AGFC hears about non-resident duck hunters

Judging by recent developments, the Arkansas Game and Fish Commission is poised to change regulations for non-resident duck hunters on state-owned wildlife management areas.

In March, the commission asked its wildlife management staff to provide solutions for a list of issues concerning hunting at WMAs with greentree reservoirs.

The first question sought staff recommendations to solve a perceived problem of non-resident hunters contributing to overcrowding on those areas. Commission Chairman Fred Brown of Corning made it clear that it was time for action, and he wanted actionable solutions.

From the observer’s chair, it seems to me that the wildlife management staff does not believe that the greentree reservoirs are actually overcrowded from a scientific standpoint. Resident hunters believe it is a big problem, though, and some commissioners believe that overcrowding of key hunting areas are tied to duck hunting guides.

Guiding is illegal in WMAs, but guides have found ways to do it that virtually prohibit being prosecuted.

The wildlife management staff presented seven specific recommendations.

One is to require non-resident WMA hunting permits to be restricted to a particular WMA and to a specific time frame.

A companion recommendation is to eliminate the season-long non-resident WMA waterfowl hunting permit. Non-residents would only be able to buy a five-day permit that would be specific to one WMA. They would be allowed to purchase a maximum of six five-day permits, which would limit a single non-resident duck hunter to a maximum of 30 days at one WMA.

That would essentially convert duck hunting at greentree reservoirs to a controlled hunt for non-residents.

Also, the wildlife management staff recommended raising the price of the five-day non-resident WMA waterfowl hunting permit from $25 to $30.50 to provide additional revenue for conservation and WMA maintenance.

Commissioner Joe Morgan of Little Rock said the increase should be a lot higher.

“They show up driving $50,000 pickups, and they’ve got enough money to take off work and spend half the season at Bayou Meto or Black River,” Morgan said. “They can afford it. It’s not going to hurt them one bit.”

Other recommendations involved collecting continual data through hunter-use surveys, addressing negative hunting behavior and reducing hunter conflicts through education and communications efforts.

The final recommendation was to review residency license requirements for lifetime license privileges and make changes if needed.

Of course, the commission will debate these recommendations over the next few months. They could adapt them or discard them entirely.

One thing to consider is that the commission has always been very concerned about how major changes will affect revenue. They are traditionally very reluctant to do anything that will result in fewer licenses being sold.

That is already occurring, but the reduction is coming from resident duck hunters, not non-residents.

Morgan said that non-resident duck hunters undeniably have a positive economic impact in some communities, but he said short-time visitors that hunt with guides on private land generate most of the economic activity. They’re the ones, Morgan said, that eat in local restaurants and buy gear and other items from local merchants.

A small percentage of non-residents hunt on public ground, and their economic impact is negligible, Morgan said. That’s because they bring their food, potables and gear from home. Their presence is more profound.

It is interesting, though, that much of the non-resident hunting pressure has shifted from Bayou Meto to Black River WMA.

From Nov. 20 to Jan. 28, out-of-state vehicles never accounted for half of the vehicles at all Bayou Meto access points, even on weekends.

At Black River WMA, at least half of the vehicles were usually from out of state, but sometimes they nearly equaled Arkansas-plated vehicles. Non-resident vehicles were insignificant to non-existent at all other greentree reservoir WMAs.

The commission also demanded recommendations about controlling noise from surface drive motors at WMAs.

According to a written response from the wildlife management division, four tenured captains agreed that the only way to enforce any kind of noise regulation is to ban surface-drive motors at WMAs.

In February, several hunters demonstrated their surface-drive motors for the commission to show that their motors were not excessively loud.

At the April meeting, the commissioners noted how the mufflers on those engines were noticeably newer and shinier than the rest of the motor. They suspected that their owners installed high-performance mufflers for the commission’s benefit, and that they had not long been in service.