Stuttgart Area Suffers as Duck Hunters Migrate

The Mississippi Flyway, the busiest migration path for most of North America’s birds, has become a two-way path in the early months of fall.

The ducks keep flying south. They travel from the upper regions of Canada and Alaska to their tropical homes in a funnel-like pattern, the tip of which falls squarely in eastern Arkansas.

In past years, the Stuttgart area was the universally acknowledged capital for the annual reunion of hunters and ducks. More recently, however, a decline in the quality of duck hunting around the area has caused many hunters to embark on a migration of their own, this one from the flooded green timber and rice fields around Stuttgart to the flat-as-a-board corn fields of the Midwest and the rolling wheat fields of Canada.

Not everyone can agree on the reasons behind the decline in ducks. Explanations range from acts of God, such as the weather, to acts of politicians, such as laws that restrict guided hunts on Arkansas’ public lands.

The Stuttgart area’s duck hunting businesses can, however, agree that they are all feeling the squeeze, even the successful ones. Some are simply leaving the area for happier hunting up North. Others, however, have been able to endure the decline by not putting all their eggs in the duck-hunting basket and offering a wide number of recreational activities.

The most famous of Stuttgart’s duck businesses, Mack’s Prairie Wings, is so deeply indebted to the local Farmers & Merchants Bank – nearly $11 million – that all profits belong to the bank until the debt is paid off.

Stuttgart still expects to bring in an average of $1 million each day of duck season, which the Arkansas Game & Fish Commission recently announced would begin Nov. 19, but most everyone agrees, the money and the ducks are not as good as they used to be.

Business Flies North

James Warrington has been guiding duck hunters for some 15 years, and for the past two years he operated Mallard Retreat LLC, a 5,000-plus-acre tract of land on the banks of Bayou Meto.

When the 24-month lease on the land expired earlier this year, Warrington did not pick up the option to buy the property. The Bank of Little Rock owns the land and does not expect it be operated this season.

According to Warrington, there are simply better places he can take his hunters. “I just can’t justify putting my clients there unless I personally feel comfortable they’re going to get a good hunting experience,” he said.

Warrington used to host as many as 200 duck hunters at Mallard Retreat, most of them from outside Arkansas. And this year, they will be staying outside the state. His company, Premier Wildfowl of Brandon, Miss., has five different locations to choose from: one in Missouri, one in North Dakota, one in Louisiana and two in Alberta, Canada.

And while Warrington says that some good hunting locations still remain near Stuttgart, his clients simply want to go elsewhere.

“They seem to be wanting to go farther north, in Missouri or the Dakotas or out in Texas or Louisiana,” he said.

Stephen Bell, executive vice president of the Stuttgart Chamber of Commerce, admits that recent lackluster duck seasons have driven some businesses away from the Stuttgart area, but he would not characterize the movement as a mass migration just yet.

“You see people looking at their options,” Bell said. “Mostly everybody’s taking a wait-and-see [approach], see if people are going to come back.”

Bell will have a better idea of who is going and who is staying in the coming weeks as businesses renew — or let lapse — their chamber membership, a $100 fee that also gets them a spot in the chamber’s sportsmen’s guide and magazine.

The number was at about 70 last year, up from about 35 or 40 five or 10 years ago, Bell said.

Not everyone would call that progress.

One of Warrington’s biggest complaints about Arkansas and other southern states is that they have too many waterfowl outfitters, unlike some northern states and Canada where there are limits on the number of outfitters.

“Unfortunately in the South … you run a $2 ad in the newspaper and all the sudden you’re an outfitter,” he said. “And that hurts the whole business very badly.”

Some guides argue, however, that outfitter overcrowding is not the problem. Instead, they claim government restrictions have forced guides to use hunting spots farther north on the Mississippi Flyway. And with more hunters killing ducks farther north, fewer are making their way to former duck havens like Stuttgart.

Indeed, the Game & Fish Commission reports that the number of ducks observed in Arkansas from aerial surveys has been below the 20-year average 18 of the past 21 surveyed months dating back to 1998.

