of my coverage of an industrial hog farm that threatened the river for several years starting in 2013). By the time I was in college and law school at the University of Arkansas (Fayetteville), 80 miles to the west, I had become a tourist on the river myself, consuming (in a sense) the very rurality in which I'd grown up, the very wilderness I'd taken for granted.  (See more photos of Newton County, including the county seat, Jasper, here and here).  

Decades on, I saw the proliferation of vacation rentals--even buildings like a beauty salon in Jasper converted to an AirBnB.  Though I've not seen any news reporting or data on the topic, folks in Jasper have told me that the widespread conversion of buildings to short-term rentals has resulted in a housing shortage.  Of course, that's happening in lots of rural communities, and urban ones, too.

In the past few weeks, the Buffalo has suddenly burst back into the news, once again in relation to its status as a national river.  The reason:  two grandsons of Sam Walton, the legendary founder of Walmart Corporation, have been working behind the scenes--apparently in cahoots with Governor Sarah Huckabee Sanders and U.S. Congressman Bruce Westerman--to get the river re-designated from a National River to a National Park Preserve.  

I first saw this news on the front page of the Arkansas Democrat Gazette on October 7, but it didn't seem to break through the standard media humdrum until KUAF, the NPR station associated with the University of Arkansas, two counties over ran this program on Oct. 16.  After that segment, things started popping on social media, and the next thing I knew, I was seeing reports on X (formerly known as Twitter) of a town hall held in my hometown on Thursday, Oct. 26.  Though only about 550 folks live in Jasper, twice that many reportedly showed up at the Jasper School cafeteria, which photos show at overflow capacity.  Another couple thousand folks were said to have attended the meeting on Zoom.  

Meanwhile, the Madison County Record, a weekly newspaper in neighboring Madison County, which lies to the west, between Washington County (where the land grant University of Arkansas is) and Newton County, has been credited with breaking the story of the proposed  re-designation of the Buffalo River.

Historic building in Kingston, Arkansas, just off the square.
(c) Lisa R. Pruitt 2023

That is, apparently it was the Madison County Record that first reported that the Walton Family was buying up land in Madison County with an eye to its long-term appreciation if the Buffalo National River becomes a bigger deal. I can't find that coverage online, but here's more from the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette on Walton land purchases in Madison County, including a building on the Kingston town square bought under an alias with a Nebraska address in December, 2021.  The Waltons, via the spokesperson for their Runway Group, have issued this statement about the Kingston property: 

Kingston Community Library
(c) Lisa R. Pruitt 2023

As part of a restoration effort, members of the Walton family acquired three historic buildings on the square in downtown Kingston, intending to update them and open their doors to the community. While we don’t yet have a timeline for the opening, we will share more when we do.

Though Kingston is in Madison County, its school is part of the Jasper School District. You can see a photo of downtown Kingston here.  (And there is a darling, tiny and well-cared-for library on the town square in a squat wooden building that presumably has not been purchased by the Waltons, but lies amidst the three they now own).

Of note is that the Madison County Record has made free its coverage of the Buffalo River re-designation, including this about the community meeting in Jasper on October 26.  What follows is from publisher Ellen Kreth's reporting: 

After a town hall meeting last Thursday, proponents of turning public land around the Buffalo National River into a national park preserve said they would step back from the idea. The following day, a website touting the benefits of re-designating the land was taken down.

But opponents of the idea are not backing down and don’t trust that efforts to re-designate the land are no longer ongoing.

Misty Langdon, owner of Steel Creek Cabins, who organized the town hall meeting, said proponents have poured too much time, resources and money “into this project that seems to be linked to Bryan Sanders [Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders’ husband],” to just walk away.

In July 2022, the Runway Group approached U.S. Rep. Bruce Westerman, R-Ark., who represents Arkansas’ 4th Congressional District and chairs the Natural Resources Committee, with the idea of making public land around the river a national park preserve.

Grandsons of Walmart founder Sam Walton and co-founders of the Runway Group, Steuart and Tom Walton are investors in real estate, outdoor initiatives, conservation, recreation, hospitality and businesses in Northwest Arkansas.

* * *

The Runway Group also has been linked with working with the governor’s office and the First Gentleman on the possibility of re-designating public lands.

Last Friday, Runway Group’s Vice President of Corporate and Community Affairs Krista Cupp said the group watched the town hall meeting. She reiterated they are not going forward with any proposal for re-designation. There are “no next steps,” she said.

