Reptile & Amphibian Forums

www.tpwd.state.tx.us/newsmedia/releases/?req=20070601b

Check the names in the Press release.

$182 million, and they won't let us in a stinking wildlife management area.... @ssholes.

One thing to consider in our quest to open up WMAs to herping - there are really two levels of WMAs in Texas. The true "Wildlife Management Areas" are typically very tightly controlled (like Mason Mountain or Chaparral WMAs) with access only granted to the hunting public at specific times and for specific hunts.

The second class of "WMAs" are called "Public Hunt Lands" are a basically lands controlled by the state for general, year-round public use. These lands are accessible for hunting purposes with the purchase of a $45 Annual Public Hunt Permit or for non-hunting purposes by the purchase of a $10 permit (don't know the name of it off the top of my head). Each of these "Public Hunt Lands" has a list of species that may be hunted (many of them already allow Bullfrogs to be hunted). Access to Black Gap WMA is (aside from a few controlled hunts) controlled under the Annual Public Hunt Permit.

Although I'd love to get access to the Primary WMAs (Sierra Diablo? Elephant Mt?), given that they are already tightly controlled for "regular" hunting, I think that's a long fight, and, at best, we'd get a controlled hunting weekend here or there. For "open access" hunting, the best bet is to target the lands controlled by the "Annual Public Hunt Permit" system. Many of these properties are already open to herping on a de facto basis, as they are in East Texas where herping issues are not a concern of the local wardens/managers. Opening these areas to herping on an official basis should be a fairly easy sell.

Troy

They sound WAY too happy and too damn confident.

Hopefully their tune will change as we gain momentum to delay their precious funding thanks to Harvey's games.

I'm all for TPWD getting more funding, but maybe they'll show us a little more respect if we cost them a few million or delay their funding.

Maybe if they used a few million to create some under-road passages for snakes, then there won't be so many on the road. Not so many on the road = not so many found by those "evil" herpers. If they really wanted to help the wildlife, they'd put some effort into protecting it from something that actually is a threat to the animals, such as vehicles.

229 new FTE, and 9 million for vehicles. (: