ALC-Game & Fish/State Police
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Doug Thank
Unverified
3:28
Good morning everybody. if everybody will take their seats we'll go ahead and get started all right thank y'all all for being here appreciate everybody coming out in the weather. I have no comments but let's just go ahead and get started, ir. Thank you madam chair it's good to see everyone here today
Representative Dwight Tosh
Unverified
3:52
and like chair said thanks for being here I guess our first item
of business today is going to be the discussion with the state police involvement with federal immigration laws so colonel Hager would you and your staff please come to the table and you'll be recognized and ar el if you would if you and excuse me the members of your
staff would identify yourself for the committee and then we'll proceed good morning Mr Chair madam chair members I'm Colonel Mike
Mike Hager
Unverified
4:36
Hager secretary of the department of Public Safety and director of state police. jason aaron lieutenant colonel with the Arkansas State Police
Speaker 16
4:46
over field operations Mike Kennedy lieutenant colonel state police director of administrative
Speaker 17
4:50
operations thank all of you for being here and by the way it's it's
Representative Dwight Tosh
Unverified
4:55
good to sees it's good to see each one
of you again and thanks for your service and you we have you on the agenda here colonel to speak in regards to the federal immigration laws and I guess now it's affecting the Arkansas state police and how y'all are moving forward in regards to that so with that said you've got the floor. so there's
Senator Fredrick J. Love
Unverified
5:22
several aspects of this and out of respect for the committee's time not really sure specifically what you guys would like to know about
Mike Hager
Unverified
5:31
so with respect to your time I've just opening it
Senator Missy Irvin
Unverified
5:36
up for questions well I'll go ahead I think you know as we see things unfold across the nation. I think you know what I'm interested in is seeing how y'all are interacting with our federal partnerships what um, what is the role of state police with that plus your local sheriff, local police and and I think what does look like and what the federal government is asking
of us to do and and just very succinc t ly what are those roles and how how that is being communicated and and where where is that happening perhaps if you can speak to that I think that's for me I just want to make sure that we have full cooperation and and that we have the ability to to execute what the president is trying
Senator Fredrick J. Love
Unverified
6:24
to do so just kind of30,000 foot overview we have a standing MOU with every federal agency
not just DHS or IC we basically a lot of federal and state laws run parallel with one another so it's just a cooperation they've been in place for decades with state police and our federal partners to where we will assist him we'll enforce laws we'll assist in operations with them as requested it's specific to immigration enforcement the administration asked local law enforcement local being state law or police sheriff's
departments to engage in 287g task forcece model in support of that the state police has agreed to do that we started that process back late summer early fall and completing the training that is required to do that as of today we have all but 12 members of enforcement that have completed that training those 12 are people that are on FMLA military deployments things like
that so all of our rank and file do now have the 287g authority that we've completed the necessary training to do so and we are now authorized in that capacity having said that we're that's of course immigration is a complex issue we're not an immigration enforcement agency so we are in in an assisting role only on that we've currently not had any like
planned operations anything like that it it basically just gives us the authority that in the interact or the just daily operations if we come into contact with somebody on some other type of criminal offense that they are in illegal status that we can make proper notifications to IC and let them do further vetting for their process. OK could you describe 287g for those
Senator Missy Irvin
Unverified
8:29
of us who are not familiar with with this yes ma'am. so
Senator Fredrick J. Love
Unverified
8:37
287g has been around for years and I I couldn't even guess or you know speculate when that started originally the 287g program was more tailored towards detention facilities and we had a few sheriff's departments in the state of course state police does not operate any detention facilities so it was specific to them this administration expanded that program to more of boots on the ground law enforcement personnel and so
just in the simplest of terms it just gives us the authority that once a reasonable suspicion or probable cause is established to believe that a person is of illegal status he gives us the authority to detain them transport them and turn them over to ice and for further bidding ok so the state police
Senator Missy Irvin
Unverified
9:27
has gone through this training all but 12. What about local law enforcement local counties local police departments can they do they also then also enter or is this just
a state federal relationship or can the 287g also um, be training that our local ma'am I don't know the number off the top of my
Senator Fredrick J. Love
Unverified
9:50
head but there is a website that you can look at through DhS that you can see all the agencies that are currently enrolled in the program and I know it's multiple I would say the majority of law enforcement agencies in Arkansas have have completed that training or enrolled in the program that's Department of Homeland
Senator Missy Irvin
Unverified
10:11
Security DHS OK just making sure that we had that on record. OK. all right and we have some questions and I appreciate the information because that's before we get started let
Representative Dwight Tosh
Unverified
10:23
let me follow up on one thing the colonel said we state police is defined by law and you touched on this and I think we just I just want to make sure it's highlighted and people understand the state police is an assisting agency by law so basically you're assisting any federal state or federal city
municipality that's a that's the role of the state police is assist any other agency that needs the state police assistance and basically what you're doing by is you're fulfilling that mission that is defined by law is is that would that be a fair statement completely accurate that's correct ok thank you senator Love, you're recognized
Chair
Unverified
11:00
for a question thank you madamir thank you
Senator Missy Irvin
Unverified
11:03
coonel Haggger and you all for being here. Let
Senator Fredrick J. Love
Unverified
11:06
let me let me start with this question because I hear I hear a lot of
different things in regards to like the stops and so just as a a pretense of your protocol, how do we determine the status and when you make a traffic stop or where you make a stop, how do you determine the status of of of somebody's immigration status is there a protocol that outlines that yes sir we currently do not have
the ability to determine that status so
if we make contacts with a violator on a traffic stop and the first thing we're gonna do if they have no identification and we're gonna run that person by name date of birth or any type of identifier that they give to us and we're looking to see if they have a driver's license first and foremost then if they have any active warrants or any kind of court action against them so in this situation a lot of times if you know just generically if if you encounter a 30 year old subject that has no
identification in the system it's an indicator that that person may be here on a legal status you're your average adult of course in Arkansas is gonna have some type of either of identification card or driver's license issues so if they have
a driver's license or whatever then it's ok right secondly let me let me ask how many are are you all because I think I asked you this before or are we keeping any records of of how many I guess immigration type stops that we
we are doing with the state police that that I guess result in us turning somebody over to ice or turn it over to dHS or yes sir just
to clarify of course we're not making immig ration stops but if we do make if we encounter a violator as a as a violation of law and it's determined that that person may possibly be of the legal status there's discretion to be used there and we've asked our officers to use that discretion but to answer your first question
about tracking that number as of right now we started keeping records in September I believe once we completed this training or at least we had a large number that you know had were close to comple completing this training and since September we have detained464848 I'm sorry yes sir and those vary from we looked over today to see there's there's not a lot of detailed information that we have on that but they those encounters and
detainments vary from as a results of pursuits criminal arrests narcotics arrest and things like that so it's there's going to be some other type of violation of law before we're detained all right thank you sir
