Commission approves permanent WMA ban on firewood importation

LITTLE ROCK – During today’s monthly meeting of the Arkansas Game and Fish Commission, commissioners permanently adopted a ban on the importation of firewood into the state’s wildlife management areas. During the September meeting, the commission had approved an emergency ban on firewood.

Today’s action is the result of attempts to prevent the spread of an exotic insect known as the emerald ash borer. The insects feed on and are likely to kill all of Arkansas’s ash species. The permanent ban includes people camping on the AGFC-owned WMAs.

The insect has been discovered in six southwest Arkansas counties. The six counties are Clark, Columbia, Dallas, Hot Spring, Nevada and Ouachita. The insect was first discovered in Michigan in 2002 and has since killed tens of millions of trees.

The adult emerald ash borer is a metallic green insect about one-half inch long and one-eighth inch wide making it hard to detect in the wild. The female beetles lay eggs on the bark of ash trees. The eggs hatch and the larvae bore into the bark to the fluid-conducting vessels underneath. The larvae feed and develop, cutting off the flow of nutrients and, eventually killing the tree. EAB attacks and kills North American species of true ash, and tree death occurs three to five years following initial infestation.

The permanent firewood ban goes into effect immediately.

In other business, the commission:
*Approved the second lease payment of $333,000 on the Maumelle River WMA. Central Arkansas Water and the AGFC agreed to a 99-year lease for 18,861 acres that form the WMA. The lease cost is $1 million to be paid over a three-year period.
*Approved restoring the daily creel limits on Lake Chicot and Cane Creek Lake. The daily limits had been reduced during the two lake’s drawdown period.
*Proposed an updated land use policy for lakefront property owners on AGFC-owned lakes.
*Granted electronic dog collars, that the AGFC was no longer using, to the Arkansas Department of Corrections.
*Honored Wildlife Officer Block Meyer with the AGFC Campbell Award and Sgt. Scott Watkins as the recipient of the National Waterways Management Award.