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Biologist Carl Hunter left mark with deer, wildflowers |
 LITTLE
ROCK - Carl Hunter's origins were in the city, but his dual career
involved the outdoors of Arkansas, the state's fauna and flora in
particular.Wildlife biologist Hunter was involved in the rebuilding of Arkansas' deer herd then the struggle to manage it effectively and finally to promote and propagate wildflowers across the state. Hunter died recently at age 81 after a bout with pneumonia. He lived at Alexander, just south of Little Rock. He was a native of Little Rock, and after graduating from the University of Arkansas with an agriculture degree, Hunter joined the Arkansas Game and Fish Commission as a wildlife biologist in 1947. Just two years earlier the Commission had been re-organized as an independent agency under Amendment 35 of the Arkansas Constitution. Reestablishing deer was a focus for the AGFC, and Hunter joined a small group intensely working on improving deer number all across Arkansas. The years just after World War II gave fresh impetus to efforts that began with limited success in the 1920s. Hunter was younger than most of these leaders, but he joined such figures as Gene Rush, Harold Alexander, Dave Donaldson and Henry Gray in the deer work. Ten years later, Hunter switched careers but stayed with wildlife restoration work.. He was hired by St. Louis industrialist Edgar M. Queeny to manage the wildlife work on Queeny's big Wingmead Farms between Stuttgart and Clarendon. Wingmead became a national model for wildlife enhancement associated with agricultural operations. After 20 year and after Queeny's passing, Hunter returned to the Game and Fish Commission and soon became its assistant director under Steve N. Wilson. The deer in Arkansas were flourishing by then, but not everyone agreed on how to manage them. The notion of "it's a sin to kill a doe" was strongly ingrained in the Arkansas hunting ranks, a carryover from the days of increasing numbers of deer. Hunter made numerous appearances before groups large and small to promote the need for some hunting of female deer in areas where the populations were sufficient. He was also a part of the beginning drive under Wilson for a fractional conservation sales tax to expand the AGFC's funding base. This effort succeeded after Hunter's time with the agency ended with retirement in 1987.  But
Hunter changed activities instead of quitting work. He took a hobby of
studying and photographing wildflowers into a new avocation and found a
statewide audience.He urged plantings of wildflowers on highway rights-of-way, and these have continued. He wrote two books, "Wildflowers of Arkansas" in two printings and "Trees, Shrubs and Vines of Arkansas." He quickly became "the" wildflower person of the state. Hunter enjoyed his work, both with wild animals and with horticulture. A son, Scott Hunter, told the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette, "He always said, 'I can't believe somebody is paying me for something I'd do anyway.'" |
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