Outdoor writer T. Edward Nickens does an excellent job describing the thrill of hunting ducks on a green-tree reservoir in Arkansas.

"The ducks are overhead, where we had hoped they would be, where we had been watching, straight up through the trees where we had sent our hopes and prayers since dawn broke in the dull, gray light," he writes. "That was two slow hours ago, but now a brisk wind has cleared the sky, the sun is on the decoys, and just as my buddy Scott whispers that he thinks our luck is changing, 50 mallards bank hard to the right of the blind and come sifting through the timber hole, so close we can hear the whoof, whoof, whoof of their wings on the descent.

"In the timber, we hold our fire, hold our breath and fight the urge to look up at a sky turned to feathers and feet. We don't shoot until a third of the ducks are on the water, and with the first thunderous booms of our shotguns, the mallard tornado explodes. ... For the legendary flooded-timber hunting of Arkansas, the future is as full of challenges as the past has been of gilded green-headed glory. For decades, green-tree reservoirs (GTRs) have provided waterfowlers with everything they could possibly dream of in a duck hunt: easy access, stunning scenery, close shots, and ducks on top of ducks.

"Now it might be time for duck hunters and other wetland conservationists to return the favor and work for a future in which these majestic flooded forests can thrive and inspire awe in waterfowlers 50 and 100 years from today."

When Austin Booth was director of the Arkansas Game and Fish Commission, he brought new energy and a fresh vision to an agency that sometimes became stuck in old ways of doing things. With the support of commission members, Booth set out on the biggest project in AGFC history: Restoring the state's public green-tree reservoirs.

Booth became director in 2021 and left at the end of 2024 to work in the private sector.

In meetings with duck hunters to sell his plan, he asked: "Would you rather stand here years from now and tell your grandchildren how great the duck hunting used to be, or have your grandchildren come to you and tell you how great the duck hunting is for them?"

The commission replaced Booth last spring with Doug Schoenrock, who had served since 2002 on Ducks Unlimited's national board of directors. He was DU's president from 2020-22 and board chairman from 2022-24. Schoenrock launched a task force to study the feasibility of growing DU's lands program from 500,000 to a million acres conserved each year. He developed relationships with state conservation agencies and directors.

Schoenrock, who has bachelor's and master's degrees in science from the University of Tennessee, grew up in rural middle Tennessee. He was an Eagle Scout and was active in 4-H, becoming an ardent conservationist at a young age. He worked for more than 20 years at Sara Lee Corp. in research and development, marketing, sales, and mergers and acquisitions. He later spent 19 years as a senior management team member at Savannah Food Co. with a focus on marketing and sales.

Being AGFC director revolves around marketing and sales. A director must have the ability to sell Arkansans on what are sometimes controversial initiatives.

Schoenrock began volunteering with DU in the late 1990s and was elected to the board in 2002. Prior to becoming DU president, he was senior vice president of corporate relations from 2004-10, senior vice president of marketing and communications from 2010-16, senior vice president of youth and education from 2016-18 and first vice president from 2018-20.

Nickens writes for DU: "Even in the early years of green-tree management, it was obvious that bottomland forests suffered when there was too much water on them at the wrong times of the year, says Luke Naylor, waterfowl program coordinator for AGFC."

"Having the hard science that our management practices were detrimental to long-term forest health didn't come until 60 years after it was first seen," Naylor says. "Changes in these long-lived plant communities can happen right under your nose, and you don't really notice. You walk out there, and there are oaks, but it's just not the same."

"It's an issue on both public and private lands," Nickens writes. "One late January afternoon, I toured the woods at Five Oaks with George Dunklin Jr., a farmer, former AGFC chairman and past DU president. 'The trees will tell you what you're doing is right or wrong,' he said as we watched mallards loafing in the flooded woods around the grand lodge. Dunklin has overseen a radical renovation and rethinking of green-tree management at Five Oaks during the past decade and advocates for public and private landowners to look far to the future when making management decisions."

Dunklin says: "The science has been there for 20 years, but it's hard to get people to look long term. Even here, we've made all the mistakes. We wanted to be able to run boats in the woods so we kept the water too deep. That was good for us, but it wasn't good for the trees and ducks. Now we have a saying that guides everything we do. We ask: 'What's it going to look like in 100 years?' That makes it easier to keep your emotions out of your management."

In a report to the public, AGFC officials state: "GTRs still provide a valuable resource to ducks and duck hunters, but how they're managed must change if we wish to continue enjoying good duck hunting on these areas and if the AGFC is to provide long-term waterfowl habitat. Each GTR is unique in its location, topography, water-control capabilities, flow patterns and current forest composition. AGFC will evaluate and develop detailed plans for each state-managed GTR.

"Plans will follow a more natural flood plan than the current system of holding water at a constant, high level targeted for the opening of duck season. AGFC is planning changes in infrastructure, including the redesign of water-control structures and levees to better manage intentional flooding and water removal. Selectively cutting timber within GTRs also will take place to reduce the amount of overcup oaks and enable red oaks to regenerate."

"We have to give Mother Nature the chance to do what she wants to do naturally," Dunklin says. "But it takes time and money."

Nickens writes: "Dunklin has the ability to put serious resources on the ground, and some of the prescriptions, such as planting containerized red oak seedlings and mulching the forest floor to release nutrients and beneficial vegetation, are pricey. ... Money is never easy to come by on public lands, but restoring aging GTRs to their former productivity demands additional resources and new ways of thinking.

"In Arkansas, changing the timing, depth and frequency of flooding state-managed hunting areas has already started. Flooding dates were pushed back. ... In the future, flooding cycles will change, too. In order to more closely mimic natural patterns and boost forest health, timber won't be purposely flooded at the same depth or for the same length of time year after year. And just like Mother Nature, land managers will plan for the occasional unmanaged year in which no artificial flooding at all will take place.

"Meanwhile, a massive renovation of reservoir infrastructure is commencing. Larger pipes and lower levees with more gradual spillways will enable managers to move water more efficiently through the woods. A systematic analysis will help fine-tune solutions to boost red oak regeneration and health. And more education and public outreach will help bring more hunters on board as managers work to turn back time in these ancient bottomland forests."

"We can't do anything about how much rain falls," Naylor says. "But we can make big improvements in how quickly and effectively we get water off the trees for spring and summer growing seasons."

Rex Nelson is a senior editor at the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette.

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