The Arkansas Game and Fish Commission on October 8 unanimously approved a minute order to strongly urge the Arkansas Department of Agriculture Natural Resources Division to prioritize design and construction of Little Bayou Meto hydrology improvements in the Bayou Meto Water Management Project at the highest priority level in its regular funding request to the Army Corps of Engineers.
The Little Bayou Meto drainage effort is a component of a larger water management project that was initially authorized by the Flood Control Act of 1950 and reauthorized in 1996. The primary goals of the project are to provide agricultural water supply, protect aquifers from groundwater depletion and remove floodwater to conserve wetland habitat vital to Arkansas’s waterfowl resources.
The continued effort to increase drainage in Lower Bayou Meto may seem odd at a time when lack of water is at the forefront of every duck hunter’s mind, but conservation not only factors in current conditions; it focuses on issues that affect the long-term maintenance of the state’s natural resources for generations to come.
Although pumping stations have been constructed for part of the project, the AGFC’s key focus is on the improvement of bayous and ditches downstream and within the George H. Dunklin Jr. Bayou Meto Wildlife Management Area.
“Holding water to provide waterfowl habitat and hunting opportunity was the focus of this area for decades, but we’ve learned over the years that removal of that water during the growing season is even more critical to those trees that mallards and other ducks need during their migration,” David Luker, AGFC assistant chief of wildlife, said in a meeting on Monday.
According to Luker, this resolution not only helps prioritize the design and construction of infrastructure on the WMA, but also renews the focus on working with landowners and drainage districts downstream to clean out Little Bayou Meto to increase the flow running out of the WMA to the pump station in Reydell.
