This article first appeared in the St. Louis Beacon: August 17, 2008 - A recent weekend at a vacation house on the Current River with spouse and friends was a singular treat. The weekend was enlivened by a kayak float along the Jacks Fork, an iconic Ozark float stream complete with limestone bluffs hundreds of feet high, numerous caves and springs.
The dilemma in Missouri has always been how to broker a marriage between an Ozark population starved for income and opportunity and a nearby urban population that needs outdoor recreational opportunities. Often, what is characterized as economic development has despoiled the landscape: logging to feed chip mills, marginal agriculture on vulnerable upland and extraction of ores leaving tailings and water pollution.
As industrial, mining and logging jobs fade, they are replaced by employment driven by technology and knowledge. And quality of life can determine where these new jobs develop. Thus, our experience in the Ozarks brought home to me again a potential inherent in the beauty of the Ozark countryside, unique geologic features and clear streams.
The Current, Jacks Fork and Eleven Point rivers already benefit from federal protection and recreational development under the aegis of the National Park Service. The St. Francois, Black, Huzzah, Courtois, Meramec, Big and Little Piney and others are not so blessed. These scenic streams might be tapped for additional recreation within easy reach of Missouri's two large cities as well as Springfield and Columbia. But beneficial economic development could also be lured to the Ozarks, generating jobs and income where opportunity now lags.
Development initiatives must be accompanied by enlightened regulatory measures to protect the landscape that makes this area unique. Although that regulation has often been difficult to achieve in the conservative political atmosphere of Missouri, it is essential.
Kentucky and Tennessee have pioneered the development of outstanding state parks and recreational areas that have become playgrounds for Nashville, Louisville, Memphis and Knoxville. Missouri can do those states one better by substituting preservation and conservation along with economic development to replace the lost mining, agricultural and marginal manufacturing jobs that have fled the Ozark Plateau.
The loss of such jobs can actually lead to environmental improvement, which in turn supports a "wise use" philosophy emphasizing historic preservation, land and water conservation and environmental protection. Development activity would center on providing relaxation and recreation for white-color workers. And vacation home and resort communities would be used to attract new enterprises.
How can the state help? Regulations can protect land and water resources; beautifying roadways and developing parkways can provide inviting access. Scenic easements, strategic land purchases and building code enforcement would all help without costing the state very much. The state can also work with environmental groups to foster construction jobs and business opportunities for local people for accommodations and services for visitors.
There is little reason the Ozarks cannot continue to be a reservoir of beauty, habitat and ecological interest while encouraging visitors to spend more than the cost of canoe rentals and the customary six pack of the "pride of Pestalozzi."
A future of this sort would unite city and countryside in a relationship providing income and opportunity to both.
John Roach is a lawyer who has long been involved in transportation and other civic issues.