Hester Preserves Natural Hunt Feel

Drive hours to Kansas or Texas and pay hundreds more to hunt upland birds such as quail, pheasant and chucker partridge. Or, head 30 minutes east of Rogers for a quality, natural habitat-style experience.

That’s the dilemma that Barry Hester, owner of Beaver Lake Quail Preserve in Gateway, has presented to Benton County bird hunters. The hunting preserve, which also offers turkey and whitetail deer packages, is the only one of its kind in Benton or Washington counties.

The closest other hunting preserve is Roger Case’s J&D Hunting Lodge in Huntsville. J&D also offers a variety of bird hunts.

“What makes us stand out is we offer a natural, wild-hunt situation,” Hester said.

Hester said with little local opportunity for quality bird hunting, he opened the 170-acre preserve two years ago a few miles off Arkansas Highway 127. The preserve’s undulating meadows, patches of milo and mountaintop lake views seem a world away from “Vendorville” traffic jams.

The urbanization of Northwest Arkansas and spread of fescue grass throughout its farmlands have driven many upland birds out of the area. Fescue creates a layer of thatch that chokes out natural grasses, Hester explained, and it offers no cover for game birds from predators.

Hester has tilled to eradicate about 90 percent of the fescue at BLQP, allowing a lot of natural grass growth. He also plants sunflowers in the spring, followed by milo and winter wheat in the fall. Along with the addition of perennials such as white Ladino clover, a high-protein plant that provides good food for deer, the crops have created sporting bird cover that stands up to the elements year around.

The result is an experience that’s more realistic to a wild hunt.

Dan Dykema, chairman of ANB Financial Inc. in Bentonville, admits he’s spoiled on hunting wild birds in Texas. But as far as preserve hunting, he said BLQP is as good as he’s seen.

“The quality of [Hester’s] birds is great,” Dykema said. “They fly really well for pen-raised birds. He’s done a good job of creating food plots and natural environments for them, too. Overall the food was good, the hospitality was great and we had a good time.”

BLQP’s bird hunts start at $150 per gun per day and are available online at www.beaverlakequailpreserve.com.

Preserves, technically termed “shooting resorts,” are regulated and monitored by the Arkansas Game and Fish Commission. Preserve licenses cost $500 annually and cover all hunting permits for their guests.

Hunters under 18 are required to have a hunter’s education card, and all hunters sign liability waiver forms.

Hester’s operation will start out with more than 1,100 birds this year, but he hopes to have to order more by December.

Hester, who also owns Golden Jewelry in Rogers, said the preserve will offer European-style hunts this year, where birds are released or driven to a group of blinds. Whitetail deer muzzleloader hunts are $2,250 for a four-day, all-inclusive package and limited to three hunters. BLQP offers archery and turkey hunts, and Hester is working on mixed-hunt packages that could include chasing whitetail in the morning and birds in the afternoon.

Hester said the preserve can accommodate 20 people for meals, but accommodations for even bigger groups are in the works. The ideal hunting party is four groups of four in the field.

“We’ve been trying to keep the operation small and not so commercialized,” Hester said. “We don’t want hunters to come out and feel like it’s one of those places where they’re waiting in line behind a bunch of other groups.”