MORRILTON — Commissioners with the Arkansas Game and Fish Commision heard an update on the agency’s Deer Management Assistance Program during today’s commission meeting at the Dr. T.W. Hardison Visitor Center at Petit Jean State Park. The program has existed in some form since the 1990s, but was formally named in 2001. It provides customized assistance to deer clubs throughout Arkansas to manage their property for the benefit of wildlife with a focus on white-tailed deer.
Jeremy Brown, DMAP coordinator in the agency’s Private Lands Habitat Division, has increased focus on the program during the last year, adding five new biologists to increase capacity thanks to a partnership with the National Deer Association.
“These positions don’t have other duties like our private lands biologists, but they eat, sleep and breathe deer management for private landowners,” Brown said. “The DMAP biologists each work with about 91 different deer clubs. The six private lands biologists also still maintain about 42 clubs each.”
Brown explained that the help these biologists offer landowners and deer clubs is all free. In some cases, they can even find money to help offset some costs of conservation work through programs like the AGFC’s Conservation Incentive Program.
“We realize that hunters throughout the state make a management decision every time they choose to pull the trigger, but they also make many more management decisions regarding habitat, and we want to come alongside them and help them in that effort,” Brown said. “Each deer club may have a different goal, but we can work together to deliver their goals and make good progress on a level that benefits everyone.”
According to Brown, last year’s revitalization of the program has resulted in 10-year highs in participation and data collection — 712 enrolled DMAP clubs represent 1.4 million acres of property. These clubs provided more than 21,000 hours of hunter observation data and more than 8,000 biodata records throughout the state, which helps paint a more complete picture for deer management on a landscape level, on both private and public land.
In addition to providing guidance to deer clubs, DMAP biologists have been instrumental in coordinating efforts to provide venison to Arkansas Hunters Feeding the Hungry, a nonprofit organization providing hundreds of thousands of meals to needy Arkansans every year.
“The clubs have a certain number of deer that need to be removed each year to meet their management needs, but they don’t have a destination for all that meat,” Brown said. “Last year, three clubs donated enough deer to AHFH to provide 25,000 packets of snack sticks to schools for backpack programs at Arkansas schools. That is protein that these kids need, and that’s only from three clubs. We’re looking forward to being able to expand that effort.”
AGFC Director Austin Booth praised the efforts of staff in revitalizing the DMAP program as well as efforts managing habitat throughout the state. Commissioners had the opportunity to witness some of the behind-the-scenes action that has taken place on Ed Gordon Point Remove Wildlife Management Area and the results for both waterfowl and upland game.
“When this agency has the resources and the clear prioritization that it needs to be successful, our staff will follow through,” Booth said. “I cannot be more proud of how our staff have delivered on the ground both at Ed Gordon and also on the ground at deer clubs throughout Arkansas.”
Booth closed his report with a message to all hunters to keep safety at the forefront of their thoughts as they head to the woods in pursuit of bear, deer, waterfowl and small game this month.
“Nobody wakes up in the morning and says, ‘I’m going to have an accident today,’ but it happens nevertheless,” Booth said. “If you’re hunting from an elevated platform, buy a safety harness. And if you have a safety harness, hook it up; because the only thing that we want more than for folks to get outside and enjoy the outdoors is to do it safely.”
In other business, commissioners formally elected all game wardens and staff to their positions as part of their annual legal certification. They also denied a third-party rulemaking request to allow semiautomatic rifles to be disabled in a way to prevent the semiautomatic action from functioning in order to be legal for the upcoming alternative firearms deer hunting season. Semiautomatic rifles firing a straight-walled cartridge will need to have the upper assembly completely replaced into a non-semiautomatic action to be legal during the alternative firearms hunt.
A video of the meeting is available on the AGFC’s YouTube Channel.
