thenorphletpaperboy: Congressman Westerman, Mr. Back to the 60s

thenorphletpaperboy: Congressman Westerman, Mr. Back to the 60s:         Congressman Bruce Westerman, Mr. Back-to-the-Sixties     Let me cut straight to the chase; Congressman Westerman is part of t...

Congressman Westerman, Mr. Back to the 60s

        Congressman Bruce Westerman, Mr. Back-to-the-Sixties   

Let me cut straight to the chase; Congressman Westerman is part of the gang that’s trying to take us Back-to-the-60s—environmentally. I guess we shouldn’t be surprised that he has introduced a forestry bill that is a thinly-veiled Christmas present to logging companies. He is marching in lock step with the current administration to reverse the environments progress made by former Republican and Democratic Presidents. That’s right, and the facts are clear: The previous four presidents, two Republicans and two Democratic ones all worked with congress to improve the quality of our environment, but the current President is focused on reversing the progress made by the these Presidents, and Congressman Westerman is right in step with the Back-to-the-Sixties administration in undoing past environmental progress..

Let’s take a quick look back to see how far we’ve come in improving our environment. In the early sixties New York City was experiencing air quality almost as bad as some of our third world mega-cities are today. Our rivers were terribly polluted, and then the unthinkable happened. In 1969 a river caught on fire! The Cuyahoga River near Cleveland was so polluted that it caught on fire. It was an exclamation point that our environment was in horrible shape and desperately needed help. From that time forward the current presidents, both Democratic and Republican, worked with congress to improve our environment, and the resulting Clean Water Act is a direct result of bi-partisanship. The result was a steady improvement in air and water quality and our national parks were expanded. These measure achieved broad support from the presidents of that era as well as congress, and the move toward a better quality environment was broadly supported by the public.

However, the current administration is working to undo many of the environmental regulations enacted under administrations of both parties. It is an unprecedented attempt to remove as many of the enacted rules, laws, and presidential designations as possible.    

I will try to list just a few of the “Back to the Sixties” movement Congressman Westerman is part of. Basically, their bottom line goal is to deregulate as much of industry safeguards as possible in order to make as much money as possible with no regard to the consequences. *(1) They are trying are trying to kill the Clean Power Plan to allow more coal burning. (2) They are withdrawing from the Paris Climate Agreement. (3) They are removing the environmental rules around coal power. (4) They are weakening fuel economy standards for cars and light trucks. (5) They are opening up new public lands to oil and gas drilling and coal mining. (6) They are scaling back federal support for wind and solar power. (7) They are dramatically limiting the EPA’s ability to regulate in the future. (8) They are making the Supreme Court more hostile to environmental regulations. (9) They are reversing the White House’s climate guidance to federal agencies. (10 They are packing the executive branch with industry-friendly appointments. (11)They are cutting funding to the EPA. *From various Internet sources.

Can you believe with 98% of the scientists in the world stating that climate change is a serious problem and a grave threat to future generation, and with 210 countries signing on to the Paris Climate Agreement, the United States is backing out? There is no question about it. The current administration is determined to ignore future generations, and subject them to an environment that in many areas of our planet will be uninhabitable in less than twenty years.

   

Overall, the EPA is being systematically stripped of its existing rules, the national parks are being opened to logging and mineral development, and our air and water is steadily becoming more polluted. The Arctic National Wildlife has been opened to oil and gas development, and our national parks and monuments are being reduced by presidential action, which will open more public lands to coal mining and oil and gas drilling; all for the almighty dollar. Congressman Westerman is part of this disgraceful attempt to slash our environmental rules and rape public land.

 Congressman Bruce Westerman is trying to hide behind his Forestry Degree, the recent wildfires out west, which were worse this year because of the effects of climate change, and the guise of being environmental to sponsor a bill that will open the doors to more logging, gut the environment safeguards, and loosen public input into the timber harvesting in our national parks. His proposed Resilient Federal Forest Act of 2017 is a sham. It’s a horrible bill! It’s a blatant attempt to give timber harvesting a blank check! It’s an attempt to muffle descent and to make it more expensive and harder for the public to have input. It’s a cold hearted timber grab as the expense of the public. It is a pro-logging bill to benefit a few fat cat logging companies, and it does so at the expense of our public land. Under Westerman’s bill permits up to 10,000 acres are not subject to public input. That’s a block of a national park forest of over 15 square miles, and under certain conditions could be expanded to 30,000 acres. This bill is a thinly vailed attempt to make our National Forests timber farms.

Congressman Westerman, is a congressman from The Natural State, and he should be ashamed to hold his head up when he comes home. But why should we be surprised? After all the folks Congressman Westerman is associated with are planning to open up the national forests to coal mining and oil and gas well drilling. Of course, that’s just the opening shot. They are opening up oil and gas well drilling along the offshore east coast, and they are committed to reducing the size of national monuments and national parks. They are allowing the coal fired power plants to continue to spew particulates into the air such a mercury and they are making the USA the only country of 210 in the world to not join in to stopping global warming. It is shocking to see the wildfires in California knowing that climate change has caused what has always been a fire prone dry and windy season to be ratcheted up into a full disaster, while Congressman Westerman goes along with the administration trying to deny climate change, California goes up in flames.

“Congressman Westerman, if you believe the Resilient Federal Forest Act of 2017 is a good bill, come down to El Dorado and defend it in a Town Hall Meeting.” 

thenorphletpaperboy: Christmas Memories

thenorphletpaperboy: Christmas Memories:                          ARKANSAS                                    BY                     RICHARD MASON                      ...

Christmas Memories

                         ARKANSAS

                                 BY

                   RICHARD MASON

                                    Christmas Memories

Okay, I’m going to confess: I can’t ever get enough of the Holidays. Bring on the turkey, dressing, and family, and then stand by for Christmas Carols. Of course, things do get hectic, and I know the postal delivery people dread the catalogs that flood the mail. Yes, we do get overrun with our to-do list, which can be longer than your arm, but I think the bustling is worth it. For me it’s because the holidays are a time to let your hair down, re-connect, and get retuned spiritually.

            I mentally have a category for Thanksgiving, and for me, it’s a time that family, food, and our blessings are emphasized. Of course, our Thanksgiving table always has exactly the same things, and if Vertis didn’t make the Green-Jell-O-Pear Salad or her special dressing, there would be a family crisis.

But Christmas is different and there’s something about that special holiday that makes me reflect back on past Christmases. Of course, as most of us know, all Christmases aren’t created equal. Some Christmases of 50 years ago are as vivid as if they were current, and some of our last few Christmases are so vague, they could have happened decades ago. Many of my earlier Christmases were spent on a small farm about a mile south of Norphlet, nestled in oaks, on the edge of Flat Creek Swamp. We moved there when I was seven, and I immediately became a boy-of-the-woods, creek, and swamp. During the 7 years we lived on the farm, I hunted and fished almost daily. Our family, while not at the poverty level, depended upon the fish, squirrel, rabbit, and other game I brought in. During that time I was the Norphlet Paperboy, and I had a trap-line down in Flat Creek Swamp.

