To the apparent surprise of its wildlife management staff and administration, the Arkansas Game and Fish Commission voted to present a different-than-agreed-upon duck season structure for 2024-25.
After intense and emotional debate that lasted hours, the commission voted to propose a season with three segments lasting from Nov. 23-Dec. 1, Dec. 5-24 and Dec. 27 to Jan. 26, 2025. That is a departure from a season structure that traditionally ended on Jan. 31. A day for youth duck hunting will be on Feb. 1, 2025, and a duck hunting day for youths and veterans will be on Feb. 2, 2025.
Also, the commission voted to reduce the daily limit on mallard hens from two to one.
Jessica Feltz, the commission's conservation social scientist, recently conducted an exhaustive public opinion survey of the myriad hunting and fishing regulations proposals the commission is considering. She delivered the full report at the meeting. She noted that 524 respondents -- 23.8% -- expressed preference for these dates.
The highest approval was for a season with three segments running Nov. 23-Dec. 2, Dec. 10-23, and De. 27-Jan. 31, 2025. That proposal was favored by 1,201 respondents (42.5%).
The vote followed a long discussion about steps the commission could take to increase the number of mallards that survive the season and reproduce in the northern prairies without diminishing hunting opportunities for the public. That rationale also drove the decision to reduce the bag limit on mallard hens.
David Snowden, an avid duck hunter, inspired this debate with a presentation at the beginning of the meeting. Citing the dramatic reduction in mallard numbers, Snowden said it is common sense to require hunters to kill fewer mallard hens because a maximum number of hens are necessary to replenish losses from hunting and natural mortality. He said halving the daily limit on hens would compel hunters to be more selective with their shots, just as the 3-point rule did with deer hunters.
Luke Naylor, chief of the commission's wildlife management division and formerly its longtime waterfowl program coordinator, said hunters are already self-regulating in the birds they kill. He said hunters kill three drakes per hen, and that a regulation will not improve that ratio.
Furthermore, Naylor said, poor habitat conditions in the breeding grounds is the main limitation on reproduction. A pond in the Prairie Pothole Region supports only one breeding pair of mallard, Naylor said. Because of drought, there are currently not enough ponds to accommodate the number of ducks that return to the breeding grounds.
Those that cannot find a pond will not nest this year, Naylor said, but some might nest later. The reproduction window is fairly small because those hens will not be able to nest and get their young into flight condition for the fall migration until a pond's current occupants vacate.
Game and Fish Commissioner Philip Tappan of Little Rock said because of Arkansas's importance as a duck hunting state and in duck conservation, the commission should make a statement by passing regulations beyond U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service recommendations. For that reason, Tappan said, it is appropriate for the commission to end duck season before the end of January and to reduce the daily bag limit on mallard hens.
Tappan added that it is vital for the public to understand that hunters will not lose any days, and that the daily limit on mallards will be four. The only difference, he said, is that hunters will only be allowed to kill one hen per day.
Commission chairman Stan Jones of Alicia scolded the commission for "flip-flopping" about duck season dates. He reminded his peers that the commission selected a less popular season framework for the 2023-24 season and then reversed itself after public repudiation. Jones also cited the commission reversing itself on a temporary statewide ban on spinning wing decoys in the early 2000s. Jones said that he does not prefer one season structure over another, but said that hunters in Southeast Arkansas have long expressed a preference to hunt until the end of January.