Is It Illegal to Feed Deer in Arkansas? What the Rules Actually Say

If you live in Arkansas and enjoy watching white-tailed deer on your property, you have probably wondered whether tossing out some corn or setting up a feeder is legal. The answer is not a simple yes or no — it depends heavily on where in the state you are located and what you intend to do with the feed.

Arkansas has a split regulatory landscape: feeding deer on private land is broadly permitted in most of the state, but a large swath of northwestern and north-central Arkansas falls under a strict CWD Management Zone where general wildlife feeding is prohibited year-round. Knowing which side of that line you are on can mean the difference between a legal hobby and a wildlife violation.

This guide walks through the Arkansas Game and Fish Commission (AGFC) regulations that govern deer feeding, covers the specific counties affected, explains the CWD connection, and outlines what happens if you break the rules.

Is It Illegal to Feed Deer in Arkansas?

For most Arkansans, feeding deer on private land is legal. Hunters may bait and feed deer on private land outside of the CWD Management Zone year-round. That means if you live in a county not designated as part of the CWD Management Zone, you can set up corn feeders, put out mineral blocks, or scatter grain on your own property without violating state law.

However, there is one firm statewide restriction regardless of county. It is unlawful to possess, place, deposit, or scatter any grain or other feed so as to constitute a lure, attraction, or enticement of wildlife on any Wildlife Management Area (WMA) or National Wildlife Refuge (NWR). Public hunting lands are off-limits for any form of baiting or feeding, full stop.

There is also a statewide ban on one specific type of attractant. Hunters are reminded that a statewide ban on the use of scents and lures using natural deer urine applies across Arkansas. Synthetic scents are not affected, but products containing real deer biofluids are prohibited everywhere in the state.

Important Note: Regulations in Arkansas are amended regularly. Always confirm the current rules directly with the Arkansas Game and Fish Commission before the season begins, especially if you are near a CWD Management Zone county border.

Where and When Deer Feeding Is Restricted in Arkansas

The most significant restrictions on deer feeding in Arkansas apply within the CWD Management Zone, a defined geographic area in the northwestern and north-central part of the state. It is unlawful to feed wildlife within the CWD Management Zone — which includes Baxter, Benton, Boone, Carroll, Crawford, Franklin, Johnson, Logan, Madison, Marion, Newton, Pope, Searcy, Scott, Sebastian, Stone, Van Buren, Washington, and Yell counties — with limited exceptions.

Grant and Sevier Counties will be added to the CWD Management Zone as of July 1, 2026, so residents of those counties should plan accordingly if they currently maintain feeders.

Within the CWD Management Zone, a narrow window does exist for hunters. It is unlawful to feed wildlife within the CWD Management Zone, except: bait may be used to hunt deer and elk on private land from September 1 through December 31. Outside of that seasonal window — from January 1 through August 31 — even placing bait on your own private land within the zone is prohibited.

The AGFC regulation code is specific about what qualifies as a prohibited act. It is unlawful to place or deposit foodstuffs, scents, lures, grains, minerals, pelletized feed, or other materials for the purpose of hunting, attracting, or enticing wildlife for any reason inside the CWD Management Zone, subject to the listed exceptions.

Location	Non-Hunting Feeding	Baiting for Hunting	Food Plots
Private land outside CWD Zone	Legal year-round	Legal year-round	Legal year-round
Private land inside CWD Zone	Prohibited	Legal Sept. 1 – Dec. 31 only	Legal year-round
Any WMA or NWR	Prohibited	Prohibited	Not applicable

If you are unsure which zone your property falls in, the AGFC’s CWD regulations page includes updated county maps you can reference before setting up any feed station.

What You Can and Cannot Feed Deer in Arkansas

Outside the CWD Management Zone, Arkansas does not restrict what types of feed you may offer deer on private property. Corn, mineral blocks, protein pellets, and salt licks are all commonly used and are not prohibited by AGFC regulations in those areas. Food plots may be used year-round statewide, including inside the CWD Management Zone, making planted clover fields, brassicas, and other wildlife crops a legal option everywhere in Arkansas.

