Copper Wire Thieves ‘Cripple’ Arkansas Duck Waters Just Ahead of Opener

With lower than every week to go earlier than Arkansas’ waterfowl opener, wildlife managers there say a essential habitat space in Conway County will stay “crippled” on account of thieves damaging the water-delivery system. In their announcement Monday, officers with the Arkansas Sport and Fish Fee stated that earlier this yr, some thieves stripped all of the copper wiring from the motor and management unit that drive the pump at Ed Gordon Point Remove Wildlife Management Area.

This 200-horsepower pump is required to flood 20 of the 23 impoundments on the WMA. With out it, these areas will stay dry simply as geese want the water most.      

“Waterfowl hunters scouting [the WMA] in Conway County will discover a major lack of flooded habitat for geese, shorebirds and different winter migrants in the course of the early portion of the upcoming duck season,” AGFC officers warned in a news release.

Officers defined that whereas they hope to get the pump up and operating by the beginning of duck season, they’ll first have to finish some intensive repairs that require customized electrical work.

“They primarily stripped the whole lot from the meter loop to the VFD,” stated AGFC wildlife biologist Alex Zachary, referring to the variable frequency drive management unit that features because the mind of the pump system. He stated the customized repairs have been delayed as a result of the company has needed to “bid out the work, await bids to come back in after which await the VFD to be constructed.”

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Primarily based on the responses to AGFC’s announcement, nonetheless, it appears extra duck hunters are pointing fingers on the company than the copper wire thieves. An amazing variety of feedback on the company’s Facebook post declare the repairs aren’t as sophisticated as officers suggest, and that “any electrician can have that getting into a day” or much less. A couple of sparkies even chimed in, both to supply their companies or to clarify how they might rapidly repair the pump, at the least briefly. 

Different Fb customers introduced up the timing of the announcement, they usually questioned why officers had been abruptly calling consideration to the issue simply six days earlier than the Nov. 23 duck opener. (AGFC didn’t specify in its announcement when the theft occurred or when habitat managers discovered about it.) “Ought to the flooding not have began weeks in the past?” one consumer requested.