The Arkansas Game and Fish Commission approved hunting regulations Thursday at its monthly meeting in Little Rock for the 2015-16 seasons, including 2016 spring turkey season dates and opening dates for the 2016-17 deer seasons.
Opening dates for the 2016-17 deer seasons will be Sept 24 for archery, Oct. 15 for muzzleloader, Nov. 12 for modern gun and Oct. 29 for the private land antlerless deer hunt. The special youth modern gun deer hunt will begin Nov. 5, 2016 and Jan. 7, 2017.
The 2016 spring turkey season will run April 16-May 1 in most turkey management zones, and April 16-24 in zones 4, 4A, 5A and 9A. The special youth turkey season will run April 9-10.
Zone 1 is closed to all turkey hunting.
Dick Baxter, assistant chief of the commission's wildlife management division, said the agency traditionally announces opening dates for deer and turkey seasons well in advance because many hunters plan vacations around them.
In other wildlife management business, Don McKenzie, executive director of the National Bobwhite Conservation Initiative, presented the program's recommendations to the commission for developing long-term strategies for restoring wild bobwhite quail to Arkansas.
McKenzie said the Arkansas Natural Heritage Commission has volunteered to partner in quail restoration efforts with the NBCI. Scott Simon, executive director of the Arkansas Nature Conservancy, pledged the conservancy's support, as well.
Cory Gray, the commission's deer biologist, briefed the commission on the 2014-15 deer season. Hunters killed 208,075 deer in the combined seasons. That's a 2 percent decrease from more than 213,000 deer killed in 2013-14.
Gray said all of the biological data indicates that the herd is still growing, with 72 percent of the doe population contributing an average of 1.7 fawns annually to the statewide herd.
Commission vice chairman Emon Mahony complimented the deer management team.
"You've improved the quality of the herd, you've improved quantity of herd, you've improved the health of herd, and you've done it in a hunter-friendly environment," Mahony said.
In fisheries-related business, the commission approved land use policies around commission-owned lakes, and related compliance codes.
Also, Angeline Rogers, Lower Mississippi River Conservation Committee coordinator for the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, made a presentation about habitat restoration on the lower Mississippi River. She said the 2.8 million acres of land between the levees of the lower Mississippi River are equal to that in the Florida Everglades, providing important habitat conservation opportunities.
The secondary channels off the main channel are also important habitat for fish and wildlife. Rogers said the committee has been working with the Corps of Engineers and other partners to restore current flowing through the secondary channels by notching stone dikes. There are 774 stone dikes along the Mississippi River that divert current to the main channel. Notching the dikes partly restores the river's original braided channel.
There are projects pending that would affect nearly 3,000 acres in Arkansas, Rogers said.
Sports on 04/17/2015