Inside the CWD Management Zone, however, the list of prohibited items is broad. The regulation bars foodstuffs, grains, minerals, pelletized feed, and scents used to attract wildlife — which effectively means corn feeders, protein feeders, and mineral stations are all off-limits outside the Sept. 1–Dec. 31 hunting window.

There are several specific activities that remain permitted even inside the zone. Incidental feeding of wildlife within active livestock operations is allowed, as is attracting or feeding birds or squirrels with common bird and squirrel feeders, bird baths, or grain completely submerged in water. Hand feeding of wildlife — except game animals — such as ducks at a community pond, is also permitted, provided a reasonable attempt is made to clean up leftover or spilled foodstuffs.

Incidental feeding of wildlife from livestock operations and normal agricultural, gardening, or soil stabilization practices are also allowed within the CWD Management Zone. If you run cattle and deer happen to eat from a hay bale, that is not a violation.

Pro Tip: If you want to support deer nutrition in a CWD zone county without violating regulations, food plots planted with native grasses, clover, or brassicas are a fully legal alternative to mechanical feeders — and wildlife biologists generally prefer them because they do not concentrate deer in one spot.

For a comparison of how neighboring states handle similar questions, see how Missouri regulates deer feeding and how Tennessee approaches deer feeding laws, both of which share borders with Arkansas and have their own CWD-driven restrictions.

Deer Feeding and CWD Regulations in Arkansas

Chronic wasting disease is the primary driver behind Arkansas’s feeding restrictions. Chronic wasting disease is a contagious, fatal neurological disease that affects members of the deer and elk family. It is caused by a misshapen protein called a prion that accumulates in the tissues of infected animals.

These animals experience a long incubation period — often more than 12 months — during which they show no outward signs of disease but are able to shed the CWD prion and infect other deer and elk. That silent transmission window is exactly why feeding stations are so dangerous: an infected deer with no visible symptoms can contaminate a feeder site repeatedly before anyone knows there is a problem.

In February 2016, an elk harvested in the fall of 2015 near Pruitt in Newton County tested positive for CWD — the first documented case of the disease in the State of Arkansas. Also in February 2016, a white-tailed deer was found sick near Ponca in Newton County and tested positive for CWD.

An initial sampling effort in the vicinity of those cases found a total CWD prevalence of 23 percent in white-tailed deer from northern Newton County. That figure prompted the AGFC to act quickly, and the feeding ban within the CWD Management Zone followed shortly after. Additional CWD positives have since been found in Baxter, Benton, Boone, Carroll, Cleburne, Conway, Craighead, Crawford, Franklin, Grant, Independence, Johnson, Logan, Madison, Marion, Pope, Randolph, Scott, Searcy, Sebastian, Sevier, Stone, Union, Van Buren, and Washington counties.

Feeding wildlife through artificial means has the potential to increase the risk of disease transmission, as it unnaturally concentrates animals within close spaces. CWD spreads through direct and indirect contact between infected deer and materials, so reducing the amount of direct exposure to these vectors can help slow transmission within a deer herd.

The AGFC also discourages supplemental feeding even where it is technically legal. Activities that artificially congregate deer and elk can increase disease transmission and hinder other management efforts. While food plots and other tactics that mimic natural food sources are acceptable, it is highly recommended not to bait or offer supplemental feed using feeders.

One common misconception is that feeding deer extra nutrition can help them resist CWD. The AGFC’s own veterinarian has addressed this directly. The premise is understandable, because with many diseases caused by viruses, bacteria, fungal infections, or parasites, the healthier an animal is the better immune response it will have. But with prions — the infectious agent in CWD — animals really do not mount an immune response, no matter how healthy they are. Feeding deer that have CWD may only prolong the amount of time the animal is spreading the disease.

For more context on how CWD shapes deer feeding laws across the country, you can also review how Michigan and Wisconsin — two states with long-established CWD management programs — regulate deer feeding.