“We wanted to explore a new idea for our home state together. However, this is not our decision to make. There is no new action being taken,” a statement issued earlier by the Runway Group said.

Cupp said when the group approached Westerman, it didn’t present a proposal to re-designate the land but simply asked if the idea was worth exploring.

Kingston Community Library 

Two Westerman staff members attended the town hall in Jasper, and his office issued a statement including this: 

Although it is in the purview of the House Natural Resources Committee to advance legislation to designate National Parks, I’ve made it clear I would not support any proposition that does not have grass roots support from those that live, work, and raise their families in the Buffalo River watershed.

As the Representative for Arkansas’s Fourth Congressional District, my first priority is advocating on behalf of my constituents. I will continue to listen to the thoughts and concerns of Arkansans that would be impacted by any change in designation. 

Westerman said he had no plan to write or introduce any legislation that would re-designate the land. 

While the Madison County Record story says the meeting was convened by Misty Langdon of Steel Creek Cabins, another report says it was convened by a non-profit that appears focused on preserving the area's history, the Remnant Group.  

Here's part of a column by Jared Phillips, a Washington County farmer who teaches at the University of Arkansas, writing about what's at stake with the proposed re-designation. 

This push by the heirs of Sam Walton to take control of Arkansas’s resources nakedly shows their true aim: control, not philanthropy. The news surrounding the proposal to change the designation of the Buffalo National River, alongside the reported purchase of Horseshoe Canyon, continued land grabs along the Kings River and more amount to only one thing: the wealthiest in the region are pushing the rest of us out. Removal by way of development and recreation is still removal.

The thing is, claims that this development will ease poverty and boost economic vitality in rural areas is suspect at best. Across the nation, developing rural outdoor recreation areas doesn’t produce a meaningful decline in poverty rates at a county level. In fact, in many cases — and Newton County is one — when poverty rates go down in these areas, it has less to do with a wage increase or better opportunity. Economic indicators look better simply because poor folk can’t afford to stay in their place any longer and must leave. That’s why we’ve seen both a drop in poverty in Newton County and a drop in population. The claim that this sort of transition brings about wholly positive things is, on its face, untrue.

The current conversation about the Buffalo isn’t actually about the river. Bike trails, art parks, high-brow museum expansions — it’s not really about that. It’s about the future of the Ozarks. All of us, old stock and new, need to ask ourselves if we are truly represented in the decision making that is shaping — often literally — the next generation’s hills.

And if we’re honest, the only answer is that we’re not. If we truly were, we’d see regional efforts to push the wealthiest and the powerful to put their money where their mouth is. We would see meaningful, long-term action to effectively address economic injustice and food security in the region. To address worker safety. To thoughtfully and wisely engage in land planning that preserves working, welcoming landscapes instead of putting fences around elite, enclosed playgrounds built on the bones of our grandparents.

Instead, what we have is an idle class dictating the region’s future according to their own wishes.

A 2021 column by Phillips and published in the Democrat-Gazette echoed some similar themes and challenged the notion that a rising tide lifts all boats.  Read it here.  

Then, yesterday, Arkansas Democrat-Gazette columnist Rex Nelson wrote in favor of the proposed National Park Preserve, offering a perspective that runs squarely counter to that of Phillips. The headline, "Loving it to death," is a reference to tourists loving the Buffalo River so much that they come in such great numbers that the current infrastrcture, e.g., parking lots, toilets, is overwhelmed.  Interestingly, Nelson vouches for the Walton brothers--declaring their motives "pure."    

In addition to their distrust of government, those who live in these hills distrust outsiders. They’re concerned by the large amounts of land being bought by entities associated with brothers Tom and Steuart Walton of Bentonville. I know the Walton brothers, and I want to make one thing clear: Their motives are pure. They realize that our state’s ability to attract and keep talented people in the decades ahead will rest in part on our protecting and enhancing outdoor recreational attributes.

The Walton brothers could live anywhere in the world and do anything they want. But their focus these days is on enhancing quality of life in Arkansas. Other states should be so lucky. Their involvement in the Coalition for Buffalo River National Park Preserve doesn’t worry me. It gives me hope that this effort will succeed.

Here's a competing column from Mike Masterson arguing that the river should be left as it is.  And here's a column from John Brummet, political columnist writing for the Democrat-Gazette, "Selling the state down the river?"  Brummet, too, is skeptical of the wisdom of a re-designation and of the motives of Governor Sanders and the Walton brothers.  

