Private hunting for dove hunters made public in Greene County

GREENE COUNTY, Ark. (KAIT) - For sportsmen in Northeast Arkansas who enjoy dove hunting, a total of five plots ranging from 30 to 99 acres can now be hunted.

A local landowner made a deal with the Arkansas Game and Fish Commission to make one of the privately-owned plots public. However, these hunts will still require a permit.

The private plot in Greene County will serve Paragould and the surrounding area’s hunters.

“We’ve never had anything like this up here before,” AGFC private lands biologist Bo Reid says. “We’ve tried in the past and just never had any luck finding a field that really filled our needs and would also work out for the landowner.”

First time ever for a Greene County private land field to be leased to AGFC. (Source: KAIT-TV)

Reid works this plot and others. The five dove plots are located in Lonoke, Prairie, Washington, and Woodruff counties.

He considers the deal with AGFC and the landowner a “win-win” situation.

“This field used to be planted in soybeans, and we had deer deprivation issues,” he says. “The farmer is not having the deer issues and it’s not something we’re having to address anymore.”

The landowner planted the field in sunflowers and the commission paid for the hunting rights.

AGFC used revenue money collected from license sales to pay for it. In essence, hunters paid for this private plot.

“A lot of Arkansas is privately-owned,” he says. “Roughly 90 percent of the state is privately owned so to be able to tap into that resource of private landowners to provide more public hunting opportunity I think is a big deal.”

The exact locations of the five plots are currently not disclosed. Reid explains that this protects the landowner.

Once you apply for your dove permit to hunt on of the fields and get accepted, AGFC will send you a map and detailed instructions on how to get to the plot.

Each permitted hunter can bring one guest. Stations will be set up in the plot for each permit.

“The way we determine the number of permits, we look at the layout of the field, the size of the field, and however many people we can safely hunt on that field that’s what we go with,” he says.

You can apply for the permit starting Aug. 1-15 by visiting their website. Permits will be drawn Aug. 16. Dove hunting season begins Sept. 5.

Below are more details for each plot: