Sanders Appoints Steve Kueter to the Arkansas Game and Fish Commission

JONESBORO — Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders announced Monday that she has appointed Steve Kueter of Paragould as the newest member of the Arkansas Game and Fish Commission. Kueter (pronounced KEE-ter) will serve a seven-year term, ending June 30, 2033. 

“Steve has spent his life helping steward our natural resources while preserving our state’s rich outdoor heritage for future generations,” Sanders said. “As a lifelong outdoorsman and third-generation aquaculture farmer, Steve brings decades of experience in conservation, agriculture and public service, and I know he will work tirelessly to enhance and promote access to our great outdoors.”

Kueter is a lifelong resident of Greene County and earned a Bachelor of Science degree in Wildlife Management from Arkansas State University. He owns and operates Kueter’s Fish Company, Inc., a third-generation catfish and baitfish farm in Paragould.

An avid hunter and fisherman since childhood, Kueter developed a lifelong appreciation for Arkansas’s outdoors through time spent hunting and fishing alongside his father, grandfather and extended family. Today, he continues that tradition with his wife, Emily, their three children, and two grandchildren.

“In my lifetime, there have been so many success stories facilitated by the Arkansas Game and Fish Commission,” Kueter said. “When I was growing up, you had to travel hours away to deer hunt, and turkeys were just being reintroduced to the Ozarks. When we deer hunted in north Arkansas, we came back talking about seeing a lone track or the flash of a deer’s tail. It wasn’t often that you heard of someone harvesting a deer. Today, turkey and deer are abundant throughout most of the state. It is humbling to be appointed by Gov. Sanders and entrusted to continue the good work of the Arkansas Game and Fish Commission and the commissioners who have come before me.”

Kueter currently serves on the Board of Directors for Craighead Electric Cooperative Corporation and is president of the Eight Mile Drainage District. He also serves on the Arkansas Catfish Promotion Board, the Greene County Farm Bureau Board and the Arkansas Bait and Ornamental Fish Growers Association. Previously, he served on the boards of Catfish Farmers of Arkansas and Catfish Farmers of America. He has represented the state nationally as a two-time Catfish Farmer of the Year and previously served as chairman of the Arkansas Farm Bureau Aquaculture Committee.

He replaces outgoing Commission Chairwoman Anne Marie Doramus, whose term expired June 30, 2026. 

A video of the announcement is available on the AGFC’s YouTube Channel.

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CUTLINES:

HEADSHOT
Steve Kueter of Paragould was appointed Monday to serve a seven-year term as Arkansas’s newest Game and Fish Commissioner. AGFC photo. 

HANDSHAKE
AGFC Chairman Rob Finley welcomes Steve Kueter to the AGFC at Monday’s announcement. AGFC photo.

CONVERSATION
AGFC Director Doug Schoenrock, Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders and Commissioner Steve Kueter celebrating Kueter’s appointment to the Commission. AGFC photo.