And a report last year from the Arkansas Wildlife Federation duck committee showed that, for the last 13 years, Arkansas’ mid-winter duck count has progressively decreased while the duck populations in other Mississippi Flyway states were going up.

Longtime guide Dennis Campbell of North Little Rock said that by banning guided hunts on public land in 2002, the Game & Fish Commission “outsourced” more than 10,000 out-of-state hunters and their tourism dollars to northern hunting destinations.

“As the Arkansas Game & Fish Commission continues its march toward outsourcing, Arkansas duck hunters must expect a larger percentage of the harvest of mallard ducks being outsourced as well,” Campbell said.

For its part, the Game & Fish Com-mission has long said that unsportsmanlike conduct by the guides forced its hand — and that the guide ban has reduced overcrowding on wildlife management areas.

Recreation Diversification

James Miller owns Wildlife Properties of Bald Knob, one of the largest recreational property brokerages in the state. He has been selling hunting land in Arkansas for nearly 30 years, but he no longer lists property around Stuttgart.

Most of his buyers are from the Little Rock area and they want to continue killing ducks in The Natural State, but they are not investing in land around Stuttgart.

“Ten or 15 years ago, Stuttgart used to be a Mecca,” Miller said. “The last five or 10 years you can fly over Stuttgart and hardly see any ducks.”

Most of Miller’s buyers are now interested in properties around the Cache River Basin, the White River and Raft Creek Basin, and the Black River. More specifically, buyers want properties that offer more than just duck hunting.

“I’m getting away from all-duck tracts now and insisting that places that I buy and sell have deer hunting and fishing and other things besides duck hunting,” Miller said. “Properties have to be more well-rounded.”

The ones that are, Miller said, are not only good for recreation but they are great investments. “Recreational property land values just keep going up and up because they’re not making more of it,” he said.

Miller agrees with Warrington that there are still some quality, established duck clubs around Stuttgart. “But they’re getting fewer and fewer,” he said.

One of the places both men agreed on was Wildlife Farms near Stuttgart. The retreat has 1,750 acres along the White River, with 5.5 miles of river frontage full of old-growth hardwood timber, oxbow lakes and managed flooded fields. Many hunters consider it the Stuttgart area’s crown jewel for duck hunting.

Daniel Barnett and his wife, Sally, had owned the property since 1994, and their son, David, had managed the retreat.

Ready to retire from all the hard work that went into managing such a property, David Barnett said, his parents planned to auction off the property on Aug. 16. But the night before the bidding was set to begin, the Barnetts received an offer they could not refuse from plumbing products magnate Herbert V. Kohler.

Kohler is president and chairman of the board of Kohler Co. of Kohler, Wis., one of the country’s oldest and largest privately held companies. Along with plumbing products, Kohler also makes furniture, kitchen and bath ware, engines, generators, and even has a resort business.

Wildlife Farms will remain open as commercial operation, and David Barnett will continue to operate it.

Though the selling price for the property was not disclosed, sources familiar with the deal put the price tag in the neighborhood of $9.2 million.

Miller said that 10 or 15 years ago Wildlife Farms used to be one of the best duck hunting properties in the state and was able to fetch a price higher than many expected because it offers more than just duck hunting. Along with fishing, the site also is ideal for deer and turkey hunting, making the retreat popular throughout the year.

“You won’t get bored here, I promise,” David Barnett said.

But even Barnett admits business has been down somewhat because of the decline in duck hunting. Even the best locations are not completely immune.

The Stuttgart Chamber of Commerce also has begun thinking about diversification. While Bell is resigned to the fact that mallard populations are expected to be down this year, he said there are more geese in the area than ever.

“We don’t have a lot of people who hunt geese though,” he said. “Our reputation is known for ducks.”

(Nate Hinkel contributed to this report.)

Also:
• Bank Keeping Mack’s in Business
• ‘Roboduck’ Ban Sets Arkansas Apart

Previously:
• Hunters Dwell on Arkansas’ Duck Decline