{"id":23022,"date":"2022-03-02T11:14:38","date_gmt":"2022-03-02T17:14:38","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/arknews.org\/?p=23022"},"modified":"2022-03-04T08:09:33","modified_gmt":"2022-03-04T14:09:33","slug":"why-arkansass-best-duck-hunting-woods-are-drowning","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/arknews.org\/index.php\/2022\/03\/02\/why-arkansass-best-duck-hunting-woods-are-drowning\/","title":{"rendered":"Why Arkansas\u2019s best duck hunting woods are drowning"},"content":{"rendered":"

If you walk through Henry Gray Hurricane Lake Wildlife Management Area, the towering hardwood stands might look like a beautiful place to hunt. But once you know what to look for, you can see the trees are drowning.<\/span><\/p>\n

Wildlife management areas like these woodlands just outside of Bald Knob are protected public land set aside by the Arkansas Game and Fish Commission to conserve The Natural State\u2019s wildlife and promote outdoor recreation. Hurricane Lake WMA is best known for its greentree reservoirs<\/a>, human-made wetland structures that attract ducks \u2014 and duck hunters \u2014 from miles around.<\/span><\/p>\n

Levees built around the forest are designed to hold water on the forest floor, imitating the seasonal flooding that occurred naturally in bottomland hardwood forests across the Mississippi Delta before dams and levees tamed the major rivers. Most of those ancient bottomland woods were long ago cleared for timber and to make way for agriculture.<\/span><\/p>\n

A greentree reservoir is meant to reproduce a flooded forest environment in a controlled manner. Extensive hydrological infrastructure gives land managers control over the timing and depth of floods, allowing them to open and close gates to adjacent waterways. The Game and Fish Commission manages more than 50,000 acres of greentree reservoirs spread across more than a dozen wildlife management areas in the state, and private landowners manage reservoirs of their own. That\u2019s made Arkansas a duck hunting destination.<\/span><\/p>\n

Yet many of the forests are in poor health. For decades, scientists say, land managers flooded them too early and too deeply, and for too long. What was once believed to be the best strategy for conserving migratory waterfowl populations has inadvertently decimated the cornerstone tree species \u2014 specifically red oaks, like willow oaks and Nutall oaks \u2014 that make these precious wetlands attractive to ducks.<\/span><\/p>\n

A 2014 Game and Fish Commission survey of willow oaks in the state\u2019s greentree reservoirs found that 40% of the trees were already dead or irreversibly damaged.<\/span><\/p>\n

\"\"
ASSESSING THE DAMAGE: Biologist Jessica Homan examines a tree at Hurricane Lake WMA. (Credit: Ariana Remmel)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

While many private duck hunting clubs have modernized reservoir infrastructure and management strategies for their members, public lands have fallen behind. Now the Game and Fish Commision is trying to make up for lost time. But infrastructure updates alone could cost upward of $70 million over the next 10 years, according to an agency spokesperson.<\/span><\/p>\n

Last fall, the agency announced major changes to water management plans<\/a> at three of the state\u2019s most popular greentree reservoirs, including Hurricane Lake WMA. The agency chose not to intentionally flood these highly sought-after hunting grounds during the 2021-22 duck hunting season, which ran from late November through January. The flooding regime will also shift so that the reservoirs are filled more slowly and to depths that will vary with the seasons of nature, not the hunting calendar.<\/span><\/p>\n

It\u2019s an investment in the future that ruffled feathers among some Arkansans frustrated by disruptions to access to public lands. The Game and Fish Commission hosted town halls<\/a> across the state last year to educate duck hunters on the science behind the changes and build trust in a strategy that could take many years to show results. At one such event in November in North Little Rock, more than 100 community members attended a presentation and asked questions of state wildlife managers.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cI know people are bothered because they want to duck hunt this year. But I\u2019m thinking 30 years from now,\u201d said Jessica Homan, a biologist with Game and Fish. She wants to preserve this habitat not just for today\u2019s hunters, but for generations to come. \u201cI can\u2019t do that if I don\u2019t make changes now,\u201d she said.<\/span><\/p>\n

If you build it, ducks will come<\/h2>\n

The gleaming emerald plumage of a male mallard duck \u2014 and the flash of iridescent blue on the wings of the refined females \u2014 make this species \u201cthe poster child of the duck,\u201d habitat biologist Jake Spears said. Mallards are the most abundant duck species in North America and are particularly important to hunters in Arkansas.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cMore mallards spend their winter in Arkansas than any other state in the country,\u201d said Spears, who works for the nonprofit waterfowl conservation group Ducks Unlimited. Mallards are good table fare, readily available and fun to hunt, he said.<\/span><\/p>\n

<\/div>\n

\u201cIf they\u2019re circling your decoy spread and you hit the call, it\u2019s pretty magical to see them actually respond, turn and come start flying back towards you,\u201d Spears said.<\/span><\/p>\n

