A reader from Horseshoe Bend politely vented a little frustration about some of the jargon that sometimes appears in this space.
“I am a recent transplant from Mississippi,” he wrote. “Before that … Missouri, where I grew up. One of the things that I looked forward to the most upon moving to Arkansas was the duck hunting. Spent many hours in the timber back in Missouri. Even sold the boat that I had in Mississippi and bought a boat to use in ‘The Natural State’ timber pursuing the feathered denizens. So … I read the articles on ducks and am at a complete loss as to what ‘mast production’ is. Does it indicate a good population of birds? Does it say how good the harvest has been? What is GTR? WRA? WMA? Where does one launch or do all of the locations have a launch site? I guess what I’m saying is try to put yourself in the position of a newbie, or a tourist just trying to find a place to duck hunt and trying to make sense of what is in the paper. Could you devote an article directed towards the new residents who are or will be in the same boat that I’m in and try to simplify some of the vernacular that is apparently understood by the locals that have lived here all their lives?”
Well, I’ve been a stranger in strange lands myself, including Missouri. And Oklahoma. Georgia and Virginia, too. Each stop introduced me to new terminology, new regulations and unfamiliar traditions. I also had to find new places to hunt.
Sometimes that’s easier for an outsider because you don’t have any preconceptions. In Missouri, for example, everybody believes the state owned conservation areas (here, we call them WMAs) are overcrowded and over hunted. I hunted mostly CAs, and I often had large areas of them to myself, even on opening day of modern gun deer season. The hunting was outstanding.
So I get it, and I’m happy to help.
WMA is an acronym for wildlife management area. It’s a large parcel of property the Arkansas Game and Fish Commission (AGFC) owns to provide habitat for wildlife. The federal government owns similar parcels and calls them national wildlife refuges (NWR). Hunting is a primary tool for managing populations of game animals, and in Arkansas it is also our constitutional right, so hunting is a prescribed activity on WMAs and NWRs.
You can hunt small game on most WMAs when seasons are open. Hunting deer or turkey requires a special permit on many WMAs, which requires entering a lottery.
A GTR is an acronym for green tree reservoir. It’s a bottomland hardwood forest that is seasonably flooded to provide winter habitat for migrating waterfowl. You’ll find them at many WMAs, including Bayou Meto and Black River, and Felsenthal NWR.
A WRA is a waterfowl rest area. Waterfowl hunting is prohibited on WRAs except at certain times, which are listed in the annual waterfowl hunting regulations the AGFC publishes in the fall.
Most WMAs have access points and parking lots. WMAs with GTRs have boat ramps. The Arkansas Atlas and Gazeteer offers a good overview of all the state’s public areas. However, we recommend getting topographic maps of the WMAs you most often plan to hunt from the AGFC. You can go to Kinkos or a similar establishment and laminate your map for a couple of dollars.
Mast is natural wildlife food. Hard mast includes acorns, hickory nuts, walnuts and beechnuts. Deer are very fond of acorns, especially those from white oaks and red oaks. Turkeys and ducks love the tiny acorns that fall from pin oak trees. A good hard mast year means we’ll have a bumper crop of acorns across the state, and that’s good for wildlife. A hard mast failure means that natural forage, or food, will be scarce for wildlife. In bad mast years, deer concentrate around trees that drop acorns, which makes those good places to hunt.
Soft mast describes things like wild plums, muscadines, persimmons, huckleberries and other wild fruits and berries. These also are very important foods for wildlife.
Welcome to Arkansas. If you love duck hunting, you’ve come to the right place.
If you have any other questions, just holler.
Sports, Pages 34 on 04/21/2013