Katrina,

Yes, in principle you see my reasoning. In most states there are so many herp species and so little money that you couldn’t really design things by individual species in most cases (but some with high concern you would). You would group species according to harvest pressure, fecundity, total habitat acres and commonality. You would also include any information on species population health within the state. Then have different management categories for each group. Those species with the highest concern would have the strictest bag limits and management. Those species with the least concern would have zero bag limits. You track all harvest. You make adjustments every five years. For those species for which there is high concern and high harvest pressure you may have to have a lottery system but you should set it up so you can rotate in new stakeholders so that everyone has the opportunity and you may also need to adjust bag limits so more stakeholders have the opportunity to harvest their fair share. I don’t think I support having to pay for the lottery but definitely pay if you are chosen and for hunting/collecting licenses and other permits to generate revenue. Everyone using the resource should pay for the right to do so but it can’t cost prohibitively to much.

There are other considerations. If a species is declining or deemed unhealthy in an area because of development/roads and/or the area is slated for future development. Then that species should not be placed in a lower grouping just because of this. It will eventually be lost to development so harvest should be allowed and encouraged. It is very hard to manage herp populations effectively without stopping development and mitigating the impacts of roads. All data, testimony and literature used to set bag limits should be posted on the agencies public website for transparency and public scrutiny. It would also be good to establish a group of commercial and recreational private stakeholders that are active participants in the regulation process. I also don’t believe that for most species you will see bag limits in the single digits. When you start getting into single digits you are looking at a species that probably needs to be listed as Endangered or Threatened. Or the demand is huge and there are hundreds of people wanting to harvest. I think once we start tracking harvest we will see that we don’t have much to worry about. Annual total bag limits should be set and then individual bag limits. There are several different ways we can go about doling out bag limits. That is a taste of how I think management should be done.

Welkerii
El Paso, TX

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