Chair
Unverified
14:02
thank you madam chair thank you senator Rice you
Senator Missy Irvin
Unverified
14:06
recognized Recommended chair. Good morning Colonelhayger and
Senator Terry Rice
Unverified
14:11
appreciate you being here and I try to say that with everybody responds to an invitation because we've had
at least one that didn't show up that was invited and and takes taxpayer money but didn't come to another committee so I I do appreciate you being here. when I saw this on the agenda and and as you know I have great confidence in you and your organization but nothing is perfect so I always want to put things out there that could happen and and maybe have happened to keep in mind and I know y'all do that anyway
but when a see the involvement with federal immigration and I support what ICE is doing in in s in in the need to get criminals out of this country and that mostly what they're doing there are people that are here illegally undocumented that we'll get caught up in that
my concern is I I keep looking for a way and I'm not hearing it. I keep looking for a way that law enforcement can differentiate some I had a lady that's not in my district but married somebody I went to school with that was a US born citizen. she was brought here four years old and is now at35 years ago so she's39 has teenagers who are US citizens
and he told me this number of months ago back when his warm said they were afraid to to get out and go to a swimming hole or or something because this stuff had started in Arkansas and I understand that and I said I don't have an answer for you I hope at some point we get enough criminals out of here they'll find a way that there's some common sense for for long term things and again that's not the policy we're here today for but that's the thing that you that y'all may come and encounter with and I understand you've got process you have to go but but
my other concern is and you're well familiar with it is atF and what I considered the assassination of Brian Malinkowski. when when not atF but Arkansas law enforcement who had contracted services with atTF while still taking state taxpayer money for their other job Felt obligated
to do what atF under the iden administration wanted it done is to show that our interpretation of gun laws is different than what y'all say is written so they kicked down a man's door in the dark at6 o'clock in the morning and he did what I'd do he he with people coming in in in black suits he fired a shot and they shot and killed him I don't want Arkansas state
police to be put in that kind of thing because you have an agreement with a federal agency IE or anybody else that y'all can't use good sense and say we're not gonna go down that road we could have picked this guy up at any stage of his day but instead we went in in the dark and kicked down his door and killed him right in front of his wife. I
don't want that to happen ever again and nobody's ever held responsible for it and I appreciate y'all not
Speaker 51
18:01
beingv involved in that what I'm looking for is is there
Senator Terry Rice
Unverified
18:07
anything out of the what you've stated so far and you hadn't given you hadn't given us a much of a statement is there anything outside of your daily work that y'all are doing currently in coordination with federal aD Homelandcurity I as far as going out and just seeking anything more than people with criminal
charges or do you expect that to happen? no sir and
Mike Hager
Unverified
18:38
thank you for that question we are not engaged in any type of operation like that to
Senator Fredrick J. Love
Unverified
18:43
your point we've made it very clear to our troopers whether it's the 287g program and assisting with ice or if it's assisting with any of our federal partners at the end of the day they work for us and we will make a final determination on what we engage in in operations that we engage in or
not so specifically to the immigration enforcement issue again that's not our primary task and it is a complex issue and we understand that so I've used the analogy that um5655 is a violation of 2751201 so it's 86 in the55 but there's a whole lot of difference in between those two and when you look at the immigration issue in Arkansas we're blessed that we don't have
large numbers of people coming to Arkansas illegal immigrants for the purpose of criminal enterprise. Now that's not to suggest that we don't have some this past Sundayy we had one that is a member of TDA that was engaged in activity back and forth between Chicago and we received information about that and our trooper set up and I was able to take him into custody that's in'86 and a5 5 the immigrant that was brought here as a child as a toddler and
has been here for 2025 years product of our school systems and you know has been a productive member of society not had any interaction with law enforcement that's a fi6 and a55 and we've expressed the difference to our troopers we we've explained to them that we expect them to use good judgment and common sense discretion that they have under law and you know we'll we trust that they're gonna take that responsibility seriously as far as any type of of operation
specific to ice since it is a sensitive issue and it is a complicated issue they do not have the authority to engage in those operations without running that up the chain of command and I can tell you the three people sitting in this table will be directly involved with the go aheadad of whether or not that operation will or at least we will participate in that operation I appreciate that I hadn had confidence in that
Senator Terry Rice
Unverified
20:59
people know you're gonna do your job but there there is that
Speaker 46
21:05
difference in56 and 86 and and appreciate the you're looking at it that way thank you yes
Senator Missy Irvin
Unverified
21:12
sir thank you for Senator Bryan I've got you next quick question is there any is with the training that's involved with this for local cause I'm trying to find where I could on their website can't find it like a list of organizations and departments within the state of Arkansas we'd love for if y'all have
that which if y'all could get that to us that would be really helpful
just because is there a cost to the training? Is there any incentive to do the training for like local cause I know that training is an issue sometimes that it's costly for like our local law enforcement officers like county level or cityle. I didn't know if there was like any cost to that or barriers
in place or I just wanted
Senator Fredrick J. Love
Unverified
21:58
to there's been no direct financial impacts for the training the way the the training was set up they had60 hours I'm sorry60
days to complete the training once they logged on and began the training so there was concern on the front end that we may have to put some troopers on overtime status to complete the training we did not have to do that we asked them to find that time throughout your day in between calls for service to complete the training so there's the only expense would be abstract in that they were you know so there's not been an actual physical impact or physical impact to the agency.
as far as anything that we may receive from the federal government as you guys know very well that's part of the the the big beautiful bill I guess that there was a funding mechanism to go back to law enforcement on a local level to reimburse for any costs that we may incur but that's complicated and they're still working through that process we've heard different things and that's not a shot at DHS it's just complicated so and we've been told that we may have
funding available that will come through the state police and other local agencies to offset any expenses that we may incur in the processes of assisting them but we've not seen that yet thank you ma'am senator Bryant thank you madam Chair and
Senator Joshua Bryant
Unverified
23:23
thank you gentlemen for being here. I think that was gonna be my line of questioning was are we keeping track of those expenses if out of the fore that have been apprehended throughout the state this year as you deploy those into the county system to be held for ri and then ice comes and and gets them
takes them to a a local facility are those counties able to keep track of their hours and time and have the resources to be able to seek reimbursement or they choosing not to seek reimbursement? I guess I'm just curious with budget coming up what those numbers might look at
Senator Fredrick J. Love
Unverified
23:54
you know again it's not had an impact on our ANC as far as operations are concerned as far as the county jails are concerned honestly, I don't know the answer to that more than just generically I know the federal government pays our county jails to house federal
prisoners or federal detainees and they are on this as well but as far as that rate of reimbursement I'm not sure but I do know that the county jails keep that information separate to where they can char or they can basically build
Mike Hager
Unverified
24:24
the federal government accordingly OK and is is state
Senator Joshua Bryant
Unverified
24:27