Though some mallards live in one place year-round, others prefer to breed in the northern United States and Canada before migrating south to spend the winter in habitats where food is easier to find.<\/span><\/p>\n

Filled with starchy acorns and protein-rich invertebrates, Arkansas\u2019s bottomland hardwood forests fit the bill. Though these wetlands once covered around 5 million acres of the state, more than 60% have been destroyed.<\/span><\/p>\n

The first greentree reservoir was created by accident. In the late 1920s, a rice farmer near Stuttgart looking for a way to store irrigation water built a levee around the woodlands abutting his fields. The artificially flooded timber resembled the natural wetlands once prevalent throughout the state, and the ducks arrived in droves. Soon, private landowners across the state began building these modified forests, and the Game and Fish Commission recognized an opportunity to create its own greentree reservoirs on public lands.<\/span><\/p>\n

\"\"
SCENE FROM THE FIELD: The Arkansas Game and Fish Commission's Luke Naylor hunts in a greentree reservoir. (Credit: AGFC)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\u201cWe have a lot of different habitat types that people can hunt on, but hunting in a greentree reservoir is the top of the line,\u201d Homan said. \u201cThat\u2019s what people want.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Tens of thousands of duck hunters now seek out flooded timber and rice fields every year, according to the Game and Fish Commission.<\/span><\/p>\n

But after more than 50 years of artificial flooding, the trees have paid the price. Without drastic changes, there may be nothing for the next generation of hunters to enjoy.<\/span><\/p>\n

The trees are suffocating<\/h2>\n

The problem is that, like us, trees breathe. Though plants create their own food by taking in carbon dioxide and releasing oxygen through their leaves \u2014 a process called photosynthesis \u2014 they still have to convert that food into usable energy. This second process \u2014 called cellular respiration \u2014 requires oxygen gas and is the same reason humans need air to survive.<\/span><\/p>\n

Tree roots do an excellent job of \u201cbreathing in\u201d oxygen from the porous soil during the growing season. When the trees lose their leaves and go dormant in the fall, their energy needs decrease dramatically. This generally happens around the same time of year that water levels begin to rise on the forest floor, which saturates the soil and pushes out the oxygenated air.<\/span><\/p>\n

If trees are flooded before they go dormant, or if water is still standing on their roots after they start waking up in the spring, they start to drown.<\/span><\/p>\n

Cypress and tupelo species in greentree reservoirs are the most resilient to flooding, but what the ducks want are acorns, Homan said. Biologists working in these wildlife management areas began noticing forest degradation at some reservoirs in the early 1980s, but it wasn\u2019t until the early 2000s that scientists discovered how poorly \u2014 and disproportionately \u2014 the keystone oak species had fared.<\/p>\n

Looking out across the forest at Hurricane Lake WMA, the trees show a dark green watermark left behind by previous years\u2019 floods. A natural bottomland hardwood forest would only hold water about a foot deep, but the sludge stains on these trees show they\u2019ve been steeped in stagnant pools at least 5 feet deep. That has caused the base of their trunks to distend in what forest managers call \u201cbutt swelling.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

\"\"
THE WATERLINE: In a greentree reservoir at Hurricane Lake WMA. (Credit: Ariana Remmel)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Above the waterline, you can also see open, weeping cracks where the trees\u2019 bark has split open. Homan, who is working on restoring the forest at Hurricane Lake WMA, said these are all signs that trees are struggling to take in oxygen.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cThe trees [have] just got to the point where they do what they need to do,\u201d she said. \u201cThey\u2019re being suffocated.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

A 2014 study of one greentree reservoir by Game and Fish Commission staff showed that 82% of willow oaks had been damaged by flooding, almost half of which were dead or irreversibly compromised. Of the two families of oaks found in greentree reservoirs, red oaks \u2014 such as willow and Nuttall oaks \u2014 are faring worse than white oaks like overcup oaks. That\u2019s more bad news for ducks, because only red oak species produce acorns small enough for mallards to eat.<\/span><\/p>\n

In a naturally flooded forest, insects thrive in sunken leaf litter and topsoil. But invertebrate populations suffer in the stagnant, nutrient-poor water of a greentree reservoir that\u2019s been flooded too deeply, Homan said. This deprives ducks of another crucial food source to help them beef up for their spring sprint north.<\/span><\/p>\n

Moving light and water<\/h2>\n

Though the Game and Fish Commission has been aware of the issue for years, it has only recently taken sweeping steps toward addressing the problems facing greentree reservoirs on its lands. Agency officials say that it\u2019s taken time to conduct the forest health and hydrology studies needed to design an effective restoration strategy. This data has been important for building trust with land users and securing the necessary permits and money to execute the agency\u2019s plan.<\/span><\/p>\n

One such project was completed in December 2021 when the Game and Fish Commission installed a $2.8 million infrastructure upgrade at Hurricane Lake WMA<\/a> that should make it easier for land managers to move water off the reservoirs. Of that amount, more than $1 million was contributed by Ducks Unlimited. The conservation group has secured a grant for an additional $2 million for continued work at the site.<\/span><\/p>\n

