LITTLE ROCK — Most hunting seasons are still a few months away, but it’s a great time to renew your license to make sure you’re ready for the next year of memories. Arkansas annual fishing licenses expire one year from the date of purchase, but hunting licenses expired June 30.
Your hunting license is more than your ticket to another great year in the outdoors; it’s the perfect way to say, “I am a conservationist.” Arkansas hunting and fishing license purchases help keep the funding Arkansas receives from sales of hunting equipment, firearms and ammunition flowing. Even if you don’t plan to hunt, purchasing and renewing your license is the best way to ensure federal dollars collected for conservation find their way to The Natural State.
Not only does your license purchase help maintain fish and wildlife populations in Arkansas, it also helps fund the purchase and improvement of public hunting areas, boating and fishing accesses and education facilities where the next generation of outdoors enthusiasts can enjoy the same love of nature as you.
Last year, thanks in part to hunting and fishing license sales, the Arkansas Game and Fish Commission:
Completed construction of about 1,000 acres of additional moist-soil units at Frog Bayou WMA, increasing the amount of this valuable managed wetland habitat type to 10,800 acres on public land;
Completed infrastructure renovations to protect bottomland hardwood forests on Henry Gray Hurricane Lake WMA with the construction of a new, automated six-gate water control structure capable of moving 10 times the amount of water as the previous structure;
Constructed seven water-control structures at Shirey Bay Rainey Brake WMA to replace obsolete flashboard riser gates to move water more efficiently through the WMA and protect bottomland hardwood forests attractive to waterfowl;
Restored wildlife habitat through prescribed fire on 24,830 acres of wildlife management areas and assisted conservation partners with an additional 15,833 acres;
Stocked 9.5 million fish, including but not limited to
2.9 million Florida largemouth bass,
2.9 million forage fish,
1.1 million walleye,
549,000 catchable rainbow trout,
634,000 striped bass,
456,620 northern largemouth bass,
388,000 catchable channel catfish,
