Drone Deer Surveys in Arkansas

Arkansas found CWD in February 2016 — an elk taken near Pruitt in Newton County, then a sick whitetail near Ponca. Initial sampling in northern Newton County came back at 23% prevalence in white-tailed deer, among the highest figures recorded anywhere in the country.

Peer-reviewed work has since documented actual population decline in the high-prevalence Ozark core. Not a shift in hunter behavior, not a bad mast year — fewer deer.

The CWD Management Zone spans more than two dozen counties across the Ozarks, the River Valley, and pockets further south — and it has grown repeatedly, most recently with counties added in 2026. AGFC has removed antler restrictions inside the zone deliberately, to push yearling buck harvest up.

Current CWD counties and restrictions: AGFC — CWD in Arkansas

Here is the measurement problem. Statewide harvest has climbed for several consecutive years, approaching 200,000 deer. Statewide, the trend line is up. In parts of the Ozarks, the herd is going the other direction. Statewide averages hide county-level collapse, and harvest data cannot separate "fewer deer" from "fewer hunters" or "different weather."

A direct count can.

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The Arkansas calendar

Arkansas runs 17 numbered deer zones plus sub-zones (1A, 4A, 5A, 16A) — the most complex season structure of any state we work in. Three things about it are stable enough to plan around:

Arkansas opens earliest and runs latest. There's an early buck-only archery hunt in late summer, and archery runs deep into winter — the longest season of the five. That gives Arkansas the widest survey calendar we work with.

Antler restrictions vary by zone, and there is no antler restriction inside CWD Management Zone counties — a deliberate choice to push yearling buck harvest up. Worth knowing before you set criteria off a survey.

Rather than publish a county-by-county zone table, here is the regional shape: Zones 1, 1A, 2, 3 are the Ozarks; 4, 4A, 5, 5A, 17 the northeast Delta and Crowley's Ridge; 6, 7, 8 the Arkansas River Valley and Ozark fringe; 9, 10, 16, 16A the Grand Prairie and lower Delta; 11, 13 the Ouachitas; 12, 14, 15 the south and southwest Gulf Coastal Plain. Zone boundaries do not follow county lines everywhere, so check your specific ground.

Current season dates, zones and antler rules: AGFC — Deer Seasons and Limits by Zone

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Arkansas has the widest terrain range of any state we fly

Mississippi Alluvial Plain — the Arkansas Delta. Flat, ag-dominated rice, soybeans and cotton, with deer concentrated in bottomland hardwood blocks, greentree reservoirs and river corridors. Best-case thermal conditions: no terrain-following, big open fields, deer in cover you can outline on a map. Flooding is a recurring factor and AGFC has closed flood-prone zones in past seasons.

Crowley's Ridge. A narrow loess ridge standing 200 feet above the Delta, running from Missouri down to Helena. The only relief in east Arkansas — steep-sided hardwood, and a genuinely odd feature to survey.

Grand Prairie. Arkansas, Prairie and Lonoke counties. Flat rice prairie with sparse timber and low deer density.

Ozark Mountains — Boston Mountains, Springfield and Salem Plateaus. Oak-hickory over karst, the deepest hollows and steepest ground in the state, and the CWD epicenter. This is the hardest drone-survey terrain in any state we serve, and we would rather say that plainly than quote you a number we cannot hit. Line-of-sight is the limiting factor, not the sensor. It is flyable with the right plan and enough pilots. It is not cheap and it is not fast.

Arkansas River Valley. Zones 6, 7 and 8. A broad valley punctuated by isolated peaks — Mount Magazine, Petit Jean — with mixed pasture, pine and hardwood.

Ouachita Mountains. Zones 11 and 13. Unusual east-west trending ridges, nearly unique in North America, running shortleaf pine and oak, heavily National Forest.

West Gulf Coastal Plain. South Arkansas. Loblolly plantation on rolling terrain, heavy timber-company ownership — and plenty of deer. Pine canopy rarely troubles a thermal sensor; plantation ground flies well in every season.

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Why an unfenced Arkansas tract is hard to survey with cameras

Structurally, Arkansas splits three ways. South Arkansas is dominated by industrial and TIMO timberland leased to clubs. The Delta is a mix of row-crop farm families leasing deer and duck rights, and duck-club ownership where deer is the secondary use. The Ozarks have far more small private tracts adjoining large National Forest — Ozark-St. Francis and Ouachita.

That last pattern is the one that breaks camera surveys. When your 400 acres borders 40,000 acres of National Forest, the herd using your ground is not your herd. Deer move across that boundary constantly, and a camera census run over two weeks at bait sites on your side of the line produces a number that describes your bait, not your deer.

Flying multiple drones simultaneously across a large area in a single session gets you a snapshot instead of a composite. On unfenced, publicly-adjoining ground that difference is not a marketing point. It is the whole measurement.

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Arkansas DMAP

AGFC's Deer Management Assistance Program is free, with four levels and eight regional DMAP biologists statewide.

• 500-acre minimum for Levels 1, 2 and 3
• No acreage minimum for Level 1A, which covers deer damage and population control
• Data due March 15 annually
• Levels 1 through 3 require jawbones, weights and antler measurements from every harvested deer, plus hunter observation data
• Level 1A requires mandatory CWD sampling

Level 1A is the natural entry point for Delta ag landowners dealing with crop damage — and a population estimate is exactly what a damage-control application needs. "The deer are eating my beans" is an assertion. A density figure is evidence.

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What we need from you

Your property boundary — onX link, KML, shapefile, or a marked-up map.

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Get on the Arkansas schedule

We fly November through March. Arkansas's long season gives you more room than most states — check your zone's dates with AGFC and give us as much lead time as you can.

Call or text (205) 394-6256. Tell us the county and the zone, and we will tell you what we can do there and what we need to confirm first.

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Where to verify

Season dates and zones: AGFC Deer Seasons and Limits by Zone · CWD counties: AGFC CWD in Arkansas · Population decline research: PLOS ONE via PMC · DMAP: AGFC DMAP