WMA’s actions helped avert deadly encounters

The duck hunting world is abuzz over what police are calling a double homicide Monday at Reelfoot Lake in northwest Tennessee.

Of course, the duck hunting world is shocked, but it is not particularly surprised.

Facts are thin. A conflict occurred on the water between three hunters in their 20s and a prominent, 70-yearold local businessman. According to the surviving member of the trio, the old man fatally shot his companions before being disarmed by the survivor. The old man is still at large, but reports suggest he might still be on or in the lake.

In 1996-97, when I was editor of Tennessee Sportsman magazine, my writers gave me a lively impression of the Reelfoot Lake hunting culture. In many respects it is similar to what Big Lake and St. Francis Sunken Lands wildlife management areas used to be. They are Arkansas’ Reelfoot equivalents. The New Madrid earthquake of 1812 created them all.

Private hunting blinds that have been passed down through generations dot the lake. The Tennessee Wildlife Resources Agency acquired many of the blinds over the years. Hunters can enter a drawing for them, and lucky applicants win access to them for the entire season. If such a blind is unoccupied by a certain time, freelancers may occupy it on a first-come, firstserved basis. If the owner of the permit arrives late and finds his blind occupied, it can get ugly, and it often does.

You can also hunt from boats, but not within 200 yards of a blind. Conflict is a way of life there. Fistfights are common.

Does any of that sound familiar?

Conflict is a way of life at any public duck hunting area that doesn’t have controlled access. It is all chronicled at a multitude of hunting websites and message boards. My most notable engagement occurred about seven years ago at Lake Dardanelle while hunting with Alan Thomas. We hunted a small lagoon behind a big sandbar. On the other side was a wide channel with a cattail fringe on the far side. Other hunters were in the cattails.

Different ducks worked the holes and approached from different directions, but the other guys didn’t like us there and sent a steady hail of steel whistling through the grass overhead for a good part of the morning.

The Arkansas Game and Fish Commission has taken some important steps to diffuse the potential for systematic conflict. The first was banning guides on wildlife management areas nearly 20 years ago. Guides essentially privatized significant amounts of public WMAs. They were territorial and aggressive.

The second was eliminating private blinds at St. Francis Sunken Lands and Big Lake WMAs, and banning the practice of leaving decoys in holes overnight at Dave Donaldson Black River WMA. Those activities were tantamount to privatizing public land, and they often fostered angry disputes.

On the other hand, people who have hunted those areas for decades say that conflicts have actually increased now that there are no mechanisms for making nonregular and nonlocal hunters feel unwelcome. Once those barriers fell, hunters from other parts of the state came and stayed.

Another important step was enacting strict boating regulations at Bayou Meto and Dave Donaldson Black River WMAs. These regulations eliminated the infamous boat races that deterred many hunters, especially those with children, from going to Bayou Meto. Testosterone-fueled internet videos set to headbanger music glorifying the so-called “boat races” were instrumental in persuading the commission to shut them down.

Most significant was a regulation the Game and Fish Commission passed in 2018 limiting nonresident duck hunters to only 30 days of hunting on green tree reservoir WMAs, and only in certain blocks of days in each of the three season segments. This regulation significantly reduced crowding, especially at Bayou Meto WMA, enabling Arkansas residents to enjoy a more relaxed hunting experience in a less confrontational atmosphere.

In totality, these steps, taken over a 20-year period, helped ease the tension at the WMAs. Hunters complain about lack of ducks in WMAs the past few years, but there seems to be a lot less conflict.

Had the commission not taken steps to tame its “Wild West,” it was inevitable that somebody who got humiliated in front of his wife, girlfriend or children would lose his cool and bring a confrontation to a lethal conclusion.

Managing people on public land is almost as important as managing wildlife. To their credit, Arkansas hunters requested a more collegial, more civilized hunting environment.

To its credit, the commission gave it to them.