The NCWA is a grassroots environmental organization established in 1975 to stop the United States Forest Service (USFS) hardwood-to-pine forest conversion program and eliminate the aerial spraying of the Ozark National Forest (ONF) hardwood forests with the herbicides 2,4D and 2,4,5T. Using on-the-ground research, public outreach, and the federal court system, the USFS aerial spraying campaign was dropped in the ONF, setting a precedent for other successful legal challenges to USFS aerial herbicide spraying programs throughout the country. The NCWA successfully intervened in the 1986 ONF Land and Resource Management Plan and helped to establish a series of deferred 'Special Interest Areas' throughout the ONF, and reduce even-aged management and hardwood-to-pine forest conversion. We have been active in national and regional forest reform networking campaigns, and currently are working together on projects with many other grassroots environmental groups in the region.