Populism & Southern Lands Pt. 1: From Ozarks to Oz

"Rich men not from here are pushing to change a way of life"

I’ve been thinking a lot about public lands lately, in part because the federal government has launched an initiative to “conserve” at least 30% of the country by 2030. Over the next two weeks, I’ll look at two controversies over public lands and conservation in the South. Up first: the Buffalo River.

A Walton-affiliated LLC is part of a coalition seeking to rebrand the Buffalo River—which some view as part of a larger effort to turn the Arkansas Ozarks into “Oz.” / Arkansas Department of Parks and Tourism

For the people along the Buffalo River, in northwestern Arkansas, it was a lose-lose.

The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers wanted to build a dam that would flood their land. A bunch of nature lovers wanted to stop the dam by turning the river into one long park—what one local called a “130-mile-long zoo.”

The nature-lovers won, which is why in 1972 the Buffalo became the country’s first “national river,” a designation that protects the scenic character of this river. The federal government …