alleviate, as you mentioned yesterday, the social problems and the social pollutions that we are now encountering. We feel deeply about this because after 60 years we know that the problem will be even more severe. If something is not done now we are afraid that these areas of refuge will not be available for communication with nature and having an area where you can once again find some peace and quiet and maybe some type of contentment there.

Once again I would like to say we strongly favor these bills. Also with your permission, I would like to have entered into the record 871 signatures we have in triplicate of university students who also favor the passage of these bills.

Mr. TAYLOR. These petitions and some other petitions which we received yesterday will be placed in the file, and your statement will be placed in the record.

Mr. JENKINS. Thank you.

(The statement follows:)

STATEMENT OF OZARK SOCIETY, UNIVERSITY OF ARKANSAS CHAPTER, TOMMY JENKINS, CHAIRMAN

During the last four years as a teacher in Fayetteville High School, lab assistant at the University of Arkansas and as chairman of the University of Arkansas chapter of the Ozark Society, I have had ample opportunity to gain insight into the attitudes of high school and university students concerning the use and protection of our environment. The attitudes I feel are best reflected by the direction of study and the activities promoted by students. Areas of study by secondary students in Fayetteville High School have been concentrated on environmental studies, not only in biology but also in debate and political science and activities promoting environmental education and quality have been started by students in the form of clubs and student government. Many students work through the university chapter of the Ozark Society, Society for Environmental Stabilization. Hike and Bike Club, Recycling Center, Boys and Girl Scouts, Arkansas Environmental Research Society and clean-ups organized by student leaders.

Even if efforts are minimal by students they nearly always seem to come to the realization that not all individuals are as concerned they are. During the past year efforts have been made through the court systems to stop and penalize individuals that habitually degrade the environment for economic gain or by carelessness. But when students investigated state regulations on environmental protection, they found vague, toothless laws which do not assure future environmental quality. Since the state has not taken the responsibility to assure protection for areas of high environmental quality, then the Federal Programs represent one of the last hopes.

If the Buffalo River is not protected in some manner, individuals will exploit and mutilate the water shed area and the river bed due to lack of control by the state. This is the reason that the Student Chapter of the Ozark Society favors efforts through legislation, as in H.R. Bill 8382 and 9119, to set aside and protect the Buffalo River in Arkansas until man better understands how to protect and co-exist with the environment.

As politicians, I know you want to be sensitive to the needs of people and I am speaking for people who want efforts made to assure them of a future with areas where man can both physically and mentally escape his artifically burdened enviromnent.

Mr. TAYLOR. I have only one or two questions. How many members do you have in the University of Arkansas Chapter of the Ozark Society?

Mr. JENKINS. We have 200.

Mr. TAYLOR. Are most faculty members and students?

Mr. JENKINS. Yes, sir; in fact I guess all of them would fall under that category, who work with the university. This is the largest group

that we have had. This shows the genuine concern of this age group of people in the environment.

Mr. TAYLOR. What would you say the purpose of the organization is? Mr. JENKINS. We have conservation in mind, of course, and we also sponsor recreation and giving people an opportunity to experience some of the things we feel are very important, such as canoeing and backpacking.

Mr. TAYLOR. Thank you.

Mr. JENKINS. Thank you.

Mr. TAYLOR. Mr. Hilary Jones.

STATEMENT OF HILARY JONES, A LANDOWNER FROM PRUITT, NEWTON COUNTY, ARK.

Mr. JONES. Honorable Chairman, members of the committe, I am Hilary Jones, a landowner from Pruitt, Newton County, Ark. I am here today representing the town of Pruitt and the Buffalo River landowners. I am glad to have this opportunity to speak to you as we have always felt we will be a little better received by this committee than by the Senate committee where our own Senator did not stay to hear the opposition to the park bill by the people from our State. I would like to thank you for the courtesy extended by this committee and especially for the courtesy of Representative Aspinall in keeping this bill from action in prior years. We hope that this bill will be stopped in committee this time.

Mr. TAYLOR. I am not sure that that is a correct statement.

Mr. JONES. We hope this bill will be stopped in committee at this time.

Mr. TAYLOR. I have not seen any action of Mr. Aspinall's part which would keep the bill from being considered on its merits.

Mr. JONES. Last year he made a statement that he felt the Park Service had not continued their development as they should and therefore he did not feel this bill should have been committed.

