Outdoor News - Wildlife Management Pro

Hurricane Ike Cancels Public Hunting in Texas

Alligator hunts are cancelled

Due to flooding and dangerous conditions caused by Hurricane Ike the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department has canceled public hunts at sites in the storm’s path. This news release updates and replaces earlier information about cancelled and rescheduled hunts.All previously scheduled public hunts on the J.D. Murphree Wildlife Management Area for the month of September have been cancelled.

All previously scheduled public hunts on Sea Rim State Park for this year have been cancelled. Also cancelled are dove and teal hunts by Annual Public Hunting Permit scheduled for Sept. 20-21 on Justin Hurst Wildlife Management Area (Unit #721).

Also cancelled until further notice are all public hunting activities by Annual Public Hunting Permit on Bannister Wildlife Management Area (Unit #903), Sam Houston National Forest Wildlife Management Area (Unit #905), and Alabama Creek Wildlife Management Area (Unit #904).

The Mentored Hunting Workshop originally scheduled for Sept. 19-20 on the Justin Hurst Wildlife Management Areas has been relocated to the M.O. Neasloney Wildlife Management Area. In addition, the Moore Plantation Wildlife Management Area (Unit #902) has reopened to all public hunting activities by Annual Public Hunting Permit.

Texas Test Shot Effectiveness on Doves in Brown County

Shot effectiveness is being tested on doves in Texas

Just days prior to the September 1st dove season opener in most of Texas, a research team was out two days prior to the season collecting bird specimens for a research study on the effectiveness of various shotshells, including non-lead shot. Texas Parks and Wildlife Department wildlife biologists are in the first year of a multi-year study to determine the effectiveness of different load types on wild mourning doves using trained observers and volunteer shooters. This study is the first of its kind for doves and is based on a similar lethality research project in Missouri and Louisiana on waterfowl in the 1980s.

“The main premise of this research is to clarify if there is a difference between perception and reality in wounding rates and killing efficiency of lead shot and non lead shot on mourning dove,” said Jay Roberson, TPWD dove program leader and the study organizer. “TPWD does not have a position for or against non lead shot for doves, but we recognize the importance of this issue. Our objective is to replace perceptions with facts.”

The study design calls for three consecutive sessions using the same shooters paired with the same observers to ensure consistency across three types of shotshell loads. The research objective is to obtain under a controlled study environment 500 mourning dove specimens killed with one shot in each of the next 2-3 years. Collections are being conducted by permit from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. This year, 22 volunteer shooters participated in each of two collection sessions on August 30 and produced about 400 specimens. Continue reading Texas Test Shot Effectiveness on Doves in Brown County

Texas Offers Grazing Workshops

Grazing workshops come to Texas

Livestock and wildlife producers, land managers and others interested in learning more about managing and optimizing their grazing lands will have an opportunity at one of five workshops being held throughout Texas from Sept. 3 to Oct. 1, 2008. “My Piece of Texas” grazing schools will teach attendees how to estimate forage production, determine grazeable acres and set proper stocking rates as well as learn valuable grazing management principles.

The $25 registration fee will include lunch and a copy of the soon-to-be published handbook, “Managing My Piece of Texas.” The how-to guide was peer reviewed by ranchers throughout Texas after being developed by grazing specialists from the Grazing Lands Conservation Initiative (GLCI), Texas AgriLife Extension Service, and the USDA-Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS). Continue reading Texas Offers Grazing Workshops

Pronghorn Populations Decline in West Texas

Pronghorn populations in Texas have declined

Texas’ pronghorn numbers are on the decline. Texas Parks and Wildlife Department (TPWD) wildlife biologists recently recorded a considerable drop in the pronghorn antelope population in portions of Jeff Davis and Presidio Counties, although they said overall pronghorn populations in the Trans-Pecos remain only slightly below the 30-year average.

Department biologists annually conduct aerial surveys in June and July throughout West Texas to count pronghorn herds. The resulting data is used to monitor populations and generate harvest quotas for hunting permits issued to private landowners. While conducting surveys this year, biologists noticed significantly fewer animals in certain areas than in previous years.

Subsequent ground-based efforts, including rancher interviews, indicated that there had been a fairly extensive loss of adult pronghorn in the affected counties. Though it is difficult to determine exactly how many individuals might have perished, mortality estimates approach 50 percent of adult pronghorn in the two counties, or in excess of 1,000 animals from more than 500,000 acres of desert grassland habitat. Continue reading Pronghorn Populations Decline in West Texas

Texas Youth Super Shoot

Get ready for Texas Youth Super Shoot

What a sport shooting can be! Steve Hall fondly remembers the look on the faces of visitors to the clay shooting activities and the annual Texas Parks and Wildlife Expo in Austin.

“You see smiles on the faces of both kids and adults,” said Hall, Texas Parks and Wildlife education director. “It’s just fun breaking clay birds.”

The Texas Parks and Wildlife Department is helping to organize various shooting-sports associations, industries and ranges to bring more opportunities for youth to be introduced to the various shooting sports.

The result of the organizational effort is called the Texas Youth Shooting Sports Committee, an association formed in early 2008 with a mission to increase awareness of shooting sports and to encourage youth to participate in them. Starting with the shotgun sports, the committee is offering a series of “Youth Super Shoots” to give young Texans a chance to compete and show-off their skills or simply to shoot for the first time. Continue reading Texas Youth Super Shoot

Texas Duck and Geese Seasons

Season dates for Texas Waterfowl Hunting are here

Texas waterfowl hunters will once again have the Hunter’s Choice bag limit during the 2008-09 seasons. The Central Flyway, of which Texas is a member, will be allowed to complete the three-year experimental Hunter’s Choice bag limit pilot this season despite a decline in canvasback breeding population numbers that mandate a conservative harvest federal framework.

“The other flyways came out in strong support of the Hunter’s Choice experiment in the Central Flyway,” said Dave Morrison, Texas Parks and Wildlife Department waterfowl program leader. “We gave up some things the last couple of years in order to get the Hunter’s Choice and I think they recognized the sacrifices our Flyway has made.”

The Hunter’s Choice allows hunters to shoot five ducks daily, but only one in the aggregate of certain species. In the aggregate category, that one bird could be either a pintail, or a canvasback, or a “dusky duck” (mottled, black duck or Mexican-like duck) or a hen mallard. Continue reading Texas Duck and Geese Seasons

Lake Arlington Paddling Trail

The Texas Parks and Wildlife Department’s (TPWD) first lake-based trail for the Texas Paddling Trails programs is set to open on August 14 at Richard Simpson Park on Lake Arlington. The 10.9-mile Lake Arlington Paddling Trail is also TPWD’s first in the Dallas-Fort Worth Metroplex, and is intended to allow paddlers to travel along the lake shore to enjoy a taste of nature in the middle of an urban center.

The trail was made possible through a partnership between TPWD and local parks and recreation departments with the cities of Arlington and Fort Worth. The Texas Paddling Trails program develops public inland and coastal paddling trails throughout the state with maps, signage and other information. The trails provide well-mapped accessible day trips in a variety of settings for people at all levels of paddling experience. Continue reading Lake Arlington Paddling Trail