The AGFC’s CWD information hub and the Arkansas Department of Health’s CWD page both offer updated guidance on the disease’s spread and what residents can do to help slow it.

Penalties for Illegally Feeding Deer in Arkansas

Violating AGFC feeding and baiting regulations is not a trivial matter. When a person is convicted of violating an AGFC regulation, the court is authorized to impose a monetary fine and jail sentence within applicable penalty ranges. The court may also suspend or revoke that person’s hunting and fishing rights, privileges, and related licenses, and is authorized to order that person to pay restitution to the Commission for the value of any wildlife illegally taken.

The Director of the Arkansas Game and Fish Commission, or a designated representative, shall suspend the hunting and fishing rights, privileges, and any related licenses of any person who has accumulated a violation point count of 18 or more within a five-year period. Feeding violations carry points under the AGFC’s system, meaning repeat offenders can lose their licenses entirely.

Beyond state-level penalties, Arkansas participates in the Interstate Wildlife Violator Compact, which means a license suspension in Arkansas can follow you to other member states. If you hunt across state lines — in Texas, Oklahoma, or Virginia, for example — an AGFC conviction can affect your ability to hunt in those states as well.

If you witness someone illegally baiting or feeding deer, especially in a CWD Management Zone county, the AGFC encourages reports through its game warden network. Reporting poaching and regulation violations helps protect the deer herd for everyone.

Important Note: The City of Fayetteville enforces its own local deer feeding prohibition under AGFC Regulation 7.06. It is unlawful to bait and feed deer in Fayetteville under regulation 7.06 of the Arkansas Game and Fish Commission. If you live within city limits in Washington County, check both state and local rules before setting up any attractant.

Why Feeding Deer Is Discouraged Even Where It’s Legal in Arkansas

Even if your property sits well outside the CWD Management Zone and feeding is fully legal, wildlife managers at the AGFC and the University of Arkansas Extension program still advise against it for several practical reasons.

The most significant concern is disease transmission. Research suggests the CWD prion can be passed through contact with feces, urine, saliva, CWD-infected carcasses, or contaminated soil. Practices that unnaturally congregate cervids — such as baiting and feeding — and improper disposal of carcasses can increase CWD transmission. A feeder that draws 20 deer to a single spot every evening is an ideal environment for prions to spread, even in counties where CWD has not yet been detected.

There are also ecological and behavioral consequences worth considering:

• Nutritional imbalance: Corn and other common feed items are high in starch but low in the protein, fat, and minerals deer need. Deer that fill up on corn may actually consume fewer natural browse plants that provide better overall nutrition.
• Habituation: Deer that associate humans and human structures with food become bolder and more likely to enter yards, gardens, and roads — increasing the risk of vehicle collisions and property damage.
• Predator attraction: Feeders attract more than deer. Coyotes, raccoons, feral hogs, and bears all follow the same food signals, which can create conflicts you did not anticipate.
• Artificial population concentration: When deer gather at feeders in unnaturally high densities, stress-related behaviors increase, dominant animals monopolize resources, and any pathogen present — including CWD — spreads more efficiently.

Reducing the density of deer can help slow the spread of CWD within the local herd, which is the opposite of what supplemental feeding achieves. The AGFC’s recommendation — even outside the CWD zone — is to let natural forage and food plots do the work.

If your goal is to support local deer populations, the most effective approach is habitat improvement: planting native browse species, maintaining edge habitat, and establishing food plots with diverse plant species that provide nutrition across multiple seasons. These methods benefit the whole ecosystem rather than concentrating a few animals at an artificial food source.

For additional perspective on how other states balance deer feeding with wildlife health, see the rules in Pennsylvania, Ohio, and Minnesota — all states where CWD has driven significant changes to feeding regulations in recent years. You can also review the University of Arkansas Cooperative Extension’s CWD publication for a deeper look at the science behind Arkansas’s management approach, and visit CWD-Info.org’s Arkansas page for a summary of how the state’s regulations compare to those of neighboring states.