AGFC accepting applications from rice producers for waterfowl habitat, hunting program

Thursday, April 17, 2025

AGFC accepting applications from rice producers for waterfowl habitat, hunting program

LITTLE ROCK — The Arkansas Game and Fish Commission is looking for landowners to continue offering high-quality waterfowl habitat and public access to rice fields in Arkansas for the 2025-26 winter migratory season. Qualified landowners may receive as much as $150 per acre through the AGFC’s Waterfowl Rice Incentive Conservation Enhancement Program.

To participate in the program, landowners must forgo tilling their rice fields in fall and flood the fields to make post-harvest waste grain available to migrating waterfowl. The final requirement is that landowners allow the AGFC to conduct managed draw hunts on the property during each weekend of Arkansas’s duck season. The application deadline for this program is May 15.

Private Lands Biologist David Graves coordinates between the rice producers and the AGFC to ensure excellent winter waterfowl habitat and public access. He says many producers who have participated in the past are ready to reenroll for the coming year, but all landowners will need to go through the evaluation process to ensure any new participants have an opportunity to be a part of the program and the best habitat for migrating waterfowl and shorebirds is created.

“It’s not just a Delta thing, either,” Graves said. “We have landowners in the Arkansas River Valley. The only requirements to be considered are that the land is currently used to produce rice or is enrolled in the Wetland Reserve Program, that it is within 10 miles of a waterfowl-focused wildlife management area or national wildlife refuge, and that the landowner is willing to flood it with surface water, either by pumping from surface water source (wells prohibited) or by rainfall. The landowners also must be willing to allow the AGFC to conduct draw hunts on weekends during duck season.”

Graves says competition is high for the program, and the landowners selected sign up for all possible options to ensure they are considered.

“The payment varies based on a few options like method of flooding, but most of the landowners who have been added to the program tend to choose the methods that guarantee water and access, so payments are typically at the maximum for the landowners selected,” Graves said.

The WRICE Program is coordinated through the AGFC’s Private Lands Habitat Division and is made possible by Greenway Equipment, an AGFC cultivating partner. Contact Graves at (870) 319-0668 or visitwww.agfc.com/wrice to learn more about the program and apply to enroll your fields.