BRADFORD – Henry Gray Hurricane Lake Wildlife Management Area nearby is far more renowned, and vastly larger, but there are three tracts of land just to the north in White County that make up Departee Creek WMA, which punches well beyond its weight in terms of wildlife opportunities.
Departee Creek WMA, established as a WMA in 1998 and named for the small waterway that borders the lower third of the northernmost parcel, is only 1,415 acres total among the three parcels, but it is an attractive locale for small game hunters. When water is high enough to flood the parcels of bottomland hardwood, which are just a few short miles to the middle of Hurricane Lake WMA, waterfowl hunters should take a look, too; an 800-acre parcel north of U.S. Highway 64 is about 3 miles west of the White River, while a smaller parcel between to the major pieces of the WMA abuts an oxbow just off the river.
By Jim Harris
Managing Editor Arkansas Wildlife Magazine
Previous land use consisted of row crop, rice farmland and a commercial fishpond operation. Part of the area, the northernmost parcel, would be classified as upland, while several hundreds of acres would be described as wetland/floodplain. The parcels stretch over about 7 miles of landscape from north to south with private lands in between.
AGFC biologist Clifton Jackson, who manages Departee Creek among other WMAs in east-central Arkansas like Holland Bottoms near Jacksonville and Prairie Bayou WMA near Carlisle, says Departee Creek “is kind of similar to Prairie Bayou (in its small size), but it’s a little bit more diverse in a different state of succession, where trees were planted on it some time ago and they are a little older. It’s wetter, for sure, most of the time.”
A reclaimed bottomland hardwood area that was known as the Estep farm, makes up about 120 acres, he said. “But it’s a really pretty spot,” Jackson said. “And then there’s the Glaise Creek addition that was annexed (by the AGFC as mitigated lands belonging to the Arkansas Department of Transportation) that’s exceptional rabbit hunting. I won’t say it’s easy but there’s still a lot of rabbits there. It’s a big, open wetland.”
The third parcel of Departee Creek, the northern acreage that can be seen from the four-lane U.S. 67, is an old fish farm that came under AGFC ownership. “There are several ponds and stands of pines. We’ve been actively managing it, trying to reduce the number of eastern red cedar there to create a bit more usable space,” Jackson said.