ARKANSAS SPORTSMAN

Proposal could limit boating

— Under a U.S. Army Corps of Engineers policy scheduled to go into effect in January, recreational boaters will get reduced access to locks on the Arkansas River.

Currently, recreational boaters have 24-hour, on-demand access to the locks to go from one pool to another on the McClellan-Kerr Navigation System. The McClellan-Kerr Navigation System includes the locks on the Arkansas River, the lower White River and the Verdigris River in Oklahoma. The Corps developed this policy to facilitate a permanent maintenance schedule.

To perform maintenance, the Corps has proposed suspending operations on the McClellan-Kerr Navigation System locks for four hours per day. The locks will not operate from 8 a.m. to noon or from noon to 4 p.m. This schedule is already in effect at Ozark Lock and Dam and at Trimble Lock and Dam near Fort Smith.

The “McClellan-Kerr Arkansas River Navigation System Recreational Lockage Policy” will authorize the Corps to close the locks for four continuous hours a day throughout the system. Recreational boats will get only one hour of access to the locks per day.

The draft policy says: “Recreational boaters are encouraged to utilize the public boat ramps to access the upstream or downstream portions of the MKARNS, due to possible extended waiting periods that may be experienced due to scheduled maintenance outages or while a commercial tow progresses through a lock.”

A one-hour limitation for recreational craft will effectively limit anglers to using one pool on the Arkansas River. That could greatly curtail bass fishing tournaments on the river and could prevent Little Rock from ever hosting another major professional tournament, although the policy says the Corps might consider exemptions for special events if a request is submitted at least two weeks in advance.

Jerry McKinnis of Little Rock, a principal owner of BASS, said this policy could end any hope of Little Rock ever hosting the Bassmaster Classic or another Elite Series Tournament. It could even threaten the possibility of hosting lower tier Bassmaster events.

“That just shuts it down,” McKinnis said. “That would just put such a blow on bass fishing up and down the river that we would not even consider fishing on the river anymore.

“The conversation of having a Bassmaster Classic in Little Rock invariably comes up, and if the fishing on the river ever improved to a better point, this town is ripe for a Classic. That deal would certainly put an end to discussion on that subject. Why would we come here at all with any kind of event, from a Weekend Series to a Bassmaster Classic? Why would you do that under those rules? You just couldn’t.”

McKinnis said Little Rock would lose millions of dollars of economic activity if BASS and the Corps couldn’t come to terms on a major event, but reduced lock access won’t just affect recreational anglers. It’ll bite into the wallets of commercial operators, too. An executive for a major barge company in Mississippi, who asked not to be named, said the policy will increase costs by extending the duration of a 20-day haul, for example, to 23-24 days.

Mike Knoedl, director of the Arkansas Game and Fish Commission, said the new policy also will affect AGFC enforcement efforts on the Arkansas River. Instead of locking up or down, he said wildlife officers will have to trailer their boats and travel to distant ramps and then relaunch on different pools.

Laurie Driver, public affairs specialist for the Corps of Engineers Little Rock District, acknowledged that the Corps might expand the suspensions across the system.

Emon Mahony, a member of the Arkansas Game and Fish Commission, was a member of Sen. John McClellan’s staff when the McClellan-Kerr Navigation System was established in the 1960s and 1970s. He said this is probably just the beginning of recreational limitations on the river.

“My guess is that this is just an opening salvo, and I would guess there’ll be more restrictions to come as part of a general cost savings,” Mahony said. “In the Corps’ defense, they don’t decide how much money they get. They don’t have a free hand to do what they want. They went through their lockage system nationwide and tried to find ways to cut back on the use of locks and related expenditures.

“It flows downhill, as they say.”

Sports, Pages 24 on 11/01/2012

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