When Steve Cook was about 7 or 8 years old, his dad, Ray, took him duck hunting one cold January morning.
“We were in a shallow area behind some rocks and a small gravel bar,” Cook said. “I had a single-shot, 4-10 shotgun. My dad had the decoys out, and we had a few ducks fly over, but I was about to freeze to death.”
In order to keep warm, Ray crafted a personal hand-warmer by using a coffee can, stuffing it with toilet paper, dousing it with lighter fluid and lighting it to create a slow burn.
“This time, instead of bringing a small can, he brought a bigger coffee can, and he had two rolls of toilet paper and smashed them together,” said Steve Cook, who lives in Malvern. “He was wanting to hunt, and I was sitting over there shaking, I was so cold.”
Ducks flew over the blind, and Ray shot and killed a couple.
“He had to wade out into the water and get the ducks,” Cook said. “When he came back, he set the ducks down, and when he leaned down to warm his hands — because they had gotten wet and cold — the shells he keeps in his vest fell into that bucket.
“I remember he reached over and threw me out of the way and kicked the bucket, and the shells went off. He looked at me and said, ‘This hunting trip is over.’”
Cook, who was recently elected chairman of the Arkansas Game and Fish Commission, said he has thousands of stories, but that is one that sticks out in his mind.
“We have always had a place to go and do,” Cook said. “Whenever we wanted to go, we just went and hunted. Now everything is leased, gated and managed.
“It has decreased public opportunity for people to go hunting.”
Cook has served for six years on the commission, and this year marks his final year to serve.
“As chairman of the commission, one of my priorities is trying to obtain additional public land because a lot of the land that we have is shrinking,” Cook said.
“I think that is where the Game and Fish Commission plays a major role. We should be providing more public places to hunt, fish or to just enjoy being outdoors.
“That is something we need to look at strongly because they are not making any more land these days. If we have the opportunity to provide some public areas, people of today can enjoy what I had 30 to 40 years ago. They should have those same opportunities.”
Cook said hunting and fishing over the past few years have trended down compared to the area’s population.
“Part of that is a technology thing. Less teenagers and young adults get outside like they used to,” Cook said. “But part of it is a working man or woman may not be able to afford a private hunting club or buy large tracks of land to hunt or fish on.
“They need the same opportunities to hunt and fish and enjoy the resources like I do.”
Cook is originally from Magnet Cove and grew up on the Ouachita River, spending time with his dad and two older brothers, hunting and fishing, camping and swimming.
“I am a big outdoors man,” Cook said. “Duck hunting is probably my favorite type. I also do a lot of conservation work through Ducks Unlimited, where I serve as senior vice president on their board.
“I love any type of bird hunting.”
One of his other priorities as commission chairman is to ask the administration and staff to work on a quail-restoration project — “for the possibility of creating a quail or bird stamp and restricting those funds for conservation habitat for quail, just like the duck stamp or the trout stamp,” Cook said.
He said he is also working on restoring green-tree reservoirs for waterfowl hunters.
“Our timber is in dire straights,” he said. “Our commission is working on a new plan, collecting information and data, to make sure we don’t lose all our green-tree-reservoir hunting areas due to timber dying or water control.”
Former Gov. Mike Beebe appointed Cook to the commission in 2011.
“As commissioner, I oversee policy procedures, regulations of the commission,” Cook said. “I act as chairman and proceed over the public meetings and committee meetings twice a month.
“It is more the business and regulations of the Arkansas Game and Fish Commission. It has really not provided [outdoor] opportunities like people might think.”
Cook, who has owned S.A.C. Wireline, a telecommunications company, in Malvern since he was 19, said that when his term is up with the commission, it will be a “bittersweet day.”
“It is something I’ve always wanted to do,” Cook said. “It will be bittersweet, but at the same time, it is time for someone else to come on.
“We need fresh faces in here to bring in new ideas and to carry on the commission.”
Staff writer Sam Pierce can be reached at (501) 244-4314 or spierce@arkansasonline.com.