\"\"
DUCK FOOD: Arkansas Game and Fish Commission biologist Jessica Homan holds Nutall oak (left) and overcup oak acorns. (Credit: Ariana Remmel)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

If land managers can keep the land dry, the final step is to propagate the next generation of red oaks. Saplings need at least five years of healthy growth before they can withstand a full flood season, and these small trees need enough sunlight to establish a strong root system. Now, forestry specialists with the Game and Fish Commission and its partners are selectively killing undesirable trees and clearing underbrush to get light on the ground for the young red oaks in some reservoirs.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cIf we can get some good establishment of seedlings and [the greentree reservoirs] can be drier longer into the season, I think we can really kick-start the forest,\u201d said\u00a0Douglas Osborne<\/a>, a waterfowl ecologist with the University of Arkansas at Monticello and the\u00a0Five Oaks Ag Research and Education Center<\/a>.<\/span><\/p>\n

Though many hunting clubs have already modernized flooding practices on privately owned greentree reservoirs, their membership fees can be expensive. That means hunters who rely on public lands could be disproportionately affected by restoration-related closures on WMAs. But this is also why it\u2019s so important to take proactive steps to preserve this natural resource, according to hunters like Morgan Harris of Prairie Grove. Harris is an executive member of the Arkansas chapter of Backcountry Hunters and Anglers<\/a>, which advocates for the protection of public lands to promote outdoor recreation.<\/span><\/p>\n

Harris hunts on greentree reservoirs in eastern Arkansas and other states and says these wetlands are his preferred duck hunting grounds by far. He and other hunters have been frustrated by the recent disruptions, Harris said. But he also understands that flooded timber is doomed without drastic interventions.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201c[The Game and Fish Commission] is going about the science and restoring these habitats in the right way,\u201d he said. \u201cI think long term we \u2014 the general public \u2014 will be much happier knowing that we took the time and the means available to us to improve these habitats.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Playing the long game<\/b><\/h2>\n

These steps are the first in a long-term restoration strategy that could take many years to show results. And due to the cyclical nature of climate systems and waterfowl migration patterns, scientists still have many questions about how current efforts will play out. In addition to studying forest composition, Osborne and his colleagues are tracking the movements of ducks fitted with satellite transmitters to better understand how waterfowl move through the reservoirs.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re trying to let the mallard tell us what the forest needs to look like,\u201d he said.<\/span><\/p>\n

\"\"
BETTER DRAINAGE: The Game and Fish Commission is making infrastructure improvements at Hurricane Lake WMA (Credit: AGFC)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The restoration effort is further complicated by shifting weather patterns in the region. Though Hurricane Lake WMA remained dry enough for Game and Fish Commission construction crews to work through December, the last few years of wet winters have filled many of Arkansas\u2019s watersheds to overflowing well into late spring. And wet cycles like this may become more frequent due to changing climate patterns that have increased flood risks across the southern United States<\/a>.<\/span><\/p>\n

Much of the flood control infrastructure built by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers in Arkansas was authorized because of a similar series of wet seasons in the 1920s, said Mike Biggs, a hydraulic engineer with the agency\u2019s Little Rock District. For example, the Corps operates dams on the White River for flood risk management.<\/span><\/p>\n

When Corps reservoirs in North Arkansas grow full, engineers slowly release water into the White River Basin. That water eventually makes its way to Central Arkansas and onto Hurricane Lake WMA and other greentree reservoirs. Even with a key to the floodgates, Biggs said, the Corps only has control over about 45% of the water in the White River Basin.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re pretty good at doing what we do, but Mother Nature always bats last,\u201d he said.<\/span><\/p>\n

Because Arkansas typically gets less rainfall in autumn, Game and Fish Commission land managers have less trouble controlling water levels on greentree reservoirs at the beginning of waterfowl hunting season. But the combination of upstream releases and increased precipitation creates a big problem in the spring, when it\u2019s time to move water off the forest in time for the trees to start a new growing cycle, Homan said.<\/span><\/p>\n

The changing forest composition on greentree reservoirs could have long-lasting implications not just for waterfowl, but also the songbirds and mammals that subsist on the bounty of oak trees. Only time will tell if these efforts are enough to restore the hardwood stands remaining on Arkansas\u2019s public greentree reservoirs.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Looking out across the dying oaks at Hurricane Lake WMA, Homan says she doubts she\u2019ll see the forest restored during her career. \u201cIt\u2019s sad, but it\u2019s also hopeful,\u201d she said. \u201cWe\u2019ve done a lot of work and I\u2019m seeing progress, but it\u2019s going to be a long-term project.\u201d\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

This story is courtesy of the Arkansas Nonprofit News Network<\/a>, an independent, nonpartisan news project dedicated to producing journalism that matters to Arkansans.\u00a0<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The trees that sustain the state\u2019s fabled duck populations are dying after years of excessive flooding. 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