Mr. TAYLOR. We have that situation on all projects. We have to wait until the Park Service finishes its analysis and its studies and is in a position to recommend a definite course of action before we move on it.

Mr. JONES. We appreciated that fact very much.

Mr. TAYLOR. Mr. Aspinall is very much in sympathy with this project.

Mr. JONES. Very well.

Mr. TAYLOR. But he wants to keep it on a sound basis, just as we all do.

Mr. JONES. That is the interest we have, too.

During this past summer, I had the opportunity to visit Mr. Aspinall's home State. My own home area compares in a small way with the areas I visited in Colorado. I see that the beauty of that State is being preserved without governmental controls and I wonder why the same cannot be done on the Buffalo River.

Personally, and on behalf of the town of Pruitt and the Buffalo River landowners, I would like to state that we are opposed to the proposed Buffalo River National Park bill that you are considering today. I would appreciate your attention to a few of the reasons why we have taken this stand.

First, let me call attention to the fact that during the summer months when families are vacationing, the Buffalo River is too low for boating or fishing in our area. There are other areas I probably should have mentioned that they can float most of the time. The water, although pure, becomes filled with dead leaves and silt when the river is low and swimming is not really good either. Even this month, the river is too low for john boats or canoes. I own and operate a motel and campground at Pruitt and I have had people from Memphis, St. Louis, and all over the Midwest who came prepared to float the river this summer only to find that they could not. I have here some pictures that show this more clearly than I can tell you. These were taken at the Buffalo River bridge at Pruitt, which in the spring months is a major putting in and taking out place for boats, but as you can see here the stream can easily be spanned by a pickup truck and is no more than a few inches deep in summer. May I introduce the pictures at this time?

Mr. TAYLOR. Yes. Counsel will get them and we will look at them. Mr. JONES. This is a crossing that the Park Service proposes to take at Pruitt for development.

Mr. TAYLOR. Do you want these pictures back?

Mr. JONES. No, sir; I want these pictures to be available for the committee or the Park Service or anyone who would like to look at them.

Mr. TAYLOR. Then we will keep them in our files.

Mr. JONES. You keep them there. Here is a picture taken this sunmer. They talked of the fertility of the valleys of the Buffalo River. I have some pictures here of farmland and owners and things in this valley, of people who are making a living there from this land and the grass. This is all inland that is taken in the section, townsship, and range and everything is there. The landyowners' names are there.

The other time, at the Senate hearing, Mr. Campbell didn't recognize where some of these places were. So I have put all of their names and everything on them. There are no pictures of any land that isn't in this Buffalo River Valley. This is some of the finest farmland in northwest Arkansas. Any of these landowners can be contacted by any member of your committee.

Here is a picture in the local paper with the date and everything on it. I have lived in the river area all of my life and I am proud of the beauty of the county. All of us in the area are a little dishearted by the fact that the river has been so vastly oversold and we are left with the task of telling the tourists that the river cannot be floated except in early spring and late fall.

I would also like to point out that parks all over the Nation are fighting pollution and crime problems and losing the battle. We would not like to see our area become a haven for drifters and hippies and people who are unwilling to work, and lost in a sea of garbage, and we feel that this is what would happn if it were made into a national park.

We are concerned about the survival of our county. Nearly half of the county is all ready Government land and this bill proposes to take an additional 43,700 acres. This will place an extreme tax burden on the remaining private landowners and we do not believe our county can survive under those conditions.

We are concerned over the loss of productive farmland. So much of the county is rough and timbered and the good farmland all lies along the stream beds. When you take the Buffalo River, you have taken the cream off the top. Our county supplies two-thirds of the pigs going through the nearest livestock market. We also market a large number of beef cattle fed on the fertile pastures of the river bottom. In a world suffering acute overpopulation and malnutrition this is a point worthy of consideration.

Let me also call your attention to the fact that the park has already caused hardships to landowners along the river. For most of us, this has been many years of worry and inconvenience. Just as an example, my family has been raised along the river. I still have four children at home and we all work together on the motel and campground which provides a part of our living. We like our place and Newton County and the place is not for sale, but I could have sold it twice this past summer if I had not told the people about the proposed national park. Others up and down the river are in the difficult position of wanting to sell or needing to sell all or part of their land, but finding that prospective buyers just don't want to risk the park. Many people who would have improved their buildings, reseeded their pastures, or otherwise improved their land have not done it because they felt that it would be lost effort.

