Actions & Ideas
1. Write Carl Isett
2. Write members of Cultural Recreation & Tourism Committee
3. Write your representatives
4. Write all representatives
5. Write all House members
6. Write all Senate members
7. Write Lieutenant Governors
8. Get Freer & Sweetwater Roundup involved
9. Have friends, families & strangers write in
10. Send a representative to Austin
11. Contact zoo personnel
12. Send letters, e-mails, faxes, and call representatives
13. Those with websites include information about this and how to take action
14. Land owners and realtors might be concerned over loss of land sales. Ken Benfield, Bill Cope, and Roy Engeldorf bought land in west Texas for purpose of road cruising for herps.
15. Leave messages with representatives about opposition
16. Call and talk to representatives
17. Have meetings with representatives
18. Send delegation to Austin
19. Local business people need to contact their representatives to oppose bill
20. Contact media outlets
21. Contact Chamber of Commerce in all west Texas towns.
22. Get research study that says snake hunter dollars were insignificant
23. Inform professional herpers. Post on PARC again?
24. Support Representative Farabee’s HJR 70
25. Fax committee, speaker, governor, lieutenant governor and bill author
26. Get transcript of committee meeting about this bill
27. We need to reach the committee that sets the bill on the House floor for a vote and get them to push back the introduction as far as possible.
28. TPWD violated their (legislatively) neutral stance and lobbying statute. We need to pursue this. Robert McDonald, based on Troy’s having been there, needs to be fired for violating above.
29. We were not informed about this bill. Is the Texas legislature supposed to inform stakeholders about impending legislation that affects them?
30. Meet to decide course of action
31. We need a representative group to tackle this
32. Get Ken Magnuson involved in this
33. Pete Gallego admitted TPWD initiated the change in language, thus they violated statute. We need to pursue this.
34. We want the study that shows that collectors have “caused the population of reptiles in certain areas to decrease.”
35. Get an attorney
36. File a lawsuit
37. Set up a fund for donations to fight this bill
38. Out-of-staters contact your local representatives and explain that Texas is trying to ban reptile sportsmen in Texas and that you are a reptile sportsman. Explain that deer and turkey hunters come from out of state to hunt in your state and this needs to be a similar arrangement
39. Tell your representatives you will vote against them next election if they vote for this bill
40. Start a petition
41. We need to send nasty messages to TPWD and the legislators demanding our rights to hunt herps from the road
42. Meet with Chamber of Commerce and explain why this bill is bad for their community
43. When talking with Chambers of Commerce, local representatives and state representatives, break down all the money you spend to pursue this hobby
44. Local West Texas businesses that appreciate our business should be informed to take action
45. Monitor senate committees for companion bill
46. We should be protective and open up discussion with TPWD just like other “sportsmen” groups do all the time
47. Hire an experienced lobbyist in Austin
48. What about Ken Magnuson for a lobbyist?
49. Make a list of states that allows road cruising for herps
50. If raptor people are exempt, so should herp people. Work this angle.
51. If herpers hunting on roads is a safety issue, then why are raptor trappers not a safety issue? Work this angle.
52. We want data and studies they keep citing
53. If safety issue comes up, use examples of more dangerous things we don’t ban: Dogs, cars, alcohol, lightening, etc.
54. Contact universities – herp research could be impeded. We collect data specimens. Push this point.
55. Academia and TPWD can make comments as private citizens all day long.
56. Join Texas Herp Society to make it bigger and be more influential.
57. Be a thorn in the side of TPWD and legislators so we can get this blocked
58. We need a national organization that fights for herper rights.
59. Contact all local and national herp societies.
60. Contact all professional herpetologists and other scientists that may be affected by this.
61. Place announcements & activism information on all herp websites in all categories.
62. It’s already illegal to discharge a firearm on a public right-of-way.
63. We need a central location for contact information.
64. Contact ranchers about TPWD wanting more discretion to search people & vehicles?
65. Everyone e-mail FOIFT.org and ask for all information about this bill, including the names of all “players.”
66. Appeal to TPWD to put in exemption for herpers like they did for falconers.
67. Ask for an exemption for rattlesnakes. This should be supported by Jaycees and Chamber of Commerce.
68. I do not want my child arrested at a rest stop for chasing a lizard.
69. Collect and start a database that has everyone’s herping expenses in it and use this to present to legislators.
70. Someone work with local motels’ and businesses to see if they can show increased revenue during full moon and new moon.
