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JASPER - Arkansas elk hunters who want to hunt in their home state once again have the opportunity to apply for one of 18 public-land elk permits for this year’s two-segment Arkansas elk season, September 24-26 and December 10-12. Two more public-land permits will be issued - one through a raffle-type drawing and the other sold at auction at the Rocky Mountain Elk Foundation national convention this summer.
Hunters who can prove they have access to land within the designated private-lands elk zone in parts of Newton, Boone and Carroll counties are eligible to purchase a permit to hunt those private lands.
“This is the fourth year we’ve allowed hunting in the Arkansas elk herd,” said Mike Cartwright, Elk Program Coordinator for the Arkansas Game & Fish Commission. “We’re using these hunts to achieve our management objectives with Arkansas elk.”
According to Cartwright, the elk herd in Arkansas now numbers approximately 450 to 500 animals. They originated from the release of 112 Colorado and Nebraska elk on the Buffalo National River more than 20 years ago.
“When we first released these animals, nobody had any idea we’d ever be hunting them,” Cartwright said. “But they’ve done exceptionally well, and now the herd is large enough to require some form of control. Carefully-regulated hunts are the best way to exercise that control.”
Four bull permits are available for the public-land hunt in September. For the December public-land hunt, another four bull permits and 12 antlerless permits will be issued. There will be a quota of ten elk for each of the hunts in the private-land hunting zone, and hunting in that zone will cease when the quota is reached for each hunt.
Permit applications will be available Monday, April 23 at the Commission’s website at www.agfc.com, or at many license dealers statewide, or by contacting the Game & Fish Commission at 501-223-6351. Online applications are preferred. The application deadline for the public-land hunts is June 1; for private-land hunts, July 13. Public-land permits will be drawn from an old-fashioned “squirrel cage” at the Buffalo River Elk Festival in Jasper on June 29-30.
Uploaded: 4/24/2001
Uploaded: 4/24/2001