The Beautiful Buffalo River Action Committee (BBRAC) in cooperation with the Arkansas Natural Resources Commission (ANRC) has contracted with FTN Associates Ltd. to develop a Buffalo River Watershed Management Plan.
All stakeholders are encouraged to attend meetings that will be conducted by FTN; the first meeting will be held on December 8, 2016 in Marshall, Arkansas. The meeting will begin at 9:30 a.m. The meeting will be approximately two hours, and will be held at the Searcy County Civic Center in the gym.
The Center is located on Zack Road, a little more than a mile off U.S. Hwy 65. Attendees should turn north on Zack Road off Hwy 65, next to Harps Supermarket, and then drive a half mile and follow Zack Road as it turns left (west). Drive three-fourths of a mile, and the Civic Center is on the left.
At the direction of Governor Asa Hutchinson, the BBRAC was organized to establish an Arkansas led approach to identify and address potential issues of concern in the Buffalo River watershed through the development of a non-regulatory watershed based management plan. The process, starting in December, should be completed by June of 2018. The result of the plan will provide a framework for landowners, communities, and organizations to voluntarily undertake water quality projects in the watershed and improve the ability to solicit and secure funding and assistance from various government and private sources.
The Purpose of the meeting will be to gather public input and to explain the process that will be followed in the development of a non-regulatory watershed-based management plan for the Buffalo River and its tributaries. Over the course of the next 16 to18 months, ANRC will develop a voluntary watershed-based management plan that is designed to help sustain the watershed and its resources. There will be several additional public meetings during the development of the Buffalo River Watershed-Based Management Plan. The first meeting of the Beautiful Buffalo River Action Committee is anticipated to occur in late January 2016.