71. Call Carl Isett’s office and ask for Matt two or more times a day and tell them you oppose HB2414
72. Use results from roadkill papers to allow rescue of herps that will be placed in a captive “safety net” population.
73. Call senators and oppose bill.
74. Bombard Senator Naishat with e-mails and letters.
75. If it passes, get a lawyer and try to get the bill declared unconstitutional.
76. Get TV interview about this bill.
77. We need study showing wildlife collection on public roads is for commercial purposes.
78. Roads are not wildlife sanctuaries. They are death zones. We rescue herps.
79. Write or call Brian Sasser, investigative reporter at KPRC TV in Houston, (713)778-4965, office; (713-771-4930, fax.
80. Compile a list of people who oppose this bill so we know how many numbers we have fighting this thing.
81. People who live close to Austin need to personally start visiting the players in this thing and showing opposition in person.
82. We need an organized group effort.
83. We need a detailed contact list for politicians, retailers and herpers.
84. We need a legal/lobby fund.
85. We need a well-written petition.
86. We need to create some fact-based documentation of the financial impact of road cruising for herps.
87. We need a central clearinghouse for information about this bill and the fight against it.
88. We need a group of delegates that can appear as needed and where needed.
89. I believe one path towards solving this impasse on the legislation is to remove our selfish desires about losing rights and privileges from the equation and instead focus back on the animals themselves.
90. This legislation will prevent herpers from documenting the distribution of herps in this state.
91. This legislation will prevent the acquisition of DOR herp specimens for natural history museums.
92. People should be spending a lot more time off the forum and working on opposing this bill.
93. We need an e-mail based fax server somewhere that we can all use from home.
94. I am going to draft letters to rural constituencies that focus more on the limitations to ranchers, etc. I will touch on the other stuff.
95. To the person who represents Sweetwater and Freer, I will focus on the roundup.
96. To persons that represent urban areas, I will focus on wildlife management concerns and vacation/hobbyist concerns.
97. Everyone needs to submit a Public Information Act request. We need a list of people we want to submit this on.
98. Creation of a Word document with names and addresses of all house and senate representatives that can be printed onto a standard Avery 5160-style mailing label.
99. Post information on all taxa forums on Kingsnake.com
100. Avery 5160 labels available at TheHibbitts.net/troy/pdfs/Texas.Legislature.contacts.doc. And the same as above but .PDF instead of .doc.
101. We need organization.
102. Post wording for petition and organize signing campaign.
103. Continue adding names to the List of Reps For & Against HB 2414.
104. Continue creating list of Texas residents and their representatives.
105. When directing comments at the fence-sitters or supporters of this legislation, I think we need to focus on the loss of knowledge about herps and how that will affect our ability to create sound management decisions about these populations.
106. Discuss protecting the ability of future generations to enjoy these populations.
107. We need to mount a campaign to run Carl Isett out of office.
108. We need to support HJR 70.
109. Produce a pro-herping video.
110. Don’t bombard Isett’s office. Spend time on other representatives.
111. We need a list of all the herpers in Texas.
112. All out-of-staters still need to send letters to representatives expressing the financial contribution of your tourism dollars, and that you are not a high-impact commercial collector.
113. Out-of-staters can contact people they know in Texas and have them contact their representatives.
114. Out-of-staters can mention their contributions to science and how the specimens they bre3ed are a “safety net” for wild populations.
115. Focus on herping being a family activity.
116. Bombard with correspondence the local and consent calendar committee and tell them we were blindsided by this bill and can they hold off as long as possible. And when do they think it will go to the floor?
117. Contact the state’s political party headquarters, both Democrat and Republican.
118. Flood Mr. Gallego’s office with letters and e-mails.
119. Many herp species are not collected from roads; they are field collected. So this legislation will do nothing to stop field collection.
120. Contact companies that make anti-venom and perform research with venom.
121. List of out of state herpers and how much money they spend per trip.
122. HB 2414 prevents the collection of specimens for zoos.
123. Build a website for this HB 2414 fight.
124. Many times herpers save more animals from road death than they keep.
125. Animals collected from specific locales are gene pool breeders. We are responsible breeders this bill would prevent further acquisition of locale specific stock.
We need to organize our approach to this. We need to assign tasks to tackle these "Actions & Ideas". Who can build us a website? Who is going to search for a lobbyist? Now, we need a plan of action.
Take Care,
Mike Welker
El Paso, TX