Most of the Christmases when I lived on the farm were pretty simple, with a shirt or jacket as the big gift and a stocking with candy, apple, and orange. However, the Christmas when I was 12 stands out. That Christmas morning I walked down the hall from my room expecting to find the usual, but instead there, with a red ribbon around it with my name on it, was a Browning Sweet 16 Shotgun. The idea that my family would spend over a $100 on my Christmas present to get me something so special overwhelmed me. I still have what is now a well-used shotgun.

            However, I remember another Christmas that stands out not because of the gifts, family, or church, but because of the absence of all of them. Vertis and I had only been out of college for about three years, and I was working for Exxon as a geologist on the King Ranch in Kingsville, Texas when Doug Garrett, the District Geologist, called me into his office. “Richard, on your job application you checked the box “Interested in overseas assignments”. Well, I vaguely remembered that, but then he said, “Esso Libya needs several wellsite geologists in Benghazi, Libya. Are you interested?” I knew enough geography to know Libya was in North Africa, so I was shaking my head as he finished, “Think about it for a few days. You don’t have to give me an answer right now.” I nodded and started for the door when Doug said, “And they will double your salary.”

            Well, because of a huge college debt that was dragging us down, that December we found ourselves in Benghazi where I working as a well-site geologist for Esso Libya. On the 15^th of December, I was 150 miles deep in the Sahara Desert on a drilling rig in charge evaluating the oil well Esso Libya was drilling. My two weeks in the desert would be up on the 21^st, and yes, you bet, I was counting the days, so when the small plane landed on the rig’s gravel runway the morning of the 21^st, I couldn’t wait to get back to Benghazi and be with Vertis for the week I was scheduled to be in town. Vertis met the plane, we hopped in our little Fiat 500, which was just about the size of the Smart Cars that are on the market today, and we started our week of Christmas in Benghazi.

            I remember Vertis saying, “Richard, I have a couple of surprises to show you. Drive downtown.”

            Benghazi’s population was around 60,000, but it seemed a much smaller town because so many of the residents lived out on the edge of town. They had moved in from the small outlying villages over the past 10 years to look for work. In the center of town there was a traffic circle and in the middle of the circle there was a big evergreen tree, and when I rounded the corner I saw what Vertis was talking about; the tree was covered with Christmas lights. Of course, that’s what I thought all the colored lights were, but Vertis corrected me. “Richard, December twenty-fourth is Libyan Independence Day. That’s why the tree is decorated.”

“Well, we can pretend their Christmas lights,” I remarked, as I circled the tree and headed for our house on the edge of town.

When I opened the front door and walked in the living room, I spotted the other surprise. Our living room had a big, brick fireplace and someone before us, who rented the house, had painted it dark green. Yes, it did look hideous. However, during the two weeks I was in the desert, Vertis had hand-chipped every speck of green paint off the fireplace. It looked great!

Later in the week, Vertis brought up Christmas, and Christmas plans. Vertis said to me, “Richard, Norma, the District Geologist’s wife, told me yesterday, we didn’t get invited to any of the ex-pats Christmas parties because we were new and people didn’t know us. She said next year would be different.” So, it’s going to be just the two of us here at Christmas.”

The next day was Christmas Eve, and that night I managed to scrounge up enough firewood for a fire in the fireplace, and we took our shortwave radio into the living room, sat down on a couple of pillows in front of the fireplace, and tuned in the BBC. As a static-filled Silent Night played on the radio, we opened our presents to each other. I had purchased a bangle bracelet for Vertis during one of my times back in town, and Vertis had bought me a new billfold.

Even when we were in college and later living in Texas, we had always made it home for Christmas to be with family, friends, and to be in our home church. This was the first Christmas for both of us to be without anyone, and not even have a Christmas card or a telephone call. We realized at that moment how much of Christmas is about friends, family, and church.  I put my arm around Vertis, and as we listened to the last strains of Silent Night on the BBC, tears ran down our cheeks.

  

thenorphletpaperboy: Give Arkansas a Christmas Present

thenorphletpaperboy: Give Arkansas a Christmas Present:   Give Arkansas a Christmas Present Well, since its Christmas, the peak of the gift giving season, I’m sure gifts are on your mind. O...

Give Arkansas a Christmas Present

  Give Arkansas a Christmas Present

Well, since its Christmas, the peak of the gift giving season, I’m sure gifts are on your mind. Of course, you’re wondering if you have forgotten anyone. Yes, and not only that but you want to be sure you have given the perfect gift to everyone on your list, so think about who and what as you read this column, and consider, have you given your old home state, Arkansas, a gift? A gift that the state really needs and wants.

 I think most of us have an altruistic spirit within us, which of course means we have a desire to do something that benefits others and not only ourselves, but the problem is that the opportunities are either too difficult, or they just aren’t available. What if, by joining with others across the state you could make a truly meaningful contribution to our state, and give a Christmas gift that is really needed and wanted.

            Let’s look into a relative simply way to achieve that. First an example: A couple of decades or so ago the Mayor and City Council of Chicago made a commitment to plant 1,000,000 trees within the city limits of their town. Of course, the reason was to achieve a combination of natural beauty vs a blank parking lots or sidewalks or Inter-state right of ways, and as a bonus the trees would counter the cities air pollution and reduce utility bills in the city.

             I had an opportunity to visit Chicago before the program started, and since then I have been back several times. However, on a recent visit I took a close look at downtown Chicago, and when I compared it to the before the pre-tree planting plan, it was a real visual eye-opener. The trees planted in the first years of the program were large enough to visually change a blank city-scape into an impressive, urban leafy canopy. Yes, they had met the challenge of 1,000,000 trees, actually several years ago, and now they are “Give us a call, and we’ll come plant a tree in your front yard—for free.” Yes, the 1,000,000 tree planting program was so successful that the City officials were bombarded with requests for trees.

            I guess, if this had happened in the Natural State, say in Little Rock, we might not be s shocked, but in concrete-city Chicago? No way, but wow, what a great example for The Natural State. Yes, we have cities big and small that are planting a few trees, but we’re just scratching the surface here in Arkansas.

However, it’s not like we not doing any planting, it’s just that we can do more, and we have some help on the way. The Walton Family Foundation is providing a grant that will allow 2000 trees of 50 species to be planted in Bella Vista, Bentonville, Centerton, Gravette, Pea Ridge, and Siloam Springs. The Foundation has a wonderful history of providing grant money to plant trees, and thousands if trees have been planted because of their generosity.  

            Well, do we need more urban or yard trees in our state? Of course we do! Take one look at our entryway streets in every city in the state, and if you can keep from throwing up, plant a tree or a hundred trees.

