HOT SPRINGS, Ark.- The Arkansas Game and Fish Commission (AGFC) reviewed extensive public feedback on proposed hunting and fishing regulation changes during its meeting on Wednesday and Thursday, with more than 20,000 verified responses shaping the discussion.

AGFC Social Science Lead Jessica Feltz presented the findings from a large-scale survey first introduced after February’s proposed rule changes.

“Of more than 24,000 responses collected, we kept 20,134 for analysis,” Feltz said. “After careful review, the Social Science Team validated each response. Staff removed responses that were duplicate entries from the same individual or potentially fraudulent responses, such as from a bot. Rest assured that a small team of staff went through the responses and comments to determine their validity and intent.”

According to the report, most proposals received a majority of support, though some drew notable criticism. AGFC officials say, “there were critical tones in some comments regarding certain regulation changes.”

“One interesting note was a difference between hunters and anglers in how direct they preferred regulations to be,” Feltz said. “Anglers were ‘lumpers,’ meaning they preferred to have one regulation like a harvest limit or length limit be consistent across an entire region or the state. Hunters were our ‘splitters,’ and they wanted to have regulations target individual areas. The hunters still wanted consistency in some aspects, but they favored specific details over general areas.”

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Public comments also addressed proposed changes to land designations at Camp Robinson Special Use Area and J. Perry Mikles Blue Mountain SUA.

Commission Chairman Anne Marie Doramus clarified that events like field trials and archery tournaments would still be allowed if the areas are reclassified as wildlife management areas, emphasizing that habitat protection and public access remain top priorities.

Doramus and Commissioner Phillip Tappan also requested the removal of a proposal to increase mud motor horsepower limits from 37 to 40. AGFC officials say a large percentage of people who responded to the survey were against the change and requested increased restrictions on surface-drive motors due to the increased noise.

“In visiting with the public and other commissioners, that regulation seems to have led people to believe we’re moving in a direction of opening things up on these types of motors, but we still have a lot of concerns about the level of noise they produce and have not seen industry leaders make efforts to address this,” said Tappan.

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To see the full report on the public survey, visit the AGFC website. Commissioners are expected to vote on the proposed regulations during their April meeting in Monticello.

Commissioners also received an update on the state’s elk population from Elk Program Coordinator Wes Wright.

Wright said hunters harvested 22 elk last season, with 12 being bulls and the remainder being antlerless.

“The harvest has stabilized from previous years, but is still much lower than the harvest a decade ago,” Wright said. “That decrease is really by design as a result of our detection of [chronic wasting disease] and our targeted response to the detection of the disease. We increased the number of tags and quotas and conducted targeted removals to reduce densities because elk have a much larger home range, and we were working to prevent the spread of CWD across the landscape as we were collecting data on where it had already become established. This led to a subsequent decrease in population, which prompted lower numbers of permits and quotas as we worked to stabilize the population.”

Wright noted this year’s population surveys were lower than expected, but it was largely due to high winds during the survey period that prevented helicopters and drones from working like they usually do.

“We saw 353 elk during the survey period, which is a decline, but the surveys we run determine trends more than absolute numbers,” Wright explained. “We still want to be cautious with our harvest, but one low population survey should not cause warning sirens, especially with the weather conditions taken into context.”

Two of the elk harvested last season tested positive for CWD, which Wright said is consistent with an infection rate of about 10%. Two additional elk carcasses found during the population survey also tested positive for CWD.

Officials say conservative harvest limits will likely remain in place to help stabilize the herd, noting elk reproduce slower than white-tailed deer.

AGFC Director Doug Shoenrock also shared recent agency updates, including increased participation in the Arkansas Legacy Lunker program and ongoing conservation projects.

“I want to give a special shout-out to Arkansas Game and Fish’s own Ethan Stokes, who contributed a fish this year to the [Lunker] bunkers, and he did it despite not being allowed to participate in the [XPress Boats Giveaway] promotion,” Schoenrock said. “Ethan is a fisheries biologist from Russellville, and I’d like to just commend him for his dedication and support of the program; obviously, a great conservationist staff member who is passionate about this promotion and improving the fisheries in the state of Arkansas.”

The commission also heard from students at L.M. Goza Middle School in Arkadelphia about their participation in the commission’s School of Conservation Leadership program.

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Commissioners also approved a budget increase for the Benzal Lane Bridge project at Trusten Holder Wildlife Management from $400,000 to $850,000 due to rising construction costs. Officals say the money will come from the Marine Fuel Tax money collected through ArDOT.

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