Get Full Government Meeting Transcripts, Videos, & Alerts Forever!
Get email alerts on the Duck Season topic
No spam. Unsubscribe anytime.
Game and Fish: drought reduced available water this season; agency disputes Flyway Federation claims linking mallards to standing corn
Summary
Director Schoenrock told legislators drought and warm weather drove a rapid decline in duck numbers between surveys; he said Arkansas counted about 1.4 million ducks on Dec. 31 (498,000 mallards) and disputed that a revision to the Migratory Bird Treaty Act caused mallards to concentrate in mid‑latitude standing corn.
Doug Schoenrock, director of the Arkansas Game and Fish Commission, told the committee that drought and warm weather were the principal drivers of recent changes in waterfowl distribution and hunting conditions, not changes in federal migratory‑bird law. “We are basically 90% of the state in either extreme or moderate drought,” Schoenrock said, noting surface water shortages reduced the Commission’s ability to flood moist soil units and Green Tree Reservoirs.
Schoenrock gave survey figures from late December and midwinter flights: “We had 1,400,000 ducks in Arkansas on 12/31. Of those, 498,000 were mallards.” He reported a later midwinter survey (Jan. 1–13) counted roughly 334,000 ducks in the state during that window and described rapid northward movement by birds after unusually warm early January weather.
Addressing criticism from a Louisiana‑based Flyway Federation and a congressional letter, Schoenrock said claims that a 1998 revision to the Migratory Bird Treaty Act caused mallards to be held in mid latitudes because of standing corn are incorrect. “That act had to do with restricting illegal baiting…had nothing to do with standing corn,” he said. Schoenrock emphasized that habitat on breeding grounds and federal water policy have the largest effect on national duck populations, and he described federal management thresholds that affect state season setting.
Committee members asked about interstate cooperation, bag limits, and private‑land incentive programs. Schoenrock said U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service sets the federal framework for season length and bag limits though the state can be more restrictive; he also noted existing programs (Conservation Incentive Program, DMAP) that provide technical assistance and incentives for private land habitat management. The commission reported it has commissioned research at the University of Arkansas at Monticello to study waterfowl movement and avoidance behavior around wind energy and other infrastructure; Schoenrock said that study could take about two years.
