LITTLE ROCK — Arkansas Game and Fish Commission Director Austin Booth announced last Thursday at a special press conference that the AGFC will make changes to existing water management schedules on three of Arkansas’s popular wildlife management areas to protect critical habitat for wintering waterfowl.
Henry Gray Hurricane Lake WMA, George H. Dunklin Jr. Bayou Meto WMA and Earl Buss Bayou DeView WMA all will see changes in water management beginning with the 2021-22 waterfowl wintering period. All of these changes are part of the Commission’s efforts to prevent further stress to valuable red oak species on traditionally flooded bottomland hardwood forests and promote regeneration of this valuable red oak component.
Henry Gray Hurricane Lake WMA near Bald Knob saw a massive die-off of hardwood trees beginning in 2018 within its southern greentree reservoir, an area historically flooded for ducks during waterfowl season. The trees, which had been showing signs of stress, succumbed to excessive flooding during the growing season in multiple years. Even though gates stay open outside of fall and winter, extremely wet years saw high levels of rainfall and high water levels throughout the White River system that kept water on trees throughout the growing season. The AGFC immediately began leaving the gates to the south greentree reservoir open year-round to relieve additional stress that could be caused by winter flooding. But that was only the first step in the long process of restoring Henry Gray Hurricane Lake WMA.
This year the Glaise Creek water-control structure that intentionally holds water on the northern GTR, and also influences water levels in the former south GTR, will be left open as well, to further promote the flow of water through the WMA. This is being done in conjunction with major infrastructure work being performed on the area.
A
