Arkansas Game and Fish Commission

2 Natural Resources Drive

Little Rock, AR 72205

March 17, 2005

AGFC Files Lawsuit Over Timber Damage

LITTLE ROCK – Timber damaged by flooding spurred the Arkansas Game and Fish Commission to file a lawsuit against the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers in the U.S. Court of Federal Claims. The lawsuit will be filed on Friday, March 18 in Washington D.C.

The suit states that the Corps’ water management has caused at least $8 million in damage to bottomland timber on the Dave Donaldson Black River Wildlife Management Area. 

The dispute stems from the Corps’ management of water releases from Clearwater Lake on the Black River in Missouri, upstream from the WMA. According to the complaint, during 1993-2001, the Corps deviated from its approved water management plan and released more water during the summer growing season than the plan allowed. As a result, low-lying areas of Black River WMA were flooded for extended periods during the growing season.

The bottomland hardwood trees on the WMA sustained widespread damage because they could not tolerate increased flooding. As much as 80 percent of some oak species died on parts of the WMA, according to forestry studies conducted for the AGFC.

In 2000, the Corps performed an environmental assessment of the water control plan it had been using since 1993, and determined that it could not continue the practice because of the potential for significant impact on natural resources. The Corps returned to the water management plan used before 1993. According to the suit, many acres of timber were irreversibly damaged. 

The AGFC and the Corps have been cooperating in studies involving Clear Water Lake management, downstream flooding and the impact on Black River WMA timber.  But the two agencies have been unable to agree on how to deal with the existing damage and how to restore the area.

“We are committed to working with the Corps toward a fair resolution of these issues,” said AGFC Director Scott Henderson. “But the Commission’s first priority is conserving the wildlife and fishery resources that belong to the people of Arkansas. We must do everything we can to protect the valuable habitat on our management areas, and it got to the point that it was necessary to take this formal action to preserve our claim.”

The Black River WMA contains about 24,000 acres, mostly in low-lying hardwood forests. The area is known as one of the best bottomland hardwood duck-hunting areas anywhere. Most of it was purchased in the 1950s and 1960s, and today it represents the majority of the remaining unbroken timberland along the Black River in Arkansas. The Black River WMA provides critical habitat for wintering waterfowl and numerous species of Neotropical migrating songbirds.

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