Brown leaves mark on AGFC
When former Gov. Mike Beebe announced his new appointment to the Arkansas Game and Fish Commission seven years ago, Fred Brown of Corning seemed an odd fit.
He was a mismatch, but he was the man that Beebe needed to reorient a commission that had lost its way.
Bad news spewed from the agency like lava from a volcano and embarrassed Beebe with maddening regularity. Two wildlife officers were caught hunting out of state without hunting licenses. Two others hunted with firearms that had been confiscated from violators as evidence. The agency had overstocked its vehicle fleet, and an abnormally large number of salaried employees were furnished cars for personal use.
The last straw was an ill-conceived scheme to enact a freedom of information policy that was independent of the state Freedom of Information law.
Into this environment stepped Brown, one of Beebe’s closest and most trusted friends.
I noticed in his introductory news conference that Beebe called him “Freddy.” It sent a subtle message that Brown was not a casual acquaintance.
In a one-on-one interview later that afternoon, Brown was as subtle as a speeding freight train approaching a crossing, and it was clear that he would be nobody’s fool and nobody’s tool.
That soon became clear to the commission, too. At his first meeting in July 2010, a former commissioner made a quip about hazing the “new guy.”
Brown whipped around, squared his shoulders and said loudly, “You ain’t man enough to haze me.”
Some time later, Brown confronted that same commissioner when he heard that he was verbally abusing Game and Fish employees.
He put that commissioner against a wall and persuaded him to cease and desist.
So unnerved was the offender that during this harangue, Brown reached to scratch an itch on his nose. The wayward commissioner, who later resigned, thought Brown was going to strike him and winced.
Arkansans commonly criticize commissioners for their blue-blood, country club backgrounds. Brown is a farmer in whom there is no guile.
Because of these characteristics, regular, working-class Arkansans related to Brown. He looks like us and he talks like us, but most important, he listens.
Despite his cobblestone demeanor, Brown is a rare combination of talents that made him one of the most effective commissioners I’ve covered in my 12 years on the Game and Fish beat. He sees the big picture, but he also understands all the pixels that compose the big picture.
He was a budget hawk that demanded fiscal responsibility. That led to accountable line-item budgeting in every division.
He was acutely sensitive to employee morale and to the things that affect employee morale. He also was a stickler for policy compliance and ethics when it came to doing business with outside entities.
The commission’s work meetings can sometimes splinter into rabbit trail debates about inconsequential minutia. Brown let the rabbits run for only short distances before gaveling discussions back onto topic.
He valued the opinions of professional fish and wildlife managers, but astute biologists were aware that as a farmer, Brown understands that the earth works inherent to wildlife and fisheries management. He demanded clarity, and woe to a presenter that dismissed or sidestepped his questions.
Brown’s legacy as a commissioner is deceptively vast.
He played a major role in eliminating the privatization of public resources at Black River, Big Lake and Sunken Lands wildlife management areas. He also played a major role in eliminating unsafe boating practices at Bayou Meto Wildlife Management Area and expanding effective boating regulations to other waterfowl hunting areas.
He also was the steadying force who, along with commissioners Steve Cook, Ford Overton and Ken Reeves, restored order to a commission that had begun to act like an independent branch of government.
Brown’s most enduring legacy is still being forged. In his final year, he committed the agency to restoring bobwhite quail in Arkansas. Quail is now a priority in the agency’s wildlife management division, and last year the commission hired a full-time, dedicated quail biologist.
So far, those efforts have taken the forms of meetings and workshops, but another commissioner recently said that his goal will be to produce actual quail habitat and quail.
Brown was a great commissioner. If his quail vision comes to fruition, he’ll be remembered as a giant.