Public Input Meetings Scheduled Around Arkansas

First posted on 12-29-2009

Public input is a crucial component of the Arkansas Game and Fish Commission’s process for setting hunting and fishing regulations, and the method of gathering public input will be slightly different beginning in January.

After a short discussion on the public-input process at last week’s monthly Commission meeting, a decision was made to hold five public meetings around the state to gather comments on hunting regulations proposals.

The meetings are part of the Arkansas Game and Fish Commission’s annual hunting-regulations process, giving hunters the opportunity to make comments and proposals for the 2010-11 hunting seasons.

The meetings will be held 7-9 p.m. on Jan. 5 at the following locations:

Little Rock
AGFC Central Office
2 Natural Resources Drive

Jonesboro
Forrest L. Wood Crowley’s Ridge Nature Center
600 East Lawson Road

Pine Bluff
Gov. Mike Huckabee Delta Rivers Nature Center
1400 Black Dog Road

Camden
Camden Fairview High School Auditorium
1750 Cash Road

Fort Smith
Janet Huckabee Arkansas River Valley Nature Center
8300 Wells Lake Road

Following the public meetings, there will be a TV show Thursday, Jan. 7, from 7-8 p.m. on . Steve “Wild Man” Wilson will host the show, which will feature several AGFC biologists and wildlife experts. Sportsmen and women will be able to call a toll-free hotline with questions and comments that will be answered or discussed during the show.

The number of meetings has been reduced from previous years in an effort to streamline the process and provide a more efficient system for gathering public comments. Statewide meetings have been poorly attended in recent years, and the reduction in the number of meetings and the move to a televised “town hall” style public meeting is an attempt to involve the public to a greater degree in AGFC’s regulations process.

In other business, the Commissioners:

*Voted unanimously to approve new trotline requirements for Lake Maumelle in central Arkansas. The lake is an 8,900-acre impoundment of the Big Maumelle River and the principle water supply for central Arkansas. The lake is managed by Central Arkansas Water.

Trotlines have been prohibited in Lake Maumelle. The new regulation, which goes into effect Jan. 1, will allow trotlines in the western two-thirds of the lake. Central Arkansas Water and the AGFC have been working together over the past several months to improve the lake’s fishery.

*Heard a proposal on a regulation change regarding the reciprocal license agreement between Arkansas and Missouri. Missouri is closing the harvest of mussels in that state’s waters. The proposal will remove Missouri’s part of the St. Francis River from the reciprocal license. Mussels will still be available for harvest on the Arkansas portion of the river.

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