This law is specifically anti-herper. The real reasons why it was passed may never be fully known.



It's not a law about safety. Numerous other roadside activities are still permitted, and even encouraged. Rockhound web sites advise to hunt cuts (for rocks), and include etiquette tips such as "don't knock rocks off onto oncoming cars with your sledgehammer." Texas itself encourages wildflower drives where people stop and photograph roadside bluebonnets. Even more telling is the exemption falconers received from this new law.



It's not about "creating a wildlife sanctuary." That sounds cute and plays well to animal-rights groups but is woefully uninformed, as the Alterna Rush movie will probably demonstrate with its DOR montage.



It might be an attempt to throw a bone to private landowners hoping to make a little extra cash during the deer/dove-hunting off-season.



It is probably a response (albeit a long time coming) from sensational reports of the 1990s such as those stemming from Operation Rock Cut et al, where even in Reptiles Magazine one could read about the infamous sting catching unscrupulous herpers hauling out coolers full of "Hundreds of Snakes each night!" While the allegations were largely proven false, the printed retractions never get the same attention as the initial press.



The problem with this probability is that legislators think they are actually helping wildlife, when in fact the impact may be at best neutral (no real effect on roadside herp populations due to other means of "take" like getting run over by a car), or at worst even slightly negative (cutting off an increasingly urban populace from an important means of connecting with wildlife).



The solution is informing the people who hold the future of the pastime within their capabilities to grant/take away (from a legal standpoint). HCU-TX has attempted this with lobbying, and appeared to make real progress this year. But I think we need as close as we can get to "hard data" as possible.



Passion must be tempered with rational explanations for why the law doesn't work "as advertised." Pictures are worth a thousand words--foam-board displays such as the plots of voucher specimens and even private collection of specimens cross-reference with roads; explanation of the "off-limits" nature of most of TX land; percentage of land impacted by putting the roads back into play (I posted a couple years back with land area comprising roads and ROW throughout TX to show just how much huntable land we'd lose--anybody still have those numbers?); economic impacts for various small towns, etc.



Dare I say, it just might be beneficial to have HCU-TX raise funds to send numerous state legislators a copy of Alterna Rush? Just because the legislative season is over for now doesn't mean we can't continue the dialogue with our representatives until the next session.
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Chris McMartin

www.mcmartinville.com

I'm Not a Herpetologist, but I Play One on the Internet

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