LITTLE ROCK — On June 17, Brett Morgan completed his seven-year term on the Arkansas Game and Fish Commission.
Morgan said he cherished the experience for the friendships he made, and because he said it enabled him to enhance hunting and fishing opportunities for Arkansas sportsmen.
“Had it not been for Gov. Huckabee appointing me to this commission, to serve with people like Forrest Wood, Mike Freeze, Jim Hinkle, I never would have become friends with those people,” Morgan said. “I knew who they were, of course, but I never would have had a close relationship with them.”
A car dealer by trade, Morgan joined the AGFC in 2004.Like many who have served on the commission, he said he was initially overwhelmed by the scope of the agency’s activities and responsibilities. He quickly learned the job entailed much more than setting hunting and fishing regulations, and the agency’s intricate weave of activities gave him a profound respect for the AGFC’s staff.
“Until you’ve had some time to spend around this agency, you have no idea what to expect,” Morgan said. “Most people that call the Game and Fish, there’s only one thing they think about, hunting. During my tenure, we’ve really grown our education division. The Archeryin Schools program, the youth shooting sports program, we took it from zero to hero.”
In just a few years, the youth shooting sports program has become the nation’s largest, and the Archery in Schools program is poised to be equally prominent. Morgan said those programs are important because they offer an additional, non-traditional competitive venue for students, but also because they provide access to the world of wildlife conservation. Students who participate in those programs are more inclined to take up hunting, Morgan explained, which means they are more likely to become active stakeholders in the state’s wildlife resources.
“During my seven years, the shooting sports program was our most important accomplishment,” Morgan said. “People that get involved in that are potential license buyers who might become hunters and fishermen and lovers of the outdoors. Before that, they might not ever have been exposed to the natural resources of this state.
“The archery and shooting sports programs go hand in hand.”
Negotiating the natural gas leases on Gulf Mountain and Petit Jean River WMAs was also a notable accomplishment for the AGFC during his tenure, Morgan said.
“We got $32 million up front, and that doesn’t include the royalties,” Morgan said. “And, they were negotiated and set up where these drilling places had no negative impact on our wildlife management areas.”
From a conservation standpoint, Morgan aggressively advocated improving Bayou Meto WMA. During his tenure, the AGFC has spent considerable money and resources improving drainage on the area, as well as improving winter food and habitat for migrating ducks. A crucial element, he said, was restoring Halowell Reservoir. The AGFC converted it from an overgrown buckbrush thicket to a multi-faceted facility that provides winter food and refuge for waterfowl.
“At the beginning of my service, the restoration of Halowell Reservoir was my first project,” Morgan said. “That was appropriate, seeing how I hunted and fished there since I was 15 years old. There are three wells on Halowell that we can use to flood the rest area, even if we don’t have water on the management area. Bayou Meto is a magnet for wintering ducks, and we can artificially flood Halowell and give ducks a resting spot even in dry years.”
Even more important, Morgan added, has been working to preserve the area’s bottomland hardwoods. In response to Morgan’s persistent prodding, the AGFC crafted a comprehensive water management plan for the area.
“Developing the WMA was probably our biggest problem,” Morgan said. “The hydrology was not good. It had not been maintained, and the drainage compartments had silted in and beavers had taken the place over. We hired Scott Cagle to trap them, and in his first year, 2006, he took out 460 beavers. We hired a mulching company to clean out the drainage ditches. The timber down there had gotten so stressed due to our inability to dewater. Now, our drainage is 60 percent better than it was seven years ago.”
Morgan said he hopes his commitment to restoring Bayou Meto will be his most lasting contribution to the agency and its constituents.
“Taking care of these WMAs has been a passion of mine,” Morgan said. “We’ve got the greatest wildlife management areas in the country.
“If I ever did anything, I looked after the public-land
Sports, Pages 24 on 06/24/2010