Chronic wasting disease has overshadowed hunting news this spring, but the Arkansas Game and Fish Commission has some contentious duck hunting issues to resolve this summer.

The commission will soon debate ideas to more equitably distribute duck hunting opportunities at our state's greentree reservoirs.

Members of the commission are certain that guided duck hunts continue unabated at Bayou Meto and, lately, Dave Donaldson Black River wildlife management areas. This has created overcrowding and a level of hunting pressure that degrades hunter satisfaction, and also degrades the WMAs' value as waterfowl habitat.

Many nonresidents who guide for fishing and other game in their home states spend the entire 60-day duck season at camps they lease adjacent to Bayou Meto and Black River WMAs. It's an open secret among the members of the commission, the AGFC's wildlife management and enforcement staff and the duck hunting community that the nonresident campers run bed-and-breakfast type operations that includes guided duck hunts as part of the package.

This has resurrected the same conflicts that led the commission to ban guiding on WMAs more than a decade ago. "Guides" have essentially privatized duck hunting holes by running different groups of hunters in and out throughout legal shooting hours.

The commission appeared to have resolved privatizing holes at Black River WMA several years ago when it banned leaving decoys in holes overnight. Ironically, it ushered in a new wave of hunters from elsewhere who found new ways to do the same thing.

At Bayou Meto, these practices artificially inflate hunter numbers, which in turn inflates the amount of shooting pressure on ducks that use the areas for feeding, loafing and rest.

To remedy the situation, the commission has debated creating a permit for nonresidents that limits the amount of time they can hunt a specific WMA. One idea is a nonrenewable annual permit for specific WMAs for small groups of hunters that is good for a block of continuous days. I've heard as few as three days and as many as 10. Any person named on that permit would not be able to apply for a separate permit.

For nonresidents, it would be similar to a controlled hunt permit that allocates deer and turkey hunting pressure on popular WMAs.

If the AGFC chooses to go that route, the most effective way to achieve its goals would be to award the permits through a computerized lottery, as it does controlled deer and turkey hunt permits. Any nonrandom method would be vulnerable to loophole exploitation.

A frequent correspondent on this issue is a saltwater fishing guide on the Gulf Coast.

Duck season is the offseason for charter fishing, and he spends the entire 60-day period at Bayou Meto. He swears he doesn't guide, but he has implored the commission to spurn a limited-time permit. He recommended increasing the price of the current nonresident duck hunting license as high as the commission sees fit.

A guide, of course, would merely pass the cost of a more expensive license to his customers. Paying higher prices would create a greater sense of entitlement among that clientele and would likely increase tensions between resident recreational hunters and nonresident commercial hunters.

Tom Deniston, owner of Fort Thompson Sporting Goods in Sherwood, said he supports time limitations on nonresident duck hunters.

"Arkansas offers the best public timber hunting in the world," Deniston said. "The G&F has done nothing to protect it. The main problem is the overcrowding in our WMAs, but it is very simple to correct. We must start with a nonresident draw just like it is done for deer hunting on WMAs. This would also take care of all the illegal guiding on the WMAs, and keep nonresidents from setting up camp all year and making money on our resources."

Deniston said such a system would not damage duck hunting related business.

"Hunters are still going to hunt regardless, and implementing a draw system will not hurt our local economy," he said.

The commission has always had to balance the desires of hunters against the needs of the resources it manages. Wise stewardship has resulted in abundant game and fish. In turn, it has created economic opportunity.

Managing game and fish for the sake of market economics is a misplaced priority that would disservice our resources and the sportsmen who treasure them.

Sports on 05/15/2016