police as far as the training and the hours spent working federal issues are you keeping track of those hours and and line items yes sir if it if it got to the
Senator Fredrick J. Love
Unverified
24:36
point where that was again an approved operation that we are going to
be involved in we would absolutely track that to this point we know the hours that they've spent in training to complete this but again that was absorbed throughout their daily enforcement day so that's not been tracked to the hour but we certainly we're in the we we had a mechanism in place to track it if we had to put troopers on some type of overtime status to complete that training but we were fortunate that we did not right right thank you thank
Representative Jack Ladyman
Unverified
25:11
youpresentativeladyman thank you madam chairir. thank y'all for
being here. colonel, I don't want to cover ground we've already talked about but you you mentioned I think it's 287g the training that that was back in 20022003 there were some issues going on up in northwest Arkansas and that I think the legislation was passed around that time and Steve Wwomack was actually the mayor ofRogers and I was the mayor of Elkins
and and we talked about as a region certifying some of our officers so that they could detain illegal people who had entered the country illegally and turn them over to ice now ice was always active and still is a lot of people don't know this but they're always active in areas but Steve actually trained a number of his officers and I I think we trained one of ours because we didn't want
people who might be gang members and if there's an indication that they might be well then you want to follow up on that I know that's what you guys do but someone's been here 30 years and has no legal nobody is gonna bother them but there were very few cities back then and it was primarily cities and not county sheriffs that did this there was only a few and I know you mentioned that there's a web page but in your opinion
are there a lot? I mean is there30% of the cities or fi0 or do you do you have any idea the magnitude of those officers that might be trained I know the the list
Speaker 74
26:59
is extensive of the agencies that are participating but I'll be honest with you sir I would be afraid to
Senator Fredrick J. Love
Unverified
27:04
even guess at that as far as like the total number but my colleagues may have a better idea than I do but I know it's a significant number but as far as percentage of law enforcement agencies in Arkansas. I don't even really
Representative Jack Ladyman
Unverified
27:18
have a guess well I know that's not I mean that's up to the local cities and counties that do that and y'all are just there to assist them. one of the question do you know I mean is there any I is always active I know that but are there any areas of the state where there's a focus like you know we had Memphis and some of the bigger cities but do we have any cities or areas or regions where ice is is more active or focused on and are
there any issues as far as pushback in those areas as far as I
Mike Hager
Unverified
27:54
know is push back no sir not that I've heard of or at least very minimal so
Senator Fredrick J. Love
Unverified
27:59
the federal government does in a lot of ways what we do they they assign the resources and the places where it's more of an issue in Arkansas the resources that have been dedicated to Arkansas are very minimal because I don't think that we have the problem here that we do in a lot of you know population hubs around the
country so while that number is growing it's still very small at this time I can tell you I had a conversation with the US attorney yesterday in the eastern district to kind of pick his brain on this topic before I testified today and right now it's basically taking the bandwidth of the resources assigned here to simply go from county to county and pick up i illegal immigrants that have
come into law or in contact with law enforcement for criminal matters so they are stretched pretty thin in just doing that so for instance I think we have the capacity to transport much less than 100 I've heard a couple of different numbers but I've heard 24 and I've heard48 I'm not sure which and that number may grow but I can tell you after talking to the US attorney yesterday we had both been told the statistic that about 90% of the
people that are detained right now are detained as a result ofdWI violations and domestic violence so it's those people are arrested and taken to jail and determined to be on a legal status ICE has contacted and their officers are spending the majority of their time literally just going from county to county to pick up those people that have been detained bring them to LittleRock for hooting and so they can be trans port ed to a detention facility outside of Arkansas
so the overwhelming majority of the enforcement efforts are in that capacity right now it's it's very minimal as far as the number of resources that have been dedicated here any type of enforcement operations well I
Representative Jack Ladyman
Unverified
30:10
know up in northeast around Jonesboro we get a lot of people out of Memphis and Memphis was a focus point and as everybody knows crime is high there and I'm not aware of any issues up there that I've heard about so it sounds like
it's pretty much business as usual for ice in Arkansas is that pretty, is that correct that's been that's been our experience
Speaker 77
30:33
yes sir thank you Representative ladyman you brought
Representative Dwight Tosh
Unverified
30:39
up a good point we and we will try to get them
before this committee maybe during the next meeting that'seleste commission on law enforcement standards and training they are tasked with a responsibility here in the state of Arkansas to keep up with all the training for every officer keep that in a file and be and
so they they should be able to answer those questions if that's something you'd like for us to move forward with I think that was really a good point you brought up so we'll try to do that before our next committee meeting hopefully in February maybe that'll help. thank you Representative Richardson thank you madam Chair over here to your left good morning so I had to step out for a second
Representative R. Scott Richardson
Unverified
31:19
so I don't know if you covered this or not but I'd be interested in knowing you guys
since you have now began the ability to check to see if somebody's illegal or not. Are you tracking how diverse the people are and what you're pulling over or identifying as illegals like from brown, black, white a breakdown of that is that are you guys doing that is it possible to do that?
Specifically, I don't know that we
Senator Fredrick J. Love
Unverified
31:53
are tracking that but again just to clarify we're we're not making traffic stops
on the pretense of any suspicion based on someone's appearance the people that we've come into contact with and have been detained have been stopped for some type of violation of law or they've been contacted by investigators for some type of violation of law we do not have the ability and I think that's something that is it's a misperception by the public that we can pull someone over and somehow run identifiers and find out what they're their legal status is their
immigration status we don't have that ability so all we can do is when we detain someone we simply transport them if we are not able to identify them and it is believed that they have no identification because they are of a legal status then it's simply a notification made to I for further bidding they had the ability to do that they can use fingerprint scanners facial Id things like that to where if that person's been contacted by immigration it you know either
on the border or some other location they can put that person through their system
Mike Hager
Unverified
33:07
and they can identify if that person or what their status is but we do not have that that ability so when somebody breaks the law you pull them over for
Representative R. Scott Richardson
Unverified
33:15
speeding or whatever and they're unable to identify if they if they don't have any license on them or anything. those are people that you're contacting or sending to ice because they can't prove if they're here or not my question is is it everybody that does that
any individual that you pull over if I'm speeding down the street and I don't have my Id are
Senator Fredrick J. Love
Unverified
33:46
you turning me over to ice? sir that it's not necessarily that we're turning them over to ice if that person is detained for some type of criminal violation and that violation very well could be that just the fact that it's a an adult that is not in the system they're detained and then the detention facility can notify IE to
further vet that person to see if they can identify who they are or confirm who they are but we are not making any type of like I got you I got you you answered thank you thank you very
Senator Missy Irvin
Unverified
34:18
much sir thank you for the question you
Senator Kim Hammer
Unverified
34:21
and lastly Senator hammer thank you ma'am Chair just for clarification, the ones that you've picked up so far, um, would you classify those as violent offenders or how would you categorize the ones that you've picked up so far?
