Every outdoorsman knows the secret to good hunting starts with knowing where to find game, how to scout out the little out-of-the-way places that with some skill and patience, can pay off.
Kiah Gardner Sr. is one such outdoorsman. Growing up in the Russellville area, where he lives still, the 66-year-old has accumulated a lifetime of hunting and fishing under his belt. It served him well both during a 40-year career with the Arkansas Game and Fish Commission and on his own time hunting ducks on Petit Jean bottoms, Lake Nimrod and the Fourche River.
But most of all, it infused him with a deep passion for the sport, something he knew he shared with duck hunters in this part of the world, that was as intense as anywhere in the state.
“There’s an interest and a passion for wetlands and the waterfowl resource here, yeah,” he said. “We get ducks out of the Central Flyway and at times this part of the state has some excellent duck hunting. You get some migrants from down the Arkansas River with the goal to find some shallow water habitats along the river.”
Gardner decided early on that the duck hunting and habitat in west central Arkansas was just as important and valued as that to the east. So he bought his first membership in Ducks Unlimited and set out to prove his point.
“I attended my first DU fundraiser dinner probably in 1976 in Subiaco, Arkansas,” he said. “Met the Ducks Unlimited director at that time. His name was Don Thompson and he had about five or six states. Anyway, I had a conversation with him and he asked if we could to get a DU event organized in Russellville. And we did and I was elected the first area chairman.”
Gardner found it tough sledding in the early days. Nobody in Russellville, it seemed, had ever heard of Ducks Unlimited, much less thought about contributing to its cause.
“It was kind of difficult to get started,” he said. “You would go to merchants and ask for donations and they never heard of DU. This is kind of funny now, you know. ‘You want me to do what? Ducks?’ So you’d sit there and have to explain what you’re trying to do over and over again.”
The first fundraising event, held in 1977, was small enough to be contained in a portion of a local restaurant and after expenses, netted the lean sum of $2,000. But a seed had been planted and over time that core of members would expand to impressive proportions, led every step of the way by Gardner.
“Once it took root and grew over the years it got to be a fairly sought-after ticket for a social event here in Russellville,” Gardner said
At its peak, the Russellville chapter of DU, the 23rd in the state, had about 100 members and would draw between 300 and 400 people to the annual banquet. Gardner said the record- setter of these events raised $70,000.
Not surprisingly, the Ducks Unlimited hierarchy noticed what was going on in Russellville and Gardner started to rise through the ranks, first as an area chairman, then zone and then district. From there he served three terms as state chairman, from 1988 to 1990, and ultimately served as a National Trustee.
Gardner picked up where he left off, becoming the first Arkansas state chairman to net $1 million in fundraising and earning him the state chairman award from Ducks Unlimited for his leadership.
Gardner said he employed a simple philosophy of providing support while giving the local structure the leeway to carry things out as they saw fit.
“Basically, I did my best to give the area chairman and local committees the tools that they needed to be successful and just step the heck out of the way,” he said.
Gardner’s other advantage was as an AGFC employee, he understood the structure and the personnel of the state commission, thereby allowing him to cut a lot of red tape for various initiatives and projects. These included helping acquire more than 1,000 acres near Morrilton to create the Ed Gordon Point Remove WMA and nearly 800 acres outside of Fort Smith for the Frog Bayou WMA.
Being a wildlife manager also helped him pinpoint areas that could benefit from DU funding programs, areas that otherwise might have slipped through the cracks.
“My first hands-on with waterfowl is when I took over the Dardanelle and Ozark Lake WMAs,” he said. “Back years ago, DU had a program called the MARSH program. That’s an acronym for Matching Aid to Restore State Habitat and 7.5 percent of the funds raised in Arkansas could be used as a match for developing wintering habitat in the state of Arkansas.”
“When I was on Dardanelle I saw the need to do that. When I retired (in 2015), I added up how much money we spent through DU MARSH programs and it was like $377,000 to help habitats all throughout Arkansas.”
Gardner’s effectiveness in all areas of wildlife management earned him the Campbell Award denoting the AGFC Employee of the Year and the George Dunklin Award, presented for outstanding contribution to wetlands conservation. He remains a National Trustee Emeritus for DU.
Like all good leaders, he gives a lot of credit to the various organizations and countless volunteers that helped accomplish so much.
“It took partners, because one agency or group can’t do it all by itself. It’s just impossible,“ he said. “You develop partnerships and everybody pitches in and stretches that dollar three, four times. Then you could really make some progress.“
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