AGFC

From page A8

shaping of existing moistsoil units and levees to improve water movement, as well as the building of three new impoundments totalling 70-75 acres; (2) the excavation of an irrigation canal, making it deeper and wider, to serve as a tailwater recovery ditch; and (3) installation of a new electric relift pump and 7 miles of underground pipeline on the WMAthat was completed in 2023, allowing for individual management of each moist-soil unit.

“What this work did was give us the ability to fine tune our management and have a lot better control with what’s going on out here,” Zachary said. “Now we can turn a pump on and make it rain out here. We’re getting the most bang out of our buck with our moistsoil habitat.” The new relift pump (photo on left), which draws from Point Remove Creek, went operational in November 2020. In addition to pumping from the creek, the AGFC has the ability to buy water from the Point Remove Wetlands Reclamation and Irrigation District. “We have used that new pumping station to help with fall flooding for two years now,” Zachary said. “This is the third season we’ll be doing that.

This past summer during the growing season was the second summer we’ve utilized it very heavily for irrigation. This past summer, as dry as it’s been, we started irrigating around the first of July and pumped straight into the middle of September.”

As for what to expect in the way of arriving ducks on the WMA, Zachary says it’s a tough call. Last year was one of the lowest numbers of ducks in the Arkansas River Valley in recent years. The state was dry through mid-December. “The food is here. The other part of it will be the water,” he said. “The longterm forecast is looking relatively dry. Weather forecasters are indicating there won’t be any appreciable rainfall until after the first of the year.”

The good news is that this newest version of a water pump allows staff to run it under a little lower water conditions than the pumps the WMAhad in the past.

They still have those pumps and will use them when the creek is high. Because of the drought conditions, the AGFC may have to buy some water from the Point Remove Wetlands Reclamation and Irrigation District for fall flooding.

“We have to be selective where we put it and try to get a little bit of water spread out on the landscape. When it’s this dry, it takes a lot of water…you’re losing several inches of it into the ground on the front end,” Zachary says.