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By Ed Godrey

The Oklahoma Department of Wildlife Conservation has bought more than 3,000 acres in northwest Oklahoma for a new wildlife management area.



The Cimarron Bluff Wildlife Management Area in Harper County should be open this fall, said Alan Peoples, chief of the wildlife division for the state Wildlife Department.

The Cimarron River runs through the property and there are several ponds on the land that should provide some bass fishing opportunities, Peoples said.

The 3,440 acres the department now owns in Harper County is in the heart of prairie chicken country and there are booming grounds on the land, he said.

"There is not going to be a lot of premier hunting on it, but for wildlife conservation, it's important because of the lesser prairie chickens,” Peoples said.

Northwest Oklahoma is one of the last places where prairie chickens still exist, but their population is diminishing.

The Oklahoma Wildlife Conservation Commission is expected to vote on establishing rules for the new wildlife management area at its April 1 meeting.

State wildlife officials are proposing to allow deer gun hunting and turkey gun hunting on the Cimarron Bluff WMA through its controlled hunts program, meaning hunters would have to apply and be drawn for those hunts.

Because of the small size of the area, all quail and pheasant hunting on Cimarron Bluff would end by noon each day, under the department's proposal.

Because of the Cimarron River, which runs south from Kansas and borders Harper and Woods counties, the Cimarron Bluff WMA could produce some exceptional deer.

The Cimarron Bluff WMA is the third piece of land bought by the state Wildlife Department with Legacy Permit funds. The state Wildlife Department previously used Legacy Permit funds to buy land along the Lower Illinois River and property in Drummond Flats, southwest of Enid. Both of those wildlife management areas are now open.

However, only a portion of the money used to buy land which will create the Cimarron Bluff WMA came from Legacy Permit funds, Peoples said.

The state Wildlife Department used state wildlife grant funds for half of the purchase, federal funds that are earmarked to protect species of special concerns, he said.

Not only does the lesser prairie chicken qualify, but two endangered birds also will use the Cimarron Bluff WMA. Least terns nest on sand bars along the river, and whooping cranes migrate through the area.

Two other species of special concern — the Arkansas River shiner and the Arkansas darter — also live in the Cimarron River.

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Sounds like a good spot to me!! Hopefully I will draw into this place.