Category: Outdoor News

One of the very bad diseases that impact white-tailed deer is anthrax. It tends to rear its ugly head every few years, particularly during hot, dry periods. It’s returned to the far western portion of the Edward’s Plateau. Anthrax has been detected in two sable antelopes in Edwards County, near Barksdale, Texas. This is the first confirmed anthrax case in Texas this year.

The affected premises has only exotic animals, so no domestic livestock are involved in this case. The Texas Animal Health Commission (TAHC) has issued a quarantine requiring proper disposal of carcasses before the quarantine can be released. Burning destroys the causative agent, preventing soil contamination and reducing the chances of future outbreaks. Continue reading Anthrax Detected in Exotic Antelope in Edwards County

State and federal wildlife officials are busy working to put together a long term lesser prairie chicken management plan. The proposed plan includes input from biologists in Colorado, New Mexico, Texas, Kansas and Oklahoma. If the plan gets the go-ahead nod from the US Fish and Wildlife Service then that means all states can get to work hunting for places to help wild chickens. But they will need a little help from Mother Nature.

Although drought has significant impacts on lesser prairie chicken populations, biologists are heartened by the fact that the lesser prairie-chicken has historically shown significant resiliency to periodic climatic events. When the birds were first proposed for listing in the 1990s, the region was experiencing a severe drought. In many areas, bird populations declined by more than 60 percent, but recovered to prior levels with a return to wetter years later in that decade. Continue reading Lesser Prairie Chicken Management Plan for Restoration

The key to healthy plant communities for both domestic animals as well as wildlife is all about grazing management. This is a habitat management technique that not only protects a landowner’s biggest asset, the plant communities found on his or her land, but keeps cattle well-fed and wildlife populations abundant. Grazing management is one of many tools a landowner has at his or her disposal, so it’s something to consider if you run livestock on your land. If you want to ensure your grazing stays good or improves into the future, check out this course.

Grazing Management Course

This webinar will focus on managing livestock to be productive on grass with minimal inputs. How grass grows will be explained in simple terms to explain how grass growth can be optimized on every acre. The principles of range management will be presented to help grass managers develop their grazing plan in any location under any weather pattern. Managers will learn how to be the last ranch in the drought and the first ranch out of the drought. Finally, the nuts and bolts of “planned grazing” will be discussed. Learn how simple, economical opportunities can be found to manage grazing on every property that can lead to healthy land and a healthy business. Continue reading Grazing Management for Improved Cattle, Wildlife Habitat

Texas A&M AgriLife Research is pleased to announce the release of the draft Lampasas River Watershed Protection Plan for formal comment! Public comment on the draft plan will be from January 4 – February 1. Two meetings will be held to facilitate public comment. Each meeting will include a brief overview of what is included in the watershed protection plan and will provide stakeholders an opportunity to voice comments about the plan, which includes habitat management concerns. The first meeting will be 6 p.m. to 8:30 p.m. on January 15 at the Lampasas County Farm Bureau Building at 1793 U.S. Hwy 281 in Lampasas. The second meeting will be at the same time on January 17 at the City of Killeen Solid Wastes Building at 2003 Little Nolan Road in Killeen.

People are welcome to join us at either one of these meetings to ask questions and provide comment directly on the Lampasas River Watershed Protection Plan. Otherwise, comments may be emailed to me at lprcin@brc.tamus.edu or mailed to Lampasas River Watershed Partnership, Texas A&M AgriLife Research, 720 E. Blackland Rd, Temple, Texas 76502-9622 until February 1. Continue reading Lampasas River Watershed Protection Plan

The popularity of alligator hunting has taken off in the US recently because of television shows depicting wetland-loving folks catching and removing these over-sized reptiles. Alligators are cool, but not when they are causing problems. With Texas’ ever-expanding alligator population, that can be a full time job. Luckily there are folks that can help control nuisance gators. Texas is trying something new, too. Landowners will be able to contract directly with nuisance alligator hunters under new rules adopted by the Texas Parks and Wildlife Commission.

Over the past 20 years, once imperiled alligator population in Texas have rebounded spectacularly. Increased suburban, exurban, an industrial development in an adjacent to coastal counties, particularly along the mid- and upper coast, has resulted in increasing number of nuisance alligator complaints, especially in areas biologically characterized by diminishing or little to no habitat. The new protocol will authorize a permitted control hunter to contract directly with landowner or landowner’s agent (including a political subdivision, governmental entity, or property owner’s association) for a fee or other compensation for the removal of nuisance alligators. Continue reading Texas Alligator Hunting – Reduce Nuisance Gators!

The issue of burro control on state-owned lands for wildlife and habitat management has been a hot topic down in Texas over the past year. The state wildlife agency, Texas Parks and Wildlife Department (TPWD), was under fire for controlling feral burros, a non-native species, at state parks. TPWD contends that these exotic animals are destroying important plant communities and wildlife habitat on state lands. TPWD, however, is continuing to explore the feasibility of non-lethal alternatives to manage the feral burro problem at Big Bend Ranch State Park.

Since the mid-2000s, TPWD’s State Parks Division has explored non-lethal options such as live trapping to remove the burros. Live trapping of feral hogs has been successfully used in some parts of the country, but can wild burros be trapped? Well, the results are in. State parks staff met early on with veterinarians and other experts with the USDA-Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS) based in Presidio, but APHIS was unsuccessful in trapping feral burros along the US-Mexico Border within the state park. Continue reading Burro Control in Texas for Habitat Management

Lead Shot. There are many aspects of wildlife management. Most hunters think about game laws – seasons and bag limits. Although regulated hunting is a big part of the North American Model of Wildlife Management, the wise use of our resources is always the number one concern. This includes everything that impacts the wildlife that we chase, including the type of shot we use. The intake of lead shot by various waterfowl species has been well document. Additional studies have found high amounts of lead in processed hunter-killed game. It’s definitely out there.

Now, the Center for Biological Diversity and 99 other groups asked U.S. EPA today to regulate lead in hunting ammunition. The petition — the center’s second on the issue — says tighter controls would prevent “widespread poisoning” of eagles, California condors and other wildlife. It would also protect public health, the groups say, because lead from ammunition can contaminate the environment, as well as hunted animals that are eventually eaten. Continue reading Ban Lead Shot: Petition is for Wildlife Management, Safe Hunting