            Sure we can do better, and since most of us live in or close to a forest, where there are millions of surplus trees right there for the picking, finding a tree to plant is easy. After I saw the City of Dallas had planted cypress trees in landscaping the area around the new downtown arts district, I walked about two hundred yards to a small lake behind my house, dug up 8 small cypress Trees and replanted them in downtown El Dorado. Yep, every one of them lived and are doing fine. (Actually, when I saw the cypress trees being planted in Dallas I was surprised, but after I planted them in downtown El Dorado, and they thrived, I realize cypress trees make good urban landscaping trees, and they don’t need to be in the edge of a lake to grow.)

            Here in the Natural State we take our trees for granted, and ignore the tremendous benefits available, if we will just plant a tree. An infra-red aerial survey over almost any town in the country has a urban hot spot of increased heat that emits from the mostly bare city centers. Studies have shown as much as a 25% decrease in utility bills can occurs when an urban canopy of leafy trees shelters the sidewalks and streets, and there is a bonus in tree planting that is not only in the ambiance, but in the actual drawing in of customers to shopping areas. Our downtowns are the original shopping areas in the almost every city in the state, and a tree lined landscaped shopping center or street draws in the shoppers according to a Government survey.

 Yes, that’s the Christmas present I would like to see us give our state, and it’s a one that we can easily afford and do, and, if a number of individuals around the state join in, the numbers will mount up and the program will be hugely successful. What if everyone in Arkansas committed to plant one tree a year? Or maybe what if only a third of us committed to plant one tree a year?

That would be over 1,000,000 new trees in our state each year, and be a giant step in becoming The Natural State. This Christmas give the Natural State a gift, and what could be a better gift than to plant a living tree? So make that commitment.

            Well, our El Dorado Mason Family has committed to plant 20 trees. Do I have any other commitment? If your city or you as an individual will commit to plant trees this year let me know. Email me your number of tree planting commitments, and I’ll post the total numbers in future columns. Give Arkansan a gift this year. Plant a tree!

thenorphletpaperboy: It's the Stuff, Stupid!

thenorphletpaperboy: It's the Stuff, Stupid!: It’s “The Stuff,” Stupid !             Well, this is going to sound like the simplest solution to putting some life in a dead down...

It's the Stuff, Stupid!

It’s “The Stuff,” Stupid!

            Well, this is going to sound like the simplest solution to putting some life in a dead downtown that you have ever heard: Add stuff. I know that begs the question, of course. What kind of stuff? And the answer is....almost any kind of stuff!

            Before we get into the details of why stuff matters, let’s look at the towns without stuff and see if we can get a glimpse of why a dead-as-a-sack-of-hammers downtown is as blank as a sheet of paper. But, why is it blank? Yes, you might say the former downtown businesses closed because no one came downtown to shop and you’d be right, but why did shoppers abandon that downtown? I think the absence of stuff had a lot to do with it. In order to understand the concept of stuff, I’m going to use an example a very successful restaurant—The Superior Grill in Shreveport. It’s packed every night, and yes they do serve good food, but the Superior is much more than a good place to eat.  Going to the Superior is having the Superior experience complete with all the trimmings, and the trimmings are the “stuff” that makes the restaurant click. Colored lights are strung from the ceiling, almost every inch of wall space is covered with everything from bullfight posters to mounted steer heads, plus adding to the stuff, there’s TVs on every wall and the music is blaring. This restaurant is the poster child for “more stuff”. Yes, I know they serve great margaritas and their open grill turns out super fajitas, but would the restaurant still knock ‘um dead without the stuff? Maybe, but can you imagine stripping the restaurant to the walls? Of course not, because who in their right mind would tinker with a cash machine like that?

            Okay, now let’s see if the “stuff” concept will transfer to a dead downtown and breathe life into it. There are plenty of dead downtowns to use as examples and they all have one thing in common. Almost without exception the store fronts, parking lots, and sidewalks are bare. There are no trees, green boulevards, or any other items to clutter the area. It’s not that the residents wanted a bare downtown; it was a matter of priorities. Trees, planters, kiosks and any other “fluff” items, as these things were called were given such a low priority that by the time the town’s limited resources were allocated, the monies were depleted. Yes, the industrial parks and job creation was considered primary beneficiaries, but if you want to know how that worked out, check the multi-millions spent on deserted industrial parks. Obviously, there has to be a better way for our towns and cities to spend their money.

            First, let’s look at the easy items that will improve a downtown, and believe it or not it’s the visual items that are the most important. A government survey of several strip centers proved this point. They compared strip centers that were essentially blank to those that were landscaped with plants around the stores and trees in their parking lot. The compared centers carried similar merchandise. They found that the landscaped strip centers did almost 25% more business than the blank shopping centers. Customers actually thought the stores with the landscaped parking lot had better quality goods and they were willing to pay more for them. Even though, that wasn’t the case. The two strip centers had stores with almost identical merchandise. Well, landscaping is sure stuff; so I guess you might say stuff sells.

            I guess you might say stuff sells because of our inquisitive human nature. Let me give you two examples: First Jasper, Arkansas. Well, tiny Jasper is not big enough to have much, but it’s right in the middle of scenic Arkansas, and very close to our elk herd. So why not put a 9 foot statue of an elk right downtown? Yep, they did and a picture of that elk was splashed across paper after paper. Just think of the folks who will go out of their way to visit Jasper—and see the elk. Of course, it takes visitors to give a downtown life, and Jasper has taken a step forward in attracting them.  Example number two: El Dorado...yes, we have great buildings and a wonderful courthouse, but what are the most photographed items in El Dorado and maybe in the state? Yes, it’s two pieces of stuff, which are the two red, Old English Phone Booths. They are the real thing straight from London, and when they were installed they were actual phone booths. However, cell phones put them out of business, so the two phone booths have been resurrected as the Downtown Book Exchanges.  They are back in business and are as photographed as ever.

            If we look a little deeper into the stuff concept, we’ll see we are really picky when it comes to adding stuff to a downtown. The country of Switzerland is almost a Disney theme park when it comes to adding stuff, and naturally with a drop dead backdrop of the Alps, tourism is the number one business in the country. However, most visitors don’t climb the Alps; they end up walking around in the hundreds of small towns filled with stuff. The Swiss have developed a knack for just the right stuff, and what do they focus on? Well, in their natural setting around the mountains, the theme in most villages has to do with nature. Hanging baskets from streetlight poles, window boxes with flowers, and on and on with everything natural and historic as they can make it. If you removed the stuff from the Swiss villages, they might look a lot like some of our downtowns, and they would probably have about as many visitors as we do.

Now, let’s hone in on Arkansas and focus on stuff that would enhance not only the looks of most towns, but would draw visitors, and maybe give some of our visitors a reason to move to one of our towns that are losing population. First let’s look at the big minuses that detract from our Natural State theme, and blank parking lots are the biggest eyesore in most towns. Of course, in automobile American almost every town of any size has parking lots, but they don’t have to be blank eyesores. If we check out how almost every progressive city handles bare parking lots, the first thing you will find is they have a greenscape ordinance, which very simply means parking lots must have at least 25% greenspace. If a city builds on the greenscape ordinance basis, it will promote sidewalk planters, window boxes, and street trees. Yes, it’s just more stuff, but it all adds up.

