“Outdoor Hotline” highlights new hunting license system, CWD and changes to water control on WMAs

Oct. 18, 2017

Randy Zellers

Assistant Chief of Communications

Arkansas Educational Television Network and the Arkansas Game and Fish will host a special “Outdoor Hotline,” to help inform viewers throughout The Natural State about some of the most recent changes to Arkansas’s outdoors.

The one-hour call-in show begins at 7 p.m., Oct. 23. Topics will include the transition to new hunting license and tagging requirements for big game hunters, an update on chronic wasting disease from the AGFC’s first state wildlife veterinarian, Dr. Jennifer Ballard, and changes to water management on public hunting areas that have made Arkansas the duck hunting capital of the world. 

In addition to a video package focused on each topic, the hotline will include a brief question-and-answer portion on some of each subject’s most frequently asked questions.

“We look forward to another opportunity to let our fellow Arkansans know what’s happening in the great outdoors this fall,” said Trey Reid, AGFC assistant chief of communications. “With the new license system we implemented this year, there have been a lot of questions and a little confusion, and this program will allow Game and Fish staff to answer some of those questions as we inch closer to the thick of hunting season. We’re also entering our second deer season since the detection of chronic wasting disease in the state, so we’re eager to provide an update and give hunters the latest information on what CWD means to them and the state’s deer herd. Finally, it’s no secret that Arkansans are passionate about duck hunting, so we’ll also spend a portion of the show talking about how the commission is working to preserve the state’s flooded green timber legacy.”

Questions not answered on the air will still be handled by a phone bank of biologists, wildlife officers and other knowledgeable AGFC staff. Viewers can submit questions by calling 800-662-2386 or via e-mail at outdoors@aetn.org.