Senator Fredrick J. Love
Unverified
34:36
so I've not gone through and looked the the information is kind of vague we just see the reason for the contacts and that's either a traffic violation or a call for service you of course in rural areas we have troopers that answer calls for service like domestic violence issues and things like that I know from just a quick glance of looking over I would say it's a mix of being contacted for a traffic viol ation everything from that to a
person that was arrested for fleeing domestic violence DWI you know, other criminal infractions that led to that person being detained not the fact that they were just merely suspected of being on illegal status which which you have directive from from IC or from the federal authorities as
Senator Kim Hammer
Unverified
35:25
to the reason why you're picking them up. it's not like you're just grabbing them or doing anything without any authority and and the range of who it is that you may be picking up may be something we
might consider minor or to something major. it's it's it's not any one it's kind of across the board yes sir it's across the board that's senator let me give you a real
Speaker 17
35:47
quick example we had over600 Arkansas state troopers and we've picked up48 since September so it's not very often it's happening one of those48 was one of my stops so let me give you a quick example firsthand I can tell you firsthand stopped a vehicle atyer SpringsRoad for not having any vehicle license on it. The driver had had two dWIs in two years and not done a thing to take care of either one of those dWIs
as far as pays fines get his interlock devices I called I and they beat the record there and got him out of our country for it winds up killing somebody on one of our streets and don't have a I don't have any problem
Senator Kim Hammer
Unverified
36:19
with that that's why I was trying to that's what wanted to get to the conclusion of that the folks that you're picking up, some might be minor but yet some are going to be the kind of folks you don't want living next door or living in your neighborhood. we're driving up and down your roads exactly right thank you sir I think
Senator Missy Irvin
Unverified
36:37
to me that's the most helpful being able to give an
example and and that and that's what you know I'm concerned with. I know that everybody that I represent is concerned with is that we don't want violent criminals on our streets no matter what
their status is. I mean it it doesn't matter if they're a citizen or not a citizen we want them an eye for one you know if they're not a a a citizen then Id I do believe they should be deported back to their country and let their country deal with that and deal with you know
paying for all of the adjudication that is involved with that because we have enough already on our hands to deal with just with our own citizens so you know I think that's really helpful information and I just appreciate it and that's why you know for me I want and I hope that there are a no barriers financially or by time that any local law enforcement agency, has in order to participate fully and wholeheartedly with the federal
government and with what the president of the United States is putting forward and his agenda because I agree we've got to address this head on and that may not be a lot but for me one person is a lot you know, knowing what we've known and and what the impact could be just like you stated that they could kill somebody you know the next DUi could end up in a fatality and a multiple fatality and even their own fatality. so
you know we should be acting as as aggressively as we possibly can to make sure everybody's trained everybody's participating, everybody's on the same page to execute the president's agenda so that's why I wanted this on the agenda today because I think it's important that we discuss it highlight it are very clear about the information that's out there because clearly you know things that are are being misconstrued on a national media level and we just need to make sure that that's not happening here in the state of Arkansas. and so that's the intention and the
reason why we had this on the agenda. really appreciate the information you gave and your testimony and the questions from the members of the committee thank you we'll move on to the next we have no more questions so thank you gentlemen for being here thank you all for being here and with that we'll move on to the next item of the agenda we have Mr. Shonerock who's director of Arkansas Game and Fish Commission. He's got three items on the agenda and
Doug Thank
Unverified
39:16
and I think these are issues as he's coming forward that are important to have a status the the role of this committee let me just state this the role of this committee is to provide oversight but it's also critical that we are an educational committee and making sure that we're fully utilizing the talents and and the expertise that we have at the state level and how they operate in the state and for me game and fish there's a there's so much room and I'm so
Senator Missy Irvin
Unverified
39:47
appreciative of the director's role in this and reaching out to other states number one and finding out what's happening with other states how it's affecting our state and then the recognition
Doug Thank
Unverified
39:59
that hunting is a huge impact to our tourism economy and being able to really take full advantage of that is is really important and I think some of these issues you know can directly impact our our tourism and our visitation as we are kind of a hunting destination for the country and
being able to compete on that level we want to be the national championship of hunting destinations in the country and so a lot that's happening in other states could impact that. So with that I just want to turn it over to you and if you'll state your name for the record you're recognized to proceed. Thank you. yes ma'am my name is doug Sharock. I'm the director
Doug Schoenrock
Unverified
40:39
of Arkansas Game and Fish Commission. go ahead we'll we'll first start
Senator Missy Irvin
Unverified
40:45
with the status of the water pumps at the WMAs we
Speaker 105
40:51
we currently manage a bunch of water on different WMAs of course we have
Chair
Unverified
40:56
108 different what we call moist soil units uh63 of those are flooded that require rainfall 45 of them are flooded by artificial means which indicates pumps at this point in time 90 to100% of every one of those is I'm sorry those are all 108 or 90 to100% flooded at this point in time of the year
We also manage43 greentree reservoirs Greentree reservoirs are flooded timber historic Arkansas pristine areas to hunt 39 of the of the Greentree reservoirs that we have opened to hunting on our wildlife management areas require rainfall or river flow4 have pumps and those remain in status right now of 0 to 100% flooded. some are not some are just depending on what mechanism we're able to
flood the the information about all that all of those GTRs and all of those units multiple acres thousands of acres are on our website and our operating schedule is clearly posted there when we started flooding them when we closed gateser boards and what the status of their current flood status is so if you go to the website go to hunting, go to waterfowl and you can see the operational plans for both our moist soil
units and our greentree reservoirs so that's the status of our of our of how we operate ur r ent ly we only have one pump that's not functional that one pump is a brand new moist soil unit that's never been flooded before, never been waterfowl hunted before and the reason we don't have that pump under status right now is because it's a gas operated apparatus and we simply do not have the gas permit and gas connection to that pump on this new area
you may be referring to a pump that was reflected in social media back in the fall by vandalism at Ed Gordon Point remove that pump was analyzed in July of 2027 along with several farmers pumps in that same geography those pumps all had parts returned in November from the manufacturer Those pumps are not mechanical. those pumps are driven by ostats rheostatic drive means that we can it's like driving a four
wheeler without gears you can turn it up or turn it down but it doesn't have gears that operate it the parts to replace those pumps are are not readily available in stock. The pump at Ed gordon point removed that was vandalized all the metal componentry and some of the electronic componentry was stolen those those pumps began running on December 8th and have run nonstop ever since then. likewise the private land pumps that are adjacent to Ed gordon pointint removed that were vanalized still haven't
Speaker 107
44:02
started running yet. and remind mehurricane Lake
Senator Missy Irvin
Unverified
44:07
is that one of the areas that you manage ma'am and
Doug Thank
Unverified
44:12
it's been flooded or a hurricane lake is dependent upon the white river
Speaker 105
44:17
the water control structure that we finished the early in 2025 dependent and it depends
Chair
Unverified
44:23
on what river flow the water control structure we placed in there was not at the correct elevation
and consequently that area was a lake for a long time.ever has been intended to be a lake it's a greentree reservoir the flow on I think it's Glaze Creek that runs through that area right now is not out of bank consequently that area is not flooded and that's due to the white river flow that feeds the creek you and then probably a
Senator Missy Irvin
Unverified
44:55
good time we've got a a question but
also the dam it looks like there's good progress on Lake Conwayway yes ma'am there's a public meeting coming up next
Doug Schoenrock
Unverified
45:05
week on the twentyseventh is that it is at Mayflower High
Chair
Unverified
45:12
School and that dam is under construction the lakework for all intents and purpose is complete. now we're replacing the water control structure on that dam to be able to better control high water and as well as to mitigate water if we need to drain water for for repairs but that construction is well underway. Yeah OK good that's a great update because I know we had some
Senator Missy Irvin
Unverified
45:33
I just saw that that was in the news so
next it's the twentyseventh at Mayflower High School is the public comment meeting OK perfect um, OK, we're going to go ahead and go questions on this topic and then we'll move to the nextpres representative ladyman you're recognized for question thank you madam
Representative Jack Ladyman
Unverified
45:51
chairir I'mir directorinrock, thanks for being here and this is a little bit different question maybe
off the subject you're talking about but Lake Frierson up in Craighead County that's a fishent game lake don't know whether you're familiar with it or not but
you were talking about pumps and maintenance and that sort of thing. your predecessor about two or three years ago might have been3 years ago we had a drought up there and we discussed draining the lake down a little bit to release some water in the creek there. and he told me that there there's a the mechanism there's a level mechanism on the dam at
that lake there's an upper valve and a lower valve and what I was told was that they they couldn't open that valve because it had not been maintained and they were afraid they couldn't close it and it would totally drain the lake is there any kind of maintenance been done on that or do you have maintenance schedules on something like that. We have maintenance schedules on all of thoseir I'm not
Speaker 105
47:00
that familiar with that particular apparatus but I can
Speaker 117
47:02
get back to you with that information. Well this was very was a very important issue for the farmers around
Representative Jack Ladyman
Unverified
47:11
there they could use the water the lake had plenty of
water but they weren't able to open that valve they told me because of maintenance have to look into that sir and get back to you. I appreciate it thank you thank you Senator Hammer you're recognized for question
Senator Missy Irvin
Unverified
47:24
Thank Mayor Chair. do you care if I ask a question about lake
Senator Kim Hammer
Unverified
47:28
Conway? you brought it up it's no it's not on that subject that OK? I, I don't care. I think it's just
Senator Missy Irvin
Unverified
47:33
good information and you got the right person at the table so thank you in driving by Lake Conway the
Senator Kim Hammer
Unverified
47:41
the property owners that have the docks around the lake what is the process for notifying them of when they need to have their docs redone by so that they have ample warning and then you and we don't start getting calls about what we didn't know and they missed that window of opportunity for the
Speaker 111
47:58
past six months we've contacted those individuals
Chair
Unverified
48:01
by certified mail I think the deadline was extended I think 1231 to 1231 and crews are at this point in time working on
Speaker 104
48:13
removing the docks that are in disrepair. thank you and second
Senator Kim Hammer
Unverified
48:16
thing you may not know anything about this more curiosity. I went yesterday along I40. do you know what the smoke was created from yesterday and did that have anything to do with like with the lake project? No sir it did not. there were
Speaker 111
48:29
some wildfires in the state which with the rainfall of today we hope they're gone right thank you thank you ok next
Senator Missy Irvin
Unverified
48:35
topic if you want to go ahead and we'll discuss the the duck season and the discussion of flyway federation's impact Sure thank you ma'am
Chair
Unverified
48:46
it has been an interesting duck season and I'm honored to be working in a state where we have I think the most passionate waterfowlers in the nation and to your comment earlier ma'am we are the number one d de destination in the nation and we will remain that unfortunately this year Arkansas is basically 90% of the state is in either extreme or moderate drought. we're running from 9 to1el inches of rainfall in deficit
I couldn't sit here back in april and May and tell you the same thing we had a lot of rain in April and May. this is the we had the third driest November and December since 1893. we are in the top 10 driest years in the state since 1893. so these droughts have a significant impact on surface water surface water obviously based on comments earlier made about GTRs and most so units
have a huge implication on our ability to flood. We may not have water available in a ditch to pump or our pump levels are at such where we can't reach the water level we do not pump from groundwater that messes with agriculture and that messes with municipalities so we try to use surface water where we can or lift water one point of evidence is that Arkansas rice farmers this year are probably going to be eligible for the highest ever.
USDA per acre aid payment because of rice crop failure so we do we do surveys our our first survey was done 12:15 to12:31 where we do transect flights with biologists over the state so on 1el:31 we were high fiving we had twice as many ducks in the state as we did in 2024 same period on half as much water so the ducks were concentrated and in many cases on private lands.
and if it had not been for private lands I don't think we would have enough water to attract as many ducks and hold as many ducks twice as many as we did the prior year. we had 1.4 million ducks in Arkansas on 1231. of those498,000 were mallards This was more than344,000 more mallards on 1231 then we had on 1231 of2024. so it was 100 plus percent increase in
millers from 24 to25. so fast forward now we do January transect flights so January 1 through January13. it's called the midwinter survey and and now we're starting the late winter survey actually started flying this week we're not flying today we had334,000 miers in the state from January 1 through January13. m emb er we had498,000 from December 15 to December31.
we had544,000 ducks in the state,545,000 if you round up that's a million ducks gone basically you a 15 day period all of us remember what happened in the 1st 15 days of January I think Christmas just before we could have gone out and played golf on Christmas dayy. and we had some pretty warm weather and no rainfall. so our already dismal drought conditions increased warming weather enabled waterfowl to move
further north just just south of where they can tolerate the cold and let's remember a duckxx biology a duck flies south because they want food they want shelter and they want to rene renew energy so that they can have enough energy duck energy to fly back north in the springtime and breed, raise our kids and do it all again the next year well so we wouldn't go to Florida if it wasn't warm
in the spring right? Ducks don't come to Arkansas because they just like coming to Arkansas granted we have set a phenomenal table with our GTRs our Moo units, our W rice fields and a lot of private landowners we set a great buffet up for ducks every year but they'll leave us if they can go further north and reduce the energy requirements that they need to fly way into northern Canada or the boal forre to to breed and do it all again next year so they're opportunistic
right now despite the fact that we're only at545,000 ducks in the state and334,000 of those were mallards. Our typical mallard to total duck ratio in the state of Arkansas is about63% about63% of the ducks we have that come here every fall are mallards We are currently standing at61% in the last 15 days so we're holding our own on mallards. Our buffet is still good and the ducks that are hanging out are good and and
some folks have really had good duck seasons some folks have had pretty dismal duck seasons and a lot of that has to do with water. regarding the flyway federation if you don't mind ma'am I I'll continue on that. the flyway federation is a a fairly vocal Louisianabased waterfowl hunting organization and they frequently voiced concerns and the flyway federation engaged Senator Kennedy from Louisiana to write a letter and I have comments on that and
I'll reserve those unless I need to go there but duck migration as I mentioned earlier are really based on three factors photo period is one of them daylight ber 2 is weather and number3 is food and the bulk of mallards which is really what this is about in the state of Louisiana it's about Mallardton it's about corn so it's about mallardson Louisiana it's about corn in the mid in the mid latitudes of our flyway. the bulk of mallards are only going to fly as far as they need to
I have relatives in Michigan who have400 mallards sitting right now on a lake on ice. they can tolerate some cold weather and as long as there's no snow cover there they'll go out and dry field feed and they'll go back and they'll sit on ice or they'll find an open river to get water or get invertebrates which is what they feed on a duck is pretty hardy if you look at other ducks that feed on corn widgeon teal shovelers gawal
Louisiana is killing a lot more of those than they ever have in the past Those ducks eat the same corn that the mallards you're eating in Illinois and Missouri right now. they're just not as cold tolerant they're flying to Louisiana and for that reason, Louisiana still remains the number two duck harvest nation state in the nation. Number one isor on average duck per day 2 is Louisiana number3 is Arkansas at 18.8 ducks per season not ducks
per day and but we still remained the number of total duck harvest in the state with well over 1.1 million ducks harvested in the state so migration movement obviously is controlled by a lot of different factors and we're kind of we're not in the mid latitudes we're kind of pinched between the southern latitude and the mid latitude Arkansans typically benefit from waterfowl migration especially mallards and what really attracts those
mallards are our greentree reservoirs which several years ago this agency launched a great effort in trying to restore DTRs and what you just mentioned hurricane a few minutes ago is a perfect example of a successful GTR renovation and edoak region edoak region will create mallard habitat for generations to come and I hate to say it that none of us sitting in this room will be here
for that fruitful time but it will come and its ensures waterfowl for future generations on Arkansas's GTRs harvest statistics that you may read about don't necessarily support the comment of plummeting duck populations over the last 25 years. our Mallard harvest averages about390 to400,000 ducks a year for the past five seasons. that is 2.3x the next highest
mallard harvest of any other state in the country Arkansas's total duck harvest's averaged 1.1 million in the past seasons and we still remain number one followed by California Louisiana and I mentioned that we harvest about 18.8 ducks per year per hunter. so the rhetoric being introduced by the flyaway federation which is a relatively small organization I think they're feeling the impact of a6.6 million mallard migration and not a 10 million
mallard migration that happened back in you know,10,15 years ago. they're also fitting the impact of warmer weather which in the case of Mallard's getting toisiuisiana is definitely hurting that's pretty much what I have to say about duck hunting in Arkansas are we in the good old days we are not we have seen the good old days but we're close to where they have been. so ok thank you for that what is what was their ask?
