The Ozarks are home to some of the most amazing, clear-running rivers anywhere. Below is some information on them, and groups working to protect them.
Organizations
Arkanas Canoe Club
The Ozark Society
Ozark Riverkeepers Network
Loose-knit Ozarkers working to protect the Current, Jack's Fork, and Eleven Point Rivers.
Scenic Rivers Stream Team Association

Logging is an integral part of many local economies, just as forest products are integral to our society. Logging can take place in a sustainable manner (see our resources here). Unfortunately, our Ozark forests are being cut at a dramatic and unsustainable pace, using forestry practices geared toward timber production, not healthy, viable forests now and in the future. Additionally, our forests are continually subject to a number of other controversial pressures, including off-road vehicles, prescribed fire, and mining.

From TPM Muckraker at http://tpmmuckraker.talkingpointsmemo.com/2008/09/mo_senator_white_house...

MO Senator and White House Played Role in Firing of U.S. Attorney
By Kate Klonick - September 30, 2008, 3:53PM

New details provided by the IG report released yesterday, gives definition to former U.S. Attorney Todd Graves' termination and paints a clear case for a politicized firing orchestrated by the office of Missouri Sen. Kit Bond (R).

The USFS has issued a scoping letter on the “South Fork Project”, named for the South fork of the Little Red River. The project is located on the Ozark National Forest between the East Fork Wilderness and Gulf Mountain Wildlife Management Area, south of Chimes, Alread, and Marshall, AR.

According to an independent review, the breakdown of USFS activities on this project would include:

Total project area – 12,501 acres
Planned logging and thinning - 7455 acres
Planned chemical herbicide treatment – 4895 acres
Planned Prescribed burning – 12,501 acres multiple times

HERBICIDE ALERT
A number of electric utilities throughout the Ozarks are presently using a combination of herbicides to kill the native plants, trees, and shrubs that grow beneath the power lines throughout our region. Countless numbers of plants and animal communities are being sprayed, causing harm to a wide range of species. Chemical residues from herbicides may wash into area creeks, ponds, springs, wells, and groundwater.

Comments are due by May 16 on the Southwest Project in the Cedar Creek District of the Mark Twain National Forest. This project includes heavy logging, cattle grazing, road development, building two parking areas, fence building, and other activities in the proposed Smith Creek Wilderness. Read more about it here.

Send comments from here.

Forest Service Plans Logging and Development in Proposed Smith Creek Wilderness: Your Comments Needed Now!

Situated in the midst of mid-Missouri’s population centers of Columbia, Fulton, and Jefferson City, the Cedar Creek District of the Mark Twain National Forest is much-used and much-beloved. And no portion of the Cedar Creek District is mor e special or better loved than the beautiful and still surprisingly remote Smith Creek proposed Wilderness Area above and below the old Rutherford Bridge connecting Boone and Callaway Counties. For more than 25 years, conservationists have worked with the Forest Service to respect and protect the authentic wilderness character of Smith Creek’s streams, bluffs, pinnacles, forests, wildlife, and solitude. In 2007, Smith Creek was included in a statewide proposal along with six other Missouri areas for designation as a federal Wilderness Area.

RICHMOND, VERMONT, Apr. 14 -/E-Wire/-- RICHMOND, Vt.— As a lethal ailment continues to be discovered in wintering bat colonies around the Northeast, conservation groups announced today that they will sue the federal government unless it undertakes a review of all its activities that may be harming endangered bat species.

Several large dairy producers and food companies have made news recently by getting rid of recombinant bovine growth hormone, also known as rBGH or rBST, from their milk supply. This is great news for consumers, since this genetically engineered growth hormone is known to cause harm to cows and may pose health risks to humans. But in Missouri, things appear to be going backwards. SB 1279 is in the Missouri Senate and would restrict dairy labeling telling you whether your dairy was produced without the artificial hormone rBGH / rBST.

The Daily Green By Dan Shapley

Friday 11 April 2008

Defied once by courts, Forest Service tries a new tack.