Let's Protect Our Wildlife Habitat

I am a native Arkansawyer.  I grew up literally in the woods; hunting and fishing almost every day of my early life.  As I look back on the changes that have occurred, I can say that, without question, the wholesale cutting of the big timber along our rivers is, by far, the biggest change in the woods.  It hasn't been many years ago when you could walk for miles through huge pin oak flats.  Today most of the old growth is gone.  Only patches remain.  Scraggly cut over timber and clear‑cut tracts replanted in pine plantations make‑up much of our forests.  Yes, there is more wooded land in Arkansas than we had 30 years ago, but I challenge anyone to truthfully say the quality of our woodlands is superior to what we had. 

It's no mystery as to what has happened to our woodlands.  Anyone that has traveled around our country or spent any time overseas has surely observed the destruction of woodlands worldwide.

We have lost 90% of our wetlands over the past 100 years, and we are still seeing them vanish at an alarming rate. The hardwood forests that covered our land years ago are systematically being replaced by pine plantations.  Bottomland hardwoods have become especially vulnerable to timber harvest, and the result is a 70% loss of bottomland hardwoods.

Now, let's look at countries that have sat back and allowed uncontrolled or unregulated timber practices to dominate their landscape.  The best examples are the European countries that we now view as being un-forested.  Those rolling hills of Scotland, England, Ireland, France, etc., aren't naturally open plains. 

These vast tracts of land broken today by only a fence row, formerly contained a majestic forest stretching across Europe and the British Isles.  As our country continues to decimate its forests and wetlands, how long will it be until we reach the European City‑Village state when only a few "nature" areas remain, and hunting is regulated to a few monitored estates.

There is one lesson in all of history that we must recognize if we are to have anything left for our grandchildren.  The lesson is very simple and straightforward.  If an area of high quality woodlands or wetlands is not protected in some manner, then it is an absolute certainty to be destroyed.  There are no exceptions, and this rule applies worldwide.

Now, let's look closely at Arkansas.  A few years ago, I interviewed one of the older citizens of the Mena area.  When I asked him what had changed the most in West Arkansas, he said, "the woods".  He told of riding through the forest by wagon, not along any road, but cross country to visit neighbors, traveling through a forest of ancient oaks scattered with pine.  The high forest canopy created an open, brush free area easily traversed by wagon.  Today?  Well, by the 1920's, our old growth forest had been cut.  As the National Forests were created and the forest service's timber management practices were initiated, slowly but surely, the character of our national forests forever changed.  Today West Arkansas is predominately pine forests with only a remnant of hardwoods remaining.  Nothing was protected, so almost everything was lost.

Today our choices are simple.  We can either sit back and listen to the timber companies tell us how they are going to manage the timber and wildlife, and then watch as we have less and less wildlife habitat each year, or we can seek to protect areas where extraordinary timber and wildlife habitat remain.  East Arkansas is active in doing just that, with its Cache‑White River Refuge Systems.  West and North Central Arkansas is protecting large wilderness areas through the National Forest Wilderness System and the National River System.  South Arkansas has the Felsenthal National Wildlife Refuge.  However, even with these steps in the right direction, we are only protecting a fraction of the habitat we should be protecting.

Remember, the past tells us either we protect unique wildlife habitat, or we lose it.  What are you going to do?