LITTLE ROCK – Access to several Arkansas wildlife management areas will temporarily close for short periods on various days from Jan. 19 through March 31 to increase public safety while professional pilots and crew from the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS) Wildlife Services conduct aerial operations to help control feral hogs.
AGFC Director Doug Schoenrock said the flights are dependent on weather and none of these actions will take place on any of Arkansas’s duck-hunting WMAs until after the Youth and Veteran’s Duck Hunt, scheduled for Feb. 7-8.
“Individual WMAs will only be closed to public access for one to two days each to allow for the aerial flights and are scheduled to occur at a time where very few hunters will be affected but the conditions are still optimal for feral hog control. I also want to point out that these efforts are at no cost to the AGFC,” he noted…