From Hope to Higher Ground: on Environment

Conservatives believe in conservation

I said, “Gentlemen, I can assure you that I will not campaign against the proposal, and in fact, I am strongly in favor of it.”

There has been a perception that conservative Republicans do not care much for the environment or the protection and preservation of natural resources. I remind people that the very word “conservative” means that we are all about conserving things that are valuable and dear. Few things are more valuable to us than the natural resources that God created and gave to us to carefully manage.

One of the proudest moments I have had as a governor is the passage of what became Amendment 75 to the Arkansas Constitution. It forever dedicates a small but vital revenue stream to the conservation of our state’s valuable and irreplaceable resources.

The earth is the Lord’s; we are merely its caretakers

Supported conserving Buffalo River in north AR against dams

In the 1960s and early 1970s conservationists in Arkansas successfully fought back attempts to build a dam on the Buffalo River in North Arkansas, the phenomenal stream that became America’s first National River. To this day it is one of the most magnificently beautiful and vibrant natural streams on the continent. Every time I experience a canoe float down the Buffalo I realize I owe an extraordinary amount of gratitude to some stubborn conservationist from a previous generation who kept the Buffalo River from becoming little more than a memory for old-timers to talk about.