Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I called the office of Culture, Recreation and Tourism today and basically got a "we don't care" attitude from them concerning the loss of tourism $ from snake hunters. They said there was a study done and the $ was insignificant. All that insignificant $ I've spent down there could have bought a house.

To me the best way to get a deaf ear to listen is to have enough people / money / votes talk to them.
If they can just sit there and say that they do not care if we can collect wildlife on the easement or not, and they know that the overall ecological impact is nominal as well. Then we need to root out the real source of their agenda, I am sure that this legislation and the proposed changes are not a just a whim.

Lance

Just my two cents but is it possible this is coming from a traffic safety and or illegal imigration angle and not just anti herper hype? If so willingness to wear reflective hunting vests might answer concerns.

Anyway just some thought from a lame east coaster! Good luck down there.

Look at it from LE's perspective: Your buddy the rancher (who you see every other day, and who probably lets you hunt deer on his land for free) calls to complain about these strangers driving up and down "his road", shining million-candlepower spotlights all over the place at 3 in the morning! Right now all you can say is that there's not a damn thing you can do about it.

If this passes they've got their tool. Question now will be-how much will they use it?

Brad Chambers

Did you request a copy of the study? We need to see that study. So does that mean that they specifically added the language for snake hunters? Did they admit that? So they did a study to evaluate the economic impact of snake hunters on west Texas businesses? Really? It sounds like something is up here. Trucking industry? People have already mentioned ranchers and safety issues. What about that attorney from Austin that is destroying Lajitas? Why did Troy Hibbits get an email from the head of TPWD saying it was okay to road collect and use spotlights if they knew this was coming?

So we can not change the language now before it goes to the House? It hasn't been posted yet. We need to go after everyone involved with this bill and flood their emails, phones and faxes with "change the language". I have a call into my Senator (Lt. Govenor) and House member for a meeting.

How many amateur and professional herpetologists road criuse for herps in TX? It has got to be several hundred at least. I put a message on the PARC list serve about it.

Take Care,

Mike welker
El Paso, TX

I am not sure I believe they actually did a study but unfortunately I can see how they would think that. This is because most herpers do not advertise the fact that they are herpers due to not wanting to have problems with hotels over keeping snakes in the rooms. Many of the small local hotels don't care but alot of herpers stay in the big chains like Motel 6 or Days Inn which often have policies against pets in the rooms. Sure most of the desk clerks and managers know exactly who we are but they would never stick up for us and risk their jobs. They want our money but prefer to keep it on the down low.
Besides I think the ranchers probably donate alot more money to the politicians than the little mom and pop hotels and restaraunts.

I honestly do not think they can stop us from observing wildlife. If all we do is park at a rest stop and walk the cuts and don't collect anything, don't carry bags or hooks and walk the cuts I really do not think they would ever be able to get any conviction. I understand you may get harrassed and ticketed but as long as you never collect, never carry collecting equipment and do not touch or molest the wildlife in any way I don't think any charges would stick. To me it would still be worth going out there under those circumstances because the whole experience has always been much more valuable than the actual animal collected. If this passes and we all excersize restraint in collecting maybe the ranchers and anybody else opposed to us will see that we will not go away. Then maybe they will see that they are going to have to deal with us no matter what and they will make sensible regs. I know that is what I will do if this passes.