Hunters in Arkansas have enjoyed nearly 4,500 acres of new hunting opportunity during the 2020-21 hunting seasons thanks to partnerships and leases by the Arkansas Game and Fish Commission in the last year.
Most of the land added was the result of a new, multiyear voluntary public access grant from the Natural Resources Conservation Service through the federal farm bill. This grant was used to procure lease agreements on rice-producing fields as well as existing wetland properties to expand waterfowl hunting, wildlife watching and wetland habitat.
Garrick Dugger, Game and Fish assistant chief of wildlife management, said 3,855 acres of rice fields and 520 acres of wetlands were leased for public use.
Waterfowl hunters also saw the addition of a 40-acre inholding at Earl Buss Bayou DeView Wildlife Management Area in Poinsett County. Ducks Unlimited partnered with Game and Fish to purchase this tract of hunting property through a North American Wetlands Conservation Act grant. It eliminated a private inholding within the borders of the public hunting area.
Another inholding of five acres within W. E. Brewer Scatter Creek Wildlife Management Area also was eliminated thanks to a partnership of the National Wild Turkey Federation and Greene County Wildlife Club which purchased the property and donated it to Game and Fish.
Hunters in Arkansas have access to more than 3.2 million acres of public hunting land, thanks to partnerships of Game and Fish with U.S. Forest Service, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, Army Corps of Engineers, Arkansas Natural Heritage Commission and other public and private organizations.