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VICTORIA ADVOCATE (Texas) 13 July 07 Who will save our snakes? (Write to Joseph E. Forks, president of Herp Conservation Unlimited, at joe.forks@gmail.com.)
A battle is brewing over Texas' non-game resources. It started innocently enough with the introduction of Texas House Bill 2414 by state Rep. Carl Isett, Lubbock. That bill prohibited hunting game animals and fowl from public roads and rights of way. Things got a bit more interesting when state Rep. Harvey Hilderbran, Kerrville, introduced a substitution to the original bill that contained a minor language change with major implications. The term "game animal" changed to "wild animal" and suddenly the bill had the attention of every herpetologist in the state of Texas.
Herpetologists cruise the back roads and rights of way at night in Texas searching for reptiles and amphibians. These animals are not rare, but they are hard to find, and most are not in danger of being over collected. Look over the vast expanse of private land and inaccessible habitat and you'll see why. These animals spend most of their life underground in the cracks of the rocky landscape. The roads and rights of way are narrow transects that pass through various habitats throughout the state. Collecting here is much more environmentally conservative because it leaves vast tracts of undisturbed land as a buffer zone. Automobiles kill more reptiles and amphibians on our roads and rights of way than can ever be collected.
We succeeded in garnering an amendment, which would exclude collection of reptiles, amphibians, and insects courtesy of state Rep. Tracy King, Eagle Pass. Texas C.S.HB 2414 then passed the House unanimously but died in the Senate Natural Resources Committee without ever being heard or voted on. Hilderbran then attached pre-amendment text via rider to the popular Parks Funding Bill (HB 12) and it became law.
Hilderbran is chairman of the Culture, Recreation and Tourism Committee. He worked very hard with TP&W on HB 12. The Austin American Statesman reported that Hilderbran was interested in the TP&W executive director's position with Bob Cook's retirement pending. For years Hilderbran served as executive director of the Exotic Wildlife Association, a coalition of exotic hoof stock breeders and game ranchers intent on protecting the rights of their members to raise animals and the rights of their paying customers to kill them (page 97, Animal Underworld: America's Black Market for Rare and Exotic Species by Alan Greene).
Why shouldn't herpetologists have access to public roads and rights of way? Limiting snake hunters to private land is the same as telling fishermen that they can only fish on private lakes and ponds.
We are taxpayers, and we have as much right to use the roads and rights of way as a person on a bicycle, a jogger, or a photographer.
TP&W would like us to acquire leases and private land to pursue our hobby, but that isn't a viable solution for everyone.
Hunting vast tracts of private land at night in the Trans Pecos will put non-game hunters at risk to flash flood, bear, mountain lion, and smugglers of humans and drugs. Remote regions at night are unsuitable for handicapped, very young or very old herpetologists.
You have to look at other southwestern states for a comparison. In New Mexico collecting reptiles and amphibians from the road surface is written into law as a legal means of take. Arizona and California also allow collection from the roads and rights of way. Additionally, each of these states allows collecting on large parcels of state- and federally-owned land. Texas has no such land available.
TP&W Executive Director Bob Cook said it best: "How many people don't have a place to go other than a state park or a local park or a national park?" He then adds, "That's a big issue, and getting bigger every day. A smaller and smaller percentage of our people own land and have a place to go."
The major pushes behind the bill were concerns over safety and commercialization. We don't mind taking a proactive approach to safety, but the number of rattlesnakes and turtles being taken from Texas will raise any eyebrow. Certainly we don't support the take of 300,000 freshwater turtles for the Asian food market, nor do we condone the take of 84,000 plus rattlesnakes in three years for rattlesnake round-ups. Those are the problems, and they are not addressed by this legislation.
This legislation imposes a financial burden on already struggling rural communities that depend on tourist dollars from reptile hobbyists. The majority are small communities in the Trans Pecos region of West Texas. Remember that Hilderbran is the chairman of the Culture, Recreation and Tourism committee.
This legislation adversely affects the herpetology departments at every Texas college and university. Recent advances in DNA research warrant the collection of new museum specimens as most existing specimens were preserved in formalin, which renders the DNA useless.
We want TP&W to hire more herpetologists and devote more resources for non-game species. We'd like tighter restrictions on commercial take, a middle ground for hobbyist collectors, and an allowance for selling captive born babies. Finally, we'd like to be involved in drafting regulations that work for everyone, especially the reptiles and amphibians.
Who will save our snakes?

Great article, although pared down from the original, let's hope more papers pick it up.
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Todd Hughes