Buck Island, Arkansas

A trio of legislators -- Reps. Clark Hall, Allen Maxwell and Robert S. Moore, Jr. -- encouraged the state earlier this year to acquire Buck Island, a 1,500 acre island in the Mississippi River just northeast of Helena. Moore authored legislation to obtain the island using General Improvement Funds (Act 1337 of 2007), but the Game and Fish Commission and the governor's office cited several concerns over such a move, including lack of access, regular flooding, and other priorities.

Now conservationists have dropped the price to $950,000 in hopes that someone will come forward, purchase the island and either hold it in trust until it can be secured for use as a state or city park, or donate a conservation easement for public use. Tim Richardson, government affairs director for the American Land Conservancy, says that such a deal needs to be done by December 31 because tax laws regarding easements change next year. Here's Saturday's Memphis Commercial Appeal article on Buck Island, and here's a previous article from the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette from October.