ARKANSAS SPORTSMAN

Hunters given window for WMA blind removal

— The Arkansas Game and Fish Commission is moving quickly to remove private duck hunting blinds from St. Francis Sunken Lands and Big Lake wildlife management areas.

According to a blind removal protocol that the AGFC passed Thursday, hunters will be allowed to remove blinds and other personal items from the WMAs from Aug. 30 to Oct. 14.

The AGFC will begin dismantling all remaining blinds Oct. 15.

AGFC personnel have assigned numbers to each blind and recorded its GPS coordinates. The agency’s wildlife management staff will make every attempt to contact the owners of the blinds.

Jeremy Brown, area biologist for St. Francis Sunken Lands WMA, said that owners will be required to obtain a free permit before removing blinds. The permits are available from the AGFC’s office in Jonesboro. Owners will be able to use trucks, all-terrain vehicles, boats and small tractors with front-end loaders. They can use chainsaws to cut lumber on duck blinds or to cut fallen logs to access their blinds. They also can use axes, sledgehammers and battery-powered tools. Cutting torches also will be allowed unless burn bans are in effect.

Farm implements will not be permitted, nor will any attempts to manipulate habitat. Vehicle access may be restricted in early October if the areas begin flooding.

Big Lake WMA has 185 openings and 98 usable blinds. An additional eight blinds have been “red-lined,” or placed off-limits, Brown said. They also will be removed.

St. Francis Sunken Lands WMA has 207 openings and 128 usable blinds. Brown said there are 15 blinds with “boundary issues” that will be dealt with on a case-bycase basis. David Goad, chief of the AGFC’s wildlife management division, said some blinds might encroach on AGFC property.

“We might ask the owners to move them if they’re a foot or two over the line, but we’re not going to take those,” Goad said.

Removing the blinds will require 30 AGFC employees. The estimated cost of the project is $55,900, Brown said.

“If we were to acquire all the funding, equipment and manpower that we need, we can remove about 20 blinds per day,” Brown said.

New regulations passed Thursday also prohibit hunters from leaving decoys on WMAs overnight. This was a common practice for decades at Big Lake, St. Francis Sunken Lands and Dave Donaldson Black River WMAs. The commission voted to discontinue this practice because it suggested that decoy owners had claim to hunting holes. Leaving decoys overnight and private hunting blinds are not allowed on any other WMA.

CORN FUTURES

It’s expensive to feed corn to deer this year.

Because of drought, the Midwestern corn crop is in distress this year and has even failed in many places. The diminished supply is likely to increase prices, especially for small volumes like the 40- to 50-pound bags that deer hunters usually buy.

Tommy Johnson, a salesman at River City Seed in North Little Rock, said the average price for a 50-pound bag of corn is $10, but he said he expects it to jump to $11-$12 later in the fall. Others are predicting it to go as high as $14.

“I don’t think you’re going to see it go down,” Johnson said. “Farmers are going to sit on their crop as long as they can to push the prices up.”

Some hunters say they aren’t going to use corn this year. Others have said they’ll use a lot less than usual to save money.

“I’m a deer hunter, but if it gets too high, you’ve got to cut back on something,” Johnson said. “Deer are probably going to get fed less, but if you feed, you’ll probably get a better outcome because there won’t be as much out there.”

CORRECTION

In Thursday’s column, it was reported erroneously that the AGFC would have to retry its case against the Corps of Engineers regarding timber damage at Black River WMA if the AGFC wins its appeal before the United States Supreme Court.

Jim Goodhart, the AGFC’s lead counsel, wrote in an email, “If the Supreme Court overturns the Court of Appeals’ decision, it will remand the case for the Court of Appeals to apply the correct constitutional law while reconsidering the USA’s challenge of the July 2009 trial judgment that was rendered in AGFC’s favor.

“It is possible that, while on reconsideration, the Court of Appeals could make a different ruling on other issues that were raised in the appeal and might upset AGFC’s trial judgment, but we believe that would be unlikely.”

Sports, Pages 30 on 08/19/2012

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