Of course, I could go on and on about stuff, but I think you get the point. Stuff draws people, and people restore life to a dead downtown.

thenorphletpaperboy: What Makes Us Americans

thenorphletpaperboy: What Makes Us Americans: ARKANSAS BY Richard Mason What Makes Us Americans Well, what makes Americans what we are today? I guess you could fall...

What Makes Us Americans

ARKANSAS

BY

Richard Mason

What Makes Us Americans

Well, what makes Americans what we are today? I guess you could fall back on our diversity. You know the old melting pot stuff, but I think we're a whole lot more than a mix of around-the-world refugees. Yes, I may be bragging, when I say Americans are a special breed of cats but I say that in the light of our place in today's world. However, I don't think being the world's most powerful nation or the greatest economic power defines us. No, we're sure not one smooth, big ball of economic and military wax, and that's not all bad either. Sure we've got some rough edges, which also adds into what make us who we are. Yes, some of our rough edges make us prone to violence and that’s not all bad either. When an American, sitting at a computer in Las Vegas, puts a hellfire missile in the ear of a Somalis warlord, who is committing genocide that American is reacting the same way our first troops responded at Lexington and Concord. But there’s not any doubt that we have violence intertwined in our soul. If you don't believe me, watch two demonstrations meet---one right and one left---exercising their free speech complete with clubs and knives. Yes, you’ll be looking at another wild fight when the Alt-right, Nazis and unrepentant Confederates meet Black Lives Matter, the Anarchists and the Ultra-Left, and that's not all bad either. Hey, what if they didn't care? So sell tickets and let 'em get after it.

Yes, the spirit of America has a streak of violent intertwined in it and that's not all bad either. We wouldn’t have a country if our forefathers hadn't fought it out in the streets of Boston. Of course, we thrive on contact sports. Well, what do you call those Gladiators who trot out on the field every Saturday in the fall and we have the same little routine the ancient Romans had when one of them was ‘hurt’. They are carted off and the game goes on, and that's not all bad either. It is part of who we are as Americans. But it’s a little different since the Roman ones died right there on the field and the American ones take another 30 or 40 years to die from the brain injuries, but that's not all bad either or maybe it is. Hell, how should I know, I’m just a geologist who likes to write.

But the true spirit of Americans comes through when fellow Americans are in need. The response to Hurricane Harvey is a good example. A few days after the city of Houston became Lake Houston, we drove to Dallas on Interstate 20. We were in East Texas when we passed a caravan of Caddo Parish sheriff and police officers escorting several 18 wheelers loaded with relief supplies heading for South Texas. That impressed me but not as much as the pickup truck we passed a few miles on down the road. It was an older, non-air conditioned truck driven by a bearded young man who looked to be about 30. He had two large flags flying on the front of his truck; an American and a Christian. In the back of his truck he had an aluminum rescue boat with a motor and the boat was packed to overflowing with cases of bottled water. He was doing just what Americans have been doing ever since there was an America, he was responding to other Americans in need.

            No, we're not a perfect country but that’s not all bad either. I've lived overseas and visited Switzerland several times and it is as close to a perfect country as any place I've seen but just the idea that I would live there and be bored to death is beyond my thinking.

I worked in Benghazi, Libya of all places, for a couple of years and when I returned to the States, the customs agent in New York handed me my passport back and said, “Welcome home” it brought out a since of pride and a smile. Yes, I’m proud to be an American and I actually like some of America’s rough edges. When I go for a run or more likely a long walk and I see beer cans at the stop sign, I know how long it takes one of our good-old-boys to drive from the convenience store and finish a Budweiser and that's not all bad either, because I know those guys are part of the backbone of our country and we'd be something like the French with bad food if we didn't have them, and yes, that would be bad. When I was in college at The University and in love with a Smackover girl, I had to hitchhike 300 miles home on the weekends to see her, I could always count on those good-old-boys for a pickup truck ride.

Of course, we have our Chamber of Commerce and even our Governor still out looking for new jobs for Arkansas, even though we can't fill the openings we have now, and that's not all bad either. What if, instead of having ‘em out beating the bushes for a Toyota factory, they joined the work force? Gosh, they would set productivity back ten years, and that would be bad.

Of course, the 2020 Presidential race is about to start up, but that’s not all bad....wait a minute: that is all bad…unless you’re selling advertising.

Help For Your Ugly Streets

       ARKANSAS

                                   By

                        Richard Mason

                    Help for Your Ugly Streets

Last January, my wife and I spent our wedding anniversary at the Alluvium Hotel in Greenwood, Mississippi, and the next day we continued on to Columbus to take care of some business. I've made the trip numerous times, usually driving straight across east Arkansas ending up still on Highway 82, when I arrived in Columbus. I guess I'll always marvel at the Mississippi River's Delta, and since I'm a geologist, I can visualize the vast amount of water from the melting Ice Age Glaciers that created the Delta.

January is bleak in the Delta, since the once great swamps have been drained, the trees cut, and the river has been tamed with levees to stop the flooding. The mile after mile of plowed dirt is as boring as any place I’ve ever been. However, some of the entrances to several Delta towns have been perked up by planting crepe myrtle trees along Highway 82 and by creating crepe myrtle tree-lined boulevards into their towns. Greenville, with its casinos and dead-as-a-sack-of-hammers downtown, has planted several hundred crepe myrtle trees along Highway 82 leading into town, and although their downtown is almost vacant, your first impression, as you drive into town, is extremely positive. There’s not enough space in this column to comment on their downtown except to say, “Needs work.” However, they are doing the right thing in planting the entrance-way crepe myrtle trees, and by letting them grow tall with only trimming the very lower branches—they look great.

We continued on across the Delta, stopping at Indianola where we stopped in their very nice, viable Main Street downtown and dined at the Crown Restaurant. Great restaurant, and I think, if it were Michelin rated, it would deserve a “Worth a Detour”. Again we found their entranceways and actually throughout the town, streets lined with tall, crepe myrtle trees. That was when it began to occur to us that, in general, folks in Mississippi don’t chop off their crepe myrtle trees like they do in most Arkansas towns. It seemed to me that it was 80% tall crepe myrtle trees and 20% chopped off semi-bushes, whereas El Dorado has 80% (or more) chopped off crepe myrtle trees, and many other Arkansas towns follow the same trimming as if crepe myrtles were bushes instead of trees.  The difference is remarkable and extremely noticeable, and for once, at least some Mississippi towns have gotten it right. Of course crepe myrtle trees shouldn’t be chopped off, and that will change one day. However, folks will tell you that’s the way they’ve been doing it for years, but the Master Gardeners and every nurseryman or woman worth their salt, will tell you it’s the wrong way to trim crepe myrtle trees, so  don’t commit, crepe murder by chopping them off. 

