The isolationist, "these are ours, we don't want you, screw you" mentality is going to bite them eventually.


LITTLE ROCK – Commissioners with the Arkansas Game and Fish Commission proposed an amendment to waterfowl hunting regulations at its meeting last Thursday to specify when non-residents can hunt waterfowl on wildlife management areas to specific blocks of dates.

If passed, the proposal would let non-residents hunt waterfowl on WMAs:

Nov. 17-25, 2018;
Dec. 26, 2018-Jan. 6, 2019, and
Jan. 19-27, 2019.

Nonresidents still would be required to purchase a 5-day non-resident waterfowl permit, but they would be able to purchase as many permits as they wish to ensure they were able to hunt 30 days during Arkansas’s waterfowl season.

Commissioner Andrew Parker of Little Rock voiced the proposal.

“Since the last duck season, members of this body have repeatedly heard from Arkansas sportsmen and women that it was a step in the right direction but the pressures from overcrowding on those WMAs still exist, especially on our most popular WMAs,” Parker said. “The point of doing this is an effort to try and look for any possible way to avoid having to go to some kind of a draw system, which is something we don’t want to do.”

Commissioners proposed the amendment at the August meeting to allow time for public comment and consideration before a final vote in time to make any needed changes to the 2019 Arkansas Waterfowl Guidebook, scheduled to be published in mid-October.

The Commission will take public comments through an online survey before voting at the Sept. 20 Commission meeting in Fort Smith.