The overwhelming desire to protect the Buffalo River and other rivers in the Ozarks lead directly to passage of the Wild & Scenic Rivers Act; Tim Palmer’s book, The Wild & Scenic Rivers of America provides an excellent narrative of how this came to be. Despite this auspicious beginning, of Arkansas approximate 82,366 miles of river, only 210 miles are designated as wild & scenic—approximately 1/4 of 1% of the state’s river miles.
