From the Arkansas Game and Fish Commission:
Arkansas’s duck season will again cover 60 days. It’s the 19th consecutive year the Arkansas Game and Fish Commission has approved a 60-day hunting season for waterfowl. The vote came today during the Commission’s monthly meeting.
AGFC Waterfowl Program Coordinator Luke Naylor presented the Commission with the late migratory season proposals. Naylor summarized a U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service report that said despite an early spring over most of the waterfowl breeding population and habitat survey area, habitat conditions during the 2015 survey were similar to or poorer than last year. “With the exception of portions of southern Saskatchewan and central latitudes of eastern Canada, in many areas the decline in habitat conditions was due to average to below-average annual precipitation,” Naylor explained.
Naylor noted that Arkansas again had the highest mallard harvest in the nation with just over 530,000 mallards harvested in the 2014-15 season. The next highest mallard harvest in the nation was in Missouri with just over 254,800. No other state in the Mississippi Flyway harvested over 200,000 mallards. During the 2013-14 waterfowl season, Arkansas hunters harvested almost 423,000 mallards.
2015-16 Duck Season Dates
Nov. 21 – Nov. 29
Dec. 10 – Dec. 23
Dec. 26 – Jan. 31
Youth Hunt: Dec. 5 and Feb. 6
Northwest Canada goose zone season
Sept. 19-28
Statewide Canada goose season
Sept. 1-15, Nov. 18-Dec. 4 and Dec. 6-Jan. 31
White-fronted, snow, blue and Ross’s goose seasons
Nov. 18-Dec. 4 and Dec. 6-Jan. 31 (daily bag limit increased from two to three)
Light goose conservation order
Oct. 10-Nov. 17, Feb. 1-5 and Feb. 7-April 25
The 2015-16 duck bag limits are six ducks consisting of six ducks consisting of: no more than: four mallards (two hens), three wood ducks, two pintails, two redheads, one black duck, two canvasbacks, one mottled duck or three scaup.
The Commission also heard a proposal to ban simulated wing movement decoys on Bayou Meto and Dave Donaldson Black River wildlife management areas. If approved, the ban would be in effect from the first day of regular duck season to the last day of the last segment of the regular duck season. The commission will vote on the proposed ban at its Sept. 24 meeting.
In other AGFC business today, the commission:
· Approved an agreement with Craighead County on the transfer of ownership of Lake Bono. The agreement includes 276 acres of land, access development, maintenance responsibility and fisheries management of the lake.
· Approved the 2016 fishing regulations.
· Approved a regulation change to remove the outboard motor restriction on the Eleven Point River.
· Approved giving AGFC Director Mike Knoedl authority to resolve a real estate encroachment on Harris Brake. The encroachment involves approximately 1,000 square feet of land.
· Authorized the agency to proceed with a habitat restoration project on Ed Gordon Point Remove WMA at an estimated cost of $934,000 of which $700,000 has been donated by Southwestern Energy, Inc.
· Approved donation of a 120-acre tract of mitigation property from Magellan Midstream Partners to the AGFC. The land borders Steve N. Wilson Raft Creek Bottoms WMA.
· Approved the demolition of a dilapidated building on Petit Jean River WMA.
· Granted a Glock pistol to retiring wildlife officer Brian Gaskins.
· Honored Biologist Lou Hausman with the George Dunklin Jr. Arkansas Waterfowl and Wetland Management Award and AGFC Chief Counsel Jim Goodhart with the Arkansas Wildlife Federation Harold Alexander Conservationist of the Year Award.
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