JASPER, Arkansas — The community of Jasper, Arkansas and surrounding areas showed up Thursday night for a town hall to discuss the future of the Buffalo National River.
One of Arkansas's greatest outdoor destinations has been the hottest topic lately as talks about changing its designation from a national river to a national park preserve. Many online have been vocally opposed to any changes and on Thursday over 1,000 people showed up to the Jasper High School to voice the same concerns.
A lot of the fear of the designation change is that it would lead to harmful actions to the region's unspoiled wilderness.
The main difference between a national park and preserve is that on preserves Congress can approve public hunting as well as oil and gas exploration ventures. It would also lead to an increase in tourism, which would in turn lead to more infrastructure and management.
Republican State Senator Bryan King, whose district includes Jasper and most of Newton County, was in attendance for the packed town hall. He said the transparency in the conversations around the designation proposal has been lacking.
"We need to be transparent and that's just not quite happening right now," he told the crowd. "Our founding fathers meant for you the citizens to be able to know what you're government is doing and that quite frankly just hasn't happened and that's flat out wrong."
The proposal has been met with bipartisan opposition, with Democratic State Senator Greg Leding also speaking out against the change. Leding believes Arkansans are right to question any plans.
Runway Group, a Bentonville investment company, has reportedly retracted any ideas of changing the designation for the river. King told The Madison County Record earlier this week that the group seemed "open to more dialogue."
But ultimately no changes can be made locally as it would take federal legislation to start the process.