AGFC cleans up trash at Lake Wilhelmina

Jan. 25, 2023

MENA — AGFC staff and Polk County recently gave Lake Wilhelmina in Polk County a thorough cleaning after wildlife officers were informed of a growing trash problem accumulating around the 200-acre AGFC-owned lake.

Chris Crawford, a wildlife officer in Polk County, received complaints from a homeowner who lived near the picturesque Ouachita Mountain lake about a large quantity of trash left behind by campers. Upon further inspection, five locations around the lake had accumulated not only garbage left behind by campers but also materials that were illegally dumped on the property. Crawford contacted fisheries staff in the AGFC’s Hot Springs Regional Office as well as Polk County Judge Brandon Ellison about the situation. Ellison offered the use of a front-end loader, dump truck and two county personnel to help with a cleanup effort.

After several hours, AGFC staff Brett Hobbs, Andy Yung, James Rogers and the two Polk County workers worked with officer Crawford to remove nearly ¾ of a large dump truck from the land surrounding Wilhelmina.