With less than a year before his scheduled retirement, Mike Harris, an Arkansas Game and Fish Commission senior technician at Sulphur River Wildlife Management Area near Fouke, completed a quest that’s been a decade in the making — documenting the first pair of swallow-tailed kites to succes…

The summer of 2020 was pivotal for University of Arkansas-Monticello wildlife majors Dylan Rice and Clayton Whitaker.

The coronavirus pandemic delayed the Arkansas Game and Fish Commission’s Family and Community Fishing Program’s annual late spring and early summer catfish tagging promotion, but the project is getting a reprieve as fall arrives.

In just over two weeks, Arkansas will host its first-ever quota-based alligator hunt on private land in the southern portion of the state.

Here’s a reason to get excited about leftovers: The Arkansas Game and Fish Commission’s Fisheries Division has some summer leftovers that will mean more opportunities for Arkansans to catch catfish.

All hunters, including those under 16, will need to have a customer identification number issued to check big game or participate in permit drawings, beginning this season.

An increase in visitors at several Arkansas state parks has prompted park officials to remind the public that COVID-19 restrictions remain in place and will be enforced.

When bears and deer occasionally wander into city streets and suburbs, the news always takes notice, but all sorts of wildlife make a living right in the middle of many cities around the country.

With students headed back to school, be it in-person or online, education is again in full swing in Arkansas, and so is the Arkansas Game and Fish Commission’s Education Division.

When Sean Lusk graduated from Auburn University with a master’s degree in fisheries management, he never dreamed his future would include taking up water gardening in Arkansas.

The Louisiana Department of Wildlife and Fisheries (LDWF) has scheduled a drawdown for Bayou D’Arbonne Lake in Union Parish.

Most of the dozen new wildlife officers who graduated last week from the Arkansas Game and Fish Commission’s training program have been posted to South Arkansas counties.

Arkansas’s bear population has made the news on more than one occasion in the last few weeks.

A massive habitat project for the bed of Lake Monticello involved 15 biologists from across Arkansas last week.

As temperatures rise and summer moves into full swing, wildlife on the water is also returning to its seasonal proclivities — for better and for worse. As of July, the first harmful algal blooms of 2020 have been reported in Arkansas.

CROSSETT — After 37 years working at the Arkansas Game and Fish Commission, you’d think Karen Rowe who heads up the agency’s nongame migratory bird program had seen it all, but nothing could have prepared her for the sight introduced to her by a photographer in Ashley County a few weeks ago.

The drawing for Arkansas’s 2020-21 public land alligator season permits is complete, and 38 hunters have been notified of drawing their permit.

Fish bait can be found in many forms at most tackle retailers. Worms, crickets, minnows, wax worms and other creatures fill boxes and bins. Prepared baits are also found in a wide variety of forms, smells and textures.

Biologists from the Arkansas Game and Fish Commission spent a week in June getting a good look at the size and scope of the flathead and blue catfish swimming the waters of Lake Erling.

Boating enforcement officers with the Arkansas Game and Fish Commission remind everyone to practice safe boating habits and social distancing recommendations during the Independence Day holiday.

Travelers can once again stop at Arkansas Welcome Centers, according to Arkansas Department of Transportation (ARDOT) officials.

Gov. Asa Hutchinson has appointed Mountain Home businessman Rob Finley as a member of the Arkansas Game and Fish Commission.

Water levels within the Felsenthal National Wildlife Refuge pool will be manipulated to 64 MSL, dropping it one foot lower than the normal level of 65 MSL beginning in July, subject to natural flood events.

A new disease is sweeping through rabbit populations in the United States, and it has officials at both the Arkansas Game and Fish Commission and the Arkansas Department of Agriculture concerned.

Bringle Lake in TEXarkana has a confirmed presence of giant salvinia.

The application period is open to apply for permits in Arkansas’ 2020 alligator hunting season.

Arkansas turkey hunters will see some major changes in their season next April, all focused to help recover the state’s eastern wild turkey population, which has seen some declines during the last decade.

With all the spring rains, most Arkansas landowners are ready to hit the field to cut hay. There are a few things to consider this year before you get on that tractor.

Some fishing conservation methods require more taking than leaving. Such is the case with several Arkansas lakes that, with no creel limits on certain species such as channel catfish, are encouraging anglers to take an unlimited number of that particular fish.

Monticello has a number of cultural and recreational opportunities but there are virtually no opportunities for bike enthusiasts.

The catfish may be one of the most misunderstood of all Arkansas’s sportfish.

For Walter McLelland, Tuesday, April 28 will live in his memory forever. That’s because on that date he saw something he cannot explain but he knows was real.

The Arkansas Game and Fish Commission is asking for public comments on possible changes to fishing regulations for 2021.

The deer bag limit for most South Arkansas hunters, including those in Columbia County, has been reduced to five.

Arkansas’ squirrel season opens today, and for those who enjoy chasing these treetop targets, it’s a great excuse to be in the woods.

Selected campgrounds at Arkansas lakes operated by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers will be reopened starting Wednesday, May 20.

COVID-19 has had a profound effect on people for the past three months in terms of loss of life and economic costs. But it also may be playing a role in the potential decline of the Eastern wild turkey population.

“It's one of the simplest items on our list — just a piece of bent wire, sometimes sporting a barb on the end. But throughout modern human history, the fish hook has proven to be one of our most dependable tools. Fishing allows us to eat, without the danger of hunting or the hard work of farming.”

The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Vicksburg District has ceased construction on a site for a new interpretive visitor center and field office at the Lakeview site at DeGray Lake near Arkadelphia.

Arkansans have been on the lookout for Asian giant “murder hornets” after seeing numerous media reports about the invasive species in the United States.

Residents of a White Hall neighborhood had an early awakening Sunday morning as authorities responded to a call about a large black bear that had climbed into a tree nearby and had to be removed.

GILLETT – Samuel Yarberry of Bryant landed in the Arkansas state fishing record book, taking a striped mullet with unrestricted tackle on March 27.

Follow-up herbicide application is scheduled for Thursday and Friday of this week at Lake Columbia as the battle continues against the invasive giant salvinia plant.

The Arkansas Game and Fish Commission heard the first reading of 100 changes to the AGFC Code of Regulations at Thursday’s regularly scheduled meeting.

The COVID-19 emergency has affected how Arkansas’ conservation professionals perform their jobs.

Arkansas is home to 16 species of turtle, but only two are land dwellers — the three-toed box turtle and the ornate box turtle. Box turtles are the only turtles in North America with a flexible hinge on their belly to close the front and rear halves of the shell tightly like a “box.”