AWF History

The Arkansas Wildlife Federation was founded in 1936. During that time AWF has had many successes, and AWF vitally important work continues today. Listed below are a few of AWF past efforts and some that are ongoing to give an idea of the importance of these tasks. On many of these efforts, AWF worked with other organizations and agencies.

• In 1944, AWF sponsored and worked for the passage of Amendment 35, creating the modern-day, autonomous, Arkansas Game & Fish Commission. The Arkansas Wildlife Federation was the major
• conservation organization responsible for supporting state legislation that established  the Arkansas Game & Fish Commission, one of the leading wildlife agencies in the nation.
• From the mid 1980s until its adoption in 1996, AWF helped develop and pass the ? of 1% Conservation Sales Tax Amendment that funded programs and operation of the Arkansas Game and Fish Commission.
• In August of 2003, AWF published the Arkansas Wildlife Federation Duck Report, “Improving the Quality of Duck Hunting in Arkansas.” This 60-page research project has received praise throughout the state and nation, and has resulted in changes in duck hunting regulations that will improve the quality of duck hunting in Arkansas.
• AWF successfully fought the Army Corps of Engineers’ plans to channel the Cache River in East Arkansas, one of the nation’s most important regions for waterfowl.
• AWF has been working for years to prevent construction of the Grand Prairie Irrigation Project’s mammoth irrigation pump on the Lower White River. This pump would remove more than 100 BILLION gallons out of the river annually. That’s more than five times the total amount of water that more than 360,000 residents in Central Arkansas use in a year.
• AWF continues to oppose a deeper navigation channel on the Lower White River that would impact one of America’s most important regions of fish & wildlife habitat. The Corps of Engineers is proposing the creation of a 9-foot deep channel from mile 10 to Newport, a distance of approximately 250 miles. In 1988, AWF successfully convinced Congress to de-authorize this channel deepening project, but it was re-authorized in 1996.
• AWF convinced the U.S. Forest Service to reduce clear-cutting in the Ouachita and Ozark National Forests.
• AWF oppose in-stream-gravel mining in Crooked Creek and other high-quality streams and support better regulations to protect streams.
• AWF developed the concept and worked cooperatively on the planning and implementation of the Oak Forest Symposium that dealt with the decline of oaks in Arkansas’ national forests. More than 350 natural resource professionals attended.
• AWF supported the addition of approximately 100,000 acres of wilderness in the Ozark and Ouachita National Forests.
• AWF supported land trades with Weyerhaeuser and Potlatch that resulted in over 100,000 acres of wildlife-rich lands being added to national wildlife refuges and a national forest in Arkansas.
• AWF worked with other conservation groups to convince the government to locate the Great River Bridge downstream from Big Island, protecting valuable habitat.
• AWF publishes  Arkansas Out-of-Doors, a bi-monthly newspaper relating to hunting, fishing and conservation issues impacting wildlife, wildlife habitat and the environment.
• AWF organized regional Farm Seminars to inform farmers of the financial benefits of government programs that encourage conservation.
• AWF conducts waterfowl seminars that deal with habitat management, biology and other topics.
• AWF conducts conservation contests in schools to encourage students to become more aware of wildlife, their habitats and the environment.
• AWF works with the media to promote conservation through the use of news releases, interviews and public service announcements.
• AWF presents Annual Governor’s Conservation Achievement Awards to Arkansans who go the “extra mile” to benefit the state’s wildlife, wildlife habitat, and natural resources in promoting Arkansas as “the Natural State.”
• AWF is a part of the Bearcat Hollow Cooperative Project, located in the Ozark Highlands. Bearcat Hollow is a land restoration project to help not only take care of and maintain the land and water, but to help reestablish a rich environment for all forms of animal life in the area. See a video of Volunteers working.
• AWF assists the Traildogs with the Lake Ouachita Vista Trail (LOViT) building project, a 45-mile hiking and biking trail that extends from Mount Ida, Ark. to Blakely Dam along the shoreline and mountains of Lake Ouachita.