News & Notes from the Arkansas Game & Fish Commission

News & Notes from the Arkansas Game & Fish Commission

AGFC Communications

Arkansas CWD Management Zone to expand, public meetings scheduled

LITTLE ROCK — The Arkansas Game and Fish Commission will hold public meetings in Waldron, Mountain Home and Mountain View in the next few weeks to speak about the need for an expansion of the current Chronic Wasting Disease Management Zone for deer and elk. Recent test results from CWD-positive deer along the outer edge of the zone boundary have caused the AGFC to consider expanding the current CWD Management Zone to include Baxter, Scott and Stone counties.

Biologists with the Arkansas Game and Fish Commission identified 238 new positive cases of chronic wasting disease in white-tailed deer and three elk during the 2018-19 deer hunting season. Among these were positive cases on the northern edge of Scott County and the eastern edge of Searcy County. To ensure compliance with the AGFC Code of Regulations, any county where a wild or captive cervid tests positive for CWD and any county within a 10-mile buffer of a positive CWD sample will be included in CWD management zone regulations.

“As we continue to learn about CWD in Arkansas and determine the outer edge of the disease, we have to adjust our management zone’s boundaries in an effort to help contain the disease and slow its spread,” said Cory Gray, chief of the AGFC’s Research, Evaluation and Compliance Division.

Gray says biologists and other staff at the AGFC want to offer hunters and other conservation-minded individuals the opportunity to learn more about the disease and what steps the AGFC is taking to slow its spread throughout the state. Inclusion within the CWD Management Zone will mean new regulations concerning hunting on public and private land within these counties, movement of harvested deer, and feeding wildlife, which can abnormally concentrate animals into close quarters and increase the likelihood of disease transmission.

The following wildlife management areas will be affected by new regulations concerning CWD: Cedar Creek WMA, Muddy Creek WMA, Norfork Lake WMA and Sylamore WMA. Within these WMAs, button bucks will now count toward a hunter’s antlerless bag limit and antler size restrictions such as the three-point rule will be removed. These liberalizations are meant to increase the harvest of young bucks, which are the most likely to disperse and possibly carry the disease further.

“The harvest of younger bucks is much different than the quality herd management we try to accomplish with the three-point rule, and we know it’s a change many hunters may not understand,” Gray said. “But once CWD has been identified in an area we need to change our focus to strategies that first address disease management.”

Private land hunters in these counties also will see the lifting of antler restrictions and the change from button bucks being listed as bucks to antlerless. Deer harvest limits also will be liberalized on private land to help lower concentrations of deer and slow the spread of the disease.

Baxter, Scott and Stone counties will be included in Tier 2 of the CWD Management Zone’s carcass movement regulations as well. Parts of deer and elk harvested on private and public ground from these counties may not be transported outside of the CWD Management Zone except for the following low-risk items:

• Antlers and cleaned skulls

• Meat with all bones removed

• Cleaned teeth

• Hides

• Finished taxidermy products The last notable change to wildlife regulations for these counties is the restriction of feeding wildlife except when used for hunting from Sept.1-Dec. 31. Outside of this window, feeding wildlife will no longer be allowed, with some exceptions (see https://www.agfc.com/en/h unting/biggame/deer/cwd/cwd-regulations).

“Supplemental feeding and baiting of wildlife concentrates animals in close quarters, which increases the frequency of direct contact between animals and increases the chances of disease transmission,” Gray said.

Meetings are scheduled for the following times and locations: March 28 at 6 p.m. — Scott County: Waldron High School Auditorium, 1560 W6th St., in Waldron. April 2 at 6 p.m. — Baxter County: Arkansas State University, Mountain Home Campus, The Sheid-Trout Center, 1600 S. College St., in Mountain Home.

April 4 at 6 p.m. — Stone County: Ozark Folk Center, Small Auditorium, 1032 Park Avenue, in Mountain View.

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Flooding, weather create conditions for another buffalo gnat outbreak in Arkansas

LITTLE ROCK – As floodwaters recede in southern and eastern Arkansas, many residents have already reported alarming numbers of buffalo gnats covering mailboxes, harassing pets and livestock, and chasing spring turkey hunters with no head nets out of the bottomland hardwoods. Reports from county extension agents have indicated that buffalo gnats are much worse than normal, rivaling preliminary estimates from last year’s huge outbreak of the insects.

According to the University of Arkansas Division of Agriculture, roughly 100 domesticated animals and at least 280 deer were killed during the buffalo gnat outbreak that occurred last March. While the outbreak did not pose a threat to wildlife on a population level, they did cause concern among many people who saw photos and videos of animals plagued by insects and caused an extreme nuisance for many outdoors enthusiasts and people working outdoors in areas affected by the swarms.

Southern buffalo gnats, a type of black fly, are common in Arkansas, but rarely pose a problem unless the conditions line up to create a large hatch. They breed in moving water and their eggs can be found in the silt. Flooded areas with flowing water can hatch large quantities of eggs, and if the water temperature is mild, the eggs will hatch in a very short period. The March through May period tends to have the most favorable conditions for this sort of hatch until the weather becomes dry and hot enough to suppress the insects’ life cycles.