I know taking a lesson from Mississippi would choke some folks, but let’s just do a “what if” here in my home town. Okay? What if the City of El Dorado actually tried to do something about the eyesore of South Arkansas, North West Avenue, the entrance-way avenue into town? How about making it a boulevard with a limited turn lane from Walmart to Locust Street and then plant crepe myrtles trees every 20 feet in about 75% in what is now the endless turn lane. Of course, while the City is at it, they could plant hundreds more along the City right-of-ways on both sides of the street. Yes, I’m dreaming again, and I know it’s not going to happen anytime soon. Well, that’s an example from El Dorado, but almost every town of any size has a “North West Avenue”, and yes, almost all of them could use an uptick. Hot Springs has Central Avenue, Little Rock has Broadway, and Fayetteville has Dixon Street.

If you have lived in Arkansas for very long, you’ll know how much ugly leafy trees cover up, and that’s exactly what a tree lined street will do. Actually, planting trees along a busy entryway street is the least expensive way to improve eyesore streets, and most of the time that street is the first impression street in your town. Every city owns the right-of-way and all they have to do is cut a three foot square hole in the sidewalk or pavement and plant a crepe myrtle tree. They don’t even have to worry about overhead power lines because a mature crepe myrtle trees won’t grow tall enough to get into the power lines.

A boulevard center is an area about the width of a turn lane and almost every progress city will have them planted with trees or bushes. A turn lane doesn’t have to be essentially endless to be effective. By reducing the spots available to turn you won’t create any traffic problems because leaving one turn lane per city block leaves plenty of opportunities to turn, and by taking around 75% of the turn lane and planting trees or shrubs, you have added measureable to the ambiance of your cities entranceway. I know, if we’re honest, we would agree almost all of our entrance-ways into our towns and cities a just bone ugly and desperately need anything that would enhance their looks, and when we consider how inexpensive the project is and how much it would add to the looks of those streets, you would think our city officials would be standing in line to plant crepe myrtle trees along the entrance-ways and along the sides those streets. Well, if you haven’t noticed, they are not standing in line to plant, and trying to get any action on tree planting along these entryway streets is like pulling teeth. There is something about tree planting on or in the median is a signal to get your back up if you are a mayor or a city engineer. A city street doesn’t have to be designed as a raceway to get cars and trucks through town as quickly as possible. By making the street pedestrian friendly by putting in sidewalks, crosswalks, and lining it with trees you are building up the towns quality of life, and that’s trumps the raceway every time.  

                            And now an important announcement!

The Buffalo National River is in grave danger of being polluted by the factory hog farm. In my 35 years of working to protect and enhance Arkansas’ environment, this is the greatest threat I have ever encountered. If the Governor doesn’t force the re-location of the hog farm, I believe we will see the river damaged beyond repair. You can help: On December 4^th you can join to flood the Governor’s office with letters and emails to relocate the hog farm and save the Buffalo. Please post this and share on Facebook, but don’t send anything until December 4^th—or the 2^nd if you are going to mail a protest.

Asa.hutchinson@arkansas.gov

https://twitter.com/AsaHutchinson

250 State Capitol Bldg. Little Rock, AR 72201. Fax:(501)682-1382.

Tel:(501)682-2345 email: info@governor.arkansas.gov

thenorphletpaperboy: The El Dorado, AR Story

thenorphletpaperboy: The El Dorado, AR Story:                            The El Dorado Story                                El Dorado had a rather ordinary beginning, and from ...

The El Dorado, AR Story

                           The El Dorado Story

                              

El Dorado had a rather ordinary beginning, and from its founding in 1845, the town, slowly grew to where in January of 1921 the city could boast 3800 rather ordinary farmers, merchants, and woodsmen, who struggled to survive. The area’s virgin timber had been harvested and the sandy soil could barely produce enough cotton to pay the bank for the seed. It was a grim outlook these El Dorado folks faced as they started the New Year. However, at 4:00 P. M. on January 11^th, 1921 there was a thunderous roar west of town and almost the entire population of the little village hurried to the edge of town where oil was roaring through the top of a wooden derrick. The Bussey # 1 Armstrong had come in as a gusher ushering in an oil boom unlike anything anyone in Arkansas had ever seen. Within five years hundreds of wells had been drilled and the value of the oil produced during those five years was greater than the entire appraised value of all the property in the state. In those five years Union County’s population mushroomed from 5000 to 100,000 and El Dorado’s population of 3800 soared to an estimated 40,000.

Almost all of the wood-frame downtown buildings, the three center of town churches, and the red brick Victorian Courthouse were scraped off, and in their place some magnificent buildings were built. Many of El Dorado’s city leaders of the 1920s had been in World War I and had seen the wonderful buildings of Europe, and with the oil boom money they did their best to emulate them. After the excesses of the oil boom settled out, El Dorado’s population stabilize between 28,000 and 30,000 in the 50s and 60s.

However, as El Dorado’s manufacturing base relocated to cheaper labor out of the country, the county and city steadily lost population until it dipped under 20,000 in 2010. When it became obvious that the manufacturing jobs that sustained the city would never return, different ways to reverse the downtrend in growth were considered. A group called 50 For the Future was formed and their mission was to turn the negative growth rate around, and once again have a growing expanding economy. After hearing Roger Brooks, a destination expert from Seattle, speak at a State Main Street meeting in Little Rock, he was invited to address the business community in El Dorado. He was so impressive that 50 For The Future and the City of El Dorado each put up $25,000 and hired Mr. Brooks to recommend how to turn El Dorado’s decline around.

After working on the project a year, he came back into town with a thick packet of recommendations. The key to his vision was to make El Dorado an entertainment destination.  He called the project El Dorado! The Festival City of the South. Mr. Brooks is a destination expert, and his premise is the small to medium size towns must be a destination if they are to grow and prosper.

To become a destination is very simple, you must have something that will attracted people to visit your city, but it goes further than that. A town also must have the things the skilled professional people, who are anxious to leave the mega cities and all the traffic, noise, and pollution where they won’t just visit, they will move there. Actually, they want what all of us desire: entertainment, good restaurants, a safe, attractive downtown, and good schools.

In 2009 El Dorado’s restored downtown was selected at the top downtown out of over a 1000 Main Street communities under 50,000 in population, and Mr. Brooks used that foundation to build upon his recommendations.

 Phase One of MAD, the Murphy Arts District:

The project is just a block off of the downtown square and it is centered around the 1929 Rialto Theater and the adjacent buildings. The Griffin Auto Building, a 1920 era building was built as a Ford Motor Company showroom. It is a huge, open steel-arched building that has been converted into a 2200 seat Broadway stage quality theater called the Griffin Music Hall. It also includes a cabaret restaurant, the Griffin, which opened with sold out performances each Thursday from the cabaret stage.  It’s Thursday Night Live at the Griffin!

Adjacent to the Griffin building an 8000 capacity amphitheater has been constructed, and during opening weekend festivities, Brad Paisley filled it to capacity. Work continues on the MAD PLAYSCAPE, which will be the largest children’s play area in the state. It will feature state-of-the-art water projects and numerous other children’s play items.

