All posts in Outdoors

LITTLE ROCK — In the final aerial survey of the 2023-24 waterfowl season, Arkansas Game and Fish Commission biologists estimated a Delta mallard population that was more than a half-million mallards below the 2009-2024 late January long-term average and the lowest late January survey estimate on record since the 2010 start of transect-based surveys. Also,…

PINE BLUFF — Every February, duck hunters gather up their decoys and pack them away for another long off-season. Some dekes are sealed in padded compartments and slotted bags as carefully as a Faberge egg, but others that have been shot or have faded to the point of obscurity are destined for the landfill. The…

LITTLE ROCK – A mountain lion recently was found dead on Sylamore Wildlife Management Area in northern Stone County by a U.S. Forest Service employee. A necropsy was performed on the adult male Thursday. There was no evidence that the mountain lion died of a bullet wound and there were no injuries consistent with being…

BOGART, Ga. – The Arkansas Game and Fish Commission, in partnership with the National Deer Association and the Southeast Deer Partnership, is proud to announce the release of “Wildtail: America’s Wildest Conservation Success Story,” a new documentary focused on the role of white-tailed deer to the economy and conservation community. The feature-length documentary, now available…

HOT SPRINGS — The number of people who died in boating accidents in Arkansas dropped to a five-year low last year, according to the Arkansas Game and Fish Commission’s 2023 Boating Accident Year-End Report. Only nine fatalities resulted from the 61 boating accidents compiled by Cpl. Sydney Grant, Boating Law Administrator in the AGFC’s Hot…

MORO BAY, Ark. – Moro Bay State Park has resumed full operations after a temporary closure due to flooding caused by the Ouachita River reaching significant levels. As of Monday morning, the Visitor Center, campground, cabins, Deer Run Trail, playground, bathhouse, and pavilion are all accessible to visitors. However, some amenities remain closed due to…

LITTLE ROCK — Arkansans routinely boast that The Natural State has more than 600,000 acres of lakes and ponds dotted throughout its landscape. While anglers have hundreds of thousands of these acres available for public use, many large reservoirs and oxbow lakes remain in private ownership with no public access. A new program offered through…

LITTLE ROCK — The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service has followed trends in the outdoors since 1955 by conducting the National Fishing, Hunting and Wildlife-Associated Recreation Survey about every five years. It’s a massive, continuous effort. Public conservation and wildlife agencies across the U.S. – including the Arkansas Game and Fish Commission – and commercial…

LAKE VILLAGE — The Arkansas Game and Fish Commission will hold a public meeting at 6 p.m. Jan. 16 at the Lake Village Fire Station at 2017 Arkansas Hwy 65. The last scheduled drawdown at Lake Chicot was coordinated by the AGFC and U.S. Army Corps of Engineers in 2019. The lake’s fishery management plan…

LITTLE ROCK — Arkansas Game and Fish Commission biologists created nearly 200 semi-truckloads of fish attractors in 2023, and hatchery trucks kept up the pace, pumping more than 9.1 million gamefish and baitfish into Arkansas waters to enhance angling efforts. According to Matt Schroeder, fisheries district coordinator for the AGFC, habitat crews placed or enhanced…

LITTLE ROCK — The Arkansas Game and Fish Commission’s annual youth trap-shooting competitions may be five months away, but it’s time for coaches to get their teams together and register to be a part of the Arkansas Youth Shooting Sports Program today.  Jimmy Self, Youth Shooting Sports coordinator for the AGFC, says registration is open…

LITTLE ROCK — The Arkansas Game and Fish Commission’s statewide squirrel-hunting celebration is back for its third year. Get a buddy and get to the woods next Friday and Saturday to take your chance winning prizes and notoriety as the best bushytail hunter in your neck of the woods.  “AGFC Education Division staff started the Big…

For the first time since the beginning of waterfowl season, here at Waterfowl Report headquarters in west Little Rock it actually felt today (Thursday, Dec. 28) like a late-arriving winter was finally on its way.  With that, and with promising anecdotal reports from around east-central and central Arkansas this week as the state’s last segment…

LITTLE ROCK – Arkansas State Parks encourages Arkansans to start the new year on the right foot with First Day Hikes on Monday, Jan. 1, 2024. Led by America’s State Parks, First Day Hikes encourages everyone to celebrate the new year with time spent outdoors, focusing on healthy habits and lifelong memories. “Visiting a state…

The Arkansas Game and Fish Commission’s December aerial waterfowl survey confirmed what many hunters and other observers were believing was the case in terms of the state’s early-season duck numbers: They’re at a modern-day low, both in estimated numbers of mallards and total ducks. The well-below-average count is attributed to no substantial rainfall to alleviate…

Arkansas is forecast to see mild daytime temperatures and only 2-3 days of rain in the remaining days of the second split of the 60-day waterfowl season, which runs through Saturday, Dec. 23. Weather conditions to the north of Arkansas don’t seem to favor much duck movement southward during that period, either, if waterfowl in…

LITTLE ROCK – Biologists conducting aerial surveys to generate waterfowl population estimates last week located a few small groups of dead snow geese and Ross’s geese in Arkansas, Craighead and Lonoke counties that were later collected and tested positive for Highly Pathogenic Avian Influenza. Additional suspected cases have been found in Prairie, Pulaski, Faulkner, Clay…

WASHINGTON – Congress is sending President Joe Biden legislation to sign into law championed by U.S. Senators John Boozman (R-AR), Joe Manchin (D-WV), Roger Marshall, M.D. (R-KS) and Angus King (I-ME) authorizing an electronic stamp for use through the entirety of a waterfowl hunting season. The House of Representatives on Tuesday passed the bipartisan Duck Stamp Modernization…

Waterfowl hunters can return to hunting 30 minutes before sunrise on Saturday, Dec. 9, throughout Arkansas as the state’s 60-day season resumes pretty much like it left off: mostly dry conditions and not a lot of ducks around. By Jim Harris Managing Editor Arkansas Wildlife Magazine We’re going to learn just how many ducks have…

LITTLE ROCK – Want to memorialize those unforgettable first Arkansas hunting and moments? The Arkansas Game and Fish Commission has a special way to say, “Welcome to the hunting community,” with customizable certificates that can be given to a person for their first success in the field. When your new hunter connects with their first…