Speaker 104
58:41
Their ask is for senator Kennedy to introduce legislation or research to make illegal hunting
Chair
Unverified
58:47
of standing corn in the mid latitudes of the flyway they're basing that information on the revision to the 1998 migratory birdreaty act there was a revision to that act they're claiming that since that point in time Hunter ducked mallards are being held in in the mid latitudes due to standing corn ma'am that act revision had
nothing to do with standing corn standing corn has been legal forever for waterfowl hunting That act had to do with restricting illegal baiting on properties to mitigate the ability of joining properties to to legally hunt it because of proximity had nothing to do with standing corn. thank all right. thank you Senator hickey you recognize thank you sir
Senator Missy Irvin
Unverified
59:33
I'm over here to your left yes sir first of all let me
Senator Jimmy Hickey, Jr
Unverified
59:37
say that I've always been a great advocate of y'all a
big advocate I understand you've got a terrible job almost you've got to maintain relationships with constituents and the public while while at the same time doing enforcement and we all know how that can be but also know this that myself and your agency or are here to kind of represent the constituents of this state of course or that's the way I see it I assume you do too and I'll be with any luck I'll be60 this year and I've been
thinking about this for the last week you know things were a little different when I was younger so we were probably running down in the south Arkansas in the Redriver bottoms with single shots and bold actions when I was somewhere around 9 without supervision right or wrong that's the way we did it we all grew up that way sir yes sir so what I have right now though and I definitely believe that weather is an impact there's no no doubt however you know this trend's been going on Wing City here for the next decade and say
the weather the weather the weather and the constituents that I'm talking to and I also believe this myself is they they think that something additional needs to be done and I hear what you say about Arkansas being the number one state for ducks and that's great. I want to stay there and I actually want to greatly exceed that so you know from my standpoint though it's it's fairly obvious again like I say gonna be60 and you know, out in those Rre river
bottoms which we all know is a major flyway you know over the last 10,1el years those hoes that I've known I've seen less and less and less regardless of the weather and it's I know we've got this statistics that we do and this honor system with the hip and however all that works and you know hopefully people are doing that correctly. I don't know that everybody is but you know that's just kind of the nature of that beast to try to get a at least
to get some type of sampling I understand. so again my my constituents want to see something different and I just heard what you said about the hunting over the you know the corn it seems like to me you know that this federation in Louisiana that I don't see any I don't see how that can help Arkansas can help Arkansas strategically any way shape or fashion if you've got people
and I'm not asking you all to do anything here what I'd like you to see you do is try to get some type of national coalition to try to look at some things that you know possibly would help strategically from a national level not only for the state of Arkansas but for every state. And I just do not see how allowing hounting over unharvested corn up north helps us. and I know that's a big deal going around right now but I just, you know,
happen to agree with that could you weigh in on that just a little bit that you think that that would help Arkansas who we represent how that how that helps us with you know our hunting and the future of hunting and you know, from now on so the hunting
Speaker 105
1:03:07
over hunting over any kind of food augments the opportunity for success one of the biggest risks to the
Chair
Unverified
1:03:19
flyway federation communication is it creates a divide among the waterfowling community. and it opens a significant opportunity for folks who don't believe in hunting to enter in and divide a very tight knit and relatively small organization of waterfowls I agree with you that we should have dialogue with other states and I do I will tell you that friends in Louisiana often complain about greentree reservoirs in Arkansas. and if we weren't holding all
the mallards in Arkansas they'd have more than 10,000 mallards in Louisiana I talked to the Illinois director about if gosh if you didn't have all the corn we'd have 800,000 mallards in Louisiana I think, I think the biggest thing that impacts duck populations nationwide and especially in our flyway. is policy related it's not policy that was crafted in this room it's a policy on the federal
level that that deals with water policy. and wetland policy and habitat policy in the breeding grounds habitat in the breeding grounds is absolutely essential for us to have ducks over our decoys that is one component and probably the most component butir I do agree with you that we want to listen we have the same customer excuse me in the constituents I want every duck hunter that goes afield to have success and we are working with other states as well as with our staff to figure out what's the best
energy to put on the landscape is it rice? iss it moist soil? is it green tree reservoirs? Is it national wildlife refuges if flooded corn takes hold through this waterfowl flyway federation what's next is it we can't plant more soil we can't flood green timber national ravages can't have food sources provide duckgy days so that they can wing their way back north and breed again
so it starts with habitat in the north but then it also ends with habitat here and setting the right table
Speaker 104
1:05:33
here and our agency does the best to set the right table
Senator Jimmy Hickey, Jr
Unverified
1:05:36
sir. Sure and I appreciate your comments if I may continue whoever's chair madam chair I appreciate that but
that that and I had listed a a list of things here some of them be controversial that I thought that again I don't understand why we can't do some type of coalition or compact with these people that you're talking about to try to come up with a
I agree 100% with the pothole region, but you know what's so odd to me is we sit here and talk about this and there's not water there but there's really nobody that and I hate to get government involved in a lot of this stuff because I understand it could go go sideways in a hurry but there's nobody there to say ok this year this year there wasn't as much rain up there we understand that there's not going to be as many breeding pairs and we expect that that can tactically move
and maybe lower that pop the hunting you know limit by one duck or two or whatever it might would take and again, I'm at the age that I remember the point system and how tough that was and you know you shot shot one hand and you were you were done. so you know I understand that we've we've come a long way and you know I think we've done it the correct way think you all have done it the correct way with like well you can still you know just the overall limits so that you do it so that if somebody was to shoot a hen
that it's not automatically over for their hunt right at that second but so the thing is is I don't see any way that we're navigating that with any type of compact with the other states and correct me if I'm wrong you know about about that you know down in my area also and don't live there now but one of my last one neighborhoods that I used to live in, I literally take a rock and hit Texas. and what's always been kind of odd to me is we don't have some type of standardized system
like over there you shoot5 mallards and in Arkansas you shoot4. don't care it's just always seemed odd to me that we don't have some type of standardized limits you know for for for that and maybe there's an explanation to that I don't know but it's just things like that that it seems like to me that yeah we can talk to each other in the state but still we organize or do some type of compact that we're never never gonna do anything also yes sir
Chair
Unverified
1:08:02
so so we the season the season length and the bag limit and the species allowed within that bag are set by the US Fish and Wildlife Service. Texas does not have a five mallard limit. our our limit is the same at at I think Fort mallard's two can be hens the only state that differs from that is California. and they're on the Pacific flyway and they're breeding population surveys from a totally different place in Canada. and
