Fans of U.S. natural areas have long known that the White River and its watershed are special. Today, Jan. 9, 2013, the Department of the Interior has made it official. Deputy Secretary of the Interior David J. Hayes today announced that the White River, along with its watershed, has been named the nation’s second National Blueway. Officials and conservation leaders at a ceremony in Little Rock, Arkansas made the announcement. Deputy Secretary Hayes said that the collaboration taking place in the White River watershed is a model of successful river conservation for the 21st century.
“The river is the recreational and economic lifeblood of communities from the Ozarks to the Mississippi. River users and river lovers of all stripes have banded together to protect the White River watershed and maintain this magnificent resource for the region – and for the nation,” said Hayes.
In May 2012, Secretary of the Interior Ken Salazar established the National Blueways System, a new designation for rivers and watersheds of national significance designed to promote and conserve the economic, recreational, and natural values of healthy river systems from source to outlet and across watersheds. The initiative is part of President Obama’s America’s Great Outdoors Initiative to establish a community-driven conservation and recreation agenda for the 21st century. The designation does not establish a new protective status or regulation, but rather is intended to recognize and support existing local and regional conservation, recreation, and restoration efforts by coordinating ongoing federal, state, and local activities.
Flowing for over 700 miles from its headwaters in the Ozarks to its mouth at the Mississippi River, the White River drains a watershed spanning 17.8 million acres across 60 counties in Arkansas and Missouri. It is home to 1.2 million people who rely on the economic impact that recreation, tourism, agriculture, and commerce along the river provide to watershed communities. The White River is an important part of the wildlife-related economies of Arkansas and Missouri, which statewide accounted for $1.8 billion and $2.8 billion in 2011, respectively. Public and private landowners in the watershed have already conserved more than 3.2 million acres of their land for the benefit of people and wildlife.
“We know through experience that by aligning federal, state and local agencies along with nonprofit and private interests, we can together accomplish great things for the people and wildlife of Arkansas and Missouri,” said National Wildlife Refuge Association President David Houghton.
The U.S. Department of Agriculture announced that in FY 2013, working with the Arkansas Association of Conservation Districts to establish priorities, it will commit more than $22 million to soil and water conservation in counties located within the White River Watershed through the Environmental Quality Incentives Program (EQIP). Approximately $13 million of those funds will be directed to pasture land to provide soil and water conservation needs that arose from the drought in 2012. Additionally, the USDA Forest Service manages more than 1 million acres of federal forest land within the boundary of the Blueway, and is engaging in dozens of projects aimed at improving habitat within the watershed.
The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service recently approved a 101,110-acre expansion to the Cache River National Wildlife Refuge—named for one of the White River’s main tributaries—that will protect valuable floodplain habitat through conservation easements and acquisitions from willing landowners.
“Today’s recognition formalizes something all of us already know—that the White River watershed is special. We are committed to passing on to future generations the chance to hike, paddle, hunt, fish, and otherwise enjoy this exceptional watershed,” said U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service Director Dan Ashe.
The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers announced that they are moving forward with the Lower Cache River Basin Restoration Project, which will restore flows to meanders cut off by flood control work and will increase fish and wildlife habitat.
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Amy Lou Jenkins is the award-winning author ofEvery Natural Fact: Five Seasons of Open-Air Parenting. Contact her at www.AmyLouJenkins.com.
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