Arkansas Game and Fish Commission Chief of Education to Speak Oct. 18

Eric Maynard will join the Arkansas Folklife Web Series to discuss hunting, fishing and trapping in Arkansas at 1 p.m. Wednesday, Oct. 18. This online event is free and open to the public, and registration is required.

Maynard has been with the Arkansas Game and Fish Commission since 1999, when he was hired as the first director of the Delta Rivers Nature Center. He currently leads the commission's Education Division's Outdoor Skills series, which offers training in fishing, hunting, calling, trapping and related skills.

Maynard shared that he became inspired to pursue his current line of work at a young age.

"I got lucky," he said. "I had always loved being out in nature and learning about animals; as a teenager, I was the one people called when they had an injured animal or found something they weren't sure what was, and I ended up in a job helping teach people about the joys of nature and being outdoors."

Series host Lauren Willette will hold a session on Arkansas foodways with Arkansas author Kat Robinson Wednesday, Nov. 18, in the final session of the series for this year.

Questions about the 2023 Arkansas Folklife Web Series may be directed to Willette at willette@uark.edu. Arkansas Folk and Traditional Arts is a statewide program of the University of Arkansas Libraries dedicated to building cross-cultural understanding by documenting, presenting and sustaining Arkansas' living traditional arts and cultural heritage.