Phase Two of MAD

The MAD Art Museum is the next major agenda item, and renovation of the 1920 era McWilliams Furniture Building will start within a few weeks. The museum will have three floors of display area, and connections with other regional and national museums to offer rotating art displays featuring top American and European artists. As this work progresses, one of the remaining 1920s Ritchie Grocery Buildings will be converted into a recital hall and small, black-box theater. 

After the MAD Art Museum opens, work will begin on the crown jewel of the MAD, the 1929 art deco, vaudeville-movie house the Rialto Theater. This major project will restore the interior and exterior to exactly the condition it was when it opened in 1929, plus the addition of numerous attendee enhancements.

 The facilities that are finished and those under construction are the items that will bring in skilled professionals to reverse the population loss and create jobs. MAD is creating exactly what these folks are looking for as they leave the mega-cities. In ten years, after MAD is finished, I predict several positive things will have taken place in El Dorado.

Well over 500 new jobs will be created, the new, empty Industrial Park will become a high-end residential subdivision, El Dorado’s population will pass 30,000, dozens of stores and restaurants will open, South Arkansas Community College will become a four year university, real estate values in the two shopping areas, North West Avenue and Downtown, will double, and Hot Springs couples will start buying condos in El Dorado.

Actually, since the initial opening of MAD, exceeded all expectations in attendance and job creation, and the ongoing multiple events have attracted such a large audience, the above projections very likely underestimate the final success of the completed MAD. At the present MAD has 310 full and part-time employees, and they are still hiring.

. That is exactly how you make a town a destination, which will stem the outflow of jobs and population. Well, the bottom line to all of this is very simple: The skilled workers who will grow a town must have the quality of life items they want, and the town wants or the skilled workers won’t come and the young people won’t stay. It’s up to the town to give both groups what they want, or face a continuing population loss. 

Pine Bluff, Arkansas 101

                             

                                       ARKANSAS

                                               BY 

                                               RICHARD MASO N

                                     Pine Bluff 101

“When the center of your city is a failure, then the perception is your whole town is a failure.” No, that’s not my original thought. It came from one of the community leaders in San Antonio, Texas in the mid-1960s as they started an effort to renovate and restore their downtown. I lived in Corpus Christi and visited San Antonio numerous times during the start of that effort, and open carry would have been an excellent idea if you visited downtown San Antonio after dark. Downtown was a rundown, drug-infested, boarded up place that desperately needed help. The help came after the community leaders banded together and in 1968 put on Hemisfair, a World’s Fair type exhibition confined to the Western Hemisphere. Hemisphere kicked off the restoration-renovation process where public and private money and a lot of hard working individuals banded together to produce a new-old downtown that is currently a showpiece for how to bring a city center back to life, and in doing so revive an entire city.

Pine Bluff is a 1960s San Antonio, and from all the press I read, it seems the city is getting ready to tackle the revitalization of the town. However, I don’t believe the focus of the initial work is directed at the root of the problem.  I guess, paraphrasing a well-known politician, “It’s the Downtown stupid!”

Yes, I believe Pine Bluff is considered a failure because the downtown is not just a failure, it is an embarrassment to the entire state. I know that’s a little strong, but downtown streets closed for months because buildings are collapsing in the street? How do you get worse than that? You don’t!

I can remember growing up in the 50s and 60s considering Pine Bluff being Arkansas’s second city, but now? Well, it can be again, but until their downtown is once again the center of the town, and it is restored and vital, it won’t happen. You can increase traffics to downtown, but until you give someone a reason to go there, it’s no different than increasing the traffic to a cemetery.

The effort to restore Pine Bluff back to being the preeminent City in southeast Arkansas to be successful, must be focused in removing the negative image the downtown—bricks-in-the-street—has given it. Now, let’s look at the root problem confronting the town. Loss of population signals the skilled professionals who are critical to a town’s growth are not coming, they are leaving. Unless you can reverse that trend, the city won’t be revived. Skilled professional people are the one who create jobs and this high technological workforce is centered in mega cities, but many of them are looking to relocate because of congestion, pollution, and a raft of other big city problems. Attracting these skilled professional is the key to any medium or small town survival, and to attract them, you must give them what they want, and they don’t want jobs. They have jobs. They are job creators.

A town must have several key items all built around an attractive city center if that town is to grow.  But first, before we get to exactly what these skilled professional people want, how do you get a vital, attractive center of the city? This first point is an absolute must: Your center city buildings, which are potential retail, restaurant, and entertainment venues, must be better or equal to any comparable real estate in the city. This is step one, and if you don’t complete step one forget steps one, two, three, etc. that is because step one is critical to the remaining steps. Of course, that means you must restore the Pines Hotel and the Sanger Theater along with most of the core downtown buildings. To attract the skilled professionals you must give them the items that want and that list of wants depends on quality real estate. These folks demand good restaurants, entertainment, and retail located in an attractive setting. Now let me suggest how city government and other community leaders can make step one happen. Either re-zone the center of the city to require properties to be upgraded, or give financial incentives to developers who will restore these buildings to meet today’s standards. Of course, the renovation of Pine Bluff’s center city will be a decades jobs, and it won’t be cheap. The 5/8s of a cent tax is just a drop in the bucket. If the city council is serious about seeing the city return to his preeminent position in the state, then they will have to raise at least five times that amount of money, and make step one, the downtown restoration, a must before launching into outlying projects. The worst thing the city can do is scatter shoot their funding, and wake up with their money gone and very little to show for it.

After step one is complete, the remaining work is primarily to present an attractive surroundings for these buildings, and of course that is adding almost everything you can imagine to the downtown. Brick sidewalks dozens of flower planters, information kiosks, and focus on everything starting or happening downtown. Of course, every holiday should feature something downtown, 5k races and pep rallies should be downtown, and the goal should be to etch in everyone’s brain that downtown is the center of the city, and when Pine Bluff’s downtown becomes the pride of the town, the community will have taken a giant step toward reviving.

thenorphletpaperboy: Rewilding Arkansas

thenorphletpaperboy: Rewilding Arkansas:              ARKANSAS                                            BY                        RICHARD MASON                    ...

Rewilding Arkansas

             ARKANSAS  

                                         BY

                       RICHARD MASON

                                                  Rewilding Arkansas

            Rewilding? Yes, rewilding is just what it says and means, and here in Arkansas it is a plan to restore a portion of our forests and some of its wildlife to what it was in the past. When we look back on our recent history, let's say 200 years ago, I am confident that we wouldn't recognize most of our state. We've essentially cut all of the massive, virgin timber, drained the great swamps near most of our rivers, and killed off at least 90% of the animal life. What now? Are we satisfied just to accept the disaster we have created? Or should we join a movement that has started in Europe called Rewilding Europe. This is the concept: Certain large forested and lightly inhabited areas of the European Continent would be selected to be rewilded. In other words, allowed to become as wild as possible. I know we think, if a program such as “Rewilding” was important, the United States would be leading the world in adopting it. Well, we’re not leading the pack. We’re not even in the pack. In fact very few Americans even know what ‘Rewilding’ is, so let me bring you up to date.

