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Cooperative Extension Service |
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Agricultural
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Arbor Day
Dale Bumpers College
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The Arkansas Acres for Wildlife ProgramEnrollment Form (Word Template) (PDF)
Most landowners, land managers/operators and tenants are interested in wildlife, but they often forget to include consideration for it in their management activities or they do not know what to do. The result is a great, often needless, reduction of habitat for all kinds of wildlife. The cover agents rekindle the latent interest in wildlife which most people have and assist landowners and tenants with techniques that can increase the variety and numbers of birds and animals on their land. They encourage landowners or tenants to preserve, improve, or create wildlife habitat on a minimum of at least one acre for a year. The goal is to improve wildlife habitat on several acres for several years initially and ultimately to have wildlife management on the entire acreage for many years. The Arkansas Acres for Wildlife program can be a rewarding experience for people of all ages. Each plot or farm involves a motivator (the Acres for Wildlife Cover Agent) and/or a cooperator (the landowner, land manager, or tenant) working with the Arkansas Game and Fish Commission and the Cooperative Extension Service in a cooperative program to improve the environment in Arkansas by practicing wildlife management. It is a project through which people can become personally involved in a positive action program. Organizations have an opportunity to make a contribution to conservation through this program. This can be a very rewarding activity for 4-H Clubs, Boy Scouts, Girl Scouts, Cub Scouts, Brownies, FFA groups, Wildlife Federation clubs, civic groups, hunting clubs, ornithological clubs, women's clubs, garden clubs, or any other group. Members of organizations can become cover agents or the groups can sponsor nonmembers as cover agents. In either case, the organization becomes an Acres for Wildlife Sponsor. Individuals, not belonging to any organization, can also make an important contribution by becoming Acres for Wildlife Sponsors, recruiting cover agents who, in turn, enroll cooperators. Landowners and tenants who find out about the program on their own, and want to enroll, do not need to wait to be contacted by a cover agent. By enrolling at least one acre of eligible land, they become Arkansas Acres for Wildlife Cover Agents, as well as Arkansas Acres for Wildlife Cooperators. Companies that control land are urged to become cooperators. Improvement districts often control lands that can fit in this program. Sportsmen should be especially interested in the Acres for Wildlife program since deteriorating farm game habitat has resulted in a marked reduction in quail populations. This program can halt and possibly reverse this trend. Quail hunters in particular should consider becoming Arkansas Acres for Wildlife Cover Agents as a means of increasing their hunting opportunities and improving their relations with landowners. However, the Arkansas Acres for Wildlife program is intended to benefit other species of wildlife as well. A wooded area managed to benefit squirrels can be an Acres for Wildlife project as can a farm pond or small lake managed for waterfowl. A hedge or brushy area planted or preserved for song birds is an effective Acres for Wildlife project which should prove interesting to quail and rabbit buffs, as well as to nonhunters. Building brush piles and planting legumes for the purpose of increasing the rabbit population can be an Acres for Wildlife project which may also benefit quail and nongame birds. Plantings on utility rights-of-way to improve the habitat for quail, rabbits, deer, or turkeys is an excellent Acres for Wildlife project. Similar plantings specifically for native nongame birds can be an excellent project as well. Other Acres for Wildlife programs could be erection of wood duck or bluebird nest boxes, rolling rice stubble and flooding it for waterfowl, or planting grains which can be flooded to provide food for waterfowl. Wildlife habitat improvement in forested tracts through controlled burning, selective harvesting to save den and food-bearing trees, or erection of squirrel nest boxes are good Acres for Wildlife programs. Arkansas Acres for Wildlife Cover Agents contact landowners and tenants to encourage them to set aside areas of land, totaling at least one acre in size, or to carry out a wildlife management plan as a part of their agriculture or forestry practices on their land. When the cover agent has enrolled at least one acre of eligible land, he or she will receive an Arkansas Acres for Wildlife arm patch and a Certificate signed by the governor, the director of the Arkansas Game and Fish Commission, and the director of the Cooperative Extension Service, designating them an official Arkansas