Anne Marie Doramus: Leading Lady

Serving as a Commissioner is a job tailor-made for Doramus, requiring focus, dedication, and a boundless reserve of optimism. Despite the misconceptions of people who have asked her, “You guys get paid, what, like $250,000 a year?”, it is a volunteer position of which Doramus says, “I think it takes a calling to do it, and a love and passion not only for Arkansas, but for conservation and preserving our natural resources for generations to come.”

Doramus is “a waterfowler by default, being from Arkansas. I have three older brothers I always wanted to keep up with. My dad was taking them to our family farm outside of Stuttgart...I really loved it. I loved the dog. I loved being with people and the social aspect of it. That's really what kept me wanting to go back.” Still, though she acknowledges being “a people person [who tries] to find the best in everybody,” Doramus sometimes hunts alone simply for the joy of “watching the sun come up through a bunch of oak trees and spending time with my dog.” Though she may value those quiet moments to herself, Doramus is deeply committed to the welfare of Arkansas waterfowl and all who hunt them, the primary threat to both of which she identifies as habitat loss.

It's a threat Doramus fights at the grassroots level, on her own property. “Ducks rely heavily on habitat when they get here to Arkansas. There is significant habitat loss, not only in the prairies, but here as well. So, we are developing our [personal] property into more duck habitat, because by the time these ducks get to Arkansas, they need a place to go.” But to matter broadly, Doramus knows her individual efforts must be joined with those of like minded individuals who can do something as simple as buying “an Arkansas hunting license and duck stamps [that] I think all in is like $35. All that money goes back into these wild things and wild places. Even if you're not a hunter, if you appreciate the outdoors, you need to support conservation agencies and all these non-governmental organizations because if we don't, we can lose it.”

To expand opportunities for Arkansas waterfowlers in a state where 90% of the waterfowl habitat is in private hands, “[AGFC leases] a lot of land from private entities or foundations...to provide more public hunting opportunities where they’re not. We have twenty-seven wildlife management areas that are waterfowl-centric, as well as a program in partnership with Ducks Unlimited called the Waterfowl Rice Incentive Conservation Easement (WRICE),” says Doramus.

Modern agriculture is so efficient, the waste rice that ducks count on for survival is not there unless conservation policies encourage it.  Developed by AGFC biologists, WRICE rewards rice farmers for leaving their fields flooded and stubbled during waterfowl migration season rather than tilling waste rice under, denying 11% of the food that migrating ducks count on. WRICE also pays landowners $50 an acre to allow public hunter access to wetland easements on their lands. Doramus says, “With a five-dollar application on the AGFC website, they can seek to draw a WRICE spot to hunt, a great opportunity in a less crowded, more controlled environment than a WMA.” It’s a great way for new waterfowlers to experience the passion. 

Soon to assume the Commission Chair, Anne Marine Doramus is a critical voice for waterfowl and habitat, carrying the authority of a gubernatorial appointment and the weight of experience. Perhaps most importantly for the long haul, she embodies the passion of a waterfowler who loves the land and the birds upon it and what it means to conserve those opportunities for her children and those of her fellow Arkansans.