Game and Fish Commission wins $7.3M judgment (UALR Public Radio) - A federal claims judge has awarded a $7.3 million judgment to the Arkansas Game and Fish Commission.

The commission had sued the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers in 2005, saying that agency's water management policies had resulted in dead and dying timber in Clay, Randolph and Greene counties.

Judge Charles F. Lettow of the U.S. Court of Federal Claims in Washington, D.C., issued a 61-page order in the case on Thursday. He presided over an 11-day trial held in Little Rock in December.

The commission had claimed that the Corps' management of water from the Black River in Arkansas and Clearwater Lake in Missouri had resulted in massive damage to bottomland hardwood timber in the Dave Donaldson Black River Wildlife Management Area.

The Corps has 60 days to appeal Lettow's ruling.

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