so we don't have the leeway to say you can kill 1, you can kill 10 or whatever we are set with framework we we have the leeway to reduce what the federal framework says we can say you can only kill3 mallards we can say you can only hunt45 days. right now we're mandated based on mallard count the threshold is4.5 million mallards in the flyway that
would take us to a more restrictive season we're6.6 the the folks that I talked to at various NGOs don't see us getting to4.5 in a long time and if if ever we never we have never been there. Well, I take it back we were at that point when we had a 100 point rule sir where we had to identify what we shot before we shot it. so we do work closely with other states though when it comes to
rules regulations that we can implement as a state Federal migratory waterfowl are federal migratory waterfowl. The USish and wildlife and the federal government gives us the opportunity to harvest them and hunt them we don't regulate them like we do deer or turkeys or bear within our state and so we are somewhat handicapped by federal framework on that sir. Sure I
Speaker 104
1:09:58
understand but again it just looks like
Senator Jimmy Hickey, Jr
Unverified
1:10:00
to me that they would be I keep
saying compact coalition that they would be included along with the states in something like that so that everybody can sit down and have some discussion about some of this stuff and some of the stuff that they see or some suggestion from some of these constituents that you know may be taken into account so yeah I understand perfectly what you're saying about the corn you know you got like where where would it stop? you'd have to use some common sense like that but and I'd argue this all the all day long it's kind of like me you put a you know a plate of almonds in front of me or some
chocolate powell fat boy here's gonna go to that and I think everybody here knows that ducks are most attracted in my opinion to corn so it I think it's one of those things that I understand and agree with what you say and you you know you've got to have some common sense and you're always gonna have those people that are going to try to spend something different but that's what I would like to see is that somehow that you all get with the other states the feds whoever it is to form this to try to to try to
take all this stuff into account instead of us just sitting here waiting for another decade talking about weather and this and that you know without any type of valid plan that starts in Canada and comes all the way down and again I do appreciate you all don't take anything that I'm saying against you all I understand your job it's just from what I'm hearing the vast majority and you can you can find people that don't. my constituents and people of Arkansas they want to see something different thank you thank you sirir to answer your question we'll just finally I am
Chair
Unverified
1:11:39
on a panel with other states and I've spoken directly with with director Brian Nesbitt with US Fish and Wildlife Service about this very thing you're talking about thank you and
Senator Missy Irvin
Unverified
1:11:50
I I think just to follow up share the exact same concerns and you know at some point I clearly understand Senator Kennedy. I mean he's doing what he wants needs to be doing for his state. but you know at what some at what point and I I think we just would lean on your advice. do we need to
engage with our federal delegation if it got to that point just so that we can make sure you know we're we're we're defending the our state and our interest and I think that's going to be important to me and
to all of us when it comes to these important issues so far no one in DC has signed on to send Einner's letter.
Chair
Unverified
1:12:29
OK and we will be visiting the contingent from here with our our federal partners
Speaker 104
1:12:35
in DC from Arkansas in March. good well let us know how
Senator Missy Irvin
Unverified
1:12:40
we can engage with that I think it I think you
have a lot of interest at amongst the legislature Senator Bryant
Senator Joshua Bryant
Unverified
1:12:48
thank you madam madam chair I was just curious what kind of in the line of questions with the state police before and their interaction with our federal partners what role is the game of fish commission play with the US wildlife and dealing with activities on private clubs and and what their regulations since this is a regulatory migratory birds what is the commission's role in dealing with federal I
Speaker 144
1:13:11
will attempt to answer that but also have my colonel sitting behind me. I may turn around
Chair
Unverified
1:13:18
and have Joe come up here too but so Joem when I try to answer this I'll turn around and if I did good give me a thumbs up otherwise come on up but yes sir we there are federal US F fish and wildlife officers not as many as there used to be a lot of them are regulated to doing other law enforcement work that deals with some of
the topics that were discussed earlier in the meeting with IC we pretty much regulate right now without the support of US fish and wildlife here on the ground because of their limited resources we we have the same laws ok when we when we meet with them the the the the the federal harvest rules the federal laws are the same for US fish and wildlife as they are for Arkansas game and fish.
so we we assert those rules in the past there have been there's been a higher prevalence of US fish and wildlife officers here not so much this year Joe I got a thumbs up is that ok with y'all? so whenever the
Senator Joshua Bryant
Unverified
1:14:35
I guess whenever the US fish and wildlife come do an investigation and they believe they have probable cause to enter onto a private Arkansas residents property. do you
partner with them and do you do your own investigation or do you just follow their lead typically sir
Speaker 105
1:14:52
we follow our own we do investigation with them. OK. all right.
Senator Missy Irvin
Unverified
1:15:00
thank you. Thank you. OK. I appreciate that discussion I I mean I think you know
the other concern and it's just the nature of the water issues that we have I'm always looking also to make sure that when you come to hunt in
the state of Arkansas you can do it without having to pay to go to a private club to hunt so we have to make sure that there's a balance there and I know that's a huge challenge for y'all nothing against private clubs but not everybody can pay you know $10,002,000 a night to go on a hunt. So pretty expensive for four ducks very extensive
Senator Missy Irvin
Unverified
1:15:42
there's nothing wrong with it. I just want to make sure we can somebody can shoot ducks for a
lot less than that senator Bryant, did you
have another question? OK, hold on thank you thank you madam chairir I just
Senator Joshua Bryant
Unverified
1:15:57
I just just wanted to unpack a little bit of what that process looks like as far as I think there's some potential legislation in the last few cycles about how the warrant process works and how entering private property works can you explain a little bit how that process would work in the cooperation with federal authorities
Speaker 111
1:16:19
the SOP with our enforcement division is to articulate a reasonable cause for entering private property ri or
Chair
Unverified
1:16:26
to ending that we don't have officers who just roam around on private ground without permission trying to look for violators we have to articulate and anarticulable cause before any private
Speaker 114
1:16:35
property do you use the courts to get that or or once you have it you you
Senator Joshua Bryant
Unverified
1:16:44
just use your own jurisdiction use our own jurisdiction sir OK so there's no no judiciary involved in the
initial breach of private property unlike other states for
Chair
Unverified
1:16:53
example Tennessee has to have a court ordered from a judge to enter private property. We don't have that and is it is a
Senator Joshua Bryant
Unverified
1:17:01
federal system if the if the feds were going to come and you disagree could the feds still enter with their regulations on private property ok all right thank
Senator Missy Irvin
Unverified
1:17:13
you thank you and then this last the last item on the agenda is just an update on this boating accident that occurred and just an
overview of how y'all manage that situation thank you very
Speaker 140
1:17:28
tragically obviously on December 19 a 33 old individual was tragically killed while boating
Chair
Unverified
1:17:34
coming out from duck hunting at Baomeo which is a WMA. there were two occupants in the boat the boat struck a tree and ejected the passenger in the front of the boat from the vessel the the operator of the of
the vessel struck that tree and was mortally wounded the oc the occupant in the boat was able to regain and reenter the boat and navigate the boat to the nearest ramp where CPR was performed on the individual and the individuals medflighted and obviously succumbed from his from his wounds the boat was a 15 ft long edge boat typical waterowling boat with the 25 horsepower motor on it completely legal for Arkansas
