The Arkansas Game and Fish Commission voted to increase prices for non-resident hunting and fishing licenses at its monthly meeting Thursday in Little Rock.
Mike Armstrong, assistant director for the Game and Fish Commission, said the increases are projected to raise about $2 million annually. The revenue is necessary, he said, to help replace aging and obsolete equipment and to offset other expenses.
Armstrong added the increases will make the prices of Arkansas non-resident hunting and fishing licenses more consistent with those of surrounding states.
"We want to benchmark the fee increase to a median of surrounding states," Armstrong said. "We want to be within some reasonable proximation so that we're not an outlier."
The price of the non-resident annual fishing license will increase from $40 to $50, and the non-resident annual hunting license will increase from $300 to $350. The non-resident three- and seven-day trip fishing licenses will increase from $11 to $16, and from $17 to $25, respectively.
The non-resident five-day all game license will increase from $150 to $180. The three-day all-game license will increase from $100 to $125, and the one-day all-game license will increase from $50 to $55.
The non-resident annual small game license will increase from $80 to $110, and the non-resident five-day small game license will increase from $55 to $70.
In other license business, the commission authorized the commission's staff to ask the legislature to create annual 65-plus hunting and fishing licenses for sportsmen 65 and older. The commission offers lifetime 65-plus licenses, but Armstrong said the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service changed its certification policy and will only certify lifetime 65-plus licenses for the year they are sold.
To remain eligible for Federal Aid in Sportfish Restoration money from 65-plus licenses, Armstrong said it is necessary to create "analogous" annual licenses.
In property management business, the commission approved buying the 1,377-acre Robinwood Tract adjacent to the Wattensaw Wildlife Management Area for $1 million. The Arkansas Game and Fish Foundation owns the acreage. The purchase price, which will be paid over a three-year period, will come from Federal Aid in Wildlife Restoration funds.
The commission also voted to enforce its encroachment policy on Gary Sams, whose home, barn and other structures are on land adjacent to Lake Overcup.
The commission determined through a survey that Sams built a barn, an above-ground swimming pool and a portion of his home on commission-owned land. The commission will compel Sams to remove the barn, swimming pool and wooden fence and pay the commission three times the market value of the commission-owned real estate that Sams' home occupies. The commission will provide a quitclaim deed to Sams for the portion of his home on commission property and a five-foot buffer around the home.
Sams asked the commission to reduce the price to current market value.
"The encroachments started 30 years ago unintentionally," Sams said. "I'll have to sell a corner of my house or buy a corner of my house that I've paid taxes on for three times the market value. That's punitive.
"I can move the above-ground pool and wooden fencing. That barn has been there 25 years in good condition. It's not close to the lake. It's not a burden on the lake whatsoever. We didn't go out to do anything wrong. We've been living our life until 2003 when here comes a guy surveying.
"We want to be treated fair."
Sports on 01/16/2015