Thread: White river refuge

The $20 is worth it. My personal belief though is that everywhere and everything is running out of money because of abuse and mis-use. Now they are having to go grasping at desperate measures to make enough money to support these wonderful places. Priority should go back to preservation and not so much free phones. I work in the ER. It is not uncommon for someone to come in un-insured and be using 3-4 cell phones. It blows my mind! And they come every time they get a runny nose. Wife had to come to ER that I work in and she also is a nurse in same hospital. We are insured to the hilt. My part is $2,000?????? How is any of that fair???? Im debating cancelling insurance because I am learning the best insurance.......is NO INSURANCE.

Because at our hospital if ur un-insured and u pay cash up front you get a 75% discount. If you are an employee at this hospital you get a 10% discount. I would have to pay $900 in that case. Makes sense to drop insurance and start health savings. Someone please correct me if im incorrect.

Our health care system is going in the toilet ! I don't mind paying the fee except it will not be put back in the refuge and we have already paid for the place a 1000 times over with tax dollars. Not including all the timber they have harvested in there the last few years and many years back . It is another great example of goverment dollars wasted . I bet our Congressmen are not paying any extra fees these days . The Russia investigation has cost us MILLIONS , for nothing but charge the little man . I will say we are fortunate to have these river bottoms preserved somewhat anyway. I dont want to sound ungrateful but dang the waste goverment has is ridiculous and we continue to pay for it. All that said I will be paying it

Originally Posted by LowePro

Gnats killed a lot of deer on the refuge. My buddy owns a farm and farms another that borders it. He found 57 dead deer this year when the gnats were so bad. May not have been widespread but it was happening there. They bought hay bales and burned em. Set up trail cameras on the bales. The deer were literally directly downwind of the bales. Constant photos with 10-20 deer behind em.

I hunt the east side. Have seen the gnats so bad the guy with the cattle on the levee burned round bales to keep the gnats at bay for the cows. With the wet year, i knew the gnats would be tough. Those deer will bounce back. They always do. Thanks for the info.

And I've already paid my $20. $20 bucks is worth the price of admission to just be on the refuge!!

Sad to think of all the trees that were cut in recent years in the white and cache river refuges. I’ve seen a lot of it myself and its devastating. Miles and miles of “it’ll be better for the future” heavy duty logging.

Mother nature took her precious time developing that area over centuries but is no match for haphazard logging contracts developed with a pen stroke smile and a handshake.

All we have are memories of a beautiful expanse of flooded hardwoods and sweet dreams filled with skidder ruts and stumps.

Mr R.O. Bell carried his son Don and I camping at Big Island Shute when I was 14. We carried a blanket each and some food.
Don and I slept on the ground and Mr. R.O. slept in the truck. The timber was huge and the forrest floor was covered with
swamp grass about boot top tall. After that trip I spent thousands on thousands of hours tromping that bottom. On a mornings
squirrel hunt you might see 50 deer. Once in while a bear or turkey. I'm glad I got a chance to experience it. They started
cutting the timber a few years after that. I was told by a warden, some time after they started harvesting the timber, that the
University of Arkansas got 60 percent of the money produced from the timber sales and they wanted it all cut. It was and is
a magical place. Even with all the improvements.

Should be Little Island Shute.