LITTLE ROCK — Mike Armstrong, Arkansas Game and Fish Commission assistant director, had a lively exchange with commissioners Craig Campbell and Ron Pierce Wednesday during the AGFC’s monthly briefing.
Armstrong proposed conducting a global warming “vulnerability assessment” for Arkansas fish and wildlife. He barely began his presentation when Pierce interrupted him and denounced the validity of global warming. Pierce adamantly declared that the data and personalities driving the global warming movement are corrupt and discredited, and he insisted the issue is a hoax.
Armstrong was clearly taken aback, and he took some time to regain his composure.
Campbell playfully asked Armstrong if Al Gore had put him up to it.
“If Al Gore’s behind this,I’m outta here!” Campbell growled.
His comments emboldened Pierce, who heckled Armstrong throughout his entire presentation.
Fred Brown, the freshman commissioner from Corning, joined the fray. He said, “I’ve been farming since 1969, 41 years. I can’t tell you it’s global warming or anything else, but I can tell you that something has changed.”
“Whether you believe in it or not, a lot of other agencies and organizations do, and they’re developing policies and protocols to address it,”Armstrong said. “I think it’s important for us to be proactive and assess the potential effects of global warming on our trust species in Arkansas because I don’t want somebody else telling us what our vulnerabilities will be.”
I spoke with Armstrong after the meeting. He explained that current climate models project an average temperature increase of 3-5 degrees Fahrenheit over the next 50 years. If that comes to pass, it probably won’t affect species like whitetailed deer, squirrels, bass, catfish, sunfish and the other animals that are native to Arkansas. It’s always been hot and humid in Arkansas, and they’ll adapt if it gets warmer.
“The way it’s been explained to me, take a look at the latitudes that are 500 miles south of us, and that’s what it will be like here,” Armstrong said. In other words, we’ll be more likeNew Orleans, Baton Rouge or Houston.
On the other hand, such a change in climate might also affect weather patterns and rainfall. Our climate could become drier. Rivers and streams might dry up, and we might become more like southwest Texas. Consider the northeast, where hardwoods are replacing conifer forests in northern Vermont and New Hampshire. Even if that happens, what can the AGFC do to alter it?
Nothing, Armstrong said. However, it is important to demonstrate that the state’s managing agency for fish and wildlife has assessed potential impacts of climate change on the species under its jurisdictional mandate.
Yes, but what if an AGFC vulnerability assessment conflicts with a similar document produced by a federal agency, like the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service?
Wouldn’tfederal guidelines supersede the state assessment? Armstrong said he believed the state document would take precedence because the AGFC has constitutional authority over fish and wildlife in this state. Also, generating such a document at the state level would probably preclude the feds from doing one on their own.
DUCK ZONES
Every five years, the USFWS gives the states the opportunity to adjust their migratory waterfowl hunting frameworks, like creating new duck hunting zones or adjusting existing zones. That time will soon be upon us.
Luke Naylor, the AGFC’s waterfowl biologist, was in his second week on the job when this situation came up in 2006. At the commission’s behest, he proposed splitting the state into two zones so we’d be in a better position tomaximize hunting opportunities if we got fewer than 60 days for duck hunting. That was one of the most contentious issues the commission has faced since 2005.
Naylor advised the commission that it can adjust the frameworks next year if it sees fit. Only George Dunklin was on the commission at that time, so the body has no collective memory of that battle. The commissioners asked many of the same questions Wednesday that were asked then.
Naylor warned that eventually, a 100-year drought will strike the Prairie Pothole Region and necessitate a shorter duck season. He reminded the commission that he said the same thing five years ago, and it hasn’t happened yet. If the commission adopts a new framework, it’ll be stuck with it for five years, with no latitude to adjust it in any way.
Sports, Pages 29 on 09/26/2010