Rewilding is a movement to recreate an area or a species of wildlife as close as it was before it was inhabited by humans, and not just  a National Park, but a woodland where as many of the original animals that inhabited an area would once again live there.

Of course, rewilding would be selective, and essentially that’s what many of the Arkansas Game and Fish Commission’s programs are doing now, but it would be more extensive. Restoring the turkey and deer populations are good examples, but that’s only a starting point.

Arkansas was once the Bear State because bears were so plentiful, and I would venture a guess that bears were in every county in the state. Of course, the restocking and reestablishing of the bear population has started, but it is confined and limited, and with a bear hunting season, it seems as if the Game and Fish Commission is trying to only recreate a token bear population. Why not let the bear population increase until we reach a rewilding level equal to the turkey or deer population? I can’t see how, if it’s okay to have a bear population in a couple of Northwest Arkansas counties and one Southeast county, why wouldn’t it make sense to have bears in all 75 counties again? Of course, if there is nothing wrong with having more bears, having a bear season is a stupid way to achieve that. Eliminate the bear season until the bear population has a 300 to 500% increase. That would put the bear population at something over 75,000, and it would probably have a positive effect on reducing the feral hog population.

Well, while I’m writing about increasing an already small population of wild game, why not let the elk expand their range? What’s wrong with elk being in the Ouachita Mountains or along the Red River in southwest Arkansas? Of course, there is nothing wrong with that, but having an elk hunting season to keep the herd along the Buffalo River at about the same size is just one step from having a hunting season at a petting zoo. Eliminate the elk season until we have substantial herds of elk throughout the state, and yes, a substantial statewide herd of elk would be in the hundred thousand range instead of a few hundred.

Next let’s talk about the harvesting of alligators in the state. How many 12 foot alligators are left in the state after that big one was killed last month? Ten maybe fifteen; and what is the alligator population in southern and eastern Arkansas? 1500 maybe 2000? Okay, maybe you’re not ready to see more alligators in south Arkansas, but how many beaver are there? Hundreds of thousands, and more are on the way, and the over-abundance of beaver has wreaked environmental havoc by flooding thousands of forest habitat acres.  Of course, we are overrun by beaver because we have eliminated all the predators that prey on beaver, and guess what helps control beaver? Of course, it’s the alligators, especially the big ones! We should eliminate the gator season until we reach some equilibrium with the beaver population, and that would let the few thousand gators in the state expand to several hundred thousand.

Now before you start thinking I’m anti-hunting consider the effect of what I have proposed. By allowing the population of elk, bear, and alligators to expand until those populations are as plentiful as deer, would create a much better opportunity to hunt. When I grew up in South Arkansas deer were so scarce that just seeing a deer was a big deal, and now after rewilding the deer population, deer hunting is a huge part of the hunting season in Arkansas.

But just having more wild game is only part of the rewilding we need here in Arkansas. There is another large area of our state that needs more habitat restoration, and this area will surprise you. We should rewild a portion of the roadways and median right-of-ways especially on our Interstates and other major roads in the state. The Arkansas Highway Department, which has done a super job of road construction, is probably responsible for more habitat destruction than any entity in the state. I walk and jog on the 167 Bypass in El Dorado and the medians are mowed grass, and the cleared right-of-ways are 40 to 50 yards of mowed grass on both sides of the road. Multiply that extra unneeded right-of-way by a 5000 or 10,000 and you will understand the magnitude of the loss. I believe the right-of-ways could be reduced by at least 50% without any appreciable hazard to drivers. I have driven on dozens of interstate highways where the right-of-way were a third of Arkansas’s, and I have noticed the nationwide trend to plant trees and bushes in the medians and reduce the right-of-ways in surrounding states. Louisiana, Texas, and even Mississippi have tree planting programs to reforest medians and over-extended right-of-ways. Of course, by allowing part of the right-of-ways to have major vegetation instead of grass, it would save the state thousands of dollars in mowing expense.

Yes, Arkansas has already benefited immensely from rewilding, but if we will ramp up the process and rewild other species of wildlife and habitat, our state and our hunters will reap huge benefits.

 

thenorphletpaperboy: Hogs Named Feral

thenorphletpaperboy: Hogs Named Feral:              ARKANSAS                                                                     By                                    Ri...

Hogs Named Feral

             ARKANSAS

                                                                    By

                                   Richard Mason                

                                                  Hogs Named Feral

This is an open letter to the Arkansas Game and Fish Commission, and the subject is the proliferation of feral hogs in Arkansas. In my opinion, these animals that are reproducing at almost unbelievable rates are the greatest threat to native wildlife and wildlife habitat in our lifetime, and we are doing very little to solve the problem. No, it is not just a few wild hogs rooting up someone’s back yard. It is literally millions of feral hogs decimating both wildlife habit and contributing to the ever decreasing quail and turkey population in our state. Feral hogs are quail and turkey egg eating animals that roam the woods, and they are finding most of those nests and eating the eggs.

I live on thirty-seven acres with a couple of small ponds surrounded by mixed timber and open grassy areas—excellent quail habitat, and up until about 15 years ago, I had a large covey of quail on the property. When I first built my house in the mid-1970s the covey was somewhere between 15 and 20 birds and seeming very stable. I didn’t allow hunting since we were in the city limits. Over the next fifteen years, I began to notice the covey becoming smaller and smaller until about ten years ago I heard the last bob-white call—and there was no answer. What happened to my quail? I believe feral hogs were a primary contributing factor in the disappearance of my quail.

Let’s consider the size of the feral hog problem: Conservative estimates of the feral hog population in Arkansas puts the number at over two million, and that’s growing daily. A mature sow will have three litters a year, usually 6 to 10 piglets, which mature into breeding stock in less than a year, and since we have killed off most of the natural predators, most of those litters reach maturity. You don’t have to do Calculus to get an understanding of the problem. It is huge and it will require drastic measure to solve it.  However, our Game and Fish Commission is fiddling while the expanding feral hog population soars. Around 1000 feral hogs have been added to the feral hog population in Arkansas while I’m writing this columns. In order to just stay even with the expanding population at least a half million feral hogs will have to be taken out of our ecosystem---each year! We are not even scratching the surface of the problem.

Our Game and Fish Commission needs to think outside the box if they are to solve the problem. Evidently, they need some suggestions so here goes: First, let’s reach back to the 18^th Century for part of the solution. Put a bounty on feral hogs. Well, we managed kill off a healthy wolf population by putting a bounty on them, so why not do this: A $5.00 bounty for every feral hog tail submitted to local game warden. If you consider the destruction of wildlife and wildlife habitat one feral hog inflicts each year, that $5.00 to remove a hog is a tremendous bargain for the state.

