LITTLE
ROCK – Commissioners with the Arkansas Game and Fish Commission last
week adopted a recommendation by the agency's wildlife management
division to shorten the spring 2007 turkey hunting season. The
recommendation for a shorter season was based, in part, on a continuing
effort to stabilize and rebuild the state's turkey population.
Commissioner
Freddie Black of Lake Village said the decision to reduce the number of
hunting days was a difficult one. "We made this tough decision because
it is right for the resource and we believe it is right for the hunter
in the long term," Black said.
AGFC turkey program coordinator Mike Widner had
recommended implementing a long-term conservative season structure to
include a shorter spring turkey season and a later opening date. "The
conservative season structure should serve to increase gobbler
carryover, maximize productivity and subsequently stabilize the recent
and continuing declines in turkey populations and harvest," he
explained.
The spring 2007 turkey season youth hunt will be April
7 to 8 for most of the state and Mar. 31 to April 1 for zone 17. The
statewide turkey season will be April 14 to May 4 in zones 1, 2, 3, 4B,
5, 5B, 6, 7, 7A, 8, 9 and 10; April 14 to 27 in zones 1A, 4, 4A, 5A and
9A and April 7 to 29 in zone 17.
The bag limit for the spring season will be two legal
turkeys in zones 1, 2, 3, 4B, 5, 5B, 6, 7, 7A, 8, 9, 10 and 17 and a
single legal turkey in zones 1A, 4, 4A, 5A and 9A. Hunters will not be
able to harvest more than one legal turkey per day and no more than one
jake. Hunters will also be restricted to no more than two total turkeys
per season.
In other business, the Commission:
*Approved the expenditure of $117,850 in additional
funds for the statewide food plot program and open land management
maintenance and operation.
*Approved a budget increase of $420,000 from U.S. Fish
and Wildlife Service funds to be used on at-risk species in Arkansas.
The money will go towards offset the cost of burn crews that will work
on private land over the next four years. The program is in partnership
with The Nature Conservancy, Arkansas Forestry Commission, Arkansas
Natural Heritage Commission and a number of private landowners involved
in the FWS Landowner Incentive Program.
*Approved a change in the fish farmer regulations. The
new regulation will require fish farmers to renew their permit annually.
The $25 fee will only be required for the initial permit purchase.
Subsequent fees will not be required for the annual permit.
*Approved a land exchange on Lake Conway that will
allow direct access to the lake from Balmat Road.
*Approved a land exchange on Madison County WMA. The
AGFC will receive 10.5 acres in exchange for 4.36 acres. The exchange
will resolve a quarry encroachment that has created a hazardous
situation at the WMA.
*Approved the purchase of an 80-acre in-holding in the
Gene Rush WMA. The cost for the purchase will be $245,000.
*Approved the renaming of the Spain Tract on W.E.
Brewer Scatter Creek WMA to the Wayne Bomar Tract. Bomar was a long-time
employee of the AGFC that has worked for years to add acreage to the WMA
in Greene County.
*Approved Lake Columbia fishing
regulation changes to improve the quality of largemouth bass in the
lake. The new regulation changes the current 16 to 21-inch slot, four
fish per day with only one fish over 21 inches to a 16 to 18-inch slot,
eight fish minimum, with only three over 18 inches. The change is being
implemented because fish were stacking up in the 16 to 21-inch slot and
their growth was slowing. The harvest of these "slot fish" should
improve the growth rates.