Finally, I would like to point out to you that Newton County land has become increasingly valuable over the past few years particularly for retirement and vacation homes and the amounts of money set aside to purchase land designated for the park will not be more than a drop in the bucket. Again, let me give you an example. One particular piece of unimproved land has sold four times in the past 7 years. No changes have been made in that land. It is still in the same condition as when first sold, but the price at the last sale was an increase of 900 percent over the first. Any accessible acre along the Buffalo River will be priced in excess of $4,000. It is amazing to all of us who have been in the county for several years that people are not only asking, but getting, prices that are more than double what they would have asked for the same property 5 or 10 years ago. Those of us on the river who couldn't sell at any price because of the park proposal, can't help being a little jealous of land values in the rest of the county when we know that we have the best land in the county. We are proud of our county, as I have said before, and we try to preserve its beauty, but we do feel that we should be allowed to develop its enormous potential as a tourist retreat and retirement settlement.

We feel that the only way the beauty of our area can be destroyed is for the Federal Government to provide the money to do it and we are sure that the cost to the Nation's taxpayers is going to be much more than expected. If left alone the Buffalo River area will continue to be a beautiful place to visit or to live. It is all there now just as God placed it there and it cannot be improved upon by man.

Thank you for your attention. I hope you will give this your earnest consideration and that you will recommend that the proposed national park on the Buffalo River should not be approved.

Mr. TAYLOR. How far upstream is the town of Pruitt from the Buffalo State Park?

Mr. JONES. It's probably about 40 miles.

72-466-72-9

Mr. TAYLOR. I see pictures dated August 1967 which show almost no water in the river.

Mr. JONES. That is true. That is so absolutely true for 4 months. Mr. TAYLOR. We floated down a section of the river many miles above the State park ending up at the State park in August of 1971. We found plenty of water for boating and floating.

Mr. JONES. At times there are. Some times of the year there is a rainy season. It has been 4 years that it has been exceptional. There is rain in July and August sometimes. But in a normal season the river is not floatable from the upper reaches down until the Highway 65 bridge. It goes up above the Highway 65 bridge. It was dry less than 3 weeks ago. You could walk across it. So I am certain you didn't float that in this past year, in other words.

Mr. TAYLOR. I want to correct a statement I made. It was a little earlier in the year.

Mr. JONES. Earlier in the year. Up until May or June you sure can. That is absolutely right. For the first month of your normal vacation season we have lots of people there. I don't deny that. But from then on the only people we have are people who are looking at the mountains and the ruggedness of the country.

Mr. TAYLOR. You realize under the terms of the bill that you and other property owners will be permitted to keep your homes and farms during your lifetime if you wish?

Mr. JONES. That is not my understanding of that. I understand from talking with Mr. Campbell, who is here, that we in the Pruitt area will be forced to give up our property for development by the National Park Service. I believe I am right in that statement. He is here. If I am wrong he might correct me.

Mr. TAYLOR. I was checking with counsel. I haven't seen anything in any of the bills which separates the Pruitt area from other areas, generally, unless your specific situation involves lands which are needed for the development of public use facilities.

Mr. JONES. It is mentioned that it will be for development, is it not? I am sure it is.

Mr. TAYLOR. There will be public use spots which have to be taken for access and development.

Mr. JONES. It is one of the major crossings. It's mentioned, I believe. Maybe it's not in the bill directly, but it has been mentioned over the years. I will put it that way, that it would be. If that is the case, sir, maybe if we were told what land-we feel our county is furnishing the vast majority of this land and we have the dry part of the river. We don't see the criteria for this national park bill because we are giving these people all of this recreation. It doesn't cost them a dime to go down there to float the Buffalo River.

I have trash cans on my property and people have reunions and everything there. There is no charge made to any of those people, unless they make overnight camping, where we furnish showers and things of that nature. But if they only want to stop for a picnic dinner, no one is denied a right to go there. I have a sanitary landfill. I make every effort to keep it in the best manner we can. We don't allow any dead animals or anything to be placed in that river. We have done that over the years. We enjoy the river just the same as these people who comes down there. It's our home.