LONOKE — “This is probably one of the most exciting things I’ve been a part of in my career.” Arkansas Game and Fish Commission Fisheries Division Chief Tommy Laird could have been speaking for at least a dozen members of the AGFC’s staff when he said those words in mid-July at the unveiling of the…
LITTLE ROCK, Ark. 12-9-25 — Arkansas has taken its first official step toward establishing a new state park in the Ozarks, following a memorandum of understanding signed today by Governor Sarah Huckabee Sanders, Arkansas Department of Parks, Heritage and Tourism Secretary Shea Lewis, and the U.S. Forest Service. The agreement begins the formal process of…
GEORGETOWN — Cayce Guy is waiting with anticipation for the peak of the waterfowl migration at Steve N. Wilson Raft Creek Bottoms Wildlife Management Area — maybe a little more intently this year than any other. In addition to being an avid waterfowler, Guy is the Arkansas Game and Fish Commission’s wildlife biologist at the…
LITTLE ROCK — Anglers interested in hooking into an epic-sized trophy fish can apply for a 2026 Alligator Gar Trophy Tag from now until the end of 2025. Many Arkansas anglers travel all the way to the Gulf of Mexico each year in search of trophy fish like tarpon and sailfish. Most don’t know they…
Article and photos submitted by the Arkansas Game and Fish Commission, Article by Randy Zellers, AGFC CAMDEN — Arkansas Game and Fish Commission K9 “Hunter” sniffed his way to a reward after tracking down a lost hunter on Poison Springs Wildlife Management Area during the area’s opening week of deer season. Hunter’s handler, Game Warden…
LITTLE ROCK — Upland hunters are always looking for a new area to test their dogs’ skill and enjoy a few birds on the wing, but finding a public quail-hunting area can be challenging. Although a few good open habitats hold decent numbers of northern bobwhites, too much pressure can decimate coveys if the word…
By Jeff WilliamsEditor, Arkansas Wildlife MagazineLITTLE ROCK — Dad doesn’t need another tie for Christmas and Mom’s not wishing for perfume. Instead, give them and other loved ones something they’ll enjoy and explore for years to come. “River to Ridge: Arkansas’s Wildlife Management Areas” is the perfect present for anyone who enjoys the outdoors and has a…
LITTLE ROCK — Country music’s man of the marsh, Riley “The Duckman” Green, and a few of his fellow singers and songwriters are cranking up the sound at the Duckman Jam Nov. 22 at Simmons Bank Arena in Little Rock, and you could find yourself backstage with a VIP experience by simply sharing your favorite…
LITTLE ROCK — An estimated 290,000 people, enough to fill Donald W. Reynolds Razorback Stadium in Fayetteville more than four times, will be headed to the woods this year in search of a deer, and many of them will be celebrating their first hunt of the year this weekend with the opening of Arkansas’s modern…
LITTLE ROCK — This weekend’s youth hunt will be a milestone in many young hunters’ lives as they harvest their first white-tailed deer in Arkansas. Reward their enthusiasm with a certificate they can display with pride. Keith Stephens, chief of the Arkansas Game and Fish Commission’s Communications Division, said the certificates serve as one more…
LITTLE ROCK — Arkansas’s first youth deer hunt of the 2025-26 hunting season is Nov. 1-2, and the Arkansas Game and Fish Commission is reminding all hunters to update their mobile app and download their youth hunter’s free deer tags to ensure an enjoyable hunt and smooth game-checking experience after the shot. “Youth deer hunters…
STAR CITY — Cuban bulrush, a fast-spreading invasive aquatic plant, was found in September on Cane Creek Lake within Cane Creek State Park. The species is widespread throughout the lake, and initial treatments have begun to treat the infestation in specific areas. According to Ryan Mozisek, the Arkansas Game and Fish Commission’s district fisheries supervisor…
KELSO — Hunters and anglers in southeast Arkansas have an entirely new island to explore in the Arkansas Game and Fish Commission wildlife management area system this year, thanks to a completed lease agreement that opens a 730-acre island in the Arkansas River to public hunting and fishing. The lease, completed this week, encompasses not…
By Kelsey EnglertUniversity of Arkansas at Monticello MONTICELLO, Ark. — A new waterfowl research center that aims to advance waterfowl and wetlands research and transform the industry was announced on Monday during a ceremony at the University of Arkansas at Monticello. The event, co-hosted with the University of Arkansas System Division of Agriculture, marked the…
Article submitted L’Aigle Creek Conservation Service is hosting a Community Information Expo in conjunction with NRCS – Natural Resources Conservation Service on Tuesday, Oct 28th, to give information to landowners & farmers about financial assistance and other ways they can assist landowners, cattle farmers, chicken farmers & family farmers with regenerative grazing practices etc., as…
LITTLE ROCK — Many Natural State deer hunters will head to the woods for the first time on Saturday with a new shooting iron in their hands for the state’s alternative firearms season. Introduced last deer hunting season, the alternative firearms season expands muzzleloading season to include a few new options for hunters to carry.…
SOCIAL HILL, Ark. – A mountain lion struck and killed by a motorist late Wednesday near Social Hill in Hot Spring County marks only the third confirmed mountain lion death in Arkansas since 1975 — and the incident has brought renewed attention to Bradley County’s own rare encounter over a decade ago. In November 2014,…
A familiar name to many in Bradley County, longtime Arkansas public land hunter Andy Gibbs recently appeared on the Purely Public Duck Hunting Podcast to share stories of his upbringing, hunting roots, and experiences in the flooded timberlands that have defined much of Arkansas’s duck hunting heritage. The episode, hosted by Chris Kaiser, regional director…
LITTLE ROCK — Fall boating can mean peaceful days on Arkansas’s large reservoirs while many hunters begin to hit the woods instead of the water. Even with fewer boaters on the water, the threat of aquatic nuisance species infiltrating your favorite lake remains. Aquatic nuisance species are non-native plants and animals that can cause ecological…
MONTICELLO, Ark. – The Snowden Waterfowl Center of Excellence, a new University of Arkansas System Division of Agriculture research center, will be celebrated on Oct. 13 at the University of Arkansas at Monticello (UAM). The waterfowl research program will be based at UAM through the Arkansas Forest Resources Center thanks to $7 million in total…
Article submitted LITTLE ROCK — Arkansas’s two-weekend alligator season wrapped up in the predawn light Monday morning, and when the last harvested alligator was checked, hunters had tallied 205 alligators, narrowly edging out the previous record of 202 harvested in 2023. According to AGFC Herpetologist Amanda Bryant, hunters surpassed the initial quota of 204 with…