That is step one. Step two is to restore the natural predators of feral hogs.  We are the ones who have put nature out of balance by killing off essentially all the natural predators that would keep the feral hogs population under control. Along with the bounty, the second part of the solution is to reduce the number of feral hog is by rewilding Arkansas. Rewilding, which is rapidly gaining acceptance in Europe, is a reintroduction of species that were once abundant in an area. In Arkansas it means to restock the feral hog predators we have killed off, and stop the killing of the few existing predators that are still here. That, along with a bounty, is the only way to reduce the number of feral hogs.  It’s that simple. We must reintroduce as many as 150 mountain lions and several 100 wolves into the State, and close the bear season. Those predators will thrive and multiply because of the abundant food, and they will reduce the feral hogs that are destroying habitat along with quail and turkey nests.  With the small number of bears we have in the state, it borders on stupidity to even have a bear season. In addition, we should stop the killing of other predators such as coyotes and bobcats. No, little Jonnie is not going to be gobbled up by a mountain lion or wolf. According to statistics, he would be in more danger from being stuck by a meteorite.

If we don’t do something drastic about the feral hog population, you will see the problem continue to grow and become more and more difficult to control. A bounty and the re-introduction of predators into the ecosystem is the only way to counter this wildlife crisis.

thenorphletpaperboy: Let's Join the War on Dirty Coal!

thenorphletpaperboy: Let's Join the War on Dirty Coal!: ARKANSAS By RICHARD MASON Let's Join the War on Dirty Coal First, just to set the record straight, I am a na...

Let's Join the War on Dirty Coal!

ARKANSAS

By

RICHARD MASON

Let's Join the War on Dirty Coal

First, just to set the record straight, I am a natural gas producer, and dirty coal is a competing fuel.

So I do have a vested interest in putting the few dirty coal miners that are left out-of-work, but let’s consider the reasons to join the war on dirty coal, other than my economic ones.

           Of course, the out-of-work miners in West Virginia aren't ever going back to work mining dirty coal, but it's not because of environmental concerns; it’s because dirty coal simply costs more to use. That’s right, cheap, clean natural gas is eating dirty coals lunch cost-wise, and over 200 dirty coal-fired plants have closed during the last few years and more are on the list to be closed. The environmental problems have only a minor part in the closing.

The war on dirty coal is one we need to win, because the spoils for winning are lower utility bills, and a cleaner environment. Maybe, you’re a ‘coal miner’s daughter’ and you’re in dirty coal’s hip pocket. If that’s the case, you support the use of dirty, coal-fired generating plants to provide electricity, then you’re on the hook with all the negatives that come with it. Of course, at a minimum, dirty coal plants spew out huge amounts of carbon dioxide that contributes to climate change caused by global warming, but there are a whole host of other problems in the burning of dirty coal. Take a look at major Chinese cities where thousands are wearing masks, and the air is so dirty you can’t see the sun. Of, course their incidences of lung disease are off the wall as well as numerous other ailments. Yes, dirty coal is a big part of the problem!  Are you okay with that?

But that's not the main reason I have in joining the war on dirty coal, and that problem is directly related to what a dirty coal-fired plants put in the atmosphere here in Arkansas. All dirty coal and dirty, dirty, lignite plants spew thousands of pounds of mercury into the atmosphere each year, and that vaporized mercury comes down in the frequent rains we have here in Arkansas. Our weather systems almost always move from west to east, and that brings the mercury leaden air from Texas right over Arkansas. Texas has four out of the top five dirty coal and lignite plants in the nation that emit mercury, and a  stunning 4500 pounds of mercury from these plants goes into the atmosphere every year in Texas, and a lot of that drops into the lakes and rivers in Arkansas. But Arkansas has nothing to brag about since around 800 pounds of mercury is put into the air from Arkansas’s three dirty coal-fired plants. As the mercury contaminates the streams and lakes it entered the food chain at the very bottom, and is ingested by the smallest organisms. However, the problem with mercury is very simple. It is not passed through, but stays within the organism, and when the larger fish in the food chain consume these small fish the mercury is slowly added to the larger fish until at the upper end of the food chain in large predatory fish such as bass and catfish it become concentrated enough to be harmful to humans who consume those fish. That's the real problem with dirty coal as far as I’m concerned.  Numerous studies have shown the harmful effects of ingesting contaminated fish, and the Arkansas Department of Health has issued a warning about consuming fish from certain lakes and streams. Studies have shown babies born from a mother who consumed more than the recommended amounts of mercury contaminated fish during the early months of pregnancy are very likely to produce a child with a lowered I.Q. So that's the big problem with dirty coal fired generating plants.

The combination of the Texas and Arkansas dirty coal-fired plants and industrialization of America in the last 50 years has caused the mercury in fish problem. It's a tough problem to solve, but a good start would be to convert the dirty coal and lignite burning electrical generating plants in Arkansas and Texas into clean burning natural gas fired plants. Then our mercury in fish problem would begin to slowly disappear. 

However, we seem to be taking a step backwards. Arkansas's attorney general is suing the EPA to stop them from enforcing the new standards that would force these dirty coal-fired plants to add scrubbers to remove the various harmful elements they emit, if they continued to burn dirty coal, or have them stitch to clean burning natural gas, and this week the head of the EPA announced he was suspending the new rules that would lower the coal-fired plants harmful emissions. He announced “The War on Coal is over!” Yes, you guessed it: it's all about making a buck now and facing the consequences later. What we should be doing is trying to eliminate the use of dirty coal as an electrical generating fuel, and not trying to dodge regulations that would solve the problem, and for God's sake don't open National Forests for dirty coal mining as has been proposed.

Okay, I know most of us could care less about what mercury will do to us, since we're primarily adults passed the child bearing age, but what about the young, country girl in Bradley County who knows nothing about mercury in the fish that she is eating several times a week while she's pregnant? Consider this: If she hadn't eaten the mercury contaminated fish, her son or daughter might have become doctor or an attorney, but instead his lower I Q. will turn him into a high school dropout. Shouldn't we do something to prevent that from happening? What if that child was your grandchild?

Arkansas Department of Health: Fish Notice: Pregnant or Breastfeeding Women, Women Planning to be Pregnant, and Children under 7 Years of Age--General Public 1. Felsenthal Wildlife Refuge – including the Saline River up to Stillions Bridge (Union, Bradley, Ashley Counties) Should not eat largemouth bass (13 inches or longer), flathead or blue catfish, pickerel, gar, bowfin or drum from this refuge. Should not eat flathead catfish, gar, bowfin, drum, pickerel or largemouth bass (16 inches in length or longer). No more than 2 meals per month of blue catfish and largemouth bass (13-16 inches in length) should be eaten from this refuge. 2. Ouachita River – from Camden to the north border of the Felsenthal Wildlife Refuge to include all associated ox-bow lakes, backwater and overflow lakes and barrow ditches (Union, Ouachita, and Calhoun Counties) Should not eat largemouth bass, flathead catfish, pickerel, gar or bowfin from this river. Should not eat largemouth bass, flathead catfish, pickerel, gar or bowfin from this river….