the accident report that I've read does indicate from from the damage to the vessel and damage to the to the tree that the boat probably was running at an excessive speed and possible recklessness we're not sure but high rate of speed for those conditions in a flooded timber area. with any fatality toxicology reports are mandatory we do
not have toxicology results yet on this on this but it's not suspected that there would be an adverse toxicology event there this is a very serious we are working with an NGO to help memorialize this individual there and hopefully this widow's intent is to convey a message of safety and we hope to we hope to do that in honor of this individual very tragic
Senator Missy Irvin
Unverified
1:19:28
just read about her desire to do that and thought that was just really just just such a great thing for her to say, you know, for us
to be able to promote that. So I I would just look forward to kind of however we can partner with her you know understand she's working with you and others but how we could partner with her on that I think it's really
Doug Thank
Unverified
1:19:50
important because you know as much as you may hate it or like it or whatever. I mean there's so much on social media and
Tikok in particular of these you know just wild and crazy boat races down this flooded timber in Arkansas atal mea and other places that it's become you know it can become an incredibly dangerous situation. really, really fast. It is a very dangerous situation and so how do we you know make sure that when you come that there's there's some parameters and some safety measures around that I think it's just really tricky because you know the more that's played out on social media the
more people will come and want to participate in it for you know or watch it or whatever it just creates this unbelievable spectacle and so that that's concerning to me you know knowing that it sounds like this is kind of a oneoff situation
Senator Missy Irvin
Unverified
1:20:46
but anyway I appreciate that are there any questions represent huh go ahead. thank you madam chair director thank you for being here today and I
Representative Dwight Tosh
Unverified
1:20:56
just want to thank you for the meeting we had in November you know we had kind of an
uncomfortable meeting we addressed a lot of concerns that we were were occurring there in northeast Arkansas out at I believe Saint Francis sunken lands and I'll say this I don't I'm not sure all the concerns were met but I do know that I stopped receiving phone calls so whatever y'all did I applaud you for it because apparently it corrected the situation and thank you for this informative information today and I've got one request I would like to meet
the person that counted the ducks here in Arkansas on on those dates 1.5 million and so many mallards I mean you need to bring them with you here before committee we'd like to meet them so that's one of
Speaker 105
1:21:47
the most dangerous jobs in and in in in managing wildlife is getting in a pier cub flying at low altitude hanging out a window and counting ducks me yeah we all want to be right thank you
Speaker 6
1:22:00
director thank you and we're glad to have
Doug Thank
Unverified
1:22:05
some commissioners here with us commissionercaldwell is here and we appreciate you being here Senator flippo do you have a question for senator for commissioner Cadwell? in king about a chair, yeah commissioner if you just
Senator Scott Flippo
Unverified
1:22:18
want ask you kind of about some of the concerns I'm hearing from some of my family and a a
duck hunters about the potential impact that windmills and solar panels might be having on the migratory patterns of the waterfowl population so if you just speak to any kind of ideas that the commission has on that or a game plan.
Speaker 173
1:22:40
I'm here to help youri whatever you need buddy. if you'll just state your name for the recordriwell you're recognized thank you senator well as was discussed in several hearings last session there is continuous study going on and at the moment I think I received a lot of personal calls on the regular about this
as both go up throughout the state but particularly in the flyway and I am no scientist but it is definitely of concern particularly with the potential of you know alter the migration or to you know I think the president actually tweeted this morning about his favorite line about killing the birds and so you know I speak for myself as
we're always greatly concerned with anything that might alter the flyway is senator hickey alluded to earlier and anything that might affect not just obviously our job is to conserve the species for future Arkansans but also might have the detrimental impact to the Arkansans and those that you mentioned senator Urvin that come to our state to experience this so we will stand by to what this
Speaker 174
1:24:15
body decides to do if any future regulation to curel any ill effects has
Senator Scott Flippo
Unverified
1:24:23
there been any discussions amongst the commissioners you know to look at maybe a potential
program to partner with private landowners in keeping their their land and its natural form if you
Speaker 173
1:24:38
will we do have a program called the conservation incentivegrame Wri programme that exists to you know provide habitat for ducks and to
provide opportunities for public to go to private land in this particular guise of like an incentive program do you mean to do that I know we don't have habitat restoration if you're doing it for
Senator Scott Flippo
Unverified
1:25:04
you know for deer populations or other wildlife there's a program
Speaker 173
1:25:08
that we currently have a program in existence called the CIp Conservation incentivegrame. and DM mat program for deer
turkey quail. I mean we have various programs that for technical assistance also for particularly like hog eradication and everything for actual equipment as funds are available and just on a on a personal note and not speaking on you know on behalf
Senator Scott Flippo
Unverified
1:25:35
of your other commissioners do you personally have any concerns about you know, windmills and solar panels in the migratory patterns are a negative effect on that thank you sir
Senator Missy Irvin
Unverified
1:25:49
thank you very good questions actually because I have
Doug Thank
Unverified
1:25:53
the same concern but and I I don't know if there's a way to explore the ability for the the way to explore the ability for us to incentivize landowners not to install windmills and solar panels you know in prime hunting areas in the state and the flyway so I don't know if there's the ability to do that or if we could even afford to offset you know what that would even look
like but we haven't even we haven't even gone
Chair
Unverified
1:26:22
there yet ma'am but there is research that has been commission ed to look at flyway and and waterfowl movement and their avoidance behaviors when when it comes to wind is that federal or is that that is done by the University of Arkansas Monticello the new S snowden endowed Center
Speaker 114
1:26:37
for Wapol excellence and do we have a timeline of
Senator Missy Irvin
Unverified
1:26:39
when that's going to be completed this will probably take two years at least right cool thank you good information. any other questions
from members of the committee all right see none thank you
so much for being here appreciate it and we'll see you soon. thank you so much we're adjourned
Agenda
A. Call to Order
B. Comments by Co-Chairs
C. Discussion of State Police Involvement with Federal Immigration Laws
D. Status of Water Pumps at WMA’s
E. Update Regarding Duck Season and Discussion of Flyway Federation’s Impact on Modern Waterfowl Hunting
F. Update on Recent Boating Accident at Bayou Meto and Overview of Boating Laws in Arkansas
G. Other Business
H. Adjournment
Documents
| Title | Type | Pages | Source |
|---|---|---|---|
| Agenda — ALC - GAME & FISH/STATE POLICE, Jan 21, 2026 | Agenda | 1 | Official source ↗ |
Speakers
Doug Thank
Unverified
Representative Dwight Tosh
Unverified
Mike Hager
Unverified
Speaker 16
Speaker 17
Senator Fredrick J. Love
Unverified
Senator Missy Irvin
Unverified
Chair
Unverified
Senator Terry Rice
Unverified
Speaker 51
Speaker 55
Speaker 46
Senator Joshua Bryant
Unverified
Representative Jack Ladyman
Unverified
Speaker 74
Speaker 77
Representative R. Scott Richardson
Unverified
Senator Kim Hammer
Unverified
Doug Schoenrock
Unverified
Speaker 105
Speaker 107
Speaker 117
Speaker 111
Speaker 104
Senator Jimmy Hickey, Jr
Unverified
Speaker 144
Speaker 156
Speaker 114
Speaker 140
Speaker 6
Senator Scott Flippo
Unverified
Speaker 173
Speaker 174