Austin Booth has resigned as director of the Arkansas Game & Fish Commission effective Jan. 4.
Booth, who has led the agency since July 2021, announced his departure at a commission meeting Thursday in Mountain View. Commission members unanimously approved his resignation.
Booth said he’s stepping down as he pursues a greater balance between work and family life. Maintaining that balance has become more difficult as his children have grown older, Booth said, and he has wrestled “for some time” with questions about whether he has lived up to expectations as a father and husband.
He thanked Game & Fish staffers and commission members for their support in an emotional speech Thursday. “I have loved being here. I will let history and the next director say whether I’ve left it better than I found it, but I do know that y’all have left me better from the last three-and-a-half years together,” he said. “So thank y’all. I’ll see you in the field.”
Booth, a Scott native, was the commission’s first external director hire in 21 years. He followed Patt Fitts, who retired after more than three years as director.
Under Booth’s leadership, the commission launched the largest lake renovation in its 108-year history, a years-long project to drain Lake Conway for the construction of new water-control structures and rehabilitation of fish habitats.
Booth also oversaw a major overhaul of how the commission manages water in green tree reservoirs in wildlife management areas, a move aimed at long-term preservation of duck habitats.
In a statement, commission Chair J.D. Neeley thanked Booth for his “tireless dedication” as director. “There’s a saying, ‘Iron sharpens iron.’ His leadership has taken a tremendously skilled group of staff and strengthened our ability to put habitat and people first,” Neeley said. “His motto, ‘See you in the field,’ meant he had his sleeves rolled up and wanted to lead by example — a true servant leader.”
Before joining Game & Fish, Booth was chief of staff and CFO of the Arkansas Department of Veterans Affairs. He previously served as as a captain in the U.S. Marine Corps in multiple capacities from 2011-19; he was deployed to Afghanistan from 2015-16.
Booth on Thursday said his next job will be in the private sector, but did not offer further details.
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