Meetings slated for Hurricane Lake WMA

The Arkansas Game and Fish Commission will hold public meetings Nov. 1 and Nov. 8 in Searcy and Jonesboro, respectively, to discuss timber damage and future plans for Henry Gray Hurricane Lake Wildlife Management Area.

The Nov. 1 meeting will be held at the Searcy High Cafeteria. The Nov. 8 meeting will be held at the Forrest L. Wood Crowley’s Ridge Nature Center. Both meetings will begin at 7 p.m.

About 212 acres of hardwood trees on Henry Gray Hurricane Lake Wildlife Management Area have died in the last few months, and 800 additional acres are showing signs of severe stress.

This area within the WMA’s south greentree reservoir is important habitat for waterfowl and a popular duck hunting area.

The trees have succumbed to the cumulative effects of many years of flooding during the growing season.

As a result of the most recent information regarding the die-off and poor condition of the remaining trees, the AGFC plans to keep all water-control structures on the south greentree reservoir open this year and discontinue their use into the foreseeable future. Brad Carner, AGFC chief of wildlife management, says the use of the south greentree reservoir on the area likely will be disbanded for at least the next decade as changes can be made to establish the next generation of beneficial oaks.

The area will not close to duck hunting, and the area might flood naturally from rainfall and high water on the White River.