Land Use Issues & Controversies

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White man in suit and tie sitting at his desk and posing with an open book
Bell Foley Dam Project
The Bell Foley Dam Project was an unrealized construction effort in the 1970s to dam the Strawberry River and ...
"Big lake district hunters' paradise" newspaper clipping
Big Lake Wars
Competition and contention over an abundant (and unregulated) storehouse of northeastern Arkansas wildlife fro...
Tree growing next to stone arch structure in field
Camp Halsey
Camp Halsey was a Soil Conservation Service camp established in 1934 a few miles to the east of Greenbrier in ...
wooden building with water tower amid field with trees
Crossett Experimental Forest (CEF)
Established in 1934, the Crossett Experimental Forest (CEF) of the United States Department of Agriculture (US...
Deforestation
Deforestation is the conversion of timbered lands into one or more non-forest uses. A classical example of def...
wooden building with water tower amid field with trees
Experimental Forests
Experimental forests are timbered lands that have been established primarily for scientific research and demon...
Men and tents with trees and hanging laundry
Levees and Drainage Districts
Reclaiming the swamp and overflow lands in the Mississippi River Delta required draining those lands and build...
White woman in dress looking at a large tree trunk in a forest
Levi Wilcoxon Demonstration Forest
The Levi Wilcoxon Demonstration Forest (LWDF) is located about three miles south of Hamburg (Ashley County) al...
Military Land Grants
aka: Military Bounty Warrants
The system of granting free land in the public domain to men who se...
Cartoon dogs and children on green "Save the River Parks" poster with white text
Save the River Parks Campaign
aka: Audubon Society of Central Arkansas v. Dailey
“Save the River Parks” was a slogan adopted by environmental an...
Boat on the Arkansas River with concrete bridge in the background
Snag Boats
As American settlers pushed westward following the Louisiana Purchase in 1803, their goals of settlement, civi...
Older white man in hat and plaid shirt with younger white man in hat and green shirt in wetlands with map on car hood
Soil Conservation
Around 10,000 to 12,000 years ago, the first human inhabitants of what was to become the state of Arkansas cou...
Ridge with fall foliage and exposed multicolored soil
Soils
Arkansas has a diversity of rich soils that developed in a favorable environment for growing plants. The soils...
Spanish Land Grants
Arkansas inherited a complex legacy of land grants from its time as part of Spanish Louisiana. Beginning in 17...
Industrial buildings and outbuildings as seen from above
Superfund Sites
In 1980, Congress passed, and President Jimmy Carter signed, the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compens...
Swamp Land Act of 1850
The Swamp Land Act of 1850 gave Arkansas the right to identify and sell millions of acres of overflowed and sw...
White Flight
“White flight”—the departure of white residents from racially mixed cities to heavily white suburban enc...