Blind traditions remain at center of dispute

Historically, the Arkansas Game and Fish Commission said it allowed private duck blinds on three wildlife management areas in northeast Arkansas because they were “different.”

Now the AGFC seems intent on making them not so different.

The areas in question are Dave Donaldson Black River WMA, Big Lake WMA and St. Francis Sunken Lands WMA. Loren Hitchcock is the AGFC’s director. As the agency’s assistant director in 2007, he said certain practices were traditionally accepted there that wouldn’t be acceptable elsewhere. Chief among the traditions was the practice of hunters building and maintaining private duck blinds.

The AGFC has long desired to end that tradition, and the end appears to be in sight.

Private blinds, the AGFC says, constitute the virtual privatization of public property. The AGFC has also accused local hunters of illegally cutting timber and destroying or modifying habitat to create private duck hunting holes, as well as intimidating other hunters from using them.

Bobby Benson, principal at Trumann Intermediate School, bristles at those statements.

“The director [Hitchcock] talks like we are some kind of thugs,” Benson said. “We are doctors, lawyers, teachers, hunters, newspaper folks, young, old, handicapped ...”

Richard Davies, director of the Arkansas Department of Parks and Tourism, often hunts at Black River WMA. He said the AGFC’s prohibition against clearing woody detritus from tornados and ice storms impairs public access.

“I’ve been up there a dozen times, and I may have been to the same hole two or three times,” Davies said. “Those guys up there consider it almost impossible to hunt if somebody didn’t open up holes. They’ve had tornados, ice storms. It’s a nightmare. You couldn’t go 40 yards.”

Davies said he’s never witnessed any uncivil behavior between hunters at Black River. If it occurs, he said it’s probably no different than the conflicts that occur at Bayou Meto WMA or anywhere else large numbers of hunters compete for prime hunting spots.

“A lot of people just don’t know about being polite, but I’ve never seen any of that,” Davies said, adding he’s also not aware of anybody claiming exclusive rights to certain holes.

“The people who hunt it alot know where all these holes are,” Davies said. “I might go to Bryan’s Hole. I might go to Richard’s Hole. It’s not anybody’s hole. That’s just what they call them. I don’t think anybody should have a right to say you can’t hunt here on public land. I support the Game and Fish on that, the privatization thing. But I’ve never seen anybody treating anybody ugly or running people off.”

Benson and Danny Ford, a car dealer from Paragould, dispute AGFC claims that bullying is prevalent. Mike Knoedl, the AGFC’s assistant director, as well as several wildlife officers in northeast Arkansas, acknowledged that few citations have been issued for related offenses because they are difficultcomplaints to police in that environment. First, an aggrieved person must summon a wildlife officer and file a complaint, Knoedl said. That will likely happen at a parking lot, sometimes hoursafter a conflict occurred. Both parties are not present, and the aggrieved might not know the identity of the person with whom he had the conflict. And finally, the aggrieved must actually show up in court, which Knoedl said is unlikely.

“They’re afraid of being retaliated against,” Knoedl said.

Curiously, the AGFC’s effort to eliminate private blinds at the “Northeast Three” contravenes a decade of established policy. Administrative Order 02-01, signed by former AGFC director Hugh Durham on April 23, 2002, ended all special regulations and privileges at Big Lake WMA that were not consistent with other WMAs statewide except for those concerningblinds. Administrative Order 03-01, signed by former director Scott Henderson on Aug. 28, 2003, allowed hunters to maintain blinds, clear vegetation to maintain existing holes and clear woodydebris from boat lanes at all three WMAs. And former Gov. Mike Huckabee wrote a letter to Nelson Benson of Manila, dated Oct. 11, 2001, assuring Benson that “... your duck blinds at Big Lake WMA will be safe. ... This commission agrees with your assessment that ‘If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.’ ”

“THIS commission” is the operant phrase, said Sheffield Nelson of Little Rock, who served on the AGFC in 2000-2007.

“Each commission has the prerogative under Amendment 35 to set its own course and change directions as it sees fit,” Nelson said.

The conflict prompted a group of sportsmen from northeast Arkansas to promote an amendment to the Arkansas Constitution that would remove the AGFC from the coalition of state agencies that receive funding the statewide conservation sales tax established in 1997 by Amendment 75.