As I look back on my life from pre-teen to senior status, I can easily say I have spent literally thousands of hours hunting in our woods, fishing in our lakes and streams, and the results are an appreciation of the natural beauty, and that has given me a continuing desire to do what I can to protect and enhance our State's Environment. As the years pass, I continue to treasure the natural beauty of our state more and more, and I want to do everything I can to protect and enhance it. I'm sure my early teen and pre-teen years had a lot to do with my appreciation of the natural beauty of our state.

As a preteen and teen, I lived on a small 20-acre farm about 100 yards from a little creek and a heavily forested creek bottom. There were very few days that passed that I didn't head down to Goodwin Creek where I fished, hunted, trapped, and during the summer when I swam naked in a perfect "Swimming Hole" in the little creek. I can still remember having to run the snakes out before I hit the water.

I'm sure those early years, which exposed me to the Natural Arkansas, gave me an appreciation of the beauty of our wonderful state, and as an adult, while serving as a member of the Arkansas Pollution Control and Ecology........

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