BRIAN NALLEY

Brian Nalley doesn’t know where his boundless drive for conservation comes from. He just knows it’s been there, bubbling up from within, more vocation than hobby.

“I believe we were put here in stewardship of our planet,” he said. “I was raised in church. They didn’t preach every Sunday on conservation of wildlife, but the Bible says the mountains and the hills declare My name. I think about that a lot.”

Nalley grew up on a farm where connection to the land runs especially deep. When he wasn’t tending crops or farm animals, he was in the woods with his father and uncle. He also was big into scouting, attaining the rank of Eagle Scout, which only deepened his attention to matters of land, water and creatures, as well as outdoor activities.

“I’ve got really good memories of us squirrel hunting when I was just a little ol’ kid,” he said. “I got my first shotgun when I was in the fourth grade. I’ve just grown up outdoors doing that sort of thing.”

As an adult, Nalley took his passion for the outdoors into overdrive, founding two projects that speak to the simple joy and grave responsibility of serving creation. In 1997, he bought the first of several plots of Saline County land that would become Buckhorn Ranch LLC. Now covering 261 acres, Buckhorn exists as a privately funded and managed land and aquatic wildlife sanctuary with about 1 mile of Alum Fork Saline River frontage.

Over the years, Nalley has implemented various wildlife habitat improvement projects for quail and completed a streambank riparian restoration improvement project for erosion control and fishery improvements, in partnership with the Arkansas Game and Fish Commission.

“Just kind of built it a little step at a time,” he said. “Wildlife biology and conservation are not a oneseason thing. I’ve been doing this for 20 years or more on this property. You’ve got to do a few little things at a time and they’ll start adding up.”

Two years ago, he spearheaded the creation of the Saline River Watershed Alliance, a group dedicated to protecting the watershed’s varied habitats. The organization promotes responsible land development in relation to the environment as well as educates landowners through workshops and publications on ways to improve their properties for wildlife habitat, erosion control and recreational natural scenic beauty.

“You don’t have to have a lot of money to do all this,” he said. “You just have to have the initiative to do this. And you need to have some perseverance. Things don’t happen overnight. Contact the Arkansas Game and Fish Commission to get with a private land biologist and let them come out and do an evaluation and give you some recommendations or connect you to other resources.”

Nalley doesn’t like the spotlight, but the work he’s done over the past two decades continues to earn acclaim. Most recently, the Buckhorn Ranch Alum Fork Saline River was selected one of 10 Waters to Watch nationally by the National Fish Habitat Partnership. He’s pleased if this inspires others to follow his lead, but as for the accolades themselves, he just shrugs. It’s enough to know his forefathers and his Lord would approve of what he’s doing.

“You’re supposed to leave things better than you found them and that’s kind of my principle in life,” Nalley said. “I tell my wife, I’m the most insane person. I spend my time planting food plots and fixing this, that and the other, and I don’t really know why. I just get an internal satisfaction from knowing that I’m promoting and serving wildlife.”

“You’re supposed to leave things better than you found them.”—-Brian Nalley, Saline River Watershed founder