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Managing the deer of Arkansas is the goal of a new citizens advisory group enlisted by the Arkansas Game and Fish Commission. The group will have major input in creating a new deer management plan for the state. (Game and Fish Commission photo) Advisory group to focus on deer management plan Saturday, May 12, 2007 By Joe Mosby A concept that has had success in Arkansas on fishing issues has been launched for deer. It's the assembling of a diverse group of hunters to function as a statewide Deer Management Advisory Group. The Arkansas Game and Fish Commission launched the long-range project with a meeting at Dardanelle, followed by similar meetings at Camden and Brinkley. The goal: Ideas and suggestions from the hunters, representing Arkansas' public, will be incorporated with wildlife biology essentials into a new Arkansas deer management plan. New in this case means revamping the AGFC Deer Management Plan which was crafted in 1997. The AGFC has divided Arkansas into three sections for this project. Called Deer Management Units, they are (1) Ozark Mountains, Arkansas River Valley and Ouachita Mountains, (2) Gulf Coastal Plan - South Arkansas, and (3) Delta and Crowley's Ridge. The Dardanelle meeting had about 25 hunters from various points of the Ozarks, river valley and Ouachitas. If diversity was a goal in the AGFC choosing the advisers, that part of the plan was accomplished. On hand were bow-hunting specialists, private landowners, public land hunters, biologists with other agencies, storekeepers, insurance agents, a mayor and a couple of newspaper writers. Two of the group said they were avid dog people - they like to run deer with dogs - and for the AGFC wildlife people to select deer dog enthusiasts was notable in itself. Another new concept is the AGFC's use of an outside facilitator company to help with the administering of the advisory group activities. On hand were Tommy Shropshire of Mississippi and Spencer Amend of Wyoming. Both were emphatic that their role was to help handle the meetings and the flow of information and ideas, but not to contribute their input into the Arkansas deer plan. Shropshire is retired from a 30-year career with the Mississippi Game and Fish Commission, most as its chief finance officer. Rick Chastain, AGFC assistant chief of wildlife, told the group, "Our present deer management plan has worked, not perfectly and with some ups and downs. But it has bounced back from these setbacks. It has been flexible." However, Arkansas deer hunters in general are not happy, and the AGFC recognizes that, the advisory group was told. The deer management plan, the existing one and the new edition to be hammered out over several months, does not set the hunting seasons and regulations. That is done each year by the AGFC commissioners. The management plan sets the foundation and outlines the goals, with regulations used each year to reach the objectives. Amend and Shropshire said they plan to make heavy use of electronic communication, e-mail, with the advisory members in the place of frequent and repeated meetings. The second chapter of the deer management advisory plan is to hold 10 public meetings at various points around Arkansas for anyone to put forth ideas and suggestions and to listen to biologists. These will come in June, the facilitators said. The input by a citizens advisory group has been used in recent years by the AGFC on three lake management projects. The first was for Harris Brake Lake in Perry County. Second was for Lake Chicot in Chicot County, and the third and most extensive was for the renovation of Lake Conway in Faulkner County. A citizens advisory group was also used for construction of the AGFC's Trout Management Plan for Arkansas. -------- Joe Mosby is the retired news editor of the Arkansas Game and Fish Commission and Arkansas' best known outdoor writer. His work is distributed by the Arkansas News Bureau in Little Rock. He can be reached by e-mail at jhmosby@cyberback.com. |
