Harris Brake greentree reservoir ready to hold water this duck season

PERRYVILLE — The Arkansas Game and Fish Commission recently completed an extensive repair and upgrade to the water-control structure at the lower greentree reservoir on Harris Brake Wildlife Management Area in Perry County.

Harris Brake WMA is home to two greentree reservoirs that provide valuable flooded hardwood habitat in one of the few areas the AGFC owns west of Little Rock. During normal years, water from Harris Brake Lake flows through the upper GTR, which is 291 acres, and fills the lower GTR, offering an additional 458 acres of flooded forests for wood ducks and mallards making the migration south during winter.

According to Jake Whisenhunt, wildlife biologist for the AGFC in the west-central portion of the state, the old water-control structures were in need of upgrades during the AGFC’s statewide GTR infrastructure reviews in 2018, part of a long list of repairs needed throughout the state to maintain the tens of thousands of flooded bottomland hardwood habitat acres managed by the AGFC. “During the next few years, the structure underwent several small repairs, but in 2022, the 42-inch corrugated pipe feeding the screw gate rusted through and blew out, making the lower GTR inoperable during the next two winters,” Whisenhunt said.

This year, contractors dug out and replaced the 100-foot pipe and installed a flashboard riser water-control system that’s superior to the previous screw gate. Buck Jackson, the AGFC’s statewide wetland renovation program coordinator, said the riser system is a mainstay in water-control structures throughout the Delta and is much more adaptable to various water conditions.

“We can better manipulate flow and water levels with the new structure instead of it just being open or closed,” Jackson said. “And if the Fourche (La Fave) River rises up enough, we can actually allow the river to backflow into the GTR instead of water having to travel around or through the upper GTR to get there.”

Jackson and Whisenhunt both say the structure is not a permanent solution, and the AGFC plans to revisit Harris Brake’s GTRs in the near future to improve the infrastructure and habitat quality.

“I wouldn’t call this fix a band-aid; it’s more of a series of stitches,” Jackson said. “The new structure is a really good step in the right direction, but I’m hoping we can remove this riser in the future and use it somewhere else while we build a more automated, long-term solution. The trick is to find the right funding. Because Harris Brake is considered outside of the Mississippi Alluvial Plain, standard grants for the typical wetland work we do won’t apply to it as a standalone project. But we’re looking for ways to combine this project with others in a future funding opportunity and get Harris Brake back where it really needs to be.”

In the meantime, Whisenhunt says local hunters will definitely appreciate regaining nearly 500 acres of duck hunting opportunity.

“Harris Brake doesn’t have the following of Bayou Meto or Dave Donaldson,” Whisenhunt said. “But to hunters in the Arkansas River Valley, it can provide some good hunting when the migration is in full swing, and we just don’t have a lot of true flooded timber on this side of the state.”

The AGFC plans to operate the new infrastructure and begin flooding Harris Brake GTR on Nov. 14. Visit www.agfc.com/hunting/waterfowl/wetland-management for a complete list of 2025-26 GTR infrastructure operation plans.

Harris Brake WMA is open to waterfowl hunting only on Tuesday, Thursday, Saturday and Sunday and during the Special Youth Waterfowl Hunt and Veteran/Active-Duty Military Hunt. Nearby Harris Brake Lake is not included in the WMA and is closed to all hunting, except Canada goose hunting Sept. 1-Oct. 15. Visit www.agfc.com/wma/harris-brake-wma for a list of regulations and maps of the WMA.

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CUTLINES:

SIGN
Harris Brake WMA will again have nearly 750 acres of flooded bottomland hardwoods to provide wetland habitat for ducks and hunters during the 2025-26 winter season. AGFC image. 

BOAT
The AGFC plans to begin operating the new infrastructure at Harris Brake WMA’s greentree reservoir, Nov. 14. AGFC image. 

WOOD DUCK
Flooded hardwoods at Harris Brake WMA offer valuable wetland habitat for wood ducks and mallards outside of the Arkansas Delta.