LITTLE ROCK – If you want to hunt elk in Arkansas, now’s the time to sign up for the opportunity. The Arkansas Game and Fish Commission’s permit process for a free chance to hunt Arkansas’ largest game animal is available now.
The month of May is application time for a chance to win one of the 25 permits to hunt elk in the Buffalo River country of Arkansas. The hunt dates this year are Zones 1, 2, 3, 4 and A: Sept. 21-25, Zones 1, 2, 3, 4, A and B: Dec. 7-11, Zone A: Sept. 21-25 and Dec. 7-11, Zone B: Dec. 7-11.
The applications are available on the Arkansas Game and Fish Commission’s website, www.agfc.com, at license dealers, AGFC offices and other outlets across the state. Applying doesn’t cost anything, nor does winning one of the available permits. Two other permits are issued through fund-raising activities of the Rocky Mountain Elk Foundation, with 85 percent of the money received returned to Arkansas for elk habitat work.
The drawing for the public land permits will be Saturday, June 27, on the Newton County Courthouse Square in Jasper, near the Buffalo River and center of Arkansas’s elk country. Persons applying for permits don’t have to be present, but many attend each year, joining in the festivities and activities.
There is an added attraction again this year. One permit will be issued to someone who makes application at the Elk Festival in Jasper. Sign up, stick around and you may win a permit. For this one, you have to be present. And like the other public land elk permits to be drawn, you have to be an Arkansas resident.
Applications for Arkansas’s 2009 elk hunt permits can be submitted any time during the month of May. The last day for applications is June 1.
Elk zones 1, 2, 3 and 4 permits are available to Arkansas residents and Lifetime Sportsmen Permit holders only. Two permits will be reserved for a youth under 16 years of age to hunt in Zone 3. Youths under 16 (as of May 1, 2009) applying for an elk hunt will automatically be entered into this drawing. Youths not selected for the special youth permit may still be drawn for one of the other permits. There is no application fee.
Individual hunters hunting elk in elk zones 1, 2, 3 or 4 are restricted to one elk permit per year. Permitees will be notified by phone or mail and will receive an information packet that will be mailed after the drawing. Hunters will be required to attend an elk hunting orientation and training session held the day before the opening of the September and the December hunts.
For private landowners in Zones A, B and 4; applicants may be resident or nonresident hunters. Applicants must provide either a driver’s license number or a Social Security number. Hunters under 16 (as of May 1, 2009) must supply a valid hunter education number in order to apply for a permit. Applications must include an elk Zone A, B or 4 landowner name, signature, address, phone number, range, township and section; and a $35 application fee. Only one application per hunter for a private land permit will be accepted. Applicants may not apply for more than one private land zone.
Landowners will be contacted to verify an applicant’s eligibility. Hunters will receive an information packet with their permit. Completed applications must be no later than July 15, 2009.
Two landowners on the Zone 4 application and three landowners on the Zone B application will be selected for an either-sex permit. Landowners selected will determine the permit assignments and must assign the permit to a hunter and notify the AGFC within five days. Failure to notify AGFC will result in the permit being reassigned to a different landowner.
Improving elk habitat in the Buffalo River country is another benefit of the permit process. Many Arkansans who apply for the permits send along voluntary donations to the elk program, and this money is used for food plots, prescribed burning and other work in the elk area. A donation to the AGFC for the elk program is not a requirement for permit application, nor does a donation improve chances of being drawn for a permit.