Here's a post on how to bring oldtimers and newcomers together in places like Newton County.  And here's a post, in the context of an industrial hog farm controversy a decade ago about how the interests of folks in Fayetteville and the wider northwest Arkansas region are often seen as being at odds with those of the rural, Newton County locals.  And that reminds me:  I've not seen anyone talking about how many of the folks who showed up at the Oct. 26 meeting were "locals" from Newton County--as opposed to "environmentalists" or "conservationists" from the wider region.  

Postscript:  Here's a Nov. 8, 2023 update from the Madison County Record reporting that the Newton County Quorum Court (essentially a county board of supervisors) had voted unanimously to oppose any re-designation of the Buffalo National River.  A quote follows: 

Newton County Quorum Court members passed a resolution at their Nov. 6 meeting opposing “the changing of the name designation or expansion of the Buffalo National River, and any further negative impact on the agricultural lands or infringement on private ownership on the Buffalo National River Watershed.”

The vote was unanimous with approximately 25 citizens in attendance.

Justice of the Peace Jamie Mefford said the court wanted to show its opposition to any name change, park expansion, private land rights restrictions and any agricultural restrictions.

The Newton County Times currently has yet to post anything about this on its webpage.  Sad when the neighboring county newspaper is able to cover a county's news faster than its own paper can.  

Ring of fire brings floods of tourists: hundreds of thousands travel across the American West to see an annular eclipse

This weekend, a rare annular eclipse crossed over the Americas. Beginning in Oregon around 9 am local time on October 14, the eclipse cut through the American Southwest and Yucatan Peninsula in Mexico before traveling over Central America, Columbia, and Brazil. States within the path of annularity prepared for an onslaught of ecotourists coming to experience the once-in-a-generation event. In the United States alone, an estimated half a million to two million people were expected to travel for the eclipse.

Travel Oregon, the state’s tourism agency, advertised the many opportunities for businesses along the path. Klamath County organized a week-long Eclipse Fest to celebrate. County officials issued a travel advisory on Saturday and collaborated with more than a dozen federal, state, and tribal agencies to handle a wave of ecotourists that were expected to temporarily double the county’s population.

Remote Modoc County, California, expected tourists to outnumber residents as Californians flocked to the only county in the state in the path of the eclipse. Hotels in the small town of Alturas, population 2,715, booked out for the weekend.

In neighboring Nevada, Great Basin National Park welcomed visitors with guided viewings, astronomy programs, and guest speakers from NASA, while the nearby town of Ely, population 3,924, hosted a 4-day Ring of Fire Eclipse Festival. Meanwhile, the state’s tourism agency directed visitors to the best viewpoints and state energy officials prepared for a temporary shift as the eclipse dampens solar energy production, which accounts for over a third of the power supply for the state.

The Utah Department of Transportation warned visitors and residents alike of heavy traffic, as an expected 300,000 travelers drove across central Utah roads and highways. Thousands of visitors flocked to Bryce Canyon National Park for clear skies to view the eclipse.

While other parks were filled with crowds, the Monument Valley Navajo Tribal Park was closed in keeping with sacred tradition. For the Navajo people, or Diné, as they call themselves, solar eclipses are a time for reflection and tranquility. The Navajo practice solemnity, not spectacle, out of reverence for the rebirth of the sun, which they regard as a father figure. Tribal educators instructed their people to pray in their homes and to avoid eating, drinking, sleeping, or looking at the eclipse, following centuries of tribal practice.

Just north of the Navajo Nation, the Bear Ears National Monument, which is co-managed by the Bureau of Land Management and indigenous tribes such as the Hopi and Ute, prepared for as many as 20,000 visitors. The Bear Ears Partnership informed tourists of the different beliefs held by those tribes, who view the area as sacred and encouraged them to visit with respect.

While the West relishes in the increased tax and travel revenues and returns to normal life, the Northeast, Midwest, and South prepare for future crowds of their own. A total eclipse will cut a path from Texas to Maine on April 8, 2024. While Indiana gets ready for what is expected to be the single largest tourist event in the state’s history, Ohio anxiously awaits the estimated $23 to 94 million in economic benefits that it hopes to gain from eclipse tourism.

You can read more about preparation efforts in Newton County, Arkansas, here. You can read about eclipse tourism during the last solar eclipse in 2017 here.