Acres for Wildlife Cover Agent. If cover agents enroll more than one cooperator, this will be noted on the certificate. Landowners and tenants who establish one or more areas on their land or who carry out a wildlife management plan on their farm will receive a certificate of recognition as an Arkansas Acres for Wildlife Cooperator. They may also receive a sign, "This Is An Acre for Wildlife," for each area; or several signs,. "These Acres for Wildlife"; or, if requested, "Hunting By Permission Only." They may also receive one sign, "I Am An Acres for Wildlife Cooperator," to place at the entrance to their farm. Note: All signs must be requested on the enrollment or re-enrollment form. Organizations which sponsor cover agents will receive a certificate of recognition as an Arkansas Acres for Wildlife Sponsor. Individuals will receive a certificate of recognition provided that they sponsor five or more cover agents. Almost all land in Arkansas is eligible. Ineligible lands are those in cities, towns, parks and recreation areas, and public wildlife management areas where wildlife management is already the primary use of the land. If areas are enrolled, they must total at least one acre in size and cooperators must agree to maintain existing suitable wildlife habitat on the areas or, if necessary, improve or create wildlife habitat on the areas for at least one year. In some situations, two half-acre or four quarter-acre areas may be more desirable than a one-acre plot. To qualify, however, each Arkansas Acres for Wildlife Cooperator must have plots that total at least one acre of their land. Areas smaller than a quarter-acre will not qualify for this program. An acre area could be a quarter-acre food plot plus an adjoining three-quarter-acre of escape or nesting cover, or it could be an acre of cover left along a fencerow, at the edge of a woods, or along a ditch. Food plots might be one of the wildlife management practices performed on farms enrolled in the program along with the other wildlife enhancement practices which are being carried out wherever feasible. However, the intent of the program is not just to plant food plots but rather to save, improve, or create wildlife habitat on at least one acre of land. This program does not retire cropland or grazing land. Neither does it necessarily open posted land to hunters; this is left entirely to the discretion of the landowner. It does call the attention of land managers to the habitat needs of wildlife and encourages them to make a contribution to the quality of life in Arkansas by fitting wildlife management into their land management plans and activities. It provides an opportunity for every citizen to make an active, personal contribution to Arkansas. This is an action program! Don't expect someone else to do the job. Arkansas' environment is your responsibility. Pick up an application from any county Cooperative Extension Service Office or any employee of the Arkansas Game and Fish Commission. If it is more convenient, write. Address your letters to: Arkansas Acres for Wildlife Remember, landowners, that you do not need to wait to be contacted by a cover agent to qualify as an Acres for Wildlife Cooperator. Pick up an application and enroll your farm in the Acres for Wildlife Program. Let's all act now to make the quality of life in Arkansas the best in the nation! The Arkansas Game and Fish Commission will provide seed packages to Arkansas Acres for Wildlife cooperators who agree to plant them. Each package contains enough seed to plant a quarter-acre food plot. Cooperators enrolled by early February will, if they want it, receive one or more 5-pound packages of Korean lespedeza seed in early March. This package contains a sufficient quantity of lespedeza seed to seed a quarter-acre to one-third-acre plot or a quarter mile, 10-foot wide woods or field border. The lespedeza and the food plot seed packet distribution rates will vary from one year to the next, depending on the number of requests. Food plot seed mix packets are distributed in late April. These packets
contain a 7-pound mixture of Browntop Millet, Laredo Soybeans, Redripper
Cowpeas, Combine Grain Sorghum, etc. This amount will also plant a one-quarter
acre plot. |
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University of Arkansas • Division of Agriculture |
Mission
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Disclaimer
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EEO
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Arkansas Acres for Wildlife is an important segment of the
Arkansas Game and Fish Commission -
Cooperative Extension Service's wildlife enhancement program. Its purpose is
to encourage the preservation and improvement of existing wildlife habitat or
the creation of new wildlife habitat by encouraging land managers to set aside
at least one acre for the benefit of wildlife. It is an action program. The
primary motivators are the people who enroll cooperators (landowners, etc.).
These motivators are called cover agents.