MOUNTAIN VIEW, Ark. — Austin Booth, who has been the Arkansas Game and Fish Commission Director since 2021, will resigns from his position on Jan. 4, 2025.
Booth's resignation was announced during a monthly commission meeting at the Ozark Folk Center Visitor Center auditorium in Mountain View.
He told those in attendance that his wished to devote more time to his family and his resignation would open the door for someone else to continue moving the agency forward.
“I want to thank my wife and my kids and my mom and dad and my in-laws … for keeping me grounded, for their encouragement and for making sacrifices so I can be effective,” Booth said. “It has been an incredible three and a half years and I have no people to thank more than my family.”
AGFC Commission Chairman J.D. Neeley said Booth's hiring was "one of the best decisions" for the agency and thanked him for his time and dedication.
“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.”
Neeley said Booth’s hiring in 2021 was one of the best decisions the Commission had made in his seven-year term as a commissioner. His role in the development of the agency’s five-year strategic plan, “The Natural State Tomorrow,” has left not only a footprint of success to build upon, but a blueprint to address the future of conservation in Arkansas.
Booth helped to restore the state's greentree reservoirs, renovating the Lake Conway Reservoir, an expansion of bear season, and further conservation efforts.
“I will let history and the next director say whether I’ve left it better than I found it,” Booth said. “But I do know that y’all have left me better than I was three and half years ago. Thank y’all, and I’ll see you in the field.”