Kelly Loftin, Ph.D., extension entomologist for the University of Arkansas’s Division of Agriculture, says swarms of these biting flies can on rare occasions kill some animals.

“The animals can die from blood loss and even suffocating because their airway is compromised, but the most common cause of death comes from shock,” Loftin said. “The anti-coagulant in the fly’s saliva can accumulate when thousands are biting an animal, causing them to die from toxic shock similar to allergic reactions.”

Loftin says the reports so far are not quite as intense as last year, but the peak of last year’s outbreak was around April 1, which is still weeks away. “The wind also can be helping us because buffalo gnats are not particularly strong fliers and strong winds can prevent them from feeding,” Loftin said. “The wind is forecast to die down next week, so we should see how bad it will be very soon.”

Loftin says the buffalo gnats hatching now may not have even come from eggs that were laid this year.

“The flies lay their eggs in flowing water, and the eggs sink into the silt,” Loftin said. “They can be dormant in that soil for years until another flood hits when temperatures are conducive to hatching. This huge increase in breeding area is why the gnats were so bad last year and could be bad again.”

Loftin says there isn’t anything that can really be done on a large scale to prevent such outbreaks, but temperature changes can be beneficial.

“When the water is in the 50s and low 60s, the eggs hatch and larvae have good growth rates. But once you get water temperature in the high 60s, the eggs won’t hatch as well and the life cycle of the insect is slowed.”

Some landowners hoping to protect domestic cattle, horses and other livestock have been known to burn stacks of hay and straw to create smoke, which can give animals temporary relief from the swarms of biting insects. Many will report deer and other wildlife coming close to the smoke to catch a break from the bugs as well.

“The smoke helps repel the insects, and you’ll see cows and deer herd up in the plumes of smoke produced by the hay,” Loftin said. “Old, wet hay tends to produce a lot of smoke once it gets going and smolders. But hay can be in short supply regionally.”

Jeremy Brown, assistant deer program coordinator with the Arkansas Game and Fish Commission, says burning hay can be beneficial for landowners on a small scale, but is not an option for large-scale populations such as white-tailed deer.

“Unfortunately this won’t help most of the wildlife and isn’t an option on most public land,” Brown said. “Most of the area impacted is either privately held or is on the (Dale Bumpers) White River National Wildlife Refuge. With the vast amount of land, we don’t have the manpower to monitor and maintain burning hay bales throughout the bottoms.”

Brown also has been approached with questions on why the AGFC or other agencies could not spray the bugs with crop dusters, but that method also is ineffective at controlling insect outbreaks and can cause more harm than good.

“Mass spraying of insecticide from a crop duster could potentially have negative impacts on other wildlife relying on insects as a food source,” Brown said. “You would have to get the treatment through the trees as well.”

As trees begin to sprout leaves, the shaded bottomland hardwoods in the floodplains where many of these insects hatch will be protected from aerial applications by the forest canopy. The insects’ incredibly fast life cycles also hinder any sort of lasting measure of prevention.

Brown says even if such treatments were possible, they would only be temporary relief from the issue.

“Buffalo gnats can have multiple hatches during spring depending on environmental conditions, so more gnats would continue to hatch as long as the environment was right,” Brown said. “Water treatment chemicals can be used in some small scale local instances, but the water where the vast majority of these gnats is coming from is the White River and its tributaries, which are too large and swift to treat with such chemicals.”

Brown says the best thing biologists can do is monitor the outbreak and determine any lasting impacts. Anyone who witnesses a deer death from the gnats is encouraged to report it to Brown at 870-275-5245 or by email at agfc.health@agfc.ar.gov. Report any livestock losses to the UA Cooperative Extension Service at 870946-3231. When reporting deer deaths please provide the witnesses name, phone number, county, number of dead animals and GPS coordinates to the location of the dead deer (if possible).

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AGFC taking another shot at feral hogs in southeast Arkansas

LITTLE ROCK – Weather permitting, portions of Freddie Black Choctaw Island Wildlife Management Area may be closed to daytime public access on March 21-22. The U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service Wildlife Services, in cooperation with the Arkansas Game and Fish Commission, will be conducting aerial operations aimed at reducing feral hog populations on the WMA.

Public safety during the flights is the primary concern for the temporary closures. To provide safety for the public and comply with USDA regulations, access will not be allowed during ongoing operations.

March 21 is the scheduled day for the closure, but due to varying weather and site specific conditions March 22 may also be required to complete the operation. In the event that access to the WMA is restricted, AGFC and partnering agency staff will be on-site to maintain road and access closures.

The aerial operations are the result of planning and coordination of multiple partners. The AGFC and USDA APHIS would like to thank the public in advance for their patience and understanding while these activities are underway and apologize for any inconvenience related to the operation.

For additional information please contact AGFC Statewide Feral Hog Program Coordinator J.P. Fairhead at 870-253-3721 or the AGFC Wildlife Management Division at 501-223-6359.

By Randy Zellers