Wilson left an everlasting legacy

Steve N. Wilson molded the Arkansas Game and Fish Commission into the organization it is today, and there will never be another like him.

Wilson, 76, a Norfork resident, died Sunday in New Mexico from a catastrophic pulmonary condition. A 1967 Arkansas Tech University graduate, he served as a district wildlife biologist for the Game and Fish Commission in 1968-69. He served as a senior environmental scientist for the Arkansas Highway and Transportation Department from 1972-74, and was assistant chief of the Highway and Transportation Department from 1974-79. He was chief of the AHTD’s Environmental Division in 1979.

In 1979, Wilson became the director of the Game and Fish Commission, a position he held for 21 years. Nowadays, the average tenure of a wildlife agency director in the southeastern United States is about three years.

For most of Wilson’s tenure, the Game and Fish Commission subsisted solely on revenue generated from the sale of hunting and fishing licenses and federal aid apportionments. The Game and Fish Commission was brilliant at finding ways to be innovative with meager resources.

One of the commission’s most conspicuous coups under Wilson’s watch was establishing an elk herd in the Buffalo National River corridor. From 1981-85, the AGFC stocked 112 elk imported from Colorado.

On the eve of Arkansas’ first elk season in 1998, Wilson

and I discussed the journey for an article I wrote for Outdoor Life. He said he cut a deal with the Colorado Parks and Wildlife Department to obtain the elk in exchange for a large quantity of largemouth bass. Having churned through several directors in a short amount of time, the Colorado Department of Parks and Wildlife forgot about the deal, and Colorado never collected its bass from Arkansas, Wilson said.

There was also a well-intentioned but ill-fated plan to re-establish ruffed grouse obtained from Virginia in the Ozark National Forest. Shenendoah Valley grouse did not thrive in Arkansas, and the experiment faltered without establishing a huntable population. I am privileged to have heard a grouse “drumming” in the Piney Creeks Wildlife Management Area in 1987 between Fairview Recreation Area and the Hurricane Creek Wilderness Area.

During Wilson’s term, Arkansas became the nation’s top destination for trophy brown trout. The North Fork of the White River produced more line class records for trout than any other body of water in the Lower 48, including an all-tackle world record (38 pounds, 9 ounces) in 1988.

In 1992, the Little Red River produced a 40-pound, 4-ounce brown trout that held the all-tackle world record for about 20 years. Greers Ferry Lake produced an all-tackle, world-record walleye that still stands, as does its all-tackle, world-record white bass/ striped bass hybrid.

During the Wilson years, Arkansas became a national destination for inland striped bass fishing. Lake Maumelle was part of the striper program until the mid 1990s.

Arkansas became nationally known for largemouth bass fishing, but we also developed some fantastic smallmouth bass fisheries at Bull Shoals, Norfork, Greers Ferry and Beaver lakes.

Arkansas was an excellent turkey hunting state during the Wilson years, and our deer herd experienced consistent growth that earned Arkansas national recognition as a top deer hunting destination.

In the mid-1990s, the commission realized it needed additional funding to address the mounting challenges of wildlife and fisheries management. The agency’s equipment was dilapidated, and the agency didn’t have enough staff or resources to fulfill its obligations.

After the Missouri Department of Conservation’s successful example in 1976, the commission, along with the Department of Parks and Tourism, convinced the Arkansas electorate in 1996 to enact a one-eighth percent statewide sales tax to provide additional funding for the Game and Fish Commission, State Parks, Department of Natural Heritage and the Keep Arkansas Beautiful Commission.

Wilson’s steady leadership helped guide the commission smoothly through a transition in which the agency suddenly found itself flush with cash. The commission bought new wildlife management areas and added to others with strategic properties that conserved critically important wildlife communities.

Wilson had long retired when I joined the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette in 2005. I interacted with him mostly as a freelance magazine writer in the 1990s, but our first meeting in 1985 made a deep impression on me. I was a journalism student at UALR when I made a cold call to Wilson. He made time to visit with me, and we talked about the roles of the agency’s writers. His advice helped me obtain a position as a public information specialist with the Oklahoma Department of Wildlife Conservation in 1998.

In 2005, the commission named the new Raft Creek Wildlife Management Area after Wilson. Then director Scott Henderson made the introductory remarks and then yielded the dais to Wilson. Henderson, a fine man and an able director, was the boss, if you will, but Wilson was The Man. That’s the only way to describe what transpired.

Wherever you live in Arkansas, take a good look around whenever you step outdoors. Whatever your passion, Steve Wilson’s fingerprints are